Christian Karlsson has a reputation for being a wildcard and he embraces that identity. Even though you may not know his name, you know his work. As one half of the hit Swedish songwriting and production duo Bloodshy & Avant, Karlsson took on the persona of “Bloodshy” while his musical partner Pontus Winnberg acted as Avant. They’re responsible for Britney Spears‘ electrifying hits “Toxic” and “Piece of Me,” along with tracks by Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry, and several others.
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“I always believed in something that it’s very hard to understand why you like it. There’s a lot of songwriters, they almost make songs like, ‘If you go here, you end up here.’ I always looked for something that’s like, ‘I don’t know why this is good, but it’s so good, and I just want more of it,'” Karlsson explains of his process to American Songwriter in a Zoom interview from his home in Sweden.
In 2013, Karlsson took a career detour when he stepped out as an artist with Swedish DJ Linus Eklöw to form the EDM duo Galantis which gave Karlsson an outlet for his passion for DJing and mixing music. In 2020, Galantis teamed up with Dolly Parton and Mr. Probz on “Faith” and most recently collaborated with Neon Trees on “Dreamteam.” In an extensive interview with American Songwriter, Karlsson opens up about his punk-rock roots, how he migrated to pop music, why being Galantis gives him creative freedom, and more.
American Songwriter (AS): When did you first feel a connection to music?
Christian Karlsson: Really early. I started to collect vinyl albums when I was five and I had a huge collection by the age of seven. My first was to start doing mixtapes and stuff like that. I was a huge music nerd from really young. My songwriting career started in punk rock, learning the three chords. I was in different punk rock bands for a long time and that’s how I learned how to write melodies.
I’ve been in skateboard culture my whole life and that’s also how I got into hip-hop because that’s where they met. When I was in a punk rock band and hip-hop emerged into the skateboard scene, I realized that I also needed to be in that music. So I started to make beats and stuff like that. I actually got a record deal as a rapper, producer when I was 15.
[RELATED: Producer Bloodshy on Working with Britney Spears on “Toxic”: “She Was Great”]
AS: When did you first identify as a songwriter?
CK: Before 1997 I only did punk and hip-hop. In ’97 wrote my first pop song and it became number three on the on the [Billboard Hot 100] in the US. It was a song called “Because of You” with 98 Degrees. It was my first [time] actually writing lyric and melody for pop music. I fell in love with melodies in punk rock, skateboard punk. But actually putting a song together in the pop world like that, I actually felt like I was really good at it and that’s something that I wanted to do more. It’s almost like I had two separate things going. There was a lot of people that only knew me for making beats and tracks and didn’t know that I did all this melody writing as well. It took a while before people realized that it wasn’t only the beats, that I also wrote the melody for a lot of the big hits that came later.
AS: Talk to me about your journey as a pop writer.
CK: I was a very young and very inspired kid that never left the studio. I didn’t have any money whatsoever, I basically ate ramen noodles every day and for years slept in the studio, but I loved it. I just studied, other producers and writers. I was a huge fan of a lot of different genres. But at the time, it was mostly an urban world, but that slightly became urban-pop. So I was every day just making beats and melodies.
Me and Pontus and Miike Snow, we had this thing where we didn’t believe in doing one song the same way as a previous song. I feel like stepping out of your comfort zone and using a new method is always when the best ideas come about. We always had a thing where anywhere we were in the studio, we looked around and whatever was in the room we’ll make a song with that instrument. So we started a lot of songs in different, weird ways. I believe that it’s when you’re out of your comfort zone when you dare to go somewhere where you wouldn’t have gone if you were doing something that you’ve done so many times.
AS: Tell me about the artistic journey of Galanatis and what it means to you.
CK: Miike Snow was so important. That was when I decided that I’m not going to answer any calls from any labels or managers or A&Rs at all. teamed up with with Pontus and Andrew [Bullimore], and they were like, kind of the same headspace. I think the music is really cool because it was complete freedom. I started to DJ the Miike Snow afterparties and I just felt like there’s more freedom to be had and I wanted to DJ more. So I created a vehicle for DJing and that was Galantis.
I jumped back into the studio and I worked on music every day. There’s something with DJ-ing that goes back to the roots of me collecting records when I was six years old. There’s something about just loving music. This is a continuous journey of being a DJ that is like an addiction for me. It’s complete freedom in a different way where I play my own music, but also get to play any type of anyone’s music that I want to do right there and I get the response and feeling. It’s all very free-flow of energy of me DJ-ing.
I think I will always have Galantis as my favorite part of making music where I get to push things forward for me and explore. I’m going to keep being inspired and exploring different types of music. I think I’m more inspired now than I’ve ever been.
Photo Credit: TungWalsh / Courtesy of Atlantic Records
