VIKTOR ZEIDNER – The Digital Culture Jedi

Viktor Zeidner aka Slim Vic, born and raised in Hagaström in Gävle, is a multitalented culture promoter with a broad repertoire. If you have been visiting Gävle for any kind of cultural music event the last 20 years, the chance is really high that Viktor was involved in it. Because this electric gentleman lives for giving people a new, interesting and refreshing experience of sound and visuals. With a never ending positive energy, Viktor always try to challenge your mind with bookings of stunning underground artists, own productions of exiting avantgardistic tunes and with energetic stomping Dj-sets.

In addition, this digital multitasker runs his own record label, is responsible for a music festival, is an audiovisual artist, has a podcast and is now producing music for a play at the Theatre.

But how did he get here? We sat down with Slim for a chat about how he became what he is today.

Fico: We have known each other for a long time after bumping in to each other on different techno and house events in the beginning of 2000. But we have never asked you about how your interest for digital music started? Did you grow up in a musical home?

Slim: No, actually not at all, almost the opposite. My parents are gardeners and almost all my relatives have that kind of background. My sister is a florist. We hardly had a stereo at home. But both my mum and dad competed in rally, so they had a huge technical interest for engines. So my older brother Martin and I must have inherit that technical interest but it sprung out in computers and other tech instead. My brother is 4 years older than me and in the early 90s he got an Amiga and started to program music on it. I would sit behind him to watch and learn.

Jacket: CDLP, Shirt: Adnym Atelier, Pants: CDLP, Shoes: Eytys

Sweater: Séfr, Pants: Hope, Shoes: Eytys

Shirt: Acne Studios, Pants: Adnym, Shoes: Eytys

Fico: Alright! So you started to make music at a young age?

Slim: Well, I wouldn’t say that. I was more interested in discos back then. As an eleven year old kid visiting the youth club Fridebo in Hagaström, I was totally fascinated about the disco lights and how on earth the Dj managed to play so many different tracks without any pause in the music. It felt like it was some kind of magic. So l wanted to be with the disco music and all the things that came with it. This was the spark that lit my light. So at the age of eleven together with my friend Patrik, who had an older brother that new important things, like that the only turntables you should use are Technics SL 1200, we started to order home shiny disco balls and building our own disco lights. At Patriks home they had bought a cd-player and the connoisseur for an older brother that he had, came with a record that totally blew my mind, XL Recordings The First Chapter. Everything was different with the music on this cd, it was hard, it was fast, it had some funk and I felt tough listening to it. It was nothing like the music they played on the radio. I was hooked and I wanted to be a Dj that played that kind of music.

Fico: So producing your own music came later. When did this Dj dream come true? Was it right away?

Slim: No, I collected records during the whole time in middle school. I was really longing for a chance to play, but it didn’t happen until I reached high school. A friend working at the youth center got me in and I think that this friend regretted it, because I sucked big time. It was a disaster. But I didn’t give up and one ultra kind resident Dj(Tobias Björn) at the youth center took me under his wings and taught me the basics really quick. Then the two of us started to play together 5 hours every Friday at the youth center. After a while we learned different things from each other and got really skilled. So we got booked to other youth centers around Gävle. This led to, that Tobias who was a cool cat from the center of Gävle, managed to get gigs at places where they served alcohol, like the University. I was under eighteen, so the first time I showed the promoters a false ID for my pay check. Imagine their surprise when I, a couple of months later, had turned 18 and arrived with a totally different ID.

Fico: Fridebo was the first stage you entered, but how many gigs have you done?

Slim: If we count every gig, I think it is around 2500. As I, on one single day could have 3 different types of gigs. For example, I did visuals during the daytime, went directly from that to the hockey arena to be a ”hockey Dj” for Brynäs IF and then after the match ended, straight to a nightclub to be a Dj. I have also been touring around Europe as both a Dj and a Vj. So since my eighteenth birthday I have been on stage between 1-11 times every week.

Shirt: Our Legacy, Pants: Acne Studios, Shoes: Eytys

Fico: You are a busy man with many, many talents. Because besides these things you have also been involved in several festivals and clubs that we at Fico have visited during the years. And it has been striking how welcoming your events always have been. How do you manage to do the events so full with love?

Slim: After I graduated from the media program in high school and after a short weapons free military service. I started to work at IDKA(Institute for digital arts) as an assistant. My first official email address at this institute was ass@idka.net. I didn’t think so much about this until we went to a festival in France and I said my email loud in English 🙂

At IDKA there was a project leader named Thomas, a cultural strategic genius with many innovative projects that became a sort of a mentor for me. He let me tag along to everything, to festivals all over Europe. He really opened up my eyes artistically, but also with his approach to all people. Everybody was welcomed to IDKA and was treated equal. For him it didn’t matter if you were an established artist or a beginner. You got the same amount of attention from him. This created a very social, creative and loving place. I didn’t understand that then, but it´s this approach that made the deepest impact on me. A philosophy to treat all people the way you self want to be treated, because you never know where or how you will meet them in the future. So if you feel love on the events I’m involved in, it´s thanks to the things I learned from Thomas.

Fico: You later become the project leader for IDKA?

Slim: Yes, after some years working with and learning from Thomas, were we started several festivals and did many concerts with world artists. I got the chance to become the leader for IDKA after he decided to step aside. And I tried to continue in his footsteps.

Fico: So it´s from IDKA you learned how to run festivals? Because you have been the project leader for Exit festival and now you are running Push?

Slim: Yes, that’s right. Actually Push started as a festival under IDKAs wings, were we gathered all our international contacts for a get together. But as IDKA grew as an institute, it was impossible to continue to run the festival as a non-profit event through that organization. So my club L’amour took over and became the event organizer. But when I later also started my record label under the L’amour name, we understood that we had to change name again. Because even though the L’amour label releases similar music as the music playing on Push, it´s not a record label festival. So 4 years ago, after 9 years running, we started a cultural association that is also called Push.

Shirt: Our Legacy, Sweater: Séfr, Pants: Acne Studios, Shoes: Eytys

Fico: So this year is the thirteenth time. Can you describe what Push is about and if it´s easy to find artists?

Slim: Push is an equal festival with everything from ambient to art music. A festival that combines night clubbing with atmospheric concerts at dawn. The goal is to create a festival with crossover artists who loves to experiment. To present music that tickles more senses and to give the visitors a totally new experience.

During the years it has always been easy to find old bearded men like me, who has an unhealthy relationship with their synthesizers. But you don’t get so much bang for the buck with a festival full of bearded men. So Push has always been gender equal and we have no problem finding new young exiting artists that we can mix together with some older beards. And when we are out looking for new talents, it´s also fantastic to see nowadays that there are an equal amount of boys and girls studying at the music programs. That was not the case when I was young. You can also see that these students have a lot of talent and a deeper meaning when they create music. They are real composers of electronic music.

Fico: Cool, when is the next Push festival scheduled?

Slim: We have 5 chapters this year and the first starts at Saturday 4/6 2022. I would recommend to look at our web page for more information: www.pushfestival.se

Shirt: Our Legacy, Sweater: Séfr, Pants: Acne Studios

Fico: We have earlier in this interview touched base about your record label, Lamour records. How do you start a record label? Did you have any experience?

Slim: Well, I didn’t have any experience. But with a small amount of hubris, huge amount of naivety and a big bowl of passion. I started my long term dream, Lamour records. I soon realized that running a record label was nothing like being a project leader for an institute. It was so many things to think about that it was overwhelming. But I’m not a quitter and with a lot of hard work I released my first vinyl 2012. The plan was that I should release one record/month, so that I could finance the company. That didn’t really happen, so I struggled a bit financially. But when I moved club Lamour to Fylkingen in Stockholm, I got the best opportunity to invite exiting up and coming artist for concerts and Dj-sets. Which led to a lot of new contacts and later also signing of artists to the record label. So 2015 I released several artists from around Sweden, for example Motormännen and Mattias Alkberg. After that year we were beginning to make us a name in the avantgardistic techno scene. And could due to this sign several other interesting artists and release more fantastic records.

Fico: And Lamour also had some great recognition in Sweden 2019?

Slim: Yes, Bottenvikens Silverkyrka was nominated both for a Grammis and for P3 Guld. It was really exiting that my label had released a record that got nominated in the two biggest commercial galas. Visiting Grammis was a real highlight as it was a real drunken gala with the whole industry attending.

Fico: You got to love a drunken gala with profiles from the music industry 🙂

Fico: We are going to finish this off with five quick questions:

Which one of your tunes describes your music best? Slim Vic Morgondimma
Biggest audience you played for? 18000 people
Most unexpected cooperation: I did a gig B2B with Lill-Babs.
Strangest crowd: I did visuals at a culture festival in France were the whole crowd lied down on the floor and started to sleep.
Best musical production of all times: The Paris track – Squarepusher