Defined by grandeur and a uniquely restless performance, Iceage have become no stranger to an ever evolving sound. Initially bereft of any order, the quintet’s early records established an unabashed chaos - fronting concise and equally tense punk music that labelled the Danish teenagers snarky, brooding and iconically nihilistic. Transforming their sound over the last decade, the fast-paced youthful punk of Iceage has shifted, trading anarchic anger for love-addled, larger than life rock ‘n’ roll balladry. Across Seek Shelter, the band’s fifth studio album, Iceage continue their reinvention, tackling the anthemic enormity of Brit-pop through dense orchestrations, gospel choirs and an uncharacteristic sense of optimism.

Led by the production expertise of Peter Kember (also known as Sonic Boom of Spaceman 3), Seek Shelter takes Iceage into ambitious new territory, experimenting intrepidly with sound and expanding their lineup tenfold. Joined by additional guitarist Casper Morilla Fernandez as well as an immense cast of backing vocalists throughout, Seek Shelter places Iceage in their freeist setting to date - relieving their tensed muscles through loose forays into classic rock, brit-pop and post-punk anthems. While previous records Plowing Into the Field of Love (2014) and Beyondless (2018) ignited the band's love affair with brass and string orchestration, Seek Shelter feels abruptly removed from the group's gothic, post-punk devotions. Trading aggrieved poetry for an ambitious, arena-like scope, Iceage bolster all preconceptions across Seek Shelter - forming dramatic and evocative conduits for the band’s evolving sound and spirit.

Via Zoom, we caught up with Iceage bandleader Elias Rønnenfelt on the lead up to the release of Seek Shelter. Discussing recording, working with Peter Kember and the stress that drives his music, we found out more behind the wider magic of the new record below.

TJ: I read that recording Seek Shelter was the longest time you’ve spent making an album. Looking back on the recording experience and the last year overall, how do you reflect on that period now?

ER: Well, our first record was recorded in about three days. The second record in around five, the third one in around seven days, the fourth one in around ten and this one in around twelve. At least the base of the recording. As we’ve stated before, we always strive to create a sense of stress, a sense of working around the clock… Of being in a sort of a battle against time. And it has always been hard for us to rest in the multitude of choices that lie in a studio. Rather than getting caught up in all of the things you can get lost in, we focus on foundations… On the inner workings of the songs. Ultimately we try to keep a straight eye on the goal we are working towards. So I guess as our ambition level has grown through making records, a few more days have been added each time.

In creating that stress you talk about - that is so potent in all of your records - do you think that emotion has drawn you to record in particular spaces? For instance, I heard that for Seek Shelter you recorded while rain was seeping through the roof of the studio. Did that setting and imagery have any impact on the music?

I mean, we didn’t know there was going to be dripping rain in that studio haha. But we did know Lisbon. I find that with some cities all you have to do is step into the street and look around for a second to find that there is a sense of something unknown there... Something that is yet to be uncovered. And I've always had that with Lisbon since the first time I went there, that there was something hidden there for me… Some kind of secret, westaway behind some door. It’s a city that I return to a lot. I’ve found friends, peers and kindred spirits there. And a lot of things were drawing us towards recording there. When we heard Sonic Boom wanted to produce for us, and that he lived on the outskirts of Lisbon, everything just pointed in that direction.

I can imagine the community around Namouche Studios in Lisbon would be quite inspiring too. How was that environment for the band?

Of course. I have a lot of friends in a pocket of a jazz scene in Lison who create - that I know of in Europe at least - the most potent, sexy, Coltrane-esque music. You know, stuff that has a sense of real power to it. They all pointed towards Namouche for having some real atmosphere, and through a few leads, and advice against going there too, we knew where we wanted to record. We arrived, and were there for twelve days as I said. Ten of the days it was raining… And the whole thing felt completely dilapidated. It was actually raining from the ceiling into buckets placed around the floor of the studio. We had to arrange the studio accordingly… Which is not a bad scene to record an album in.

You mentioned Sonic Boom lived just outside of Lisbon. Although he’s produced a lot over the last decade (MGMT, Beach House etc.), his output feels quite disconnected from the Iceage sound. Other than being admirers of each other's work, what drew you to want to work with each other for Seek Shelter?

Yeah, that’s true, a lot of the stuff he’s produced is not exactly what we were looking for. But you know, his whole body of work is fantastic, and you can sense just as a listener that he has an incredibly unique sense of placing sonics on top of each other. And sure enough, he did. We didn’t really look for a producer in the classical sense. We weren’t looking for someone that would tell us what to do, or take hand and charge to bang the songs into place. We were more just looking for a sparring partner you know… Someone with madcap ideas they could bring to the table and sit around that table with the rest of us. In saying that, Peter came in with a truck load of odd pedals and machinery as well as guitars. We’d be very pressed [for time] in the studio, but also just bullshitting around constantly. We were bullshitting around so much that the middle part of my stomach would be hurting by the end of each day. We were getting a few hours of sleep each night, working from early in the morning until late… It was a lot of fucking around but also a lot of required dedication to the project too.

Yeah, I guess you would have to work quite seriously through that time too haha.

Yeah well, we were just smoking and drinking our way through working around the clock and becoming quite insane. Peter helped with keeping a clear, but also a blurred eye on the whole thing.

And I can imagine you could spend hours with Peter going through endless synth sounds and textures too.

Yeah I mean, we would do some of that. But the way we do it is that there is a rush on everything. So it’s very much like, rip out that fucking chord and bang another pedal in and if that doesn’t work, then on to the next. You know, sometimes you sit around for half an hour and work on a sound and sometimes you are just going through barriers like a bull.

After listening to Seek Shelter, which feels like a unifying and refreshingly hopeful album, I was wondering how you think this record might resonate with listeners around the world still stuck in their own local bubbles?

It’s really hard for me to say. I don’t know how it is in Australia. If you’re out of lockdown, you know, we’re not. But, even if you’re out, it is still the state of the world. I think it’s safe to say that you don’t really know what you’re in until you’re out of it. There are some parts of the record… Some particular moods or lines that ring oddly, horrifyingly true. Because the record was very much written right before the whole pandemic happened, and given what came after that, it’s a strange correlation. But back to the record, how do I think it should provoke people? I seriously don’t know. And I definitely don’t want to tell anybody how to feel about anything.