Conversations is an interview series in which we discuss a specific component of an artists’ work.

In this edition, Cascine‘s Sandra Croft and Boat Club‘s Magnus Wahlstrom chat about Wahlstrom’s time as a pilot and how his adventures influenced his classic release, Caught The Breeze.

Sandra Croft: These are beautiful pictures. When I first found out you were a pilot, I imagined you flying all over the Mediterranean Sea, looking down on small islands and fluffy white clouds and crinkly coastlines. How much of this visual fantasy do you feel is reflected in Caught The Breeze?

Magnus Wahlstrom: I do think I’m very drawn to the feeling something gives out, like those sights in the air of clouds, sunsets, fog and so on. It’s the same feeling I can get from music. It’s just something you know when you feel. Like pure chemical happiness… you know what I mean? So of course, since that is the feeling I’m drawn to in other people’s music, it’s also what I try to recreate in my own. I know I hit the right spot when I get that same feeling for something I’ve done, or other music I’ve found—it feels the same as breaking through right on top of the cloud cover, and seeing the sun setting.

Sandra: I always felt Caught The Breeze captured so essentially this dream of travel and time, like following an endless summer around the world, LA, London, Barcelona, Florence, Sydney. I’ve listened to this album extensively on my travels over the years, and my favourite place to do it is still from a plane window, looking down on lumpy clouds and crinkly coastlines. Most escapist music is about finding that place, but I would say that Caught The Breeze is also about getting there.

Magnus: First off, I’m so glad someone sees something other that boats and the sea in Caught The Breeze. For me, the perfect scene would be out an aircraft window too. That’s why I have never been able to sleep on a flight, not even on those 10 hour flights to Cali. There is just too much going on outside. like the landscape from that perspective, the sun, and clouds.

Sandra: Yeah! We are always led to think that flying is tedious, but being on a plane has these very magical moments as well, the loveliest and more surreal scenes unfolding through the windows. I always want the window seat when I fly, to look at rivers and glaciers and deserts from the plane. Everyone is sleeping, but little do they realize that underscored by the hum of jet engines, just a glance away, are some of the most gorgeous views in existence.

Magnus: Indeed, and why people request the aisle seat, I will never understand. I’ve said many times, “haven’t you noticed the view?” They usually just want to be close to the bathroom.

Sandra: Haha! It’s true, though. Even after taking what by now must be hundreds of flights over my lifetime, it never ceases to be a magical and surreal sensation.

Magnus: I love hearing about this take on the music. Like the whole nautical thing is just a gag, we never liked the ocean particularly! It’s all about the feeling that dreaming of a different place gives you, escapism. We’d never leave Gothenburg for some island in the Bahamas, you know what I mean? (well maybe we would). But still, it’s not about that. Boats just represent an imaginary mode of transportation, a way to dream away and to see the small things over here that make us feel we were somewhere else.

Sandra: I feel that too. To me, the ocean metaphors of Caught The Breeze were not really about the ocean itself but more about the vast expanses of experiences and discovery waiting out there. A dream about the other side of that ocean, the worlds and lands and experiences that might be different from your own reality.

Magnus: Sounds lovely! Such a good idea to run it through that perspective, rather than the obvious. We should have been Flight Club. But it’s also interesting to see who gets that perspective in the music. In some of the interviews we’ve done, we only get asked about our love for the sea and stuff like that. I didn’t really even hear the word escapism until after Caught The Breeze came out. I’ve learned a lot from reading other people’s thoughts on our music.

Sandra: So from now on, Caught The Breeze is about the skies not the ocean!

Magnus: Well said. It’ll be our secret though.

Purchase the limited-edition vinyl re-release of Boat Club’s Caught The Breeze album via Cascine.