Karl-Joel Larsson is a 25 year old illustrator living and working in Gothenburg, Sweden.

He mostly draws colourful drawings of people but when he’s not doing that he likes to spend time with his plants and listen to music.

What role does music play in your day-to-day life as a creative?

Music plays a huge role! Whether I’m working or not working I listen to music almost all the time. Music gives me a lot creative inspiration, sometimes the entire inspiration for a illustration can come from the mood of a tune or it’s lyrics, other times it can help with coming up with the title for a piece or for placing it in a context. Music also gives me inspiration in everyday life. For me, music is the medium that, more than any other, talks directly to my feelings and it can have the power to dictate moments. I’d like to think that I listen to a lot of different genres, as long as it moves me in some good way I like it. But my favourite genre is definitely jazz, I find it to do the job in so many different moods, situations and hours of the day.

Tell us about your playlist:

About a year ago I started a playlist and mixtape project titled ‘Love You Tim’. It originally started with a Spotify playlist that I made for my best friend Tim but later on grew to become a series of playlists that were public and available for anybody that might be interested. It has proven to be a really good way for me to better categorise my ever growing music library and it has also encouraged me to keep on exploring and discovering new music (there’s so much out there!)

This blandband (Swedish for mixtape) consists of some recent favourites and new discoveries. Lately I’ve been really getting into 70’s music from Brazil, but I also always love a nice funky track or a weird experimental jazz tune.

http://www.karljoel.se
http://www.instagram.com/karl_joel_larsson