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Scandinavian Indie Digest Vol 01 Issue 17
Scandinavian Indie Digest Sat Dec 17, 1994 Volume 1 : Issue 17
There are 19 messages totalling 754 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Norwegian autumn-releases
2. Yvonne - LIVE TONIGHT
3. Reviews (4)
4. Yvonne - LIVE
5. new 22-Pistepirkko album is out!
6. Yvonne Interview
7. 'Soundtrack' reviewed (2)
8. Martin Gelin
9. Scan-Indie WWW Page
10. Pinko Pinko & mite (3)
11. help needed!
12. Honey is Cool.
13. Pinko Pinko Interview
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 94 13:56:44 +0100
From: "Kjetil Kristiansen" <kjetil.kristiansen@ban.aid.no>
Subject: Norwegian autumn-releases
Just thought I should comment on some Norwegian releases this autumn,
as I've been delaying it far enough. ;)
Recently there have been some really good releases, so I'll describe
some of them:
Motorpsycho: Timothy's Monster
------------------------------
2CD album. A band who has previously amazed by making occasionally
incredible noise walls, has now changed direction (their philosophy
is never to repeat something they've done before). They've partly parted with
Deathprod.,their master of noise, and are now more melodic, although
the familiar psycho-noise may still be spotted. Where they used to play
metal with deep 70'ies influences, they're now more indie-rock with 70'ies
influences. Still there's room for experimentation.
To give some references I might mention Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr...
Seigmen: Total
--------------
A masterpiece of an album. I might describe them as a metal-band with an
edge, ie they can be delicously noisy, but also quiet and despaired, much
like Godmachine, which is the only band I can think of as a reference.
Lyrics are in Norwegian, but I think you might enjoy the music even if you
aren't familiar with the language. On to the album; Seigmen has expanded
their musical palette. Much because of the producer, Sylvia Massy (Tool..)
The vocals have IMHO improved, and they've added more facets to their music
ie. including classical instruments, not only electric-guitars as before,
and tuned down much of the aggression and instead settled for more melody.
The music itself has many gothic elements, melancholy, and some sort of
religious feel about it. Some songtitles: Colosseum, Ohm, Sort Tulipan
(Black Tulip), Lament, Nephilia, Pantheon.
I have a feeling Seigmen will turn up at next years Roskilde-festival, so
if you're there (and my intuition is right), you should go see them.
They're a great live band.
Velvet Belly: Window Tree
-------------------------
Sometimes referred to as Norways most underrated band, this, their 3rd
album, finally seems to open the critic's eyes and sees the band get some of
the acclaim they should've got years ago. They've also got worldwide
distribution-contract with BMG/Ariola, including their back catalogue,
so that means they'll be widely available. (European tour early next year)
I digress, this album is much more acoustic and organic than their earlier
albums, creating a somewhat 'unplugged' feel. They've also taken use of
classical arrangements. (Seems like a trend:))
Anne Marie Almedals vocals are better than ever. (which IS natural since
that's what she studies). They seem to have found their own musical style,
which occasionally creates some sort of acoustic-ambience. The lyrics are
often personal and about loneliness. A delightful album.
References: Kirstin Hersh, Heidy Berry...
3rd and The Mortal: Tears Laid In Earth
---------------------------------------
This is an interesting concept. A classical educated female singer, fronting
an experimenting 'prog-rock-doom'-band. Well, I've only heard a couple
of songs from them, some have been great, and some sound a bit like a
a Norwegian duo called 'Dollie De-lux'. (Have really none of you seen the
'Which Witch'-musical? :-)) Anyway, the vocalist have a glass-clear
ethereal voice, and as said, sometimes the result is beautiful.
-kJeTiL Th.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lisa : We're the MTV generation, we ignore emotions.
Homer: Oh, how does it feel?
Lisa : Uh....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 19:49:16 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Yvonne - LIVE TONIGHT
Y V O N N E
(known from the 'Kittenish' CD collection)
(known from the fabulous gig at Hultsfredsfestivalen 1994)
LIVE tonight (1-Dec-94) at Herrg}r'n (10:00pm)
Linkoping
Fee: Members - free, others - 40:-
Minimum age: 20 (or university pass)
DO NOT DARE TO MISS THIS EVENT!
-----------------------
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 19:48:59 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Reviews
Just thought I'd let you know that reviews of PUFFIN - "Soundtrack" and
MUFFLON 5 - "6:am Mantra" is on the way (as soon as I get them up here!)
(there are some problems with the bridge), though I have to say that if
you miss these two, you miss some of Sweden's best.
I just wish they both would come back and play here in Linkoping again
now when they've released new albums and everything.
//Erik
-----------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 08:11:46 +0100 (MET)
From: Petter Tiilikainen <burrito@ludd.luth.se>
Subject: Re: Reviews.
This morning I read a review of Puffin's soundtrack in the local newspaper
(Norbottens Kuriren) and Mats Ehnbom (A 21-22 yr old freelance journalist)
wrote that it was well produced but very boring. He gave it 1 out of 5.
Mats is the same person who gave a cheese soul record 4 out of 5, with the
motivation that the cd was 80 min. long and therefore deserved the high
rank!!!!
Anyway, anyone else than me that hates albums that are 70-80 min long?
Petter
------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 11:42:39 +0200 (EET)
From: Sami Rouhento <trsaro@uta.fi>
Subject: Re: Reviews.
Petter wrote:
> He gave it 1 out of 5.
Duh.
> Anyway, anyone else than me that hates albums that are 70-80 min long?
Aye, sure. That's definitely the curse of the cd...
Most of the recent releases that have been only sort of
so-so would have been excellent if only they had been
trimmed down to, say, two thirds of their length, i.e.
scrapping all the fillers and leaving the brillers:)
But, as long as I can buy some nice 7"s I don't mind...
Sami
-------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 16:20:21 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Re: Reviews
Petter Tiilikainen <burrito@ludd.luth.se> wrote:
>This morning I read a review of Puffin's soundtrack in the local newspaper
>(Norbottens Kuriren) and Mats Ehnbom (A 21-22 yr old freelance journalist)
>wrote that it was well produced but very boring. He gave it 1 out of 5.
Aaaaaaaaah! Does he have an e-mail address? I don't know how he can even be
allowed to review music that he is known to dislike in the first place, or
have a clue to what it is about.
I haven't seen any reviews in any papers yet though, but I'm waiting.
//Erik
-----------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 16:24:01 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Yvonne - LIVE
I managed to steal an hour from the band last night and wrote down some
things they said - sort of like an interview anyway. I'll try to type it
in tonight and post it here asap.
By the way - I checked that WWW site out (the radio station in Gothenburg)
- cool place. I pursuaded (:)) one of them there to subscribe to this list
as well - so he'll turn up here in a day or so.
If you haven't checked it out yet, do it now.
http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d7jacob
//Erik
------------------------
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 20:25:23 +0200 (EET)
From: Kimmo S{{skilahti <trkisa@uta.fi>
Subject: new 22-Pistepirkko album is out!
Hi folks!
I just heard the good news from my friend Sami:
the long-awaited new 22-Pistepirkko album is out and available in the
shops!! He even claims to have heard one track on the radio!!! :-)
Haven't seen it (nor heard) so far myself - all I could see today in
the shop was the new Aknestik CD, "Onni" ('Happiness')! Well, it's
not *that* new, but it's new for me!
A review coming up in a couple of hours/days/weeks/months...
Kimmo
-------------------------
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 1994 03:26:20 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Yvonne Interview
Short interview with "Yvonne" 02-Dec-94 - by Erik Soderstrom after a gig at
"Herrgar'n", Linkoping, Sweden. (v1.0)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yvonne are:
Henric de la Cour (vocals, guitar) David Lindh (guitar, effects)
Tobias Holmberg (guitar, synthesizer) Anders Nilsson (drums)
Claes Boklund (bass) Rikard Lindh (synthesizer)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(if the answer is "A." it was answered by someone. If the answer came from
someone special, the initials are written.)
Q. YOU WERE TO PLAY HERE LAST WEEK. WHAT HAPPENED?
A. Ah, we couldn't make it. One of us was caught up doing the final
military service week and weren't allowed to leave.
Q. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GIG TONIGHT?
A. It was great. A lot of people, though the stage was a bit small. And
we couldn't do our soundcheck, but it sounded good anyway. They used
up the smoke before we got on stage. We couldn't see a thing when we
got up there! And we wanted smoke for our last song, along with the
strobe, but there weren't any left! After the last song, we went off
stage, but left a guitar on. It went Wzzzzzzzzzz, and the audience
loved it! I didn't know it was the guitar, so when I decided it was
time to turn everything off, I got really puzzled when the sound was
still there after I had turned the synthesizers off, because I thought
it was one of them (ha ha). When I finally turned off the guitar,
everyone got disappointed.
Q. WHAT SONGS DID YOU PLAY?
HC. 'Inner Cold', 'Drifter', 'Unbounded', 'Frozen', (nameless),
'Systematic', 'Veins' and '...In Grief'.
Q. NO EXTRA ACT. HOWCOME?
HC. No. It just feels dumb to do that. To go back and play some more
songs when the audience already are on top would be a let-down. Both
for us and for them.
Q. ARE YOU TOURING RIGHT NOW?
A. Sort of. We'll play in Uppsala at Kalmar Nation tomorrow and in
Eskilstuna on saturday. Then next week we play in Lund at Blekingska
Nationen (Friday 9/12) and in Vaxjo on the 10th. After that we're
going to Stockholm to see Orbital on the 12th and Cranes on the 13th.
Q. WHEN DID YVONNE START AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
A. We're from Eskilstuna and we have played like this for about 1 1/2 year
now. With the same line-up. When we started we were only three though,
Henric, Claes and Anders, but it took only about a week before we were
six. You know the group "Kent" are also from Eskilstuna, but they moved
to Stockholm. They got signed to RCA recently, though that is not
official yet. They called themselves "Jones & Giftet" before. Did you
know that?
[Here, two 'journalists' from a local paper barged in and asked _three_
questions for their weekend edition. After they left, some comments
about them and their journalistic work were made that I leave out.]
Q. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YVONNE, AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
HC. Nothing. It doesn't mean a thing. And it's no story behind it either.
It's not important. It's just a name.
Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?
A. Well, we've been on the "Kittenish" compilation (with 'Drifter') and
that's it. We're working on an EP right now though. We don't know when
it will be out. We have two demo cassettes though. One that we made
a long time ago and one more recent, and no, you can't have the first
one (ha ha). The other one have 'Inner Cold', 'Drifter', 'Unbounded'
and '...In Grief' on it.
Q. HOW ABOUT INFLUENCES?
A. Orbital, Prodigy, Orb, Black Dog, Brian Eno, System 7, Blueberries,
_Underworld_, Bauhaus, Birthday Party, Nick Cave, Tindersticks,
Spiritualized, Spacemen 3. And 80's bands like Simple Minds, Visage,
Ultravox, and 70's Kraftwerk)
Q. ONE WOULDN'T THINK THOSE ARE YOUR INFLUENCES LISTENING TO 'DRIFTER'
FOR EXAMPLE.
A. True. But 'Drifter' was written about 1 1/2 year ago, and that's when
we sounded like that. Our sound today is a lot more mixed. Guitars
and synthesizers in a bundle.
Q. WHAT WOULD YOU CALL YOUR MUSIC?
A. Naked. Frustrating and Cold. It's hard to describe really.
Q. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BRITISH/AMERICAN/WHATEVER INDIE SCENE?
A. Not. We don't like it at all. When we made 'Drifter', Claes were
out in Europe, and that's when we sounded like that. Now we don't
feel right when people put us together with the indie scene.
Linda Norrman [media indie-kid] helped us from the start though.
She started it all, so we have a lot to thank her for, really.
Q. HOW ABOUT SWEDISH INDIE GROUPS?
A. Puffin? Bear Quartet? Naked? No thanks. Though 5/6 of us like
Crush. Broder Daniel is good. Bob Hund and Gentle Tuesday are
also great. They had a video on PM a long time ago and they
have a demo out that is great.
Q. WHO WRITES THE LYRICS?
HC. I do. I write them after I hear the music - they're kind of a
reflection of the music, though I don't need the music to write
lyrics. They're not for someone, or should be taken as something
special. They're just lyrics. Rikard has helped with a couple of
them as well by the way. Otherwise, I write them alone. Well, it's
me who's going to sing them, so? When we write the music we're all
together.
Q. HOW MUCH DO YOU GET FOR A GIG LIKE THIS?
A. In money, from 3.000 SKr to 7.000 SKr. If we had released an album
or something like that, it would be a lot higher.
Q. YOU HAVE SOME VINTAGE SYNTHESIZERS THERE...
A. They're gold! A Roland Juno 106 (that we bought today even! We've used
it for a while though, but we bought it today) and a Korg Poly-6. That
is a wonderful machine! Better than the rest!
Q. ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO TELL ME?
A. We loved playing at the Hultsfredsfestivalen this year. Though we had
to use tape to get the mixer table to stay put, because there were
over 1.000 people there. Too many! We got that gig just by sending
down a demo tape and wait for them to tell us that they wanted us.
The Emmaboda festivalen this year was also great, though the sound
traveled through our equip' again and again and there was too much
smoke! But that was a really great gig.
[Yes, Henric de la Cour is related to Micaela de la Cour in Army Of Lovers,
and Rikard Lindh is David's older brother. They're all 19 except for
David who's 16 (!).]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 18:42:10 +0100 (MET)
From: Robert Cumming <robert@hobbes.astro.su.se>
Subject: 'Soundtrack' reviewed
Hej allihop,
I went into town to do a bit of listening on Saturday, and had a quick flick
through Puffin's 'Soundtrack'. It all sounded quite interesting, with more
variety in tone colour than most, but none of the tunes really grabbed me,
so I wasn't moved to buy the CD...
Martin Gelin in N|jesguiden wrote this about it:
"Puffin are a bit peculiar. They've always been around. Instead of, like the
majority of the northern Swedish pop-bands, jumping around and going on about
Dinosaur Jr and Pavement the whole time, they shut themselves in small rooms and
listen to obscure Estonian 1950s jazz.
"On last year's full-lengther _Carnivore_ they succeeded in an excellent way
in linking together their different influences into a long chain of mystical pop
masterpieces. On _Soundtrack_ it's even more peculiar than before. The many
odd brass and string instruments sound at times as if they'd sampled Miles Davis
backwards, only in the next moment to paint beautiful neopsychedelic landscapes.
But they offer also in some of the tracks more conventional norrl{ndsk
melancholy, but always an extra Puffin spice that makes the impression
unmistakeable. At the beginning this just sounds difficult and peculiar, but
after many listenings one gets the feeling that something is beginning to grow.
And perhaps explode soon."
Robert
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stockholm Observatory Att planera {r att grundl{gga en sp{nning.
finger robert@hobbes.astro.su.se Att f|ra ut sin plan i livet {r att
mail robert@astro.su.se vidmakth}lla denna sp{nning.
www ftp://hugin.astro.su.se/pub/html/robert/index.html Peter H|eg
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 13:48:48 +0100 (MET)
From: Robert Cumming <robert@hobbes.astro.su.se>
Subject: Re: 'Soundtrack' reviewed
[executive summary in English: enraged foreigner ;) complains that short of
buying CDs all the time, the Sthlm entertainment paper N|jesguiden is about
the only way he has of assessing new music...]
Christer Nilsson skrev:
> > Martin Gelin in N|jesguiden wrote this about it:
> >
> > BLABLABLABLA
>
> Vem fan bryr sig om vad han tycker???
> Helt otroligt var N|jesguiden hittar sina recensenter.
> Ok med Gradvall men den d{r Fatima Ramanovic(?), fy fan!
Jag bryr mig naturligtvis inte s} mycket vad Gelin tycker om Puffin -- men
det {r s} att utan att jag k|per CD:n sj{lv, vet jag n{stan INGENTING om det.
D{rf|r {r det bra att kunna l{sa om vad }tminstone en person tycker om skivan.
Tills jag har massor med indiekompisar i Stockholm (just nu har jag inga,
faktiskt) {r jag tvungen att l{sa Martin Gelin eller vemsomhelst. I alla fall
tycker jag om N|jesguiden, och jag {r tillrackligt intelligent (tror jag) att
inte tro allt som jag l{ser. Och Gelin {r s} Bob-Hund-galen som jag...
Robert, who liked doing the translation anyway
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
menn{{n nukkuun, menn{{n vaan mail robert@astro.su.se
telttaan mahallaan www ftp://hugin.astro.su.se/pub/html/robert/index.html
silm{t kiini laitetaan finger robert@hobbes.astro.su.se
maaper{{ kun me kuunnellaan tel. +46-8-164487
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 94 15:55:07 +0100
From: Christian Bartholdsson <chris@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE>
Subject: Martin Gelin
Christer Nilsson skriver:
> > Martin Gelin in N|jesguiden wrote this about it:
> >
> > BLABLABLABLA
>
> Vem fan bryr sig om vad han tycker???
> Helt otroligt var N|jesguiden hittar sina recensenter.
> Ok med Gradvall men den d{r Fatima Ramanovic(?), fy fan!
Martin Gelin skrev tills nyligen i sitt eget fanzine "Nowhere".
Upphittas numera mest dyngrak p} Hannas. ;-)
- chris@minsk.docs.uu.se <http://www.update.uu.se/~chris/>
-------------------------------
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 14:13:40 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Scan-Indie WWW Page
Greetings!
After a long time of silence - here is some news for you:
I've been working on a World Wide Web page for this list
and I think I have done enough to let you in on where it
is and what's on it right now. Big thanks to BallDe at
Vapour Trail http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d7jacob/vt.html
for his great help.
The Scandinavian Indie WWW Home Page:
-------------------------------------
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~chief/scan.html
Right now, you can find a couple of Discographies,
Interviews and back issues of Scandinavian Indie Digest
as well as the Scan-Indie Welcome message, other nice
links to know about etc etc.
Let me know if you find any errors or something that's
wrong, please. Also, if you want to add or change or
remove something to/on/from the page(s), just let me know
and we'll work it out. (Help with the page is really
appreciated).
Stay Safe,
//Erik
--------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 00:50:01 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Pinko Pinko & mite
PINKO PINKO and mite
Live at Herrg}r'n, Link|ping, Sweden
1994-12-08
22:00
Fee: 40 SKr (members: free)
Age: 20+ (and/or student id)
[By the way: anyone out there heard any of these bands?
I was told that Pinko Pinko sounds like Blur, but I
have never heard or seen them (or mite) myself. Anyone?]
//Erik
---------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 09:18:44 +0100
From: ludde@kore.lk.se (Ludvig Borgne)
Subject: Pinko Pinko & mite
> [By the way: anyone out there heard any of these bands?
> I was told that Pinko Pinko sounds like Blur, but I
> have never heard or seen them (or mite) myself. Anyone?]
Pinko Pinko used to be called Beetroots, and just released a 7 song mini-CD
on NONS. I haven't heard them, though, so I guess I'm not really much help
anyway (as usual...).
Other new Swedish releases that I haven't heard are new mini-CDs from Seashells
and Blissful. Anyone with some info on any of these?
/Ludde
---------------------------
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 10:09:52 +0100
From: Marten.Sahlen@eua.ericsson.se (Marten Sahlen)
Subject: Re: Pinko Pinko & mite
>
> [By the way: anyone out there heard any of these bands?
> I was told that Pinko Pinko sounds like Blur, but I
> have never heard or seen them (or mite) myself. Anyone?]
Me neither have heard Pinko Pinko, but when Blur played in Stockholm earlier
this autumn there was a party afterwards at Studion. Guess who was performing
there...you got it... Pinko Pinko. Might have been a coincidence, but I doubt
it.
Anyway, comparisons with Blur is enough to turn me off.
------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 94 07:17:39 EST
From: Stephen Wood <BMOEM112@SIVM.SI.EDU>
Subject: help needed!
Hi folks-
Would anyone have a clue as to how to get an internet connection
at this school in Stockholm? He goes to KTH, ingenjorsskolan
i Kista, Electrum 213, KISTA.
I've been writing Mikael (of Red Sleeping Beauty) for a while and
it would sure be great if I could do it via the Internet - quicker
and cheaper.
Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!
Best,
Stephen
---------------------------
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1994 16:40:08 +0100 (MET)
From: Anders Jacobsson <d7jacob@dtek.chalmers.se>
Subject: Honey is Cool.
One of the hottest indie-ish bands in Goteborg is 'Honey is Cool'
we've played their demo a number of times in the Vapour Trail
show and last Suday y they got to appear in the 'Slammer' show
on the Swedish P3.
I'm looking forward to seeing them live, tonight (Dec 16) at the Underground in Goteborg.
Anyway, there's now an Honey is Cool Home Page in the web:
http://www.cling.gu.se:80/~cl2slars/hic.html
Of course you can also reach it through the Vapour Trail Home Page:
http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d7jacob/vt.html
/BallDe
--
Anders "BallDe" Jacobsson Voice +46 31 188982
email: d7jacob@dtek.chalmers.se Fax +46 31 417440
WWW: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d7jacob/
---------------------------
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 16:53:05 +0100
From: chief@lysator.liu.se
Subject: Pinko Pinko Interview
Short interview with "Pinko Pinko" 08-Dec-94 - by Erik Soderstrom after a
gig at "Herrgar'n", Linkoping, Sweden. (v1.0)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pinko Pinko are:
PG Walln{s (vocals, guitar) (23) Jens ]kesson (drums) (23)
Edvin Walln{s (vocals, bass) (25) Svante Sj|stedt (guitar) (26)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(if the answer is "A." it was answered by someone. If the answer came from
someone special, the initials are written.)
Q. WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE GIG TONIGHT?
A. That was a really small stage! And it swayed as well. You could only
jump straight up, and not in any other direction. Other than that,
the gig was okay. Much better though than the gig six months ago here
[at J's Place, Link|ping 09-Jun-94 with the subtitle "Eggstone meets
Blur"]. That place was _small_. Everything was small. The stage was
even smaller than the one tonight, and that is _small_. And there was
a pillar in the middle of the room, and it was right in front of us!
We played "Going My Way" for the first time there though. There were
a lot of people there.
Q. WHEN DID PINKO PINKO START AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
A. We're from Gothenburg. We started two years ago as 'Beetroots', but
changed our name to 'Pinko Pinko' after an argument between us, STIM
[an organization who handles the money for bands when they get played
on the radio, tv and so on] and a swedish blues-group called Beefroots.
STIM always mixed us up with them, and finally we had to change our
name. That was at 'Tantog}rden' [a venue in Stockholm, Sweden].
Q. I REMEMBER READING ABOUT IT. WASN'T IT A CONTEST - THE AUDIENCE THERE
COULD SUGGEST NAMES, AND THEN YOU'D SELECT ONE?
A. No. I've heard that before, but it isn't true. We picked our name
ourselves. We were happy to change the name though. We've had the
same line-up from the start by the way. Musically - we are on the
same wavelength, and has been from the start, which is amazing. It's
a great feeling.
SS. When we started, it all happened so fast, and it sounded great
from the first time!
Q. HOW ABOUT RELEASES?
A. A full-length CD (april) and a CD-single (march) on NONS [North Of
No South - the label they're signed to]. We've been on a cassette-
magazine called "Popangelov" with 'True Modern Boy' as well. We also
have four demo tapes, [Bang On The Beetroot (september 1992), Blast
(march 1993) and Trivialities (june 1993). I have no idea what the
fourth one is called and when it came out.] which are pretty well
spread. The third one is the one we can use right now. The fourth
one is almost like a copy of that one. We only made it to show that
we have more songs, that we are productive. The earlier demo tapes
have a 'Manchester' sound - nothing we can play today. And no, you
can't have a copy (haha).
Q. ANY PROMOTIONAL STUFF?
A. As a matter of fact, yes. We're on 'Z-Tv Nytt' [Swedish Tv channel,
with loads of music.] next week, and we have a new video that is
released here and in Japan as well. (The full-length CD is also
released in Japan and the UK). Japan is really interested in
swedish and brittish music right now, which we think is great.
Q. INFLUENCES?
A. 'David Bowie', 'Stone Roses', 'Smiths', 'Beatles', 'Madness' (for
their harmony), 'Duran Duran' (girls on film).
SS. 'Arbete och Fritid'.
A. Of course we're not influenced by everything they've done, but bits
and pieces. A song. You know? We're more influenced by ingeniousness,
brilliant ideas, new things. We're not stealing ideas, even though
we're influenced by them. We've been compared to 'Suede' and
'Brainpool', but we think 'Sator' have more in common with 'Brainpool'
than we have. Okay, we know them well, we listen to the same things
and we're about the same age, but we don't sound like 'Brainpool'.
Q. WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO RIGHT NOW?
A. 'Gene', 'Posies', 'Eggstone' and Freddie Wadling in 'Blue For Two'
is really amazing.
Q. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE AMERICAN/BRITTISH INDIE SCENE?
A. If you allow us to generalize: Americans love when it sounds a lot
and when you sweat a lot. Brits love when it sounds _good_ as well.
Offspring? Duh.
Q. YOU PLAYED AT THE AFTER PARTY TO BLUR's CONCERT IN STOCKHOLM
HOW WAS THAT LIKE?
A. It was really fun. There were about 500 people in there [at
Studion, 'Start-Club', a venue in Stockholm] and about 100 in line
that never got in. "Hansi" at Slitz Magazine [Swedish popular
culture magazine] got us the gig. Cia Berg and Henrik Schyffert
[from 'Whale'] were there as well as 'Blur' (of course). Not many
people in there were sober though. But it was an experience.
Q. WHO WRITES THE LYRICS?
EW. I write the lyrics. I write them at the same time we write the music.
We work like this: First we start with strong songs and melodies, but
we work more with the air between melodies than with the melodies
themselves. We use acoustic guitars and song from the start - then
we're influenced by eachothers work, ideas and what we hear from
the others in the band and write the music from that.
J]. I start with my own feelings and patterns though it changes with
suggestions from the others. It always gets better and better than
what you started with anyway. We know it sounds good when EW says
he likes it.
SS. I just have to mention my favourite guitarrist John Marr. Why?
Well, without a dist-box, without long tunes, he could be playing
dansband songs for all it matters, but it sounds so _good_.
EW. I had never played bass before we started to play together. I've
played a lot of instruments, but never bass and never in a band
and never at the same time that I am singing.
Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MUSIC PRESS?
A. Well, it's the journalists who gets the music out to the public
mostly. We've been 'The Band Of The Month' in Slitz Magazine for
example, and Linda Norrman [Expressen] have written a lot about us
as well. When you get a response from the audience, the journalists
hear about it, and write about it. That's the way it goes.
Q. ANY "GIG-STORIES"?
A. We usually get a great response when we play, though there has been
some low-marks too. Sometimes people come up to us before the concert
and say "what the hell are you doing here?" which affects the concert
of course, though not that much. Another example: at 'Tantog}rden'
EW had a hair clip and he got accused of being gay. It's just things
that happens. We've done 21 gigs since though. From Ume} to Simrishamn.
We played in Kalmar a week or so ago by the way [at Rabarbeer,
'Pump-Club', indie-place], which was okay. Not many people though.
But they listened to us (no-one went to buy a beer during the whole
gig!) and then left when we were done. The story behind this though
is that the guy who were supposed to put up posters about the gig
around Kalmar first said he didn't have any posters. When we reminded
him that we had sent a load of posters, he said they were in the
kitchen (at the place) but that he hadn't found any good places to
put them up! Had he just moved there or what? We weren't happy about
that one.
Q. ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO TELL ME?
A. We were interviewed once by Kalle Dernulf [on the national radio,
channel P3], but he asked us questions that were really weird. Like,
he thought that a swedish band couldn't have english influences and
references (when he asked about that), because we were from Sweden!
Who'd say something like that?
Oh and could you say hello from us to BallDe at Vapour Trail, we
were "The Demo of the Month" there once before we got our contract
and we were interviewed as well, before they went 'hardcore'. And
say hello to 'Mats', a group from Malm| [Sweden]?
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End of SI Digest #1.17
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