Sweet tunes from the city

It's always such a treat when you get to know someone making music and when you finally hear some songs you really like it. Also really nice when you find someone from your home city making good stuff. Alone with a porta studio, Davin Andersson has taken the first steps with his folk/psych/pop-project A Stoic Gone Berzerk. This is a nice new friend and his music can be heard at his myspace-page



David, I was very happy to hear your songs with your solo project A Stoic Gone Berzerk. They sound amazing. What are your plans with it? Have you more material to reveal?

Thank you very much! Well, from the beginning I had no other plans but to try and record some songs for a myspace-site. It was something I really wanted to do, but at the same time it was kind of scary because when you do everything yourself, you also tend to be extra hard on yourself. But it seems like peple have liked the two songs I've recorded so far, so now I just want to keep writing new ones. I have two more songs on their way, and a couple of ideas I'm working on. Then if it turns out I have enough songs, of course it would be very nice to present them live with a few more instruments, and - of course - to record them in a studio.


A friend of mine compared you to Paul Simon. Is that a favorite of yours? What are your biggest influences?

Really? Wow, that's a comparison to be proud of I guess. But actually I've listened very little to Paul Simon. I’ll just have to check him out. I think the most important musical influences came to me when I was about 20-23 years old. Up ..til then I had only listened to hard rock and heavy metal (that’s how it is when you’re growing up with a big brother). So when I heard artists and groups like Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Buffalo Springfield, The Jayhawks, Aretha Franklin, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Van Morrison I responded like you do when you hear something for the very first time. And I don’t think any music will ever have that kind of impact on me again, no matter how good it is.

You also fronts the delicate alt.country-band Leaving Fort Lumber. Could you tell more about it and other projects you're involved in

Yeah, we started playing about a year ago. It was little bit of a challenge, we had very different musical backgrounds and influences but it turned out to work very well. Our drummer is going away to India for a couple of months now, but I really hope we can pick it up from where we left it when he returns.


If you would mention a song you'd wished you had written yourself, what would that be?

Hm.... there’s a couple to choose from. But probably You’ve Got A Friend with Carole King. It’s a fantastic song from one of my favorite albums.


We spent some time together now. What's your favorite memory together with me?

Well, we’ve had some nice chats over a cup of coffee in Karlstad, don’t you think. Seems like we have a couple of things in common, both musically and otherwise. And of course it was great to see you play at Glada Ankan a couple of weeks ago.


Yeah, it's also where I had my moment from you. When I wrote "David from Leaving Fort Lumber" on the guest list and you didn't understand that was you.

Long Live Parken

Tomorrow, the much awaited debut album of Parken "Länge Leve Parken" is released. Parken is a solo project of Pelle Lindroth (Moder Jord Massiva, Riga) and I heard him play on a great evening at the Trädgården Festival in Stockholm in June. The songs have been available for streaming at his myspace-page for a while now and it was as good as I remembered it. One of my top10 albums this year and definitely the best Swedish album for a very long time. Songs like "låt mig få följa dig ner", "jag har varit vilsen lisa" and "Åt helvete med himlen" has an instant approach that both gives me chills of happiness and a very moving feeling in my heart. Good combo.


- Pelle, congrats to a fantastic album. I can't wait to lay my hands on this on the release date. What are you thoughts about it?

I think the album came out exactly the way I wanted it too. We have worked and reworked on the sound for a long time but it really payed off. I'm happy with everything about it.


Can you tell about your musical background, I've understood you're part of both Moder Jord Massiva and Riga? What influenced to start Parken?

I've sung with MJM since 2000, in the beginning I was just improvising but when we started to put out albums I had to get a bit more structured. The first lyrics I wrote in Swedish was "Rödljus" on the first MJM album "Ur djupen", and after that I have written maybe two or three songs in swedish per album.

Rigas is actually my friend and producer Henrik von Euler. He has made two albums on which I have written some lyrics and sung a bit. I play guitar in his live band.
Rigas' wicked production is definitely a large part of the album's appeal, I think.

My first idea with Parken was to make sort of an "All Pelle" MJM album, collect beats from all the producers and sing over them. But I wanted it to be more of a pop album, a mix between MJM and my other band The Chrysler, so I started writing songs on guitar and made demos in the studio and I kind of wrote the lyrics as I recorded them. This made them simple and direct, and a bit unpredictable too. In the end Henrik wound up producing the whole album, we had a common vision where we could go with these songs and I think we made it!


- You did a really great show at Trädgården, Stockholm on June 6th (together with one of my other big Swedish favorites, Loney Dear). Who is your handsome side-kick? Is he a steady part of Parken? Does he still wear a moustache?

This is Henrik von Euler. Does he still wear a moustache? Yes, I believe he is. I met him today. Funny, I can't say for sure if he's still wearing it. Anyway, I'll make him grow another one before you see us again. I have also handpicked another member of MJM to do some additional keyboard, sax and vocal work. His name is David Giese and he's just a sweetheart.


- What are your favorite albums of 2008?

Thomas, it's really sad, but I don't think I've heard a whole new album for a very long time. The last one was the latest Nick Cave cd, I got it for my birthday. I'm a huge fan, and I kind of got into the album after hearing the songs live, but I'm not listening to it anymore, and I guess that's a bad sign. The albums I have listened to the most in 2008 are (if you except my own album with all the different mixes) actually one old favourite, "Bibeln" by Strindbergs, and two landmark albums that I missed out on in the eighties, the first Guns n' Roses album and "Actually" by the Pet Shop Boys. All eighties for Parken, then!


What are your next plans with Parken and your other musical projects.

I am going to play live a lot this fall, the tour is being scheduled and I will put the dates up on my myspace page as soon as they're done. I will probably come to Lund and play, I would be delighted if you came!

A Spiderman Lost - Jari Huotari

After a couple of months absence, I start up with this blog for the season with some new interviews. Back in 1998, when studying media, I learnt to know Jari Huotari, a musician, songwriter and poet. Eventually his influence was what made me start doing music at all. Now ten years later his work with projects such as Pseudoplotinos and Lofi For Dummies really has stood the test of time and is still fantastic. We shared space on the compilation cd UTÖKAD FAMILJ VOLYM 1 (Alltid Hela tiden) 2002 but the last years the man seemed absorbed by the earth. When we released the debut album of mine and C-J Larsgårdens (who also were in the same class) duo A Perfect Friend, we named one of the tracks after him.

All of a sudden Jari recently came to one of my shows, which was just great. So I thought I should make a talk with the man to see what's happening. This is a great honour.

This was made before the time of myspace and it was very hard finding some material online, eventually I found some downloadable goodies from a last.fm-page

MP3:
PseudoPlotinos - All The Lofi In The World
PseudoPlotinos - Spiderman Lost



1) Jari, without you I wouldn’t have started playing music and in the continuation this blog wouldn’t exist. What are your thoughts about making your voice heard here?

I was very flattered in the interest to tell you the truth.



2) So what's the story about your amazing projects PseudoPlotinos and Lo-fi for Dummies. Do you have any plans with them or are they waiting like sleeper cells? (ok, enough of terrorist references). Also, are you still active writing poetry?

Oh, dear. This question is many in one. Splitting the forces…

a. PseudoPlotinos is my solo stuff. The name I sort of inherited from a former band in Uppsala back in the 90’s. We were heavily into the music of the spheres: PseudoPlotinos is a combination of the names of two great philosophers, Pseudo-Longinos and Plotinos. I cannot seem to get rid of that nick now. Lo-fi for Dummies is a two-man band I formed with some random weirdo I met in a bar in Värnamo. Our greatest merit is that we got sued by EMI & Axl Rose for playing some stuff on the radio with stolen lyrics from the song Perfect Crime. By Guns’n’Roses. Otherwise, we just mainly got drunk together and played Puyo Pop on his Dreamcast. And we both have a special relation to salt. The other half of that band is still active I think. Morgan Train. Solo. Great stuff.

b. As for terrorism, Lo-fi for Dummies is a sleeper cell. I am currently trying to get some stuff together, guess I’ll try to skip the PseudoPlotinos name this time too. And fail. Miserably.

c. Yes, I do still write poetry. Mostly in Swedish though.



3) You also introduced me to Roky Erickson, whose music made a huge impact on me back in 1999. Do you have any other aces up your sleeve?

Nope. That’s it.



4) We even made a song named Jari Huotari with my side project A Perfect Friend. I keep on stalking you but you only seem to like it. What on earth would I have to do to make it hurt?

Wow. No idea. It’s nice to know that I am not forgotten. Stalking is the purest form of love.



5) What's your favorite animal and why?

Apes. And monkeys. And no, they are not the same. I have a special connection to these creatures on an astral level. Or perhaps I should say I have a connection to astral apes and monkeys. My favorite here on earth is the dwarf silk monkey. They are the cutest. And they have small merry agile hands that can give you the finger!