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!

Crush of the day

Tom Rush - The Child's Song (from the DVD "Festival Express")

Best of 2008

Halfway through 2008, there have been some really good cds coming out this year.
These are my favs of this year.

Top 5 (in no particular ordeer)



Fuck Buttons - Street Horrsing
marvelous indie/noise/postrock, very distinct
in all it's droneness. Tribal shouts!



Bon Iver - For Emma Forever ago. Subtle and slightly
psychedelic folk, but very minimalistic. Lovely voices.



Cat Power goes against common artistic progress and
after more than 10 years in the biz she makes her two
best and most interesting albums, this year's Jukebox
and last year's The Greatest



Fleet Foxes - s/t. Like a meeting between My Morning Jacket
and Akron/Family. I couldn't imagine any finer describtion of
a band.



Justus Köhncke - Safe and Sound
Slick and warm disco from Germany. The guitars
in Feuerland are just perfect.


Just outside...



My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges



The Kills - Midnight Boom


Blast from the past - newly discovered



2006's solo outing for Jason Molina, the album
Let me go, let me go, let me go is such a great album.
Would've made it into my top10-list if I just bought
it in time.


Honorable Mentions
...and some friends who made really nice albums this
year.



Charlee Porter - s/t



Björn Kleinhenz - Quietly Happy and Deep Inside



Bobby and Blumm - Everybody Loves

A chat with Firstnighter

I've had the pleasure of sharing a show with Sofie Larsson of Firstnighter a couple of times, a delicate pop/folk-act from Linköping, Sweden. Most recently, three weeks ago. After the show I asked her some questions:


- Sofie, you really have remarkable melodies in your songs, and your voice is kind of a very personal blend between Jason Molina and Joni Mitchell. What has been influential for your music? What was your favorite cd of 2007?

First of all; thank you very much for the compliments! Well, I’ve never heard that I sound like a mixture between Jason Molina and Joni Mitchell before, but that’s nice. 2007 was acctually the year I started listening more to Joni Mitchell and perhaps it’s already starting to show in my own music. I’m influenced by a lot of things: movies, poetry, things I hear people talk about on the bus or on the radio. My friend’s lives are also a big source of inspiration but I try my best not to reveal too many details about them in my songs.

- Thanks for the EP I got from you. I really like that one, when was it from and do you have plans for recording something new soon?

You’re welcome Thomas. The EP you got is from 2007. Right now I am recording my new songs and hope to finish a new EP by the end of this summer.


- Our first show together was in an old chapel, the next one in a dance venue from the 70's, what to expect next?

Haha! Maybe at Harrys in Linköping? Oh no, let’s hope not.


- You've studied music for a year now, seems like a dream. Sometimes though, I feel like that I never get in the mood for writing when having time for it. All of a sudden when you're working or don't have time or a pen, stuff starts to happen. How was your experience about productivity during the year, was it good for your music?

Worries about creativity trouble me as well, but this past year I’ve been forced to develop a new way of looking at my creativity. Almost every week we’ve been given new tasks in school. We’ve been told to write different types of music, pop/rock/classical/jazz or folk or we’ve been asked to put a melody to a poem or write a song that would suite on of our classmates etc. Sometimes we’ve had 20 minutes to finish the task, sometimes a week. While doing this I’ve had to learn not to be too serious about things, and I’ve tried to write music without judging myself during the process. I think I’ve become a braver songwriter but I’m still not brave enough.


- Finally, what song do you wish you had written yourself?

Oh, there are so many songs I wish I had written. One is Hjärta av Guld, written by Eva Dahlgren. I love it, especially when Nina Ramsby sings and Martin Hederos plays the piano.

Various Activities

>>Various Activities pre-summer 2008
April-May 2008





LIVE @ Linköpings Kulturdagar 31 MAY
Photo: Richard Gustafsson





HANGING OUT IN THE STUDIO with Helena Arlock and
Gustav Haggren recording guest appearances on their
both upcoming cds

Teenage Kicks - Oh No Miriam

I recently stumbled upon the music of the Swedish indie/lofi-act Oh No Miriam, and I really liked to see that on her myspace-page she listed France Gall as her influences and revealed that "Sometimes when I listen to music I like I imagine in my head that it is my music". I kind of do the same thing myself so it was no big surprise that I liked this minimalistic acoustic lofi-pop. I e-mailed some questions to her:


I've just discovered your music, how long have you been active with "oh no Miriam" and who are you? What intstruments do you play?

Not for so long at all. For one and a half year, or maybe more like two. My sister (Rebecka Ingrid Simone) has played and I guess I got inspired by her. I don’t know how to describe who I am. Ehh I am seventeen years old and I live in Stockholm. I like vulgarity, and criticism. I can’t really play anything, but I hit on the piano and blow in the harmonica and sometimes I hit things in the table in a rythm. That's kind of it, but if there is anything in my recordings I have forgotten that's also me, I have done everything in my recordings, except that my sister sometimes sings in the background and I have also done a duet with Mitchell Rathberger.


I did some research about you (checking google) where I found an article about you over at Swedesplease. net where the writer compares you and your music to the movie Juno and the music of Kimya Dawson's. What would you say are your most important influences? How would you describe your music? I really like it, it kind of reminds me of Daniel Johnston and Bobby Baby. Have you heard them?

I haven’t heard Daniel Johnston, but I have listened to Bobby Baby quite a lot before. Once she wrote something nice about my music to me at myspace and I was so happy and told my friends. My influences are teenage movies and everything in my life. Actually everything that has to do with teenagers. Sometimes I also get inspired by things I hear in stores or on the bus, songs that goes sort of like ”Sexy, sexy, sexy” or ”Shake my hips yeah yeah” of some reason. I guess it’s because I like shaking my hips and I like when people are sexy, but I like when they aren’t to. I have no idea how to describe my music. It’s kind of like my diary, very honest. Parts of it is probably to honest.


So... are you planning to do an album? Do you think it's important to release cds these days?

I think it’s important that people do albums. I love to buy cd’s and almost never download. But I don’t know if I want to do an album. If someone offers to help me I wouldn’t say no, but it’s not one of my highest priorities.


My blog is really a blog about my friends, but you're the first I've done this kind of micro interview that I don't know at all. Do you think I should change the name of the blog? If yes, to what? thomas-using-his-big-ego-for-
an-excuse-to-stalk-people-who- do-music-he-rather-
would-do-if-he-could. com?

I don’t think I could give a better proposition than that. I like the name vanbloggen and I could concider to accept being called one of your friends, that..s okej:)