Acid House Kings

A brief talk with Johan Angengard of Swedish great pop acts Acid House Kings and Club 8 to celebrate the Italian publication of AHK's third album.

This is the third AHK record in ten years of activity and it seems to be the most intimate. Can you spot any differences between previous records and this one? Would you say the motivations that drive you to make pop music are the same now as they were 10 years ago?

It's a more mellow, more sensitive and longer lasting album. There's still a certain catchiness in the songs, but it's songs that mean more to us. Their more than just popsongs. It's rather emotional little stories. The music is more mature I suppose, as we've grown more mature ourselves, both as persons and in musical taste. We don't listen as much to happy-happy-jangly-guitar-pop we used to. We're rather laidback about making music now, still more active. When we first started we were all teenagers. I was just 16 and making a record was a very big thing to me. It's still a very big thing, but not in the same way. I really enjoy the satisfaction it gives me to have written/recorded a really great album.
It's a creative burst I really need. In the very beginning I think the very fact that we could release records at all was a great thing.

With your brother and Joakim you have been playing in many bands, but the three of you started out with AHK. What do you think differentiates AHK from your other projects? And what is the band you've played in that you're most affectionate with?

Club 8 is more close to me personally as I write all the songs for the band and control the sound even more than in Acid House Kings. We're also more active so it takes more time in my mind just because of that little fact. But I don't know if I'd like to say that I'm more affectionate about Club 8. Each band has it's own role to play and it's a very important one. Acid House Kings is more based around a certain sound than Club 8. We write pop songs and we arrange them together. It's more of a real band thing than Club 8 in that way.

How much do you think Julia has added to the Ahk sound? Her voice seems perfectly in line with the sounds in the album.

It really helped us achieving a new more gentle and sophisticated style. She has a wonderfully whispery voice which, as you say, seems to fit perfect with our music. I also believe it's very good for the dynamic in our sound to have two singers, a boy and girl.

What is Joakim up to at the moment? Will he be back in AHK? Is is true you're already started working on a fourth album?

He finished the 3rd album with Starlet last summer which was recently released on Labrador Records
in Europe. It's a really great album. I hope you all get the chance to hear it. He'll be back in Acid House Kings on the next album. We've started writing songs and we've recorded a little as well. Joakim will go to Stockholm and record with us this summer. We figured we'd take a week a just stay indoors in the Summersound Studios. Hopefully 4-5 songs will be recorded at that time, and we'll probably have some songs finished even before that.
There won't be another five years before we release the next album. It's really not our plan.

The songs are composed on acoustic guitar? How do the sounds develop when you go into the studio?

Yes, I think they're all composed on acoustic guitar. Acid House Kings are very much focused on melodies, a lot more than sound. The sound developes naturally as and interaction between us when we're in the studio, but the song is already there once we enter Summersound Studios. Most times we start by recording the songs with simple guitar/bass/drums and vocals. Then we sit down together, listening to it together, talking about what we want to do with the song. Then we just grab an instrument and start coming up with little guitar things, keyboard parts of whatever we feel is right. And then all of the sudden, the arrangements are finished.

The album is divided between melancholy and happiness. And in one song Julia sings "There's a certain kind of sadness/There's a certain kind of joy/In everything you're doing". Did you want to render this dualism into the songs?

This dualism goes through everything in life that is good. There is nothing really good that doesn't come with something bad.
Strong feeling are good feeling. It's like when you're in love. On one hand it's a really wonderful, happy feeling, but on the other hand there's always a lot of emotional stress and problems that goes along with it.

Some chords remind of Sarah bands (Another sunny day, Sea urchins); are those bands stilll a strong influence to you?

No, not anymore. We listened a lot to these bands when we were younger, but not anymore. It's possible that their way of writing songs somehow got stuck somewhere in our minds and that it pops up without us knowing it when we write songs. But if so, it's really on a unconscious level.

Every time I listen to pop bands from the US, Brasil, France, Germany or even Greece I am really amazed on how the so called "twee-pop" transcends geography: there are good bands coming from all over the world. How much do you feel like you're part of a scene that goes beyond Sweden?

Very much so. Good pop music on independent label is global thing. It's people who often share the same ideals and love the same kind of music and quite often even read the same fanzines, visit the same websites and and even buy their records from about the same places. So there's a lot of sharing of ideas and thoughts on bands making it possible for an international scene to grow. Then on a more local basis, there's always the labels Summersound Recordings and Labrador Records which has the finest Swedish bands and a good interaction and friendships betweens artists.

I see you have quite a strong following, your record has been reviewed enthusiastically on many sites. Do you think that the internet distribution and community like Twee.net are helping to promote your products to a broader audience? How are your records received outside your country?

Yes, it sure has. Our records a best received outside Europe actually. We seem to have quite a lot
of fans in Spain, but besides that our strongest following is in the US, Philippines and Japan.

Finally, can you explain the meaning of the band's name? What have you in common with Acid House?

It's just an ironic name we came up with in the beginning when Acid House was popular. We have nothing in common with Acid House.

Salvatore

Links:

Acid House Kings: www.icyicy.com/acidhousekings
Acid House Kings @ Indiepop.it: ../bands/ahk.htm