Friday Bridge

Friday Bridge

Since the day we first set ears on her wonderful debut for Best Kept Secret, Friday Bridge has subverted most of what we thought to know about indiepop music: outstandingly pretty yet distant, so thoroughly polished that it doesn't yeld any significant knowledge about the author. Her music is a question of Manners and Mannerisms, to use the cunning description she choose for herself in her myspace page.
If in her previous works the swedish artist has seen her talent somehow restrained by studio limitations, "Intricacy" is the definitive triumph for Ylva Lindberg, the work where her songs finally reach their full potential and may bloom with dazzling lights and power. A work of striking artificial elegance that does not surrender the innocence of her early songs, and where complex arrangements lead to the astonishing catchiness of a single synth-pop song.
Something may have also changed in her approach to music: where once she used to do all by herself, here is joined by Niklas Gustafsson as co-producer and musician. We talked about all this as well as her involvement in This Year's Model album for Marsh-Marigold with Ylva.


Let's talk about "Intricacy": has it been a long time in the works? The last record we heard from Friday Bridge prior to this was the Bedroom EP "2" … What has happened to Friday Bridge in the last year and a half?

Friday Bridge has been very active since "Friday Bridge 2". Releasing a split 7'' with Kelly Slusher in the States (featuring a very synth pop version of The End of the Affair) last autumn, participating on the Friendly Noise compilation Are You Scared to Get Happy?, providing vocals to a Nicolas Makelberge track (Split CD single with the Go! Team on *Rico) … and of course, I've participated on the This Year's Model album, which we finished about the same time as Intricacy. So I've been busy.

Having followed Friday Bridge since that tape for BKS I think you have done a great job of updating your earlier songs to a much bigger sound without losing the graciousness of those early recordings. It's like Friday Bridge has finally reached her full potential in melody and
sophistication. Did you have to change something in terms of writing, arrangements, production to reach this?

Thank you! Well, it comes quite naturally from this being a proper album release, the first release was more of a demo recording and so of course we worked more on the album, to make Intricacy sound "bigger" – but it's also due to a different kind of ideal, from the references to more intimate musical soundscapes like the ones of Claudine or Marianne Faithfull, to a sound that's larger in a big-production-star-of-the-80's kind of way.

Do you think intricacy is a good description of Friday Bridge at this stage?

No, not really. Friday Bridge makes danceable synth pop music and that's by definition quite simple. It's catchy pop songs.

Most swedish pop acts seems to lean towards electronics these days… Is the massive use of electronics and keyboards in this record due to a different approach to studio work, or was it something you've always wanted to do, given the proper means?

I never look much at what Swedish pop acts are doing… I've used the same set up of synths mixed with some real instruments since the beginning, there's no difference. There IS a difference in that this album is more of a synth pop album, more danceable if you will, but that's more a musical change than a technical one, and that more or less happened in 2005 with the release of "It Girl".

I still love "Cherry Cookies" a lot, but "the 21st century" is a most convincing song. Why did you choose to rewrite the lyrics and give the song a new identity?

Both Niklas and I felt that this song would be perfect for the album, musically – but to fit it in its new context, it had to be transferred into a new lyrical universe, so to speak. I like the idea that songs can be transformed and reworked, that they are not necessarily fixed in one form just because it's released in one way or another.

Your music doesn't seem to be an outlet for your direct personal feelings as for most pop singers; what is your approach to songwriting? Do you strive to reach melodical perfection or to arouse specific feelings in the listener? Or do you write mainly to satisfy yourself?

It's quite right that Friday Bridge is not an outlet for my personal feelings or experiences. Melodical perfection is something Friday Bridge is most concerned with, or, just writing a really effective, catchy pop song. It's for both myself and others I guess…

The three short instrumental songs are probably the most melodically precious things on the record. What function do they serve in the album's economy?

They set the mood, naturally, but also they (well "Edward VII" and "Good Night, Waterhouse" anyway) are small format songs in their own right, that I felt worked better in this format. There are actually a couple of more like these two… One of them ended up, slightly re-written as "Hotel Damier, Courtrai", on the upcoming This Year's Model album.

This Years Model

In our previous interview you told me that music was a very solitary experience for you. After your work with Makelberge, and This Year's Model and Niklas' involvement in your album this has somewhat changed? Is it much different now you're making music with other people?

I have never made music with Nicolas Makelberge, we've just made contributions to one or two of each others' songs. With Niklas, it's different as we've worked very closely sometimes. It's different from before, naturally, since I haven't made all the decisions myself – but the more one works with another person, the more one sort of thinks the same.

So, I've contributed a bit to the forthcoming next Higher Elevations album as well (co-writing some lyrics and making some melodies), so our collaboration seems likely to continue with all our bands. Of course, I will continue to work on my own as well. I have some ideas for the future, although they will remain secret for a while…

You are also a full time member of This Years' Model and there's two songs from previous Friday Bridge's releases in TYM album. How does you work with TYM differs from your solo output in terms of creativity and contribution? How do you feel about new versions of I Think The Snow Saved Me and The Postcard?

Of course it's quite different since This Year's Model is Niklas's band primarily, I'm not a musical or conceptual band leader. And Henric and Mattias, naturally, have their own visions and ideas. I love both those songs in their new versions – "Postcard" is quite different to the original and it was real fun seeing that a Friday Bridge song can be turned into jangly guitar pop and work really well. The This Year's Model version of "I Think The Snow Saved Me" is more like a more finished version of the track, I think that is the definitive version with the marriage of our voices and the guitar making it even better.

While listening to "Intricacy" I found myself thinking about how Friday Bridge songs would sound like with a proper string section, or with a full orchestra… is this something that you would like to explore in the future, given the possibility?

Maybe some day, but it's nothing I long for especially – if so I would have tried to achieve it. There's a certain quality in sampled/synthesized strings that I love. Especially for this album, that in its way is a celebration of artificiality. It's not interchangeable with a real orchestra, it's a whole another thing really. Also, working with a full orchestra would risk to sound retro or like a pastiche, and I so hate that. So one would have to be careful…

I believe that beyond the self-declared mannerism your lyrics are able to express a strong sense of aesthetics and values. Is there a prevalent theme to the lyrics of this album that ties in with the title "Intricacy"?

Yes in a way, but one has to figure it out for oneself…

Salvatore
22/6/2007

Links:

Friday Bridge: www.fridaybridge.net
Friday Bridge@myspace: www.myspace.com/fridaybridge
Friday Bridge@indiepop.it: ../bands/fridaybridge.htm
This Year's Model: www.thisyearsmodel.co.uk