Laughters and tears: the new sound of Swedish pop
A quick look at the ever-changing shape of indiepop in Sweden.

In a desperate attempt to make order in the myriad of amazingly good indiepop acts coming from Sweden in recent times, we took the four we liked the most over past few months and asked them a few questions. The complete feature article (in Italian) is here, here are full interviews for all of you out there who don't understand italian. No need for crappy googletranslations here, no sir. Visit the site linked at the bottom of each artist for some great mp3s.

The Hartmans

Can you tell us something about yourself? Where did you meet each other, what are you doing in everyday life and most important of all when and why did you decide to start a band.

Well we live in a small town in the north of sweden where you kind of knows everybody that likes the kind of music that you do... so we all knew eachother since way back when we started the hartmans. anna 23, is a student, jens 23, is a student and he's gonna be a teacher, johan 25, is a chefs student with a few months to go. We decided to start a band in late fall 2004 and we wanted to play catchy
2-minutes popsongs so we wrote some songs and recorded them and made a demo and so on, and here we are now. we have reached all the way to italy!

What perception do you have of the swedish indiepop scene, regarding swapping ideas, drawing ispiration from each other, getting to gigs, relating to the public?

Of course we're inspired of many bands but we don't know so many of them. We have a lot of local bands that are good and some of them have made it big in sweden like; sibiria, vapnet, brent unkbelt, lola barbershop. We haven't played so much live yet cuz' we are too shy to ask for gigs

Is publishing records on fixed terms a planned strategy? Like wanting to give a bigger picture when looking at the overall body of work? Is there a philosophy to the Hartman's music?

We like to make music, and we make quite alot of music and we want people to hear it so we make our demos so we can have it for sale the week after at the local record store. and we put our songs on our website for downloading so everybody can listen to us. we don't think we have patience to have a
Record deal and wait several months after the record are recorded/mixed/masterd to play it to people.

It seems that the ability to spread your songs through the Internet is a key aspect of your musical project. Do you get a lot of feedback? And has technology played a big part in the decision of making music? (i.e. would the Hartmans still be a band without the Internet?). Can you imagine one day to publish your songs through a regular label?

We would defenitly be a band without the internet. There would only be fewer people that could hear us then. but we are big fans of internet. People from the whole world can download our songs and listen to it and enjoy our songs is quite amazing.
We don't think that you from indiepop.it had even have a chance in hell to hear us without it, so it's the best! And if someone from a good label asks us to make a record we would most likely do that but we feel that it's working pretty good as it does;)

Where does the pop self-conciousness of your songs ("gimme indie", "pop music", "indiependent" and so on) comes from? What is indiepop music to you? Do you have any idols, ispirational artists.?

It's like our ode to the indiepop. some people think that we are mocking the scene but it's our tribute. we like to make happy songs about the stuff we like popmusic. but we like sad and serious songs as well.
indiepop is when you make music from your heart without the big labels and their commercial interests breathing down your neck. just for the love of good songs.
We all are big music nerds. and here are some of our favourites; the vaselines, brendan benson, eugenius, belle & sebastian, jesus & the mary chain. television personalities, velvet underground, bear quartet, heikki, popsicle, wannadies, loosegoats, skwbn, the legends, silverbullit etc.

What is the meaning of the name "the Hartmans"?

We took the name after a tv commentator for snooker on eurosport who is called Kim Hartman, we are big snooker fans too;)

www.thehartmans.tk


Anders Lovgren - Andypandy


Can you give a definition of your music (or yourself as a musician).

I just call it pop (the two ep's so far happen to be acoustic). I proudly do not call myself a musician. I have played the drums for 10 years but can still only play regular popbeats, and if I try hard, some moderately fast punkrock.

What's the relationship between Anders Lovgren and andypandy? Why the need for an alter ego?

When I was young (say around 9 or 10) I used to have this fantasy of being "andypandy" with everyone. Anyone who has the nickname "andy" or "andypandy" is always the coolest kid in school; someone cute, someone funny, a concept. I was always just Anders (which in Sweden is pretty much the nerdiest name around, except maybe Ingemar, which happens to be my second name). I have this romantic image of being andypandy, the cool guy in the coolest high school band who in the summers hangs out by the lake getting wasted with his girlfriend Nicole. Or something along those lines.When I recorded those two ep's i decided to go under andypandy to, ironically, finally take my position as the official andypandy (unfortunately there are probably alot of andypandy's around in schools all around sweden at this very moment and I assure you they will have a great summer by the lake.) Also, andypandy is a way to distance myself a little from the lyrics and to de-dramatise the whole thing. There is a fine line between pretentiousness and honesty, and I want to stay on the right side.

Can you give a small story of what "indie" music in sweden has meant for you? When did you start listening/playing it, what was the scene at the time?

I started realising that music is more than simply music when Broder Daniel, Kent, Brainpool, Popsicle and all those great bands started appearing on swedish charts in the mid to late 90's (they had of course been around, but I had not encountered them before their exposure on the charts). I think there was a real wave of new, innovative bands that got their "breakthrough" around the same time (for me anyway), and which inspired a whole new scene of music (what hasn't Broder Daniel done for swedish popmusic, or Kent for that matter!) Although I was still young and not yet biologically capable of appreciating art, this was the time I realised the possibilities of music as a channel of expression. The whole idea of provoking, expressing emotions, doing whatever you wanted without following conventions or pleasing crowds, the whole thing. It's a shame I was so young. At the same time my brother, who was older than me, listened to a lot of great music, and indirectly influenced me. His taste guided mine. I have to admit though, I have never been a dedicated listener. I have always just listened to whatever I bump into and have probably spent more hours playing Monkey Island 1 (superb computer-game) than I have listening to music. With regards to playing me and a friend started up different projects to and fro over many years in our youth. Although they were all rather bad, us being cute 13-year olds with unbroken voices and all, we did at least try.

Is there a therapeutical aspects in your lyrics? Being so personal and all. How bad do you need to throw these things out (provided they are indeed real)? And don't you ever feel embarassed about people peeking in your diary?

I suppose there are therapeutical aspects in the lyrics. I wanted to finally, as honest as possible, spell out in words feelings that I had had for a long time. I wrote and recorded the ep's in two weeks, just emptying myself on whatever I had. I was fed up with winter and the general climate in Sweden (socially and weather-wise), and somehow I just became very productive for two weeks. Afterwards I have been incapable of writing anything (lyrics or music) so I suppose those two ep's in particular did have a kind of "emotional cleansing" aspect to them. I do not feel embarassed about the lyrics. After all I put them out for display because I want to, so it's not really "peeking". I don't think there is anything to be embarrassed about in the content. Sometimes I am a little cautious about mentioning names though.

The headmaster in showing deep and personal feelings to the public is considered to be Morrissey. Were you ever a fan? We have been told (by Jens Lekman) that Morrissey fans in sweden used to be the ones with the beautiful girls and well-dressed instead of the nerds you'd expect to. Is it so?

I do not honour myself with the epithet "Morrissey-fan." I realise the greatness, impact and genius of his art and him as a person and have indeed been influenced and affected by a lot of his music (particularly The Smiths though) but can not say that I have ever been a fan (again, Monkey Island 1 really took many hours to complete). I do agree with Lekman though, that the role of Morrissey in sweden is rather different than what one would expect it to be. It seems that everyone in Sweden, at least the 1980's-generations, are desillusioned and emotionally lost, and quite happy to be so. Morrissey and what he stands for has to many people become a convenient lifestyle in a cold social climate rather than a source of artistic appreciation. There is definetely a correlation between being a Morrissey-fan and having beautiful girls. The fact that, last summer, Morrissey took a firm place on the Swedish charts along with Kelly Osbourne and played a festival sponsored by telecom-giants, reflects the general situation. Sweden is a country full of pretentious quasi-poets with too much free time. However, Morrissey has a real big influence on latino-lovers too, so who is in a position to judge.

Your music is acustic and stripped bare. Is that a necessity for recording all of your own or do you feel it just suits your music best?

I wanted to record the songs as soon as I had written them, and to make them as "raw" as possible. I just plugged in a mic into my laptop and recorded them. I feel it does suit the music and in a way enhances it. I have however had plans of recording something more elaborate and I think I will one day, when I feel I have something worthwhile recording.

A strong aspect of swedish pop is its self-consciousness and the bittersweet mix of laughter and tears, love and sadness. Where does this need for opposing sentiments and self-analysys comes from?

I don't want to depict Sweden as so very much different than other countries, but I'm guessing that there is a cultural aspect to it. There is a certain amount of dullness and dryness that penetrates the swedish society; it is, per definition, a rather boring and anonymous place, and we have an inheritage of suffering from a national inferiority complex. Out of this, a certain type of artistic mood has evolved that is hard to pin down. It can be found in movies, commercials, books, magazines and music. The romance and air of fertility that can be found in cultures like France, Italy, Spain etc. etc. does not exist in Sweden and art has to take a more, with lack of better words to describe it, selfconscious, even ironic, tone. There is no room for outright romance or sentimentality (I mean this in a good way) in art, because it lacks credibility; it simply does not exist in the swedish culture, and so a lot of works of art that have any impact are often coloured by a strain of irony and self-consciousness, where a bittersweet mix of laughter and tears is essential. Sweden is like the UK in many ways, and I think the climate in the arts in the two countries is much the same. I am cautious to say that these features are characteristic of Sweden alone though. I am sure the same can be found elsewhere (a lot of great pop, indeed selfconscious and with a bittersweet mix of laughter and tears, is north-american, canadian, scottish, italian, french, spanish).

www.andypandyworld.tk

Eisenhower

First, a small Eisenhower introduction: who are you, where are you born, what do you do for a living and where do you think we are going.

My real name is Henrik Påhle and I was born in Sundsvall, Sweden in 1963. Yes I've been around for awhile. I formed my first band in the late seventies and I had my ups and downs in the music business. I've never had any intentions to make music for a living, so I have a daytime job as a teacher at the Halmstad municipal centre for immigration and integration. In the evenings I lead musical classes for mentally disabled, so in a way I'm a professional musician. The music that comes out of those music classes differs a bit from the Eisenhower music at first sight but if you look at it a second time there are some similarities. I always strive for simplicity and purity and sometimes naivety.

What's it like being an indiepop player in Sweden? Do you feel support/backing from the rest of the scene? Swapping ideas, drawing inspiration from each other, getting to gigs, relating to the public?

I don't really have that much contact with the indiescene in Sweden. Where I live, in Halmstad, there's no indiescene to speak of. Of course I'm aware of what's going on in the rest of the country, but I don't relate to any indiescene in Sweden. The only recognition I've had the past months is a link to my site on the Hello! Surprise! website (a guide to the Swedish indiescene). But of course I'm thankful for that!

Do you believe that living in Sweden can make the task of starting a pop band/making pop music easier? That it's a matter of climate, attitude towards life, social possibilities or something like that?

We have a long tradition of pop music in Sweden since the 60's. It's quite easy to get a rehearsal studio, get equipment and to get gigs at some place the municipal provides. The cold and dark winters gives us a lot of time to stay indoors and practice on our instruments so that's a reason why music tradition is big in Sweden.

Apart from the fact that you play live as a full band, I believe Eisenhower is a solo project, as the self-references in your lyrics seems to suggest. So why the need for an alter-ego? Is the name Eisenhower a nod to the band named Nixon?

Yes, the idea for the Eisenhower thing came from a friend of mine, Roger Gunnarsson who started making music on his own by the adopted name Nixon. He had bands before but got tired of the whole procedure of forming a band, recruiting members with the right ambitions and musical skills. And when a band is finally assembled it usually breaks up after a while when the band members don't find the efforts rewarding soon enough. So Roger decided to skip the whole band forming process to get directly to what's essential - the music. And soon I adopted the same idea. After so many years with bands that didn't go anywhere I decided to try this way for a while. It's a relief to get rid of sweaty rehearsal studios, volume freak drummers, all the compromising and everything that just takes time. Of course now I have to do everything myself. I sing, play the guitar, the bass guitar, the organ/synth, do the drum programming, and play the rhythm instruments and so on. But I have individual freedom and I can do it myyy waay (as Sinatra would have said). But I'm not planning to work in this way all the time. When it really works a real band is the most wonderful way of making music. So, to make a long story short, the name Eisenhower came from Nixon, because I work in the same way as Roger "Nixon" Gunnarsson. I haven't really decided what or who "Eisenhower" is. It's a pseudonym, it can also be a fake band but anyway it's a trademark for twee pop.

You have written quite a few songs about you (I mean about Eisenhower the musician), although they all stay on a very light note ("i just wanna play my songs for you"), while most indiepop these days seems concentrated on self-analisys or the kind of self-miserabilism that Morrissey brought. Do you see yourself as a kind of a modern storyteller? And have you ever liked the Smiths or did you have different inspirations?

In my lyrics I always strive for simplicity. I always try to get to the point. Not that I have anything clever to say, I never try to sound clever. I want to sound real when I sing, like I really mean it. And I find it challenging to sing things like "Hello Baby I Love You" and make it sound sincere. To sing about chocolate and girls is more challenging than to sing about the end of the world in a nuclear war. And I want the lyrics to get along with the music. I would never print the lyrics on a record cover. No way. I don't write lyrics first and the music later. I write lyrics and music at the same time. And Morrissey is one of my favourite lyricists and singers. There's no one who can sing about how miserable he feels without sounding tedious or embarrassing. He's so honest with his awkwardness and at the same time he gets away with it. I wish I could write lyrics and sing like him. But it's no use to try to copy anyone. I try to find my own way.

Your music seems very concentrated on melody and catchiness of the tunes. Yet I believe you like a lot Joy Division that were probably not the most accessible of bands. So what's your way of relating to music?

I'm no big admirer of Joy Division, but I realize that they have made a great impact on music history. And there are behold as something holy and unreachable by their fans. I thought it would be fun to take one of their classics and perform it like it was one of my own songs. I think my first attempt with "Disorder" turned out pretty well and my second with "She's Lost Control" didn't turn out so well, so I left it there. I don't want to be seen as some Joy Division cover artist.

Some of your songs sounds like nursery rhymes and you certainly do not want to hide the "home" dimension of your recordings. Does this come from a strong urgency to play your music? Is technical ability important for you or does it just stand in the way of your need to play your songs?

I strive for simplicity, honesty and sometimes naivety in my music. I want to get a direct impression on the listener and that comes along with the technical abilities in my home recording studio which fits the music very well. I just have an eight-track digi-porta tape recorder and that's that. But I have the ability to record anytime I get and idea in my head and that's the way I like to work for the moment.

And finally I would like to say: Buy Eisenhower records, they're great.

hem.thalamus.nu/%7Ehnm002621

Friday Bridge

First, can you tell us something about yourself? Where were you born,what are your activities at the moment, and anything about yourself you feel it's worth mentioning for people to know you.

I'm born in Stockholm, although I grew up some 80 kms north of Stockholm, in a town called Uppsala. Or actually, in a house in the forest, outside a small village, outside a slightly larger village, outside Uppsala. I'm fairytale material.
At the moment, well, I'm working on the next Friday Bridge output, a record for Swedish label Bedroom. Also, I'm doing the artwork for fellow swede Happy Go Lucky's forthcoming release and some fashion
illustration.

Your music shows a strong love for 60s french singers, which is not unusual in pop music today (see Isobel Campbell), but it probably is inthe context of swedish indiepop music. Why do you feel pulled towards that age and that country?

Because I just find yé-yé to be the perfect pop! it's melodic, it's sweet, it's catchy, it's got lush arrangements, it's a bit strange at times. What more could one ask.

Is the act of making music an outlet for you francophily or is there something else at work?

not more than any non-anglosaxon band singing in english do it to satisfy their anglophilia. there must be simpler ways to satisfy francophilia, especially since not even a third of my output actually is in french... I could sing in swedish of course but almost no one would understand me which makes it a bit pointless writing lyrics.

You are also an accomplished visual artist. Do the two aspects of your work complement each other (apart from the obvious fact that you design the covers of FB records) as different means of expression of yourself as an artist, or do you feel they are separated?

First of all, visual artist is not very accurate. I'm an illustrator and graphic designer, which makes these activities work, and Friday Bridge play. So, they are very separated, even though I'm glad to be able to do the visual side of Friday Bridge since I find it very important (of course).

Not only is Friday Bridge's esthetic tied to the 60s, it also relates strongly to child imagery (cookies, hedgehogs, the use of toy instruments). Is this meant as an escape from reality for both you and the listener? Do you think that music should achieve something in particular when is delivered to the listener?

Well, I like the sound of toy instruments, for some reason. I like their unintended originality, I guess, that they try to sound like a violin or something and it comes out like nothing else at all.
I wouldn't agree on the child part, both those songs you're referring to also have lyrics about marriage, plus of course, in Edward the Hedgehog there's also a reference to a prostitute.
But for the escape from reality part, yes that's sort of how I see it, I guess. Like a parallell world, detached from the mundane realities of everyday life. Rather as something I create for myself more than I think much about the potential listener, even though since I release it I apparently want people to hear it, otherwise I wouldn't do it. I think it's more like, they're welcome to step into the Friday Bridge
world if they want to, and if they like it, they can stay. Or something.

Do you believe that living in Sweden can make the task of starting a popband/making pop music easier?
Is there a key event (social, political, musical, generational) that has triggered this seemingly endless flow of indiepop artists?

I have no idea. I've been making music for almost ten years, although Friday Bridge is a recent project. I hardly know anyone else making music, I don't feel connected to a pop scene at all. Music is a very solitary experience for me. I'm an only child, growing up in the middle of nowhere, accordingly, I've done things by and for myself all my life. But generally, I think those things just happen. where and when
there's a good music (or fashion, or whatever) scene of some sort. I'm guessing that in the end it just comes down to, I don't know, synergy.

Finally, why did you choose a moniker, and why Friday Bridge?

Because I don't feel that my person and my name should have to be so connected to the music, it's not personal like that. I'm no confessional singer/songwriter so I wanted it more detached from me.
Friday Bridge is a small village outside Cambridge. I chose it off the map, somewhat randomly. It caught my eye, probably because of the potential double meaning and that for a village, it's a kind of strange and poetic name. Plus it sounds nice.

www.fridaybridge.tk

Salvatore