I’ve written a text for Popmani about hanging out in Trondheim as a 17 year old. Playlist included with lots of Norwegian favorites.
Find it here: https://popmani.se/mitt-musikminne-bedroom-eyes/
»STORE BLÅ«
NEW SINGLE OUT NOW
Yes, the second single from the upcoming album »Sisyphus Rock« is out as of today. A music video will follow on Monday January 31.
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THIS is the only track from the album that is not sung in English. It’s in jamska (or jämtländska, if you like) that is spoken in the province Jämtland in Sweden. It’s not a language but a dialect so far removed from Swedish that it’s pretty much incomprehensible for most Swedes (and for a lot of people locally, too). From what I understand it’s considered to be comprised of 80% Old Norwegian and 20% Swedish.
I grew up in Föllinge, Jämtland and talked this way until school. I have barely heard my parents talk Swedish (guess you’ve heard my father speak English by now) and I consider this somewhat my native tongue. This particular dialect isn’t highly regarded outside (or even inside) the region because it implies being from a rural area and of working class descent. To me it has always sounded beautiful and some sentences by nature just sings in a great way.
There hasn’t been a lot of music written in jamska, there are some great tunes but no real pop tunes or anything that I could truly relate to growing up. When I first heard pop in trøndersk (the dialect in Trøndelag, a Norwegian region an hour from where I grew up) I had one of the biggest epiphanies of my life. Modern music? And they sing almost like they're from the same place as me?!
I knew I had to do what they did but with my own words.
I’ll write more on this in a few days because I could talk on this subject (dialect, language and music) for hours. By the way - you can find the lyrics here.
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KIM Fastesson plays guitar*, Emil Fritzson-Lindqvist plays the drums (those tom rolls are fantastic!) and percussion, Markus Eriksson plays guitar, keys and sings backing vocals, Mattias Andersson plays the bass and I sing lead vocals. Markus and I produced it. It was recorded live in studio in November 2020 at Rissna City in Rissna, Sweden by Robin Lindqvist.
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*=KIM’s guitar solo. Oh, man. I wish we had recorded it on film. The whole album was recorded live so what you hear is what we heard in the room. The recording of ”Store blå” was something very special to me. It just sounded so damn good. And I knew I finally had that tune that could have been on a record by one of those Norwegian bands I grew up with. But Kim’s guitar solo was the big thing.
Totally mind-blowing. That solo is one take! Me and our engineer Robin Lindqvist burst in to a standing ovation by the end of the song, laughing with our jaws dropped.
Robin said ”Kim! You’re the greatest guitarist I’ve ever recorded. You sound like you’re three guitarists at once!”. And it was TRUE! Playing music with your best friends is a pretty rewarding feeling.
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OUR friend Erik ended his life two years ago. This song is not about him - per se - but I think about him a lot and in a way he is in a lot of the songs on this album. I’ve had depressions and anxiety since Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls (unrelated, though) and I just wished I could have talked with him when there still was time. I don’t have any answers to anything but I know the big blue too. I just would have wanted to say that I care.
And there somewhere is where ”Store blå” comes from. I guess you can either hear it from a dark or a light perspective and you choose how you hear it. Or does it choose?
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IT originally contained a drum machine sample from the b-side of a single by a successful 90s band that I can’t mention (Manic Street Preachers) but we replaced it in last minute in fear of getting sued by a major label that I also can’t mention (Sony).
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I WROTE this song at home (the lyrics where written in Uppsala, thank you Mats for the apartment), recorded the demo in Kricko’s basement storage in Stockholm (thank you) and we rehearsed it at Midsommargården (thanx, Marit).
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FRANZ Hägglund mixed this at Studio Riddarborgen and Magnus Lindberg mastered it at Redmount Studios, both in Stockholm.
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THE COVER is made by Robert Samsonowitz and is comprised by analogue pictures taken in Rissna.
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THE fact that this song is released on my father’s birthday is purely accidental but equally logical.
Happy birthday, pappa. Je tyche så myche om deg.
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Tack, thank you and mæ råkes.
Jonas Melker Alexander Jonsson, Esq.
Yes, the first single from »Sisyphus Rock« is out as of today and is called »The Dark Between the Stars«. We like it and so does Fred Armisen (cheers, Fred!) so that's the target audience sorted (OK, it would be fun with some air time in like Norway or Germany, but the song might be a bit too long). /// MARKUS Eriksson plays guitar, mellotron and sings backing vocals, Emil Fritzson-Lindqvist plays the drums and shakes/beats the percussion, Kim Fastesson plays guitars (I think both electric and acoustic?) and might also do some backing vocals if I remember things correctly, Mattias Andersson plays the bass (this I know for sure) and I sing lead vocals. Markus and I produced it. It was recorded live in studio in November 2020 at Rissna City in Rissna, Sweden by Robin Lindqvist. /// I HAD a complete breakdown in the fall of 2019, a few months before we were supposed to record this album the first time. Stress, anxiety and more stress can be quite an explosive combination and I had several panic attacks a day for months. I texted Fredrik at Startracks and pulled the plug on the recordings. 30 seconds later I got a reply: ”We love you, get well and don’t worry. I will be here when you feel better!”. What a great man. I wish this song was about him (it’s not). So, six months later I was feeling better and then I threw out a bunch of the songs we were meant to record and wrote some new ones (like this one) and a few other got new lyrics. The whole album was recorded live a weekend in November 2020. /// I WROTE this song in a hotel room at Lerbäcks Teater (thank you, Johan and Jenny), recorded the demo in Kricko’s basement storage in Stockholm (thank you) and we rehearsed it at Midsommargården (thanx, Marit). /// FRANS Hägglund mixed this at Studio Riddarborgen and Magnus Lindberg mastered it at Redmount Studios, both in Stockholm. /// THE COVER is made by Robert Samsonowitz and is comprised by analogue pictures taken in Rissna. I handed everyone disposable (but reusable!) cameras with black and white film in the studio and while looking through the pictures you might suspect them to be taken by visually impaired chimpanzees at a late night jamboree but are in fact taken by nearly normal humans. /// I HATE to ”say a few words about what the song is about” because the song is RIGHT THERE and I don’t want to kill the fun (which is that the words are yours to connect and make your own story of even if it doesn’t match with what I had in mind. Neil Young’s ”Thrasher” is about leaving Buffalo Springfield? How boring is that?!) You can find the lyrics here at bedroomeyes.se. /// Thank you. Jonas Melker Alexander Jonsson, Esq.
