Yoko Ono = Plastic Ono Band

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

The Soundtrack of Our Lives
Interview by Alexander Laurence

Fredrik Sandsten (Drums)
Martin Hederos (Keyboards)
Ebbot Lundberg (Vocals)
Mattias Bärjed (Guitar, vocals)
Åke Karl Kalle Gustafsson (Bass, violin, vocals)
Ian Person (Guitar, percussion, vocals)

The Soundtrack of Our Lives is a major Swedish psychedelic rock band that started in 1995. They have produced five albums and have toured worldwide. I got to chat with keyboardist Martin Hederos this week. They are playing one of the shows at Noise Pop 2010. They will be at the Independent on February 27th. They will also play two shows in the LA area: at the Glasshouse on the 25th, and the El Rey on the 26th. Look forward to the shows.

AL: How are you doing today?

(Martin) Great, I’m really looking forward to play some Swedish psychedelia on your continent again and planning outfits...

AL: What do you think of Facebook and Twitter?

(Martin) Personally I’m not active on any of them but I realize the value of them as a platform to reach out. I’m still a fan though of the ol´ fashioned feel that you do not know everything about your favorite artist and you fantasize over the music lyrics and the covers and not knowing what they had for lunch.

AL: All your albums have done well in Sweden? Does it feel weird to go to other parts of the world where you are not as well known?

(Martin) In North America we have some of our most loyal fans, even if we’re not massive, so that doesn’t feel weird at all. To go to new countries were peoples ears are totally unused to our music, like China for example, is very exciting and gives us new energy and to see new faces that gets our grooves makes us want to travel more and spread the gospel.

AL: Does anyone in the band have a hobby?

(Martin) Yes! All of us actually.
Fredrik is a expert in old cars, soon to be a collector.
Mattias is a passionate fisherman.
Ian and me are foodies and spend a lot of time in markets
and always fantasize about new slowcooking recipes to make us relax off tour.
Kalle is always looking on Internet for new art pieces for his studio in Gothenburg.
Ebbot is the king of fleamarkets and can spot a rare 7-inch in a pile of lousy records anytime.

AL: Communion has been out for a while. Do you tour the UK and Europe first and then wait for the USA?

(Martin) We did a short tour in USA in March. We know after 15 years that everything has its time and that it’s no need to rush.
You will get the perfected set, as a result of 15 month of playing Communion!

AL: Does anyone in the band read novels? Any suggestions?

(Martin) Yes, I’m a big fan of Don DeLillo, I think Underworld is one of my top 3 novels.
Right now I’m reading "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz and It’s really reading as well. Not sure what the other guys have on their bedside table...

AL: How does it feel to have your songs on video games?
(Martin) I’m not playing them so much myself but as long as it’s not crappy games with lots of violence, the stuff I’m trying to keep my 9 year old from, I think it’s a great way of reach out. I like the NHL game. And really looking forward to see how we blend in with the 2010 MLB game

AL: Bjorn Olsson has left the band. When did that happen?

(Martin) It’s very long time ago...
He likes to write and produce music but was not fond of the touring bit.
Everyone in the band is still good friends with him and I think everyone should check out his instrumental solo albums, You could find them on Parasol records I think..

AL: Have you produced records by other bands and have you participated in collaborations?

(Martin) Yes, there are a few...
Many Swedish acts, English singing acts. There is for example my duo Hederos/Hellberg (also on Parasol),
The Hellacopters, Ane Brun and right now I’m a member of Tonbruket, an instrumental group with the former member of e.s.t, Dan Berglund, there is an album out on Act in Europe right now.
It’s some kind of psychedelia with a lot of improvisation but still with the energy of rock and the melodies of pop.

AL: How do you write songs in the band and where do you record them?

(Martin) Everyone write songs but the guitar players are the most productive makers of demos.
Then we all put them together and Ebbot does the lyrics and produces them together with Kalle usually in Kalle’s studio Svenska Grammofonstudion. It is actually the biggest studio in Sweden right now.

AL: It’s 2010. What is the plan to tour this year? Would you like to come to America more?

(Martin) We do want to play in America, especially the festivals, we’ve done Coachella and Austin city limits before, amazing festivals both of them, and we would love to play there again. Heard a lot about Bonnaroo as well, we’re open for suggestions!
We haven’t been to South America yet, that’s a plan as well. Apart from that I think we will play a lot in Europe before
we’re going back in the creative cave again for the next album.

AL: How is the band TSOOL different now from when you started in 1995?

(Martin) We’re better friends, have some more grey hairs and have our own kids now! We’ve released over 100 good songs since then and that’s a fact that makes us proud and gives us a fair amount of pondus if you ask me.

AL: What new bands do you like?

(Martin) Arcade Fire, Feist, PJ Harvey, Bon Iver, Silverbullit and Nina Kinert are a few of them.

AL: What is the most exciting thing about music?

(Martin) It makes you forget your everyday struggles, both as a performer and as listener.
" When music hits you, you feel no pain" Bob Marley

AL: Are there any spiritual interests in the band?

(Martin) Yes, come to one of our shows and you’ll see....

AL: What is favorite part of being in America?
(Martin) For me, apart from the part of being where rock´n roll actually started and play at clubs where there’s magic and history in the walls, it’s the food. The Mexican street food, for example, that you find in Texas and California is something that you never could find in Sweden.

AL: What bands would you like to play with, that you haven’t played with?

(Martin) I think we would make a really good match with My Morning Jacket.

AL: Does music affect people politically?

(Martin) Yes, if you look at the Jamaican and the African history for example, that’s obvious that people can find strength in music in difficult times.

AL: Do you have any pets?

(Martin) No. Ebbot is the Pet king in the band with 3 dogs and 2 cats.

Website: www.tsool.net

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

COLLECTORS EDITIONS OF CLASSIC ALBUMS

Tender Prey, The Good Son and Henry's Dream

5.1 Re-masters – March 30^th, 2010

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Mute announce the next installment in a series of releases that will ultimately see the band’s entire studio album catalogue digitally re-mastered and remixed for 5.1 Surround Sound for the first time since their original release. Tender Prey, The Good Son and Henry's Dream (their fifth, sixth and seventh albums) will come out March 30^th, 2010, each as a separate deluxe double-disc collectors edition.

Each deluxe edition contains the re-mastered stereo album, the new surround mix, a specially commissioned short film by UK artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard plus the b-sides from the singles, videos and exclusive sleeve notes.

Last year, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds first four consecutive albums in the re-mastered deluxe edition series -- From Her to Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Your Funeral…My Trial – were all met with excited critical welcomes.

Dot Allison Interview

DOT ALLISON INTERVIEW 2010
By Alexander Laurence

Dot Allison is a very talented artist and singer, and is one of the first
musicians I did an interview with. I met her in New York at the Gramercy Park
Hotel back in 1999, when her first album was released. She is from
Edinburgh, Scotland, and did an album with One Dove back in 1993. Since then she has
released four solo albums including Afterglow (1999), We Are Science (2002),
Exaltation of Larks (2007), and Room 7 1/2 (2009). She has also
collaborated or has been a member of Massive Attack, Death In Vegas, Slam, Scott
Walker, and Babyshambles. I spoke with her at the beginning of 2010, to talk about
music and celebrate a detailed and influential career in music.

AL: What are you up to today?

Dot: I am just taking a break from songwriting with my friend. She is just
next door. We have been programming all day. We were trying to write this
pop song. So I am taking a break. We have a bunch of songs. I am not sure what
we are going to do with them yet. I am not sure if I am going to sing them.
I might have a few songs on my album, or she’ll might have them on her
album.

AL: When did you start working on Room 7 1/2?

Dot: Actually the album existed in many different forms for a while. I
wrote a few songs years ago. I don’t know if everyone works like this: but I
always have a silly backlog of songs, and some of them should never come out.
Some of them that did like “I Wanna Break Your Heart,” Portrait Of The Sun,”
“Fall To Me” were quite old songs. The rest were written in the past year.
“Love’s Got Me Crazy” happened because Paul Weller called me up and said
he wanted to write a song. He was writing a lot of music at the time. It was
slightly disparate in a way. It wasn’t like I had a concept and then wrote
this album. It was more like a collection of songs that seemed to go well
together.

AL: Your first two albums were very diverse. The song “Wishing Stone”
doesn’t really go along with the rest of the album.

Dot: Yeah. They might be a little too diverse. I always liked albums like
Screamadelica, where “Movin’ On Up” is really different from “Slip Inside
This House.” I like records by Gene Clark where there are a rich tapestry of
sounds and production. I don’t like albums that are linear. I do get
slightly bored of a sound if it’s right across an album. There is nothing wrong
with that, it’s just me. But hopefully I would like to take someone on a
journey.

AL: It’s more common that a band writes and works in a specific time, and
those songs which end up on an album are like a diary of a specific time
frame.

Dot: I don’t know if that has been true in the past. Maybe there was some
record company wrangles going on and I got behind myself. Some songs that I
wrote were going to be on an album with me and Peter Doherty. We were going
to do an album of duets, and it never happened. Times change. We might still
do it. We decided that we wanted a few of those songs to come out.

AL: The songs “Sheepskin Tearaway” and “I Wanna Break Your Heart” are
probably the best-known songs of that collaboration, because you played them
live a lot. How did you decide what songs are on your album or what goes on
his?

Dot: “Sheepskin Tearaway” was his song and he got me to help him finish
it. He had the idea and then it probably ended up being 50/50. I had the
chords for “Portrait Of The Sun” and we wrote the lyrics together. Maybe we
believed that those were our own songs that we got each other to collaborate on.
“I Wanna Break Your Heart” we started from scratch at my studio one day.
He asked me to play the Rhythm Factory with him one day. We didn’t have any
songs of our own at that stage. We were going to do some covers of “I Wanna
Be Your Dog” and “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” And then he said “I
Wanna Break Your Heart.” Let’s write a song called “I Wanna Break Your Heart.”
It was a collage of those songs. It was our own dark love song. The song
almost went on the last Babyshambles album. It’s worked out fine. Pete is
happy that it has come out on my album.

AL: When you did your first two records, and the earlier record with One
Dove, was there pressure from the record companies to sound a certain way?

Dot: Yeah. The records that I have tried to make were more like a window
into my world. Luckily, to the best of my ability at the time, I always stood
my ground. Afterglow may be a little too glossy and produced, but usually I
have stuck to that. In the beginning, with One Dove, it was a massive
battle. I was 21 and I was a girl singer. The record label was trying to make me
into a popstar. There was constant drama. They would publish photos in a
magazine that you hadn’t agreed on. There was pressure from labels to be a
certain kind of person. They told us to work with certain producers and certain
video producers. We always rebelled against it. It was probably to our
detriment. We probably pissed off the label because we didn’t go with their plans.
We didn’t want to do anything we weren’t proud of. There is quite a lot of
manipulation if you are in bands. They would only show you a few people who
are video directors. They are trying to control your choices. Labels can’t
stand in the studio and make you create a different record. They can not
promote it. We stuck to our guns, and it caused fights, and budgets were
pulled. It’s classic record label bullshit.

AL: There seems like there was a big hiatus between We Are Science (2002)
and Exhaltation of Larks (2007). What were you doing during that time?

Dot: I was touring with Massive Attack actually for two years. Then I did
quite a lot of touring with Pete. I spent a year hanging out with Pete and
making music overnight and living nocturnally. I was sleeping all day and
writing poetry. There was two years, 2003 and 2004, that was doing two
international tours with Massive Attack. By 2005, two years had passed where I hadn’t
done any of my own music. It was well worth it. I am not sure if it helped
with the momentum. No time is wasted.

AL: Peter Doherty’s guitar playing on “I Wanna Break Your Heart” is a
little rough. There are mistakes and it’s out of tempo. Can you comment on what
was going on there?

Dot: For me that is part of the charm. It’s the opposite of slick. When you
were saying that, I was thinking of Daniel Johnston. It’s not so much about
dexterity, but getting a song across. I think that Pete is a good guitar
player. It’s hard to keep Pete immersed in a recording. I kept the recordings
that I had done in my studio. There’s a loveable chaos about him. Stephen
Street is good at disciplining Pete, and getting him to repetitively record.
The way we record is unlike any other process I am involved in. Capturing us
like that, was being disciplined, and I had to go with it.

AL: How did you get to write a song with Paul Weller? Did you know each
other?

Dot: We weren’t friends, no. I got a text message from Paul Weller. He had
got my number from Bobby Gillespie. They were out together. I got this text
“Do you fancy writing a song?” Can this really be Paul Weller? He sent me a
CD to my flat. He sent me the bones of something. We spoke over the phone
about some lyrical ideas. There were a lot of text messages. We nailed down
the lyrics and fine tuned it in the studio. He changed the last line of the
song. He talked about how the line falls on the melody. I learned a lot. There
was one last session where I redid the last line.

AL: Was that the first song that you used a lot of text messaging?

Dot: I wrote a song with Hal David for Afterglow. We did it by fax. I had
to write some dummy lyrics for him to play off of. We met up in London and
finished it in person.

AL: How did you get involved in the world of Scott Walker, and how did that
lead to you doing a cover song on your new album?

Dot: I was asked to be a talking head in the Scott Walker documentary. I
worked with Brian Gascoigne, his arranger. The director of the film, Stephen
Kijak, found out I had worked with Brian. There were not a lot of females in
the film at that point. He asked me to be in the film. I told him “I don’t
think that I am much of an aficionado.” And he said: “No, you have been
inspired by him. Just talk about it.” So being in that film, I met a lot of
people. I hadn’t met Scott Walker yet, but I met his manager. I needed a
manager at that stage, so now we share management. When Scott came to the shows at
the Barbican, my manager put my album under his nose. They didn’t say
anything. Later he said: “Dot is perfect for this song.” I met him through that
film basically.

AL: You have had the same band for a while?

Dot: Yeah. I have played with Chris Rotter and Wildcat Will for a long
time. Wildcat Will Blanchard has been my drummer for ten years.

AL: Are there any subjects that you have focused on with this new album?

Dot: I always write about love. Human attachment seems to be the most
moving thing to me. As I understand it, the important things are love and
attachment. Whether that is love, lost, brooding, unity, or whatever state. I
always write about that bit. I changed my process a little bit with this album. I
tried to write in a more narrative way. I wanted to stretch myself in a
lyrical way. I hadn’t developed my process. As time goes on, I have changed my
process. I really liked White Chalk. I was really inspired by PJ Harvey and
Nick Cave. What they say between the words is very interesting.

AL: Your song “Johnny Villain” is a new type of song for you. It has a
story and characters. Do you think you will do more of that in the future?

Dot: I was pleased with that. It was a completely different way of writing
for me. I never want to sit still. So maybe it’s me moving out of my comfort
zone. Writing lyrics is a discovery process. You can work on thing for a
long time, and get more details and shape. I spent a few years touring and
living a nocturnal existence. During that time I didn’t write songs, but I
wrote a lot of poetry. I think that I benefited in that time because I studied
the weight of words, and put things away, and came back to them months later.
I became better at looking at lines and changing things.

2010 was very colorful: books and music

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE RETURNS WITH WHO KILLED SGT. PEPPER?

“Nothing short of brilliant.” – FILTER

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE RETURNS WITH WHO KILLED SGT. PEPPER?

** Band’s Tenth Album Set for Release on February 23^rd **

New York, NY, January 6 – The Brian Jonestown Massacre is back and set to release their tenth studio album, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? on February 23^rd. The 13-track album was recorded throughout 2009 in Iceland and Berlin and features Spaceman 3 legend Will Carruthers on bass, vocalist Unnur Andrea Einarsdottir and a variety of international musicians contributing textures not previously heard on a BJM album. It is to be released on bandleader Anton Newcombe’s own label, “a recordings LTD”, distributed though Red Eye.

The album marks the return of guitarist/vocalist Matt Hollywood, an original member/co-founder of the band who helped write some of the BJM’s classic material from their early albums (Strung Out In Heaven, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, Take It From The Man, Spacegirl & Other Oddities, Give It Back) as well as penning the infamous dig at the Dandy Warhols, “Not If You Were The Last Dandy on Earth”.

Track list for Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?:

1. Tempo 116.7 (Reaching For Dangerous Levels Of Sobriety)
2. Tunger Hnifur
3. Lets Go Fucking Mental
4. White Music
5. This Is The First Of Your Last Warning (Icelandic)
6. This Is The One Thing We Did Not Want To Have Happen
7. The One
8. Someplace Else Unknown
9. Dekta! Dekta! Dekta!
10. Super Fucked
11. Our Time
12. Feel It
13. Felt Tipped Pictures Of Ufos

About the band:

Most need no introduction to The Brian Jonestown Massacre. BJM has been somewhat of a musical commune for many respected musicians over the years, a band that has spun-off other great bands ever since -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, The Silver Rockets, The Black Angels, The Raveonettes, The Dilettantes (to name a few) are all part of this musical family tree.

Indeed, this is a band that has witnessed many incarnations, since its inception in San Francisco over 15 years ago. Two dozen band members later and numerous “ups and downs” (some have been famously sensationalized in the media,) the one thing that has always remained consistent for this psychedelic collective is front man Mr. Anton Alfred Newcombe. A man and artist many are eager to dismiss as obnoxious and unworthy of the attention he receives. Others however, deem him simply as vulnerable in this world he roams and hugely misunderstood whilst doing so. Like many prolific and artistic “madmen” before his and our time, dare we sum all of the above and categorize Newcombe as a one of the musical geniuses of our time?

Resources:

http://www.myspace.com/brianjonestownmassacre

http://www.brianjonestownmassacre.com/

Lhasa de Sela RIP

By Jim Fusilli

Photo credit: Ryan Morey

Lhasa de Sela, RIP.

Lhasa de Sela, the singer whose warm, lilting music embraced a variety of folk traditions, died January 1 after a lengthy bout with breast cancer. She was 37 years old and lived in Montreal.

Lhasa, as she was known professionally, was born in Big Indian, New York, and traveled widely with her parents and sisters throughout Mexico, where her father was born, and the U.S., according to her publicist Blake Zidell. Her nomadic childhood infused her music with an appreciation for Mexican and gypsy folk melodies, as demonstrated by her three albums, “La Llorana,” released in 1997; 2003’s “The Living Road”; and “Lhasa,” which was issued last year.

Her illness forced the cancellation of a lengthy international tour in support of “Lhasa.” Two of her songs appeared on the soundtrack to the 2009 film “Cold Souls,” written and directed by Sophie Barthes.

Between the release of her first and second albums, Lhasa and three of her sisters worked in a circus and theater troupe in France. In 2005, she was named Best Artist of the Americas by the BBC. Earlier, she received a Juno Award in Canada as Best Global Artist.

Lhasa is survived by her partner Ryan, her parents and stepmother, and nine siblings. Funeral services will be private.

• Lhasa de Sela