Chaque mois, EuradioNantes vous présente un label européen à l'antenne et sur le site Internet.
Ce mois-ci, c'est le label Labrador (Suède) qui est à l'honneur, ainsi que ses artistes.
Interview de Johann Angergaard, fondateur du label
The Radio Dept.
The Radio Dept. was formed as a loose collective of
people coming and going in the beginning of the 21st century. The name
was taken from a gas station/radio repairer in Lund (Sweden) which had a
large sign with the name »Radioavdelningen« (The Radio Department in
Swedish) hanging outside their shop.
In the autumn of 2001 bass
player Lisa Carlberg and drummer Per Blomgren joined the band as they
started rehearsing in the way bands so often do. The latest recordings
were mailed to the Swedish music magazine Sonic and got a great review
in April 2002. The song “Why Won’t You Talk About It?” was featured on a
CD sampler that came with the magazine. That's how Labrador Records
discovered the band. After having released a 7” on their own label
Slottet, the debut four track ep “Against The Tide”, they were signed to
Labrador.
The Radio Dept.’s debut album "Lesser Matters",
released in the spring of 2003, was an underground success
internationally and Labrador's first entrance in the sales charts in
Sweden. The buzz that slowly grew to give the band worldwide recognition
came with a little help from XL Recordings who released the album in
large parts of the world, and the release of Sofia Coppola's film Marie
Antoinette, which featured "Keen on Boys” (from "Lesser matters),
"Pulling Our Weight” (from the EP with the same name, 2004), and "I
Don't Like It Like This” (from the EP "This past week", 2005).
The
second album, "Pet grief", was released in the spring of 2006 and
showed a slightly more dreamy, less noisy, side of the band. The album
reached #11 in the Swedish charts and continued to give The Radio Dept.
new listeners all over the world.
In the beginning of 2007 people
started talking about new material from The Radio Dept. There was even a
rumour going round that they were working on two albums simultaneously
and that both would be released in May the same year. In other words;
two albums merely one year after the release of the previous album ”Pet
Grief”. Those who had followed the band for a few years and knew how
they work probably suspected this would not happen. Obviously, it didn't
happen. But what actually did happen that October night 2007 when they
were supposed to master their finished album the day after, we'll
probably never know.
The single "Freddie and the Trojan Horse"
was released in May 2008 and was planned as a first taste of their
upcoming album ”Clinging to a scheme”. The new songs were said to be
influenced by minimalistic post-punk, krautrock, repetitive "motorik"
beat and ambient noise. We did actually get to hear some of these almost
mythical songs. But, the album was not finished in 2008.
Now,
the 20th of January 2010, as we're sitting here with "Clinging to a
scheme" in our hands we’ve waited four long years for this new album to
materialize. And we only need a simple press on Play and to know it’s
been worth every second. The band has combined the most unequalled
components from their previous albums “Lesser matters” and “Pet grief”
with soul guitars, P-funk, glittering, distorted synthesizers,
cut/paste-beats, 70’s futuristic orchestra sounds and sounds you don't
know what they are. Things you've never heard before. "Clinging to a
scheme" is way beyond pleasing - it's absolutely breathtaking.
Sambassadeur debuted on Labrador in winter 2005
with the release of the "Between the Lines"-EP. The EP was followed by
their self titled debut album later that year. The songs were all
recorded at home which gave the production a primitive quality that
labled them by some as being a lo-fi-twee act. This was never the band’s
intention.
If the cliché is that songs are like children, then
Sambassadeur saw no purpose in stagnating in front of their
home-computer while watching their kids being taken custody by those who
didn't have the ability to, indeed, read between the lines and see
through the understated surface of the songs. This called for some
change.
The Ep "Coastal Affairs", relased in may 2006, marked the
start of a development towards a more luxurious setting. Without
loosing their enigmatic qualities, songs like "Kate" and "Marie"
introduced a breeze of new confidence. The Sambassadeurs saw the
oportunity to take things to even greater hights and returned to the
scene in late august 2007 with "Subtle Changes". The first single of the
upcoming album "Migration" and also the first Sambassadeur-song to
feature a saxophone.
Three words to get you started on
"Migration": Melodies, bitterness and some minor thievery. It was in
fact so brilliant that Sweden’s radio channel, P3 nominated it for
“Årets Pop” (This Year’s Best Pop) on their award show P3 Guld.
Their
third album “European” which is due to be released february 23rd 2010
has taken almost two years to finish and they’ve once again employed the
talents of Mattias Glavå who produced “Migration”. According to the
band he did very little. He merely lay on the sofa and cursed how badly
they played their instruments and continued to bring in more and more
musicians. A string quartet, three drummers, a saxophone player,
clarinet, the list goes on...
This is said to be The extrovert
album from Sambassadeur. They’ve finally accomplished to make the grand,
classic and orchestrated album they’ve always wanted to. So don’t miss
it for the world!
You will also be able to catch Sambassadeur
live in various places during 2010. Don’t hold your hopes too high on
them going too far away from Sweden though. The guitarist Joachim
Läckberg suffers from severe flying anxiety and has to take the train!
Starting out in the Swedish town of Jönköping in
2000, The Mary Onettes has since then been on a long journey containing a
few downhill slopes and a lot of brick walls. The band was drawn
together much due to their common interest for the 80´s and the 90´s
music, with bands such as the Stone Roses and the Cure. The band first
years weren’t unlike most bands, members came and went and their sound
changed from one week to another.
Although development are
crucial for a band one thing have remained the same, the songs. The band
revolves around Philip Ekströms songwriting and although some songs
have been stripped down, rebuilt or even thrown away they have kept
coming. Things started happen for The Mary Onettes in spring 2004,
signing with a brand new label the future couldn’t look brighter. Six
months later the band lost the deal without being given the chance to
release anything. Eight months of despair followed until Sony/BMG
decided to sign up the band up for an EP. The debut was released may
2005 and didn’t make big fuzz to the main crowd, although it got great
reviews. A couple of months later the band found themselves without a
recording contract once again. Instead of splitting up or getting
depressed they started building a musicstudio and plans took form to
start an own label and release everything themselves. A demo cd to
Swedish indie label Labrador changed those plans. For the first time the
band felt that they had a label that understood them and their music.
Signing for a full length album in spring 2006 led to more frequent
studio sessions and recording in their new built studio in Gothenburg,
Sweden.
Humans don´t believe in stagnation, it´s in our nature to
develop, evolve and invent. The Mary Onettes started out in 2000 and
when looked at in retrospect, many things have changed. Starting out as a
passionate, yet naive rockband from a small town and therefore a lot to
prove, the band have managed to stay together because of their love for
music and each other. It takes time for a band to develop a sound and
to create that special bond between members in a rockgroup. Six years
on, that development is still in progress..
The Mary Onettes self
titled debut album was released on April 25 in Sweden and soon followed
by a full European release. The album got, well deserved, amazing
reviews everywhere and the release was followed was followed by
extensive touring around Europe.
Since the band debuted on
Labrador the international buzz on the band has been growing steadily.
Pitchfork put "Lost" On Repeat and the TV serie Grey's Anatomy has used
both "Explosions" and "Lost in their episodes".
The year 2008 was
characterized by the deaths of close relatives and friends of Philip
Ekström (singer and songwriter of the band) and on "Islands" he’s put
more focus on the lyrics. He bought a honky tonk
piano and spent
time in complete isolation from the rest of the world writing material
for a new album. The idea was to make an album that was closer to nature
and epic landscapes.
After a difficult recording process that
included a truly modern glitch (first someone stole the hard drive that
held all the music the band had recorded the then the backup hard drive
failed) the band released their sophomore effort “Islands” in november
2009 and it got raving reviews. The songs which are their best lyrically
so far are about love, death, frailness, the end of youth and breathes
of heartbreaking sentimentality and desperate hope. Philip reveals that
he sometimes finds it hard to play the songs in front of people because
they are so personal. This, along with the organic elements such as
acoustic guitars, pianos, strings, and children’s choirs, makes it a
magical album.
Popmatters puts them on their best indie of 2009
list and writes; “There’s a magical mystery that’s impossible to ignore.
Grandiose yet never overbearing, The Mary Onettes have achieved a sonic
mastery that grows with every spin of Islands.”
Their story began as most others does. They came
from the same town, met through mutual friends, had similar interests
and musical preferences, made a web-based christmas calender, dabbled
with electro-pop. And so on, your ususal fodder for biographies. But it
was after trying to make a Christmas song by sampling a Children’s choir
from Youtube they’re mutual musical project really started to evolve.
This was in the end of 2006.
Due to the lack of computer, and
recording, knowledge it took several months to complete it. The final
version missed it’s deadline, Christmas, with half a year. But the song
suggested what they wanted to do musically together and marked the start
of The Sound of Arrows.
After this they started playing around
with a couple of samplers, a harp, some strings, technicolors and huge
crescendos. Their inital intention was to record a song or two and then
move on. But that changed once their first song 'Narrow Escape' garnered
some apprectiation.
Though always being fans of Labrador it was a
friend of theirs that steered them in the direction of the indie-label.
They sent a demo and the rest is, as a popular term suggests, history.
The
Sound of Arrows is a duo consisting of Stefan Storm and Oskar
Gullstrand. Stefan Storm had earlier been making house music in Panache
while the other half, Oskar Gullstrand, used to play in an orchestra but
is now working as a graphic designer and an animator.
The
members have both just passed 20 years old and are originally from a
place called Gävle which by many is considered one of Sweden most boring
towns. They’ve now moved to Stockholm and only go back to Gävle to meet
family or record their songs in abandoned discotheques.
Their
9-track debut EP, “Danger!” was released in may 2008 and is an embrace
of the timeless and the futuristic; a travel through a new world of
sights and sounds in technicolour with remixes from Ice Cream Shout and
Mr Pedro for example. They have also released singles “M.A.G.I.C!” in
january 2009 and “Into The Clouds” the december 2009. The latter was
chosen by Popjustice as “The single of the year” in 2009.
Their
first full length album is expected in the autumn of 2010.
Club 8 was formed in 1995 by Karolina Komstedt
(from the band Poprace) and Johan Angergård (Acid House Kings, Poprace).
They made simple bedroom recordings of their three first songs and sent
them to their ten favourite labels. The response was just as immediate
as it was good with half of the labels wanting to release the band. Club
8 chose the Spanish label Siesta where they released their debut single
»Me too« later the same year and the debut album »Nouvelle« the year
after..
The sound on the debut album was definitely a bit naive
and twee. And as charming as a lot of people found the debut the follow
up »The friend I once had« (1998) felt like a big step forward for the
band. Their mix of bossa nova, glittery guitars, shiny pop melodies and
small hints of dance music made this album an indie-success. They also
debuted as a live act with a performance at CMJ in New York in 1999.
Striving
for constant change and improvements Club 8 moved away from the bossa
nova influences and direct pop songs of »The friend I once had« with the
self-titled follow up. »Club 8« (2001-Parasol/Labrador/Flavour of
Sound) was both darker and slower. Still, they managed to expand their
audience and had somewhat of a hit with »Love in december«. The only
real problem the band had experienced was the fact that recording on
limited studio time was a hindrance to their experimental lusts. Late
2001 Club 8, along with fellow band Acid House Kings, set up their own
recording studio – Summersound Studios.
With 24/7 access to a
recording studio of their own Club 8 enterered their most creative and
productive phase to date recording the diversified, semi-electronic and
slightly experimental, but intensly emotional »Spring came, rain fell«
in 2002 (Parasol/Labrador/Dodgie Disc) and the more guitar-based and
kept together follow up »Strangely beautiful«
(2003-Parasol/Labrador/Quince). The latter contained the song »Saturday
night engine« which was, very accuately, described as " a storming
(very) Northern soul-inspired track bursting with an excitement that
sounded quite out of place in that quiet group's discography” and a
forerunner to Johan’s band The Legends according to All Music.
After
the release of »Strangely beautiful« Club 8’s activity slowed down
while Johan formed The Legends and released three albums with the band
between 2003 and 2006, plus the album ”Sing along with Acid House Kings”
with Acid House Kings in 2005. During this period Club 8 only did a few
minor tours in Asia and Europe.
Summer 2006 Club 8 was about to
burst of creativity and urge to start recording again and in September
they started recording their 6th album.
»The boy who couldn’t
stop dreaming« is Club 8s most profound to date, balancing perfectly
between sunshine and melancholia. Twelve songs that’ll make you sing
along about death to while dreaming of summer days. A glorious return to
say the least.
Next album is due in May and is said to be
different and absolutely amazing. It's the first time the popduo has
collaborated with a producer and the choice fell on Jari Haapalainen who
to this date has produced the likes of Camera Obscura and The
Concretes.
