The Cardigans in Groove Magazine
| You can now download the latest issue of the very excellent and very free Swedish magazine Groove and find a short but sweet interview with Nina and Magnus in it. | ||||||
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| Just pop over to http://www.groove.se or click here to download the entire magazine as a PDF-file. (3,50 MB) For those of you that don't speak Swedish, here are some selected quotes from the interview. *** The reason for this interview is Super Extra Gravity, the group's sixth record. And it sounds different to say the least. Back then it was all about red wine in front of a roaring fire in the murky Swedish autumn. Today the sound is more crooked, weirder and less easy on the ears. Still, the sense of melody is intact and the intimate feeling is still there, but the way the songs are performed has a different character. Think Pixies instead of a cozy afternoon at home. In the beginning the band thought that they simply would repeat a winning concept. - When we decided that we were going to make a new record we thought it would sound kind of like Long Gone Before Daylight, says Nina. We were so happy with it and still love it. Besides we had become really good at playing after all the touring, ironically enough. We started rehearsing and it sounded really great, but way too boring. There is always the risk of becoming Toto if you're not careful. So we got Tore to come over and insult us until we sounded weird again. Tore Johansson has had his hand in all their releases, although he had to step back in favour of Per Sunding during the recording sessions for the last album. The producer has a very different view of what works and what ends up in the trashbin. - When he says that something sounds good it's actually an insult, explains the singer. He is very obstinate in this teenage way. This quality was what attracted the band to him again even though Per Sunding would have been a better choice socially. - But you don't make record to sit and play board-games together, explains Nina. It's a cliché, but it's when friction happens that something great is achieved. But isn't it a social thing as well, that recording can be a great reason to hang out with your friends? - On the past record there were board games 75% of the time. This time we were extremely methodic. First 12 days in the studio and then 9 days when 2 new songs were to be written and sent by e-mail to the others. Then we rehearsed them. It was like a factory. We didn't have the time to do it in any other way. The reason for this efficiency is that Peter, Lasse and Bengt are now responsible parents. - If I had had the option I would have loved to isolate us with 7 boxes of red wine recording 24 hours a day. But we can't do that anymore. Although even us childless ones benefit from this structure in our lives, right Magnus? The bassist, who unhappily says that he's convinced he'll remain single for the rest of his life, agrees and adds ironically that it's nice that someone outlines one's life. Are there any negative aspects of working this way? Was anything lost? - Nothing in spontaneity or creativity, says Nina. The other way around. We discovered that we can make songs on command, that it's actually possible. Time constriction is a good motor. I was a bit nervous, because I'm pretty slow as a lyric writer. I didn't have the time to get through my 7 boxes of wine in only 12 days, she laughs. I was always sitting 5 minutes to midnight writing. |
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