Tag Archive for sweden

What happens when a bunch of Swedes get a hold of the Tom Tom Club back catalog and some horns then decide to throw a party? If you guessed the OurStage Indie Rock Channel sensation Shotgun Crackers then congratulations — you’re already on to one of the best bands from Scandinavia.  If you haven’t heard of them yet then check out this week’s free download “Trevor” and you’ll be hooked on their carnival style antics and crazy afrobeat-inspired rhythms. The self-described “junglepop” band formed in 2006.   The following year they recorded the first of their seven EPs. Now, after a year of touring and a couple of roster changes, Shotgun Crackers are putting the finishing touches on their first bona fide full length album Young Corleone. When the record drops the band will will help get the word out using the prize from SideCho Media they won on OurStage over the summer. As MTV Music and OurStage’s “Needle in the Haystack” featured artist you can expect to find out more about Shotgun Crackers all this week.

Sweden is home to many fine musical exports. The country that brought us ABBA, The Hives, Dugen, and The Ark continues to churn out amazing new acts on a seemingly daily basis. Somehow many of these hot up-and-comers find their way onto OurStage.  Take the poppy, seven-pieced Shotgun Crackers for example. They stormed up the Indie Rock Channel in June with “Runner Runner” and won big with a SideCho Media digital distribution deal. It’s only a matter of time before a full-fledged Swedish invasion storms the states! Here’s a taste of the best OurStage artists Sverige has to offer. Now if only you could find that Allen wrench to put the rest of your IKEA Jerker desk together…

Emerald Park is a boy-girl indie pop outfit from Malmö. Their lush orchestral style arrangements are destined to win over fans of Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire.

If you’re looking for a Swedish triple threat then Jonay is your man. As an artist, producer and songwriter Jonay is a self-propelled Swedish popstar machine. His hip-hop ode to his home country’s divas, “Swedish Ladies,” is an OurStage office favorite.

Stockholm singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik’s “My James Dean” is a hauntingly beautiful love song.  While better known on OurStage for her acoustic offerings, this track with full band is strongly recommended for fans of fellow Swedes, The Cardigans.

For those of you wondering if there was a Swedish equivalent to The Brian Jonestown Massacre look no further than Adams Apple.  Expect more great music to come – the band is expected to self-release their debut LP soon.

Can’t get enough spunky energy from Los Compesinos and Architecture in Helsinki? You Say France & I Whistle’s “When Lovers Die” is sure to get your feet moving and your hands clapping to the glockenspiel.

You can listen to “Stay” by Oh My! while waiting for The Strokes to record a fourth studio album. They’re the perfect Scandinavian solution to keeping your Julian Casablancas addiction at bay.

Fans of the glitchy one-man-electronic-band, Max Tundra, would be fools not to check out Djurpark. This electro-pop artist has been making waves in the Swedish club scene and is starting to break out in the rest of Europe.

One Without, an OurStage act from Sweden and recent addition to Germany’s Lifeforce Records, is a band on the edge of stardom. A bit of a surprise coming from the heart of Gothenburg, known for acts such as In Flames, At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, the band has an undeniably pop-hook driven sound that still manages to be completely metal. Listeners might compare One Without to some of the other female-fronted metal bands out there, notably Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, but the band has found their own little niche (and as they say, “please don’t” compare them). With a new album coming out in September, One Without could be the next female-fronted band in the metal spotlight.

MTD: Your sound is a bit different from that of the more well-known bands of Gothenburg (the forefathers of Melodic Death Metal). Is this an indication of the next trend of music in Gothenburg?
OW: Well, you never know! It could become a trend after our breakthrough! But we don’t think so, people are pretty stuck in the traditional “Gothenburg Metal Sound” over here, and we can honestly say that we are the only band with this sound, at least that we know of!

MTD: Whom would you say you have drawn the most influences from?
OW: We can’t really pin-point any special bands. We all listen to so much music in so many different genres, so it comes down to hundreds of bands. We have never strived towards sounding like any other band, we just play what we like. Everyone in the band is involved in the making of songs, and that’s probably why we get the sound we have. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of band working like that, which is a shame in our opinion.

MTD: I see that you are releasing an album in the fall (your debut, right?). Can you give us some cool insight on the new album?
OW: The most important part for us in the making of the album, was that we didn’t want to have any songs that we weren’t 100% satisfied with. We didn’t want to have 4-5 songs that were hits and that the rest of the songs would be standard songs just to fill out the album. So you can expect an album filled with hits! Other than that we have worked with some great people in making the album, which resulted in a very explosive, dark and emotional sound in the production.

MTD: If you could play one show with any band, who would you choose?
OW: Killswitch Engage, they seem like a nice bunch, and besides from that most of us love their work, or possibly Katatonia, a great Swedish metal band.

MTD: Are you going to be touring the US any time in the near future?
OW: We have been contacted by some tour bookers and clubs that want us to come over and work with them, but at the moment we haven’t started working with anyone concerning that. But of course we will come over and play for you guys in the near future, we just can’t say when right now!

MTD: If you could have any band cover one of your songs, who would perform it (and what song would it be)?
OW: Jose Gonzales would have been an interesting candidate, and Your Game would be the song of choice.

MTD: What is the weirdest fan interaction you have ever had?
OW: Some years back we played a gig at a small club in Gothenburg, I mean REALLY small, and back then we had not started promoting ourselves in the manner we do today, so we were a pretty unknown band. After the show two guys came up and talked to us, and they told us that they had come all the way from Belgium just to see us that night, and that they were huge fans. That felt pretty surreal. [laughs]

MTD: Describe your band in exactly 8 words.
OW: Emotional, dark, hopeful, explosive, heavy, beautiful, unexpected, unique.

MTD: What would you say if someone wanted to compare you to, say, Lacuna Coil or Within Temptation?
OW: Please don’t.

MTD: Any fun songs you cover live? Any you would want to cover live?
OW: We actually play a song called “Om Du Var Här” By Kent, a big Swedish pop/rock act that we all like very much, and people seem to enjoy our metal version of it!

MTD: How did you come to get signed by Lifeforce? Any cool story here?
OW: It actually wasn’t anything special to it, we sent them our album and they liked what they heard, so we started negotiating! Wish we could have given you a great, sick story, but that’s how it went!

MTD: Who is your “best friend band” at Lifeforce so far?
OW: Nightrage! We have been hanging a bit with Marios in the band, and he has really showed us what a great person he is. Cheers man!

The headline on Shotgun Cracker’s Myspace page reads, “Vi slåss för kärlek!” Translation: “We fight for love!” If that’s the case, then their weaponry includes (but is not limited to): guitars, drums, keyboards, whistles, handclaps and cowbells. The Swedish band’s hyperkinetic indie pop is loud, exuberant, percussive, and most importantly, hook-y as hell. One look at the album cover for their recent release, Visual Randomization, sums it all up: An explosion of color and chaos with quirky personalities popping out here and there combine to form some compelling art. Shotgun Crackers unleash a brazen sonic attack, but it’s one you’ll happily surrender to.

Hold Your Horses, Bob!

OurStage artist Hold Your Horses, Bob! combines my shameless appreciations for all things Swedish and one man bands into one delightfully quirky package. With a playful mix of humor and music, Hold Your Horses, Bob!’s track “Put a Peephole in my Brain” is a must hear for fans of early Beck, Primus, and That 1 Guy. The man behind Hold Your Horses, Bob! is Peter Smith – a multi-instrumentalist based in Royal Södermalm, Stockholm who describes himself as a one-man-collective dedicated to “making music in the studio and acoustic gigs at small-venues”. If you dig this track be sure to check out other fine offerings from Hold Your Horses, Bob! on OurStage.