Things seem to be going very well for the Mov ements, and 2009 should be
a very busy year, with a new album, new studio and many gigs booked. How's
things over at the Movements HQ?
Its very great! We have got good reveiws so far on both our 7inch and our
new album and we are in the process off finishing our third album. Its a space album
by the way. We are also writing songs for a 4:th album. In couple of weeks we are
going to UK for the first time for some gigs, among other a gig at the
classic venue Cavern club in Liverpool. More tourdates are being settled
and plans are made to release a split single with La Fleur Fatal which we go
on tour with in october. We also have a lot off money at the moment!
Would you like to talk a bit about your new album?
We are very happy about it. It sounds quite different from our other
releases but its way better! Darker and harder I think. A lot of the
song was made by david in the hospital while he was suffering from cancer
which he now is cured from.To write the songs have been a strange
process this time due to Davids hospitalization. To rehearse the songs
with acoustic guitars in the hospital was a quite different feeling than to
rehasrse in our studio that we usually do.And when the songs was recorded
we gave Björn much more fredoom in the mixing process to
develop his vision of the sound.
What about your own studio? I'm sure analogue freaks would drool
over the details of your studio.
While David was in hospital we spent the time buliding a recording studio in
a house in the fishing harbour.Its a simple studio really but we develope it
all the time with new stuf f.
The things we have that has really high quality is our amps and instruments.
and we have a lot off different drumkits and organs. In the studio we work both analog
and digital but we have an old 16 channel tape machine wich we put down the basic
channels on and then we mix it down to a stereo track in the computer.
Sometimes we also do some overdubs in the computer. It depends on the character off the
song we work at. But its a very good thing to have an own studio in many ways, for
example to record rehersals and demo tapes before entering bigger studios. And
offcourse to record stuff for release yourself. very cheap! We can recommand to every
band to build one.
Why did you chose not to record the new album on your own studio?
Simply becuase Bjφrn got a way much better and more professional studio
than we got. Better mixing table, better microphones, better amps, and so
on. We also like the atmosphere at his studio very much. The studio is in a
house on an island called Orust outside Gφteborg. Its an Island of great
natural beauty with the sea right outside the studio. Which is a big contrast
to recording in a studio in a bunker in the citycentre as you usual do.
Another reason that we choosed to not record The world, the flesh and
the devil in our own studio is that we sometimes within the band dont
agree how things shall be done, and then its good to have an opinion from
someone outside the band. Bjφrn is also a person with big soundvisions wich brings
different vibes to the sound
How is it like to work with Bjorn Olsson? Some of the bands he has
produced, have gone and got their share of exposure, especially Mando Diao.
Would you like to become rich and famous, or you'd rather be an underground
band?
That has honestly never been interesting to us. We do what we do no matter
what people like. And we have never been especially good in marketing ourselves
anyway.But we have never tried to be an underground band either. What happens for us
happens
Contrary to many Garage bands, your records are not low-fi affairs, and
you seem to pay a lot of attention to the sound and instrumentation, yet
you still manage to keep a live feel of urgency. Is this true, and how do you
manage to keep the balance between sonic quality and feeling?
Yes its true that we care a lot about the sound and instrumentation. We
usually think it gets more intersesting if you use some additional
instrumentation. For example we have always loved records like
Love Forever Changes and Pretty Things SF Sorrow both records
which has very great instrumentation.The easiest way for us to keep the
balance between sonic quality and feeling is to always record everything live
all together in the studio.But we think that when you work with music you have
to stay open minded,try different instruments and allowing yourself to get influenced
from everything.
What about your single series you're about to unleash? Do you think it's
a bit crazy to release vinyl, at an age where artists release their discographies
in USB sticks?
Well, its not big really business is it! Ha ha!
But I dont think its so stupid, people in the garage rock scene is still more
interessted in vinyl than mp3s I think. When it comes to sound quality
vinyl is always superior. Our plan is to record singles in our own studio
to release before going on tour. Next project is a split release with La
Fleur Fatale in connection to our october tour.
Would you like to shed some light at your third album rumours?
Its gonna be a completly differnet album from everything we done before.
Its a space rock album in style of Hawkwind, Acid Mothers Temple, Ramases,
Amon Dόόl II and Neu!.Sulatron Records in Austria is gonna release it. The
album is recorded in our own studio and its a spacerock theme-album about
swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang, due to be released simultainiously
as Fuglesang΄s second space travel summer 2009.
What do you think about the Swedish scene these days? There used to be a
lot of great bands, but now it seems that most have broken up and things
are a bit quiet. Any new bands we should know about? What are you listening to
these days?
Yes maybe there where more garage bands a couple of years ago, but if you
go outside the garage scene there are still many great bands,
for example from our hometown Gφteborg we like Hills, Five Finger
Foreheads, Jaques Labouchere, Graveyard, and Uran.
We also want to recommend The Branded and Thee Gravemen two great
garagebands from Malmφ, and La Fleur Fatale a great psychband from
Linkφping.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Check out our homepage www.themovements.com from where you can buy our
records and t-shirts if you dont find them somewhere else.
Interview by Tolis Ap.
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