COSTE APETREA

 
“Infinite Paths”


Interview with the guitarist Coste Apetrea

By Sergio Vilar

Hello Coste, many thanks for this interview. It is a pleasure to us to have the opportunity of talking with you. Let’s start from the beginning. You have a main role in the genesis of the Swedish "Experimental/Progressive Rock" movement since the early seventies. Could you please put us into frame, making a brief account of the general situation (social, cultural, way of living, etc) of Sweden in that decisive period? How was your country and society those days?
In that context, according to your experience, how was the origin of the “Experimental/Progressive Rock” movement in your country? Which were the main influences to that movement?
Hi Sergio. I started to play with Samla Mammas Manna 1972, in those days Uppsala was cooking with a lot of  new music and many different bands trying all kinds of music-mixtures.
We were a bunch of young people who formed Uppsala Musikforum wich was like a concert-organisition for just progressive music at the time.
This had it’s background in a spontaneous free festival at a big open Space in Stockholm called Gärdet, I think the first Gärdet festival was in 1969 or so and it had much resemblance with the British and American Festivals at the time, you know, Woodstock and Isle Of Whigt, etc…
Samla Mammas Mannna got a record deal from a young label (Silence Records) after playing at Gärdet 1970.
At this time I think the youth of the west was like one big group that had  the same romantic idea and philosophy that was reflected in the contemporary pop-music.

This was very strong in Stockholm too and Stockholm was a popular place for British bands at the time, also for American Jazz, Keith Jarret was there for some time, you could hear him play lunch gigs at the Gyllene Cirkeln a famous Jazz/Rock club in the 60’s. Quincy Jones lived there at the same time, etc.

My friend Bill Öhrström who played with me for many years was A&R at a record company at the time and he also had a real Hippy club called Philips.
He was a good friend of Jimi Hendrix who used to stay in Bill’s very small apartment when he was in Stockholm. Bill introduced him to Bo Hansson (“Lord of The Rings”) and Jimi loved to jam with Bo, he also recorded one of Bo’s songs (“Taxfree”).

This was the post-war west and when the 60’s ended groups continued to experiment and until the end of the 70’s it kept on like that, creating new music for a young generation. Everything new was interesting and I think that the record business was a bit slow at that time, it was very concervative and new bands that had big hits went on tour with a VW-van not like todays Jet Set life, mainly because the business side wasn’t so developed, every band could grow in it’s own tempo and thus develop their unique style.
It made things happen in clubs and live scenes without interference of the media and Hungry record companys.
I believe that this is a very good sign today that the media is not interested in Prog-music so it can live it’s own life for a while and develope slowly with it’s audience.

Besides to “your” SMM, which were the seminal albums and bands of those early days in Sweden?
When I first joined Samla Mammas Manna I was still a student ( I studied Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Uppsala ) so I had no experience of recording before Samla, I had a small Trio when I first met Hasse of Samla that’s all.
After a year I met Jukka Tolonen and also Pekka Pohjola who I really became a good friend with before I started to see Jukka. They Had both huge succes with their bands: Tassavallan Presidenti and Wigwam, they had made tours and had their records out even in England and got very good media from Melody Maker and those papers at the time.

I first started to play with Pekka, who did solo records beside his band, we played in Helsinki and Stockholm and I played a solo on his great album from 1974 “Harakka Bialoipukko”.

How did you get involve in that scene? What were you doing musically before “Maltid”?
Playing blues and trying to learn Jazz, but mainly I was just a Philosophy-student.

How did you, the musicians of Samla Mammas Mannas, get in contact?
I jammed with Hasse Bruniusson at a small festival outside Uppsala in a Church called Uppsala Näs Kyrka. And after that we began to do some music together during the summer of 1972 Hans and I wrote the song “Minareten” together during this time.

Samla Mammas Manna

Could you please tell us about the generation of those incredible albums, “Maltid” and “Klossa knapitatet” (I haven’t listen to “Snorungarnas Symfoni”)? How where those days, the creative process and the gigs?
Late 1972 in November I officially joined the band for a long tour in northern Sweden we played 3 gigs a day in schools and librarys etc and lived very tight together and during this time we lived for a couple of days on a small mountain outside a mining town called Malmberget and the name of the mountain was Dundret, wich means something like the Big Rumble or Thunder… there we made some songs that we still play sometimes and that ended up on “Måltid”.

“Klossa Knapitatet” was a funny and maybe evil joke with the political progressive Rock Movement at that time, I got the idea when we were working on the cover…you know in Swedish “Krossa Kapitalet” is a Communistic slogan wich means Crush The Capital ! … so it became very funny to say “Klossa Knapitatet”… very childish… and the most curious thing was that the leftest left wing Communists at that time laughed and thought we were great clowns… and let us play at their places and so on... It is really showing clearly what Samlas roll was at that time and for some reason we can’t stop ironizing about things even today… We could do anything to get a reaction if our Audience was not responding the way we wanted…Hasse would make us stop at all wrecked car places to take parts of cars (metallic ) that sounded good to hit and put them in a big Santa Claus-looking Sack and when the people were not to active we would bring out the sack and make a big noice and pour it over he people… and then... they would rush up and beat the shit out of these wrecked car-parts…and we would be in a total extatic chaos, then we were satisfied.

Why did you decide to leave SMM? Which were your artistic goals at that moment? Please, could you tell us about career after “Snorungarnas Symfoni”.
We came to a point that I remember was very destructive I think, as lately, it had a bit to do with Hans, he was frustrated and I remember some really destructive gigs were he would play really hard straight Tango beat through the whole gig that was an endless Jam… with an audience that looked like question-marks in their faces…

I longed to play more guitar-oriented music with a groove that I could play solos on… more simple music, more basic, wich ever note I played sounded bad in my ears when I played with Samla during this time… and our collective creativity had all ended, we couldn’t finish any songs together and so on…
So after I had booked a long tour with Henry Cow in Sweden I left the band.

Funny, my deal with Henry Cow was that I booked them in Sweden and in return they would book us (Samla) in England so that is how the whole RIO-thing with Samla started.
I also booked a Mini-tour for Magma but they cancelled in the last moment… this is 1976.

So I went to Helsinki and did a session with Jim Pembroke who was the lead singer of Wigwam we did “Corporal Colliflower” during that session I met Jukka at a concert with Camel, Camel’s manager came to Jukka house and I was invited, the next day Jukka had a gig and I was invited to come and jam, it was so succesful that we did a few days in Stockholm a month later, we were surprised to see the enormous long line of people outside the club… and so we had just a lot of fun and did 7 albums during the next 7 years…

How was your collaboration with Jukka Tolonen (this could be a strange question, but I’m also a fan of the Tasavallan Presidentti)?
Jukka was and is a fantastic musician, I had his albums and was a fan of his playing and composing before we met, I think his early work are my favourites, he is the National Guitar hero of Finland still today.

We played between 150-200 gigs/year for 7 years and we got really tight as musicians. I remember that I always longed to do some more interesting compositions but we were always on the road. We had a large Audience, and in those days of the break of the Punk we still would pull full houses were ever we played.
Our best studio record is by the way available on CD for the first time ever on Lion Music who is a Guitar-oriented label in Finland.
This record features Joachim Kühn on Keyboards and was the last with Bill Carson on drums and the first with Harri Merrilahti on bass.

After that record the band lost direction and we did some really bad records that we thought were ok at the time… but live the and was cooking we never left stage without several encores…
The best records me and Jukka did during this period was our accoustic duo records they still sound really OK.
I will go to Helsinki in November to do a gig with Jukka and the rest of the guys of that band.

What do you think about the evolution of Swedish progressive music and, especially, about the explosion the Swedish Progressive scene had during the ’90s (at least, internationally)?
Actually the word progressive is a bit confusing to me, but yes in the 90’s Samla met a lot of young guys like Anekdoten and Änglagård, etc and we did a few Prog-festival gigs with them here in Sweden.
But honestly in Sweden nobody knows them, and I am one of the ignorant, Samla is a known band in Sweden. Enough to fill any club hereand The Flower Kings are latlely getting a reputation in Sweden and seem to be able to pull an audience.
But I feel that the prog scene is very small everywhere but that it has some really great fans that keeps the scene going. As I said this is just positive that it takes many years to develope a style, what I do feel is a big difference now from the 70’s is that today it is more a project thing, people record in there computer studios and do one or two gigs, where as in the 70’s we would do a record to go out and do thousands of gigs.
And that shapes the music a lot, so really my answer  is that I know very little about contemporary Swedish prog, I know Morgan & Mats and I think Anekdoten were great but I am not sure if they play anymore, Roine Stolt lives close to me and I have heard his work and think it sounds very well even though it sounds extremly much like a British symphonic band from the 70’s still that’s ok for me.

I listen to prog radio on my Itunes radio and some times I hear a band that sounds really good, and to my surprise it is a Swedish band…!!!
The same goes for the acts that Lion Records release I haven´t got a clue who they are but some of them are really very good, also the funny thing is that the boss of the company is a great guitarist and makes very interesting ProgMetal records at the same time as managing his record company...

Coste Apetrea Power Trio

How do you see the Swedish “Experimental/Progressive Rock” scene at the present? According to your opinion, which are the most challenging and interesting novel Swedish bands that we should be aware of?
There are a lot of great jazz-players and some do really interesting stuff and also the contemporary composers are doing great work here in Sweden but I can’t really give you a name that sticks out more than others at the moment... at least to my taste.

Which were your main influences and what are you listening to at the present?
OK, I got really knocked out by Jimi Hendrix when I was 14… today I still can enjoy his attempt to widen his borders when he plays, anyhow I traded my Bob Dylan record against a Memphis Slim record and I can still remember his vocals and his guitarist who ever he was…that influenced me a lot….
Later when Miles electrified Jazz and a lot of other players did the same during a short period in the early 70’s I got interested…It is very much the same as most guys in my age.
I developed a taste for free form Jazz and heavy rock acts during this time… I would listen to Archie Shepp, Coltrane, Anthony Braxton, Miles, Eric Dolphy, John McLauglin, Chick Corea, Weather Report, Jeff Beck and Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Ollie Halsall, The Nice, Colloseum, and soon I developed a taste for Etno Music from all over the world, and ofcourse we found a record of your great Astor Piazzola !

Today I listen to lots of world music and my new big favourite is Gidon Kremer the fantastic violin player, specially him and his young band…

What triggered the 1999’s SMM reunion and the CD “Kaka”? How was that experience like? Are SMM planning a new CD?
We did not get together 1999 we split up with Hans Bruniusson 1999 after having played since 1990.
That reunion 1990 was because Hans had his 40 birthday and we did this for fun.
We had  a lot of great gigs in the 90’s and that’s why we decided to record “Kaka”, unfortunatly Hans tried to get Samla into a different direction and nobody else in the band wanted the same so he left.
We did a live CD only released in Japan called Dear Mama and yes we have recorded a lot of material and soon we will have to finish it... also we got a tape from Tel Aviv with a recording from 1976 !

The tape came with a record contract… the guys in Tel Aviv wants to release “Snorungarnas S” from a live gig with Samla as a Quartet from 1976… and the odd thing is that we liked the playing… so maybe we don’t know what will happen… yet…

Please, could you tell us about your recent activity, from 2000 till now?
We have done some nice gigs with Samla with our new drummer Tatsuya Yoshida in Japan and USA and Russia also here in Sweden.
And I have been writing music for film and radio etc and also doing lots of gigs with my Power Trio, plus a few solo gigs with only classical guitar, I play Villa Lobos and my own selected songs and improvise…

Which are your new projects to come?
My new record as you heard I wanna put a live act together with that music and I am right now recording with my Trio to make a classic Rock album with vocals…
I also wanna finish my music for Santiago the fantastic Cuban Violin player plus I  maybe a hundred other things I wanna do, like meditate and learn how to die !

Finally I would like to say that it is hard to create/compose music that is new, someone has already done it before, so exclusive music is not easy to find and maybe not even a goal even though we keep on looking for it, something that will give us a big thrill so we all can go… wow… I believe that the quality is in how you deliver your music, we are subconciously looking for a human quality in music that relates to our inner most hidden need to be emotionally free and relieved and sometimes when a band or a musician performs the audience gives them all attention for that one moment the border between performer and audience is gone and they act as one unity, this gives the listener and performer the feeling as if they play together and this is total communication without words and it lasts for a few minutes seconds or so but the feeling after is like good sex…

If you have some closing words for the readers of Nucleus we would appreciate them very much.
Thank you once again for your time and kind disposition. All the best.
I thank you for your interest in my music !

www.coste.se    

Nucleus interview: 14/10/05