Villebråd



"The Hidden Treasure"

Interview with Erik Sundstrom, drummer of the Swedish band Villebråd

By Sergio Vilar

Could you begin being like the idea arose of forming Villebrad?
We really needed an outlet for musical ideas we didn't have the opportunity to explore and work on, so we formed Villebråd to experiment and find a common approach to music that moves us.
I think the basic idea was to do music exactly as we want it. We did not care whether it sounded too much of this or too little of that. We just composed songs as they popped into our heads. That way, I think, a unique and personal sound emerged.

Who are the members of the band?
Påhl Sundström (Guitars, Lead vocals, Bass guitar, Mouth drum), Micke Hedberg (Electric piano, Moog, Additional keyboards) and I (Erik Sundström : Drums, Percussion, Backing vocals, Keyboards, Hose, Violin).

What feelings or concepts try to express through the band?
We don't strive to push any kind of concept. If it feels right for the listener, it probably is. I guess the feeling that we try to recreate is a kind of melancholy. The lyrics are mostly based on political and emotional themes, or rather politics from an emotional point of view.

Which are the artists with those that are identified to compossitive and instrumental level?
If you mean what artists we identify with, it's not an easy question. We are influenced by a lot of different music naturally. We adore the way that Ultravox composes for example, but it wouldn't be right to say that we identify with them.

Then, which is the idea behind Villebråd? Which is your essence?
To be honest, the main idea behind Villebråd, is to create something from ideas we might have thought were ludicris or strange, and mold it into music we all like. We just need to try it out, and see what happens. To have no boundaries to work within, and doing whatever crossed our minds, was really liberating and kept us motivated through the whole recording process.

Please, count us something about “Alla Är Här Utom Jag”, your new album. Musically, the disc is of a great wealth. How long did it take them to carry out it?
We started writing songs for the album during the fall of 2005, and rehearsed them just before the recording. The recording took us about a month. As we are all pretty poor fellows we didn't have money enough to rent a "real" studio or equipment, so we basically used whatever we could find and borrowed a lot of gear from friends. Some of the percussion on the album are actually played on Pahl's bathtub. The mixing and mastering of the album took me about a month of hard work.   

How is the creative process in your music and poetry? What factors do they influence these areas?
The main part of the composing is done by Påhl and me. I create music that he works on and vice versa. Then we discuss how we feel about the parts, decide whether to keep them, and if we do, we stitch them together. David came into the project later in the process, but added a dimension of his own in the groovy basslines he made.
Lyrics are a pain to make. We can have violent arguments about certain passages being good or bad. But in the end we're always quite happy having actively discussed the lyrical content, instead of
having just one person making the lyrics.

Do you think that in “Alla Är Här Utom Jag” has been able to define a personal and own sound?
Absolutelly. I'm sure a lot of people might think it's disturbing that we don't fit into a certain category. But to be honest, we really don't care. We enjoy positive critisism, like anyone else. But if someone tells us it's too weird, I think we can only take it as a compliment.

The final result the one that you waited was? Are you satisfied with that achieved?
I can't answer that question just yet, since we haven't got a copy of our own album yet. But production-wise it's ok. We've been working on it for so long, with so few resources, that eventually it felt like we had to let it go to the presses. I know of a few flaws in the production, but I guess that's what happens when you produce an album by yourself.

Has the music of the group changed too much from the beginnings? How has your sound evolved?
In the early stages of the band, we we're focused on making acoustic-sounding indie rock/prog music. After the release of the demo, we were proud of it, but felt like we were doing something that wasn't entirely us. It was more like what we like in other bands thrown together. We didn't have core we could call our own. So for the release of “Alla är här utom jag”, we did much more of what we felt like. Not what we thought we should sound like. So I guess we've become more mature and brave since the last release.

How would you say that the musical development of Villebråd will continue in the future?
We've actually tried out a few new songs. And it feels like we'll sound the same, but perhaps a straighter pulse and less "doing weird stuff just for the sake of it". It will probably be weird nevertheless! Also, we will compose the music with new members, which will add exciting flavours to the mix. We're really looking forward to doing another recording soon.

Villebråd Is your only band or is some of you participated in other parallel works?
Both Påhl and David play in a progressive rock band called Klotet.

What does it represent today to be a progressive musician in musical market of Sweden? Should you face yourself to newspaper to give to know your work with what type of difficulties?
Besides the obvious "non-mainstream" difficulties, it's hard to get people interested in arranging shows and promoting. The audience is there, but as usual, the governing system consists of older men. There's a consumption frenzy that unfortunally has the music industry in a stranglehold. If it's not meant to sell big, you're not worth anyones time. There's way too much talk about "target audiences" and selling concepts. We are very happy that our record company has given us complete control over the album.

What current bands do they find interesting? Some new one that you can recommend us to listen?
When it comes to progressive bands, the best music was made during the 70's according to us, but some bands are still great, like King Crimson and Swedens Träd Gräs & Stenar. When it comes to "new" bands we enjoy the likes of Dungen and Paatos. And please, check out the new album from A-ha, “Analogue” - It really rocks!
 
A final question Erik. Which are your immediate plans?
We've all invested so much time in the recording. So for now we're rehearsing the songs on the album to have a decent repertoire for future live shows. But other than that, we're just chilling.

Thank you to grant us this interview. If you want it, the closing words are his.
Thank you very much for your interest! Best of luck to all of you. ¡Muchas gracias!
 

www.villebrad.com
 

Nucleus interview: 04/10/06