Artist: Alarma Man
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Our guest in this week's entry of our ongoing Göteborg Spotlight Series: the mighty Alarma Man! Not only were they kind enough to answer my questions, they also sent over the very first taste of what's to come on their new album. Read on...
It's been quite some time since we've heard anything new from you guys - why the long wait? What have you been doing these past few years?
Since the release of our 12" split "Duets" you mean? We continued working on songs for a full length album and got the chance to move from our old place to Dieter Schöön's Lablaza (the same place we recorded our debut album). Lablaza was both chaotic and a very creative environment for us. A couple of month passed by. In October 2007 we felt pretty close to start recording the album. December came up and our landlord got an offer he couldn't resist. We were threwn out of Lablaza and Bandidos moved in. So there we were. No rehearsal room, no studio.
A week went by and we found a new home. We moved in together with a bunch of other creative bands/people (URAN, Dieter Schöön, FBFOS).
We started building the studio, in which our album where going to be recorded.
During this 1,5 months we wrote a bunch of new songs.
At this time the idea of collaborate with Adam Magnusson as a producer/sound engineer came up and he became a part of the process.
In march we hit the studio. We all study or work so it took a bit longer than expected to get it done. Now when the album is done we're looking for a label that wants to release it.
Besides working on the album we've been on a couple of tours in Europe and we've helped friends on live gigs and studio albums. (C.Aarmé, Cut City, Uran, Boy Omega and Dieter Schöön).
How does Alarma Man fit into the "Gbg scene"? Does a cohesive scene even exist?
When I hear "Gbg scene" I think of Håkan Hellström and a bunch of bands started by ex-members from Bad Cash Quartet, but I'm not sure if that scene really exists. There are too many band in too many genres to say what would be a part of it. Alarma Man has never felt like we're a part of any scene... If you need to be a part of any, we choose the "good band" scene.
We do have the Koloni/iDEAL scene here in Gothenburg. It's really inspiring to live in the same town as Christian Pallin (Koloni) and Joachim Nordwall (iDEAL). They manage to bring us bands that I've never heard of before and those bands are always good or totally crazy. Either way I'm always satisfied when leaving the venue.
So do you think there's such a thing as a Gbg sound? Or would you say that bands in Gbg are brought together by other circumstances or ideas?
Nowadays you don't need a "real" studio and expensive equipment to make music. I guess the "Gbg sound" was killed by Cubase and ProTools. When comparing Cut City, Uran, Repoman and other great bands from Gbg, I find it hard to see any similarity except for that they make good music. Gothenburg is known in Sweden for it's "loose" and friendly attitude. Perhaps that's the thing with bands from here. Gbg bands focus on the music instead of looking good on stage... haha!
Okay, so tell us about the new album. How is it different/the same compared to what you've done before?
This album is the best music we've ever done (yes I know it's a cliche, but it's true).
Lots of people are asking if there will be vocals on this album. Yes. There will be. A lot!
Adding vocals wasn't a big decision for us. We made "Duets" as an experiment and liked the idea of working with vocals. It might seem a bit strange when you've been known as an instrumental mathpunk band, but we feel comfortable with it. We've never had a plan to be an instrumental band forever and we didn't have a plan to start singing on our second album. It's just the way it turned out.
Another big difference is that we worked with a producer. We needed an outside persons thoughts and vibes in the recording process. Adam has a big part in the arrangements and how the songs turned out.
Our first album was a lot of high speed craziness and big guitar riffs. 4 years has passed by and our new songs are slower, darker and colder. I think a held back fever is a good way to describe the album.
Got a song you'd like to share?
Here's a song from the upcoming album. Its a three-faced song about being chased, therefore the name "Nightwolf". Look out for the saxophones in the chorus, played by our friend Joel Westberg!
Alarma Man - Nightwolf
New international live dates for Lack:
08/07 - Himmel, Schwyz (CH)
08/08 - MatscherAu Open Air, Bolzano (ITA)
08/30 - OFFSET Festival, London (UK)
09/19 - Folkets Park, ESF 08, Malmö (SWE)
09/27 - Stengade 30, Kbh (DK) w/Barra Head
10/12 - POPKOMM - Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin (GER) w/31 Knots, Alarma Man
As regular readers know, Saturdays in 2008 are devoted to the music of Göteborg. This week's guest: Max Hansson from Cut City/White Knives.
How long have you lived in Gbg? What brought you there and what keeps you hanging around?
During a drunken haze back in the year 2000 while stuck in my hometown, I threw a dart at a world map and figured that chance could have its way with me. Though aiming for internationally consensus-proven cool cities like New York, Berlin and Paris, I fell short and took the bus up to Gothenburg and started delivering mail with a disgruntled grin. In my bags I had a band lacking any basic nuance of ambition along with an appetite for spending more time on stage than off. It was an unhealthy equation, but by ditching (read: being ditched by) some of the members, I started Cut City with David Hagberg and it led me to fulfill some modest goals of mine. That was six years ago and though many of the people I know have since left town, I stay put. I'm too old to move and my wonderful girlfriend makes life tolerable here. Gothenburg can be quite abysmal at times, mostly during the fall, winter, spring and the majority of summer. There are things here that makes it worth living though: Koloni put on a whole lot of wonderful shows and pushes a healthy experimental climate; Release The Bats put out some amazing music as does Ideal Recordings. Without them, Gothenburg would have you jump for the Xanax bottle.
How do you deal with bandmates living in Malmö? Don't you know they barely speak Swedish down there? What's keeping you from ditching David and getting someone local? Or why don't you sell out Gbg and move south?
Rehearsing less than once a month is what we do and it's how we define work ethic. I've got a small studio (a grand euphemism for old computer) set up in a tiny walk-in closet and that's what keeps me sane. I'm from the south myself so the language barrier is easily broken down. I can't move to the south because I'm banned there and we can't give David the boot because he's a machine and we all know that machines will take over the world and we really, really want someone to be on our side when that day comes. To be honest, Sweden's such a small country that you run into friends pretty much without effort.
Do you feel any connection to the Swedish post-punk scene of yore or do you draw inspiration from elsewhere? Do you ever consider your city's musical heritage at all? Do you think there's any such thing as a Gbg sound?
I merely play the music I do because I lack the musical prowess to play metal. And that's the honest truth. When you read this I'm either at the Iron Maiden concert with 60,000 other heshers or discussing the grandeur of a mummified Eddie with everyone who failed to get a ticket. Post-punk is too broad of a term to stylistically distinguish band A from band B. But I do know what you mean my dear friend. I'll tell you this: my favorite guitarists among many are Roger Mcguinn, Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine - the triple R - and they inspire me in many ways. Trying to copy them while lacking the talent I make my style my own (oh, the hubris).
I moved here being totally oblivious to what this city had spawned band-wise and I knew next to nothing about what it had to offer with the exception of its metal scene and its very distinct Gbg sound. I would say I feel a whole lot more affiliated with the city now after befriending many of its contemporary musicians. I feel a kinship with the likes of Alarma Man, Silverbullit, Dieter Schöön and a slew of other bands that know better than to sing off-key.
How does the city inspire you? How does it stifle you? How do you think people could make it better?
I like to take long, long walks from one end of the city to the other and see how it transforms from big anxiety-provoking concrete blocks to huge beach mansions soon-to-be engulfed by the sea; from rich ghettos to poor ghettos. I like watching people hitting the bars on Avenyn; I like watching the young kids clubbing; I like seeing the contempt erupting from both sides of the coin. This city could mean everything to me and at the same time nothing. I can't say I could tell if it makes me or breaks me. I think people could make it better if they drank more. Juice.
Going to Way Out West this year? Anything in particular that you're looking forward to? Or dreading?
Yes. Deleted Art has two bands playing there this year: The Mae Shi and No Age. I'm amped up and ready to surf the crowd. Then there's Sonic Youth of course, as well as The National and they're both bands I love. Had only Journey been there playing the entire "Escape" album with Steve Perry holding the mic instead of some poor replaceable cover band member, I would literally be bawling. That's not going to happen though, so I might as well just sit back home watching "Frontiers and Beyond" or "Live in Houston". Dreading? I don't want to run my mouth off and take a piss on bands that probably deserves it because that would be rude and I'm not a rude person (Mando Diao). I dread queuing to the unsanitary toilets, shit and piss on the floors.
Lastly, got a song to share? Either from one of your own bands or another, it's all good. Tell me about it!
I don't know if copyright laws prohibits you from sharing "Bastards of young" by The Replacements with your frequent visitors. I would love for you to have that up there instead of being elaborate and unscrupulous enough to exploit this offer and have people listening to my own band. I know the answer to this and will offer you the second best thing to the Mats themselves: "Replacement". It's our own ode to Westerberg et al and a deliberate attempt at stealing the best things in music history.
Thanks!
No, thank you! Still they ride, on wheels of fire. They rule the night. Still they ride, the strong will survive. Chasing thunder.
Cut City - Replacement
If it's Saturday you know that means we're due for another entry in our ongoing Göteborg Spotlight Series. This week's guest: Robert Samsonowitz, esteemed web developer, graphic designer and musician. Chances are high you've seen his work before as he's done artwork and/or websites for a number of high profile Swedish artists -- just check out his portfolio at rbrt.org for examples. As for his own music, he did time with Satanic Surfers back in the day and has just recently resurfaced with We Live in Trenches, a band that takes the sound of "Damaged"-era Black Flag and runs with it. In other words, old-man hardcore. You know I'm all about it. Anyhow, Robert was kind enough to answer a few questions for us and here's what he had to say:
First off, the standard: How long have you lived in Gbg, what brought you there and what keeps you there?
I've lived in Gothenburg for nine years and five months (since January 1999). I moved here to study web design. I got a job and a new band, so that pretty much kept me here. Nowadays I have a new job and a new band and that pretty much still keeps me here. And also Gothenburg is a pretty rad city to be in at the moment with a lot of nice people and some great things happening, music and otherwise.
You're involved in a lot of different artistic endeavors - which one currently takes precedence? like if someone asks "what do you do?", how do you respond?
Right now I'd probably say "play music", because that's where my heart is at the moment. I think I'm currently in some kind of work-denial state. Like acting really busy on work hours while making plans and stuff for the band, which probably isn't that good in the long run as I'm self employed.
I know there's a lot of other Swedish musicians who double as visual artists, but are there any in particular that you admire? Or what about visual artists who dabble in music?
One of the artists I admire is my old friend Johannes Heldén (www.johanneshelden.com). He's a visual artist (MFA, Valand Academy of Fine Arts, Gothenburg) a writer and a musician. His work is truly awesome. I give him credit for bringing Sci-Fi and mysticism into art and music. Well done, my friend!
How does the city of Gbg influence you and your art? Could you ever see yourself living somewhere else? What benefits does Gbg offer and on the flipside of that, what are the city's detriments?
Hard to tell how this city influences me. I don't even know if influences me at all. Or maybe it does more than I'll ever know. I can't really see myself living in another Swedish city. I've spent a lot of time in Malmö, I have a lot of friends there. There is one specific area there ("Möllan") which consists of... I don't know... maybe 8 blocks of houses and a square, and that area is fantastic. But the rest of Malmö is a terrible, aggressive, cold, cold place to be. They can keep it. If I'd move I'd probably go abroad, maybe Berlin or Barcelona (all my friends reading this are going "yeah, that'll probably happen..." haha), or Montreal, one of my favorite cities. One of the benefits with Gbg I guess is the size, both in people and area. It's not too big and it's not too small either. It's big enough for great things to happen, and it's small enough to actually notice them.
Tell me about the new band - how did you guys get together and what are your plans? Did you form with any particular goals in mind?
My new band is We Live in Trenches and here are all the boring details. Me and David Augustsson (drums, ex-C.Aarmé) formed the band in February 2007 after having played together in the brief punk adventure Haveri, which had broken up due to too hot weather and the fact that the other guys needed more time with their other endeavors (Cut City and Alarma Man). I was also on drum duties in Satanic Surfers, but we had a break at the moment (a break from which we never recovered, we broke up in March 2007). We initially formed as Trenches and I guess it sort of was the second coming of Haveri at first, only I'd switched from bass to guitar. As only two wrongs don't make a right, we needed some more humans to help sink the ship. I met my old friend Ulf Stöckel on a tram and convinced him to jump aboard as I knew of his screaming skills from previous bands (Comatose, Blå Ångest, The Virgins). We later got Oskar Karlsson on bass in May (also in Icos, ex-Last Security) and the Trenches line-up was finally complete. We recorded one song for a hardcore comp on Deleted Art (still not released) during the summer. Oskar turned out to be too busy with Icos as well as being a busy live sound tech for bands on tour (Burst, Red Sparrowes etc.) and he decided to quit the band a couple of months later. During the time without a bass player we started to record all of our songs in our rehearsal space. Anna Knutsson joined our merry bunch in November, halfway through the recording session, and we changed our name to We Live in Trenches shortly after. Now we finally have a booking agent and some upcoming shows, and we will promote ourselves in search for a record label to work with. Our plan is to rock as hard and often as possible, and our goal is to avoid a normal way of life as much as possible.
Lastly, got a song you'd like to share? Either from one of your own band(s) or otherwise? Something that's reflective of Gbg perhaps?
Yes. "Autonomy clinic" by We Live In Trenches. Because self promotion rocks!
We Live In Trenches - Autonomy clinic
Alarma Man has started work on the recording of their next album "Swedish intelligence".
More video footage of Alarma Man in the studio working on new material: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2nKMByLIK0
Check out a video clip of Alarma Man rehearsing a new instrumental track in the studio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUaCIRjUSMk
Here's the playlist for my radio show on Saturday:
01. Ted Gärdestad - Räcker jag till
02. TALK 1
03. The Setting Son - In a certain way
04. Beyond Dawn - TRNQL
05. Miss Li - Let her go
06. TALK 2
07. Jonna Lee - Dried out eyes
08. Death By Kite - Hiroshima
09. The Motorhomes - I wanna make you sing
10. TALK 3
11. Printer - Minds out
12. Alarma Man - Sweden, Sweden
13. Pistol Disco - Radiation
14. TALK 4
15. Knugen Faller - Lugna favoriter
16. Scraps of Tape - Since all the birds are moving, shouldn't we
17. Carpet People - If I lose my voice
18. TALK 5
19. Asha Ali - A promise broken
20. Ingenting - Punkdrommar
21. Holiday for Strings - I got two hands
22. TALK 6
23. NEI - City of gold
24. FAP - Sjömannen
25. Monoton - Hours
26. TALK 7
27. Deathbed - Everyday heroin
28. Dibaba - Go marching in
29. Johnossi - Execution song
30. Sista Sekunden - Se opp
31. TALK 8
32. Laakso - Worse case scenario
33. Tiger Lou - Sell out
34. Peter Bjorn and John - Matchmaker
35. TALK 9
36. Johndoe - Hardt som faen
37. Espen Jørgensen - Move ahead - quickly
38. Säkert! - Och jag grät mig till sömns efter alla dar
39. TALK 10
40. KVLR - Slow clapping
41. Anna Leong - 61
42. Final Exit - Bent out of shape
43. TALK 11
44. The Bear Quartet - Lights out, sound off
Alarma Man is currently hard at work on their next record, tentatively titled "Swedish intelligence".
Swedish "labyrinth-punks" Alarma Man have a new limited-edition DVD they are bringing on tour: http://www.alarmaman.com/news/?reqNews=129
New Alarma Man tourdates:
04/13 - The Pit's, Kortrijk (BEL)
04/14 - Out Of The Crowd Festival, Esch (LUX)
04/15 - La fleche d´or, Paris (FRA)
04/16 - L ´Underground, Nantes (FRA)
04/17 - tbc, Rennes (FRA)
04/18 - El Inca, Bordeaux (FRA)
04/19 - Sala Scumm, Tarragona (ESP)
04/20 - Sala Sidecar, Barcelona (ESP)
04/22 - Sala Cooc, Don Benito (ESP)
04/24 - L'embobineuse, Marseille (FRA)
04/25 - Kubus, Gossau (CH)
04/26 - ISC, Bern (CH)
04/27 - tbc, Heidelberg (GER)
04/28 - Plastik Club, Bremen (GER)
Alarma Man has posted two new demo tracks on myspace, the first taste of what to expect from their next album this fall: http://www.myspace.com/alarmaman
8
There's a new batch of swedish indierockbands out there. The scene is very much alive and kicking, much thanks to bands like Seven Feet Four, Division of Laura Lee, KVLR, Alarma Man, Knife and Ape, LDOA and Logh. On this three track-EP, this Eskilstuna-based quintet deliver the kind of tunes that put them in the same league. I had often come to the conclusion that something was missing after hearing their previous recordings, but not anymore. This is well-played and tight indierock with hooks. Especially the title track that, if there's any justice in this world, should get more airtime and attention. It's about time these guys release another full-length.
- Jonas Appelqvist
Alarma Man is starting to put a tour together for spring:
04/14 - Out of the crowd Festival, Esch (LUX)
04/15 - La Fleche D´or, Paris (FRA)
04/16 - tba (FRA)
04/17 - tba (FRA)
04/18 - tba (FRA)
04/19 - tba (ESP)
04/20 - tba (ESP)
04/21 - tba (ESP)
04/22 - tba (ESP)
04/23 - tba (ESP)
04/24 - tba (FRA)
04/25 - Kubus, Gossau (CH)
04/26 - ISC, Bern (CH)
04/27 - tba, (GER)
04/28 - tba, (GER)