MP3: Tsukimono - Gloomy Sunday
This week's guest in our ongoing Göteborg spotlight series is Johan Gustavsson. Besides being a triumphant Guitar Hero player (seriously!), he keeps himself very, very busy performing music solo under the alias Tsukimono, as well as playing with groups such as Scraps of Tape, Viktor Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble, Alina, the new band The VIII Arms Around You and tons more. Keeping track of 'em all is near-impossible. Anyhow, I had questions and he was happy to supply some answers:
How long have you lived in GBG?
I've basically been living here for a year now. The first 6-7 months I kept working in Skåne, the south of Sweden, where I'm from. That meant a lot of driving and more or less living in my car, traveling between 3 different cities all the time. But now I'm here and have been here full time since August 07.
Where did you move from and why?
I moved up here from Malmö for love. I met the greatest person and we decided to try and make it work out together. I was also losing my apartment in Malmö and I needed to get out of the situation I was stuck in at the time. Things have worked out for the better.
Favorite part about the city? Least favorite?
I really like Gbg in general, I like walking in the city even though I do it a lot less than I'd like. I live in Majorna and
there is just a lot of nice things to look at and to take to heart.
Least favourite? The weather... for sure. Windy and rainy... but it's ok.
Do you think that there's a particular Gbg sound? If so, how would you describe it?
Nah, I think what's so good about the music from Gbg is that it's all really diverse. You can find anything here, and most of the time it's pretty damn good too. And with people like Christian Pallin/Koloni around who organizes shows and happenings all year-round, you get pretty spoiled with opportunities to see interesting and odd bands/artists from all over the world.
How would you say the city inspired you?
I've been getting more back into punk and hardcore/metal again... which is great! There's a good scene here.
Started a few new bands, played with great people, met wonderful people with a real desire to do good and who have their
hearts 100% in what they do. It's pretty hard to not get inspired by stuff like that. I've also been getting better at saying no
and to not go everywhere and not do everything. To have the ability to not do things is very liberating.
Is there a particular piece that you've done that you feel was directly influenced by and/or provides a good reflection of the city?
Well, there's also a compilation coming out entitled "Gothenburg 08", which will be released by Fang Bomb... it'll feature me, Viktor Sjöberg, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words and many others... the track on there is about Gbg but since it's not released yet I'm not sure that's a good idea.
However, my new album coming out on Kalligrammofon, the "Heart attack money" cd, kinda touches on Gbg a lot too, so let's go for "Gloomy Sunday". It's being mastered this week Henrik Oja (The Spacious Mind, Säkert!) and Jonas Rosén (Female Anchor Of Sade, Asterisk*) so I'm super-psyched to hear the results soon.
Look for the album to receive a proper release soon, but in the meantime, here's the unmastered version of "Gloomy Sunday" to whet your thirst. Highly recommended!
Tsukimono - Gloomy Sunday