Info
|
Music
|
Visuals
|
Communication
|
Background
Live
Press
Discography
A-Files
Lyrics
Gallery
Video
Wallpapers
Contact form
Background
<div class="middiv"> <table border="1" class="tablequotebg"> <tr> <td class="tdquotebg">"On the verge of a new life, one step without a sound..."<br> -Too cold to kiss</td> </tr> </table> </div> <p><br /> "I wanted to make a bare, quite soft album...hardly without any rythm...and in some way combine traditional acoustic instruments, grand piano, acoustic guitar,strings etc...with more ambient sounds and weird effects...."<br> - John Alexander Ericson</p> <p>After releasing three albums in the 90´s with his former band The Northern Territories<br> (see discography) the band decided to take a break at the beginning of the new decade.</p> <div class="middiv"> <table border="1" class="tablequotebg"> <tr> <td class="tdquotebg">"You´re cyanide, sharp white steel<br> but I can see through you, each and every time...."<br> -Cyanide</td> </tr> </table> <br> </div> <p>It didn´t take long though before John Alexander decided to start working on his first ever solo album.<br> Originaly from Sweden Alex began writing in the demo studio in his hometown Uppsala (a small town in the Stockholm area).<br> Though he soon decided to move the base permanently to Berlin, for inspiration and change of scenery.</p> <p>In a rented flat in the former eastern part of Berlin work progressed on the album that very early had the working title 'Songs for quiet souls'. Nights were spent in many of the local bars and most of the lyrics were penned in the small hours... just to be recorded the very next day.</p> <p>"most of the songs were written quite fast on acoustic guitar...the chords plus the vocal melody just singing a nonsens lyric.<br> Then I would keep the melody in my head and go out to some all-night open bar and write the acctual words.It was a quite nice working method..."</p> <div class="middiv"> <table border="1" class="tablequotebg"> <tr> <td class="tdquotebg">"Now every second and every hour is more,<br> now every second and every hour is all,<br> a speeding body, highway winterstar,<br> a thousand miles, but we´re still the same<br> ...will we ever change?"<br> -Highway Winterstar</td> </tr> </table> <br> </div> <p>Records John Alexander listened to at the time were from the likes of Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Nine Inch Nails, Tim Buckley, Sigur Ros and Jaques Brel... to name a few artist that might...or might not have influenced the music...<br> Most of the material was recorded at home straight into the computer...but for the mix and the overdubs the decision was made to finish the album at K4 Tonstudios in Berlin, located by the river Spree in a former DDR radio broadcasting studio. Over a few weeks time with the help of a few local musicians (strings, piano, backing vocals)<br> the final touches were put to "Songs for quiet souls" </p> <div class="middiv"> <table border="1" class="tablequotebg"> <tr> <td class="tdquotebg">"But I see myself in your eyes...am I right?"<br> -A World You´ll Never Reach</td> </tr> </table> <br> </div> <p>The track "A world you´ll never reach" was chosen to be the first single/promo and a video was shot on the roof of a 27-storey building in the Mitte-district, downtown, Berlin. The black and white video is starring Berlin actress Rahel Salvodelli and was directed <br> by Maya Puig.</p> <p>"The original idea was to make it a very sparse album...though in the end it turned out a bit more spacy then what I first intended...but that´s the way it is when you make music....you have one idea but then the music takes over and decides where it wants to go. But i´m very happy with the end result. I think it´s a beautiful album with a very special vibe to it...I like it a lot...and the fact that it sounds quite different from a lot of stuff out there..."</p> <div class="middiv"> <table border="1" class="tablequotebg"> <tr> <td class="tdquotebg">"But maybe someone is looking after us, <br> another civilisation, in orbit around another star..."<br> -In Orbit Around Another Star<br> </td> </tr> </table> </div>
Songs for Quiet Souls
Essentials
Home
-
Imprint