Recorded in Sweden back in 1993 for the Midnight Ambulance album, and later mixed at the Machinery studio in Berlin. Can't remember much from these recordings other than that we both were very excited about having scored a record deal. Yeeha! That's all we ever wanted really... to record an album... don't think we had any plans that stretched further than that... so Machinery records sent us tons of recording equipment from Berlin, basically a small studio, that we set up in our rehearsal room in our small Swedish hometown. We didn't have a clue how it worked so it was trial and error really... I'm wondering what this button does... oops... how do you turn this mike on? And being left to record and produce most of the album ourselves I think we did ok. Can't believe that Machinery had the guts to not send anybody to check up on us every once in a while... not that we cared though... we were full of self-confidence... this is going to kick ass! With this particular track I can hear that we wanted to make something that resembled Depeche Mode's "In Your Room". Electronica with a bit of a rock twist. But being only twenty and having neither Alan Wilder nor Flood in the studio giving a helping hand... it was a bit tricky...
Recorded in Sweden during the summer of 1998 and mixed at the City Sound Studio in Stockholm for our third album Satellite People. Full-on! By now we had transformed into a two-piece rock orchestra. Loads of channels and sounds all over the place. We were sweating over these tracks... Jesus... It was a very hot summer and the studio was located in a basement in the central parts of Stockholm. It was like an oven in there. We never wanted to be an electronic band in the first place so now it was back to basics with bass, drums, guitars and all that. Well, the title says it all... It's a song for all of us who like stay up during the small hours... "We all feel better in the dark" as Neil Tennant once put it.
Recorded in Sweden early 1997 and mixed at Antenne Tonstudio, Berlin, in October the same year. We clearly wanted to rock now. Love that distorted loop in the beginning of the song. Our favourite toy at this time was an old analogue synth from the 70s called Korg MS-20. We processed loads of sounds with that one. The studio was located next door to a Kindergarten so sometimes all these kids would run through the control room and we'd both look up and go "what the hell was that?" It was probably a good thing to ease the tension though... these were hard times... spent 99% of the mix chain smoking by a window at the back of the control room furiously staring at the autumn rain falling.
Recorded in Sweden 1997 and mixed at Antenne Tonstudio. Re-mixed 1998 at City Sound Stockholm. We obviously wanted the music to sound BIG at the time. Loads of strings, distorted guitars etc, etc. Quite catchy pop tune. Like the final part... "just turn your back on everyone, everyone". Reflects our view on life and most things at the time... The song ends funny because the backing track we recorded was too short... but when we did the overdubs we kept singing and people kept playing. The opening track from Satellite People.
Recorden in Sweden early 1997 and mixed at Antenne Tonstudio, then re-recorded in 1998 and mixed during the summer at City Sound Stockholm. Initially we recorded one acoustic version of the song that everybody loved exept us. So of course we had to piss the label and everybody off by re-recording a more aggressive rock version of the song and insist on having it on the album. The band is always right... right? A song about going mental... celebrating... running through cities at night... staying up doing bad stuff... basically having fun...
Recorded in Sweden in during the Christmas holidays 1993 and later mixed at the Machinery Studio in Berlin in March 1994. It was really exciting for us to come to Berlin for the first time. This was still only four years and a few months after the wall came down so I remember I thought it was really strange with all these deserted former "no mans land areas" in the middle of the city. We didn't know much about the city but thought it was very weird and quite mysterious and beautiful, especially at night. I still think it is. The studio was located somewhere in the central north eastern part, quite far away from our hotel so our label boss/co-producer used to drive us back in his car early every morning after the nights studio work... and he was constantly pointing out "now we're in the west, now we're in the east, now we're in the west again" and our faces would be pressed up against the glass... trying to figure out the difference through foggy early winter mornings. Having seen all the empty beer and booze bottles piling up in out hotel room, Scandinavians that we are, our producer would always make sure we had a couple of newly bought six packs with us back to the hotel... even if he dropped us of at seven in the morning. "Do you guys have beer?" "Need a six-pack?".
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed during the autumn at the Machinery studio for our second album Orange Moon. Now we wanted to drop most of the electronic stuff and bring in more acoustic elements. I was writing all the songs on acoustic guitar by now anyway, so it was a quite natural thing to do. Bought an acoustic 12-string that we used quite a lot on this album. After mixing our first album we just went straight back into our home studio and started working on the second one. We always were quite strange as a band... hardly ever played live... always felt we couldn't present the music the way we wanted to present it on stage just the two of us, and it would be too much work and too expensive to bring in loads of people only for live concerts... so I guess we quickly realised that we were and would remain a pure studio band... a nightmare of course for any record label... didn't bother us that much though... we were too busy making music. I personally think Over My Home is one of our best songs.
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed later the same year at Machinery. Our intention on this album was to use a real drummer and bass, real strings etc... session musicians... but somehow the drum machines, keyboard strings and so forth stayed and accompanied us all the way to the CD-factory. Perhaps it was a matter of money, perhaps it was a matter of time, perhaps some songs benefit from it, perhaps some don't. Nevermind. We played a lot of tambourine on this album... a track is not finished until it's got tambourine on it... a very nice little instrument indeed. This is a song about drinking tequila under a mexican sun with someone you fancy... well, why not? Pretty straightforward stuff.
Recorded in Sweden early 1998 and mixed at City Sound Stockholm. Dark little piano ballad. I think we mixed an early version at Antenne the year before that we weren't happy with. Those Antenne sessions were not that successful actually, think we mixed 14 songs there and only a handful ended up on the album. Bad vibes in the studio I guess, combined with dodgy pre-production. We probably knew already that this would be our last album. We listened a lot to Low and Heroes by Bowie at the time and those instrumental tracks really inspired us, the sort of empty doomy feel they have to them.
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed at Machinery the same year. I remember playing a noisy tape with early demos of some songs to the label boss in some hotel room in Stockholm early 95. This track was one of them and we got the go ahead for a second album right there. Quite messy mix to say the least. Of all the songs we recorded this was probably the one that was most pop. Nice melody.
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed at Machinery the same year. Also one of the songs from that noisy hotel demo. A tune with one of those outros that could go on forever. Still think it's a beautiful song. A track about catching the moment. That it's all about here and now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Here and now.
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed at Machinery the same year. Another one of my favourite tracks. Think the final part is a real killer! One of those songs that lifts you up. "I don't care, cause I'm not scared..." I'm sure we wanted to use a real string quartet on this one but somehow the keyboard string arrangement works quite well. We were quite fond of this song formula... to start soft and slowly and then just go mental at the end.
Recorded in Sweden 1995 and mixed at Machinery the same year. Probably the first and last time I'll ever play an electric guitar solo. I sing the verses and Stefan the chorus bits. A song about a vivid dream.
Recorded in Sweden 2000 and mixed at K4 Studios, Berlin the same year. Additional mixing in Sweden 2002. The opening track from my first solo album Songs For Quiet Souls. This song was inspired by a real event. I was living in Berlin at the time and had been at a late night movie in the central parts of the city. After the movie I decided to walk home and on my way home I passed this famous techno club called Tresor. It was closed but outside I bumped into this girl who was totally wasted, tripping... God knows what she was on. She was calling me and screaming at the top of her lungs, we had a twisted, weird conversation... and then she just jumped into a cab and took off... somehow this meeting stayed with me for a while and transformed into this song. The girl disappeared but the songs stayed... Took a long time to finish this album... was always adding bits and pieces... today I wouldn't have put the haunting sirén on the track... I don't like that sound anymore... it's too haunting... backing vocals by two charming ladies from Berlin called Barbara Morgenstern and Lisa Veit.
Songs for Quiet souls Essentials