Helena Josefsson, backing singer at Tambourine Studios and Gula Studion (IX): Junior Senior - Rhythm bandits

Junior Senior (Jesper Mortensen and Jeppe Laursen), the pop musical duo from Denmark, release today the second single of their debut album, D-D-Don't Stop the Beat (August 2003). The first single, "Move Your Feet" (April 2003), was one of the most played songs on Danish radio and eventually climbed the charts in over thirteen countries, including the United States, Australia, France, the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The second single is "Rhythm bandits", featuring Helena Josefsson (Sandy Mouche) as background singer. "Rhythm bandits" has made the singles charts in the UK and Australia, and is included in the soundtrack of the game FIFA 2004.

LJdM

P, C & C find GT's five errors and Brainpool's long-running soap opera (I): a double single

According to TDR, the upcoming Gyllene Tider-single will be “En sten vid en sjö i en skog” and it will be released next Wednesday. But there’s “another” single as well.

It’s an old Gyllene Tider tradition to release double A-sided singles; it started with “Flickorna på TV2/Himmel No. 7” and continued with “Ska vi älska så ska vi älska till Buddy Holly/(Dansar inte lika bra som) Sjömän.” Now, this new single will follow that tradition by including two tracks: A-side “En sten vid en sjö i en skog” and the A-side: “Tuffa tider (för en drömmare)” (Tough Times (For a Dreamer)). “Tuffa tider” includes a ukulele and an ocarina, while “En sten…” is a power-pop song á la Gyllene Tider.

We have also found the credits of the full album, Finn 5 Fel! Clarence Öfwerman appears as GT producer for the first time and Christoffer Lundquist did a great work in his studio as producer, technician and mixer. Helena Josefsson features as backing vocals.

Lyrics By, Music By, Guitar, Vocals - Per Gessle
Bass - Anders Herrlin
Drums, Vocals - Micke 'Syd' Andersson
Guitar - Mats M.P. Persson
Organ, Piano - Göran Fritzson
Backing vocals: Helena Josefsson and Jennie Löfgren

Producer - Clarence Öfwerman
Producer, Technician [Tagm & Polar] - Christoffer Lundquist
Technician [T&a] - M.P. Persson
Mastered By - Björn Engelmann
Mixed By - Christoffer Lundquist (except song nr. 7, by M. Ilbert)

Artwork By [Cover] - Kjell Andersson , Pär Wickholm
Artwork By [Painting In Photos] - Bruno Liljefors
Photography [Biologiska Museet] - Jonas Linell
Photography [The Aerosol Grey Machine] - GT , Jens Jansson

Now we have other important news: Chistoffer Lundquist's band, Brainpool, will premiere their long-running "rock opera" this summer in Malmö with a big orchestra. David Birde, Jens Jansson and Christoffer Lundquist have been working in this project since 2000.

By the way, the short-film "Bikini", directed by Lasse Persson, was premiered last month. The music of the film was written by Magnus Börjeson. Bikini is an animated musical starring an young man who is afraid to come out…who is afraid to come out of the locker. The plot takes place on a beach year 1960, where a couple of happy twins and their lady friend like to spend the summer.

Original title: Bikini
Director, Screenwriter and Producer: Lasse Persson
International release date: 2004-Apr-1
Animation: Lasse Persson, Magnus Hjerpe
Design: Lasse Persson
Music: Magnus Börjeson
Sound: Olle Tannergård
Produced by: Swedish Ecstasy Film in cooperation with Filmpol Mitt, Film i Skåne and Swedish Television AB. Supported by Swedish Film Institute/Jesper Bergom-Larsson
Principal cast: Magnus Börjesson and Susanna Dzamic (voices)
Category: Animation, musical
Screening details: 35mm - 1:1.85 - Colour - Dolby SR - 7 min - English
Awards: Honourable Mention, Berlin International Film Festival, Germany, 2005; Jury Award for Best Short Film, Copenhagen Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Denmark, 2005

LJdM

It’s been like going on a very much longed for school trip recording with the Gyllene-guys again. We recorded 15 songs down in Skåne and 14 have made it to the album. Half of them feel like strong singles so it’s been almost impossible to select a single. So we picked two!

Per Gessle

The first concert I ever went to was a Gyllene Tider concert, during Moderna Tider, I remember I listened to it in secret because I thought it was a big embarrassing, a bit girly music, and I liked heavy important prog rock, but there was something about his voice you couldn’t resist, couldn’t not listen to it, that hit me.

Christoffer Lundquist

When David Birde and Christoffer Lundquist first introduced me to the idea of a "rock opera" one late evening, I thought it really sucked. I thought it sounded awfully lame and didn’t see how we would ever manage to pull it off. But once we got started, it turned out to be lots of fun. And because it became such an enormous project, it became increasingly important to prove to ourselves that we could finish it! We’d been working on it for ages. At times we felt like giving up because it was getting so damn tedious, but then each time we sat down to work on it again, we got the feeling that we simply had to complete it, since it’d been such a mad concept from the beginning!

Jens Jansson - Junk Musik

Sandy Mouche is looking for a White Lucky Dragon (I): Gigs in Skane (Stockholm- Hässleholm-Malmö-Lund-Göteborg) and Poland

* Klubb Kaiser, Mondo, Stockholm 2004 • 02 • 05
Release party for their single Cherry Pie.
Mondo, Stockholm


* Perrong 23, Hässleholm 2004 • 02 • 07
Perrong 23


* Inkonst i Malmö 2004 • 02 • 10


* Festival Of Life, Mejeriet, Lund 2004 • 03 • 04
Mejeriet, Lund


* City Sound Festival, Pustervik, Göteborg 2004 • 04 • 03
Bands: David Fridlund, Kingston Airforce, Granada , Sandy Mouche , Soak The Sin , Span, Speech Defect , Peggy Lejonhjärta , The 21st Century Noise , Tobias Fröberg , Bukk , Bombshell Rocks and Troublemakers.
Pustervik

* ROLAND/SAMI MUSIC AWARD 2004, Nalen, Stockholm 2004 • 04 • 28
A prize for Swedish unsigned bands. Finalists: El Corazón, Tony Clifton, Puma, The Universe, Sandy Mouche and Swedish chefs. Photos by Christoffer Kjellberg.

* Festival i Polen / Europejska Majówka, Police, Poland 2004 • 05 • 01

We have been in Poland and played twice. It was very fun. The second time we got there they were celebrating their entry into the EU. They are so amazingly open. They treated us like world stars.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

We always had to have a Swedish flag on the stage because they were so proud a Swedish band came there.

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

* Stadshallen, Lund 2004 • 05 • 03
In Lund

The Universe are the winners of the Roland/SAMI Music Award 2004, a prize for Swedish unsigned bands.

Runners-up Puma received five days in the studio and Sandy Mouche won some TV recording time.

The gala was celebrated last April 4th at Nalen, Stockholm. The six finalists were: El Corazón, Tony Clifton, Puma, The Universe, Sandy Mouche and Swedish Chefs.

It's a trap!

The band from Denmark, Michael Learns to Rock, has released a new album this year (February in Europe and March in Asia). Michael Learns to Rock (MLTR) is a popular Danish ballad band that performs songs in English. It was formed in 1988 and has sold several million records, mainly in Asia.

"Take Me To Your Heart" (2004), the new single, has focused on the Asian market. The single "Take Me To Your Heart" is a remake of Jacky Cheung's "Goodbye Kiss 吻别" and is very popular in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Danyal Taylan (Sandy Mouche), amongst others, features as backing vocals. Johan Bejerholm produced it at World Studios, Malmö. Johan had also produced Danyal's previous band, The Blimp.

LJdM

Helena Josefsson, backing singer at Tambourine Studios and Gula Studion (VIII): Swan Lee

Swan Lee is a trio based in Copenhagen (Denmark). The members are Pernille Rosendahl on vocals, guitarist Jonas Struck and Emil Jørgensen on drums. Originally no record label would sign them, so they created their own, Gogo Records. Their debut (Enter, 2001) received an impressive 6 DMA nominations (Danish Music Awards) in 2002, and Swan Lee also won The Danish National Radios P3 Prize, the main prize awarded every year to Denmark´s most outstanding musical artist.

Not only did Swan Lee’’s debut album, “Enter”, enchant both critics and a broad swathe of the Danish record-buying public, but it also gave Denmark a new rock diva. With her big voice and captivating aura, Pernille Rosendahl was the strong female presence that the Danish music industry had been sorely lacking.

They release today their second album, "Swan Lee" (2004), produced at the Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden, with Per Sunding (producer of The Cardigans, Eggstone, Superheroes, among others). The recording team included Patrik Bartosh (String Arrangements), Mads Hyhne, Sven Andersson & Kasper Tranberg (Horn), Jonas Berg (keyboards) and Helena Josefsson (vocals, background). It was mixed by Mikael Ilbert & Lars Overgaard at Medley Studio, Copenhagen.

The first single, in the radio since March, is I don't mind.

Pernille's voice is simply magic. And Swan Lee's music brilliant.

LJdM

P, C & C back in the AGM office (VIII): GT25 and Metro Jets are out

According to TDR, Gyllene Tider is celebrating the release of “GT25 - Samtliga Hits” album today. The big news is that they are actually celebrating the release of two albums: June 2 they will release their brand new album with brand new songs, titled “Finn fem fel” (“Find Five Errors”). The new album is being recorded in Christoffer Lundquist’s studio in Vollsjö, Skåne, the same studio that baked “Mazarin”.

The first single out of "Finn fem fel" is “Sitter på en sten vid en sjö i en skog” (“Sitting on a Rock by a Lake in a Forest”). Anders Herrlin - bass guitar, says that the album “sounds like how we wanted to sound in 1980…” and "most of the songs were recorded in less than half an hour. We also decided that no other instruments were to be used than our own. The synthesizer sounds are actually all made by the Farfisa, for instance.”

Micke “Syd Andersson” - drummer thinks that the 25th Anniversary "is so big that we cannot comprehend what’s going on. We are truly overwhelmed. Weird that we even had a career looking like that!”

Meanwhile, Magnus Borjeson and David Birde (= Metro Jets) have released their first single in Sweden on Aprin 2: THE MORNING SHOW. It was also recorded at AGM studio and produced by Christoffer Lundquist.

According to Indie Spin Zone:

"This single by the Metro Jets is the perfect pop fix for those of you who are waiting patiently for the new Beagle album. Magnus Borjeson from Beagle and David Birde from Brainpool bring you this slice of power pop perfection which is actually the theme song for Sweden's new hit TV sitcom "The Morning Show". This song has the biggest 70's AOR rock hook we've heard in years! The B-Side "The Midas Touch" is also brilliant."

Listen to these songs in Metro Jets' myspace

LJdM

P, C & C back in the AGM office (VII): old GT, new Metro Jets

According to TDR, Gyllene Tider is beginning the celebration of their 25th anniversary by re-releasing their first three LPs – “Gyllene Tider,” “Moderna Tider” and “Puls” – with re-mastered tracks. At the same time, they’re releasing a new CD: “GT 25 - Samtliga Hits!” (“GT 25 - All the Hits!”) on March 24th.

But old hits are not enough for this band. While it hasn’t been officially announced, The Daily Roxette has reported previously that Per and others have talked about new material that they are recording, so the widespread expectation is that a new album/single/EP will be released later in the spring, just in time to help promote the tour. Gyllene Tider members are recording new songs in AGM studios with Christoffer Lundquist and Clarence Öfwerman. Helena Josefsson could take part in some songs as background singer.

The summer of 2004 will see Gyllene Tider tour the country of Sweden again, eight years later.

Meanwhile, a new band is born: Metro Jets. They are Magnus Börjeson (from Beagle and Favorita) and David Birde (from Brainpool) and are produced by Christoffer Lundquist. Read the story about this new band.

LJdM

During the hardest rains that central Europe had seen for nearly a century, David Birde, the guitarist and songwriter of Brainpool, tried to get from Amsterdam to Prague. David had left Sweden a couple of weeks earlier, using his last savings to get away from the usual problems of a musician (lost love and, eh, strange band members). It didn´t work very well. Lost love tend to be haunting and these days even band members got cell phones. When the train finally arrived to Prague, almost 30 hours delayed due to the storm, David decided to get something to eat. He heard live music coming from a cellar and went over to take a look. This was the ”Maijtjenaliv”, a club that the medical students in Prague was running. David went inside and stayed the whole night. Somewhere between a strange and a stranger beer, he started talking to the bartender, who immediately responded ”From sweden? That´s funny, do you know the guy in the black shirt over there?” In the other corner, Magnus Borjeson, former lead singer of Beagle, was talking to a stunning looking German medical student. Magnus had left Sweden for the same self-obsessed reasons as David, after his band favorita turned out to be one of the world´s best hidden musical secrets. The coincidence was almost too good to be true. Two days after the night at Maijtjenaliv, David and Magnus had a plan. They wanted to live in a place where it never rained. They wanted to play, record and write music. (they also wanted to find love, but we´re asked to leave that out of this text). A couple of weeks later Magnus heard about two free apartments in Malmö and phoned David. they moved in next door and started writing music. They also found love (but we´re told to leave their wifes out of this text). And here´s the happy ending: Metro Jets are actually working on their first album. Metro jets want to send out a special thank you to Maijtjenaliv (cheers Josefa & Jamila!) for making this possible :)

-

Magnus Börjeson - David Birde
Metro Jets