P, C & C have a party in their heads (VIII): Brainpool aimed to please with a release party

Come and celebrate the release of Brainpool’s greatest hits album “We Aimed to Please” with us! Location: KB, Malmö. Time: 18-01. Also: free cigarettes are handed out, to those who want to smoke for the last time, before smoking is banned in Swedish restaurants.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

It was actually Per Gessle who initiated the compilation. Apparently he was at home, listening to our albums and was once again struck by how good we were. He started to mail us, coming up with a running order for the album. Eventually he wore us down and we said: ’OK, you’ll get your compilation if you write the sleeve notes'. Per agreed and so the album, titled “We Aimed To Please,” will have an introduction written by him.

It will also contain the horrible ’Bandstarter’ demo recorded in a hotel room in Stuttgart during the Roxette tour and much more. The actual CD contains all our singles, plus the songs that would have been singles if we had released more. The compilation will be sold at the price of a regular CD. All songs are commented by Janne Kask and me and the artwork by John the Fisherman is an orgy of Brainpool nostalgia.

The two new songs, “A Different Life” and “Let Me Win,” were originally written for Belinda Carlisle in 1995 but never made it to her album. They have been hidden away in Jimmy Fun’s vaults until now, so they are very exclusive.

If we wanted Brainpool to be just like in the old days we would definately need Janne, but I think that we are equally uninterested in reliving the past in that way. Those days were great fun, but we are older and there are other bands now that are much better at doing what we were so good at for a couple of years in the mid-nineties. There is a time for everything… Right now we are pleased to have completed the compilation.

Junk Musik embraces the new technology that makes it possible for each and everyone to spread their music all over the world. The major labels have themselves to blame when they shout about illegal downloading. Instead of holding back, they should have jumped on the train years ago.

We will do a couple of interviews in Stockholm all four of us and hopefully we’ll go out in the night, get really drunk and remember our heydays!. After that - it’s time for Janne to write some hits, and for us to go home to Skåne and dream up next bizarre concept album!

David Birde - Junk Musik

I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT BRAINPOOL WAS THE BEST SWEDISH POP GROUP OF THE 90’s. Their records seemed to capture the mood of the day, while recapturing a lost innocence -which made them sound both timeless and contemporary. “Soda” was an irresistible debut, a pop album that sounds just as fresh today as it did in 1994. A year later the confident follow-up “Painkiller” rightfully took them to the upper region of the charts. “Invisible to her” is still out of this world (who’ll be the first to cover it?). and who can forget “Bandstarter”? such a great song.

They were equally convincing on stage. I saw them live at the tiny Tre Backar in the beginning of time, and they gave us a brillant cocktail of The Who meets The Jam - all served with nice splashes of bubblegum, power pop and just the right measures of surf. We all love that!

Every band/artist stand or fall with their songs. Janne and David were - and still are - exceptionally good songwriters. But that’s just half the story. Brainpool was also a band of inspired musicians, all playing with the combination of energy and creativity that makes you want to press the “repeat” button.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to work with Christoffer and Jens, both with Roxette and on my solo album “Mazarin”, I realise what a complete unit they were. Brainpool truly was a band without any weak link - even Christoffer’s peculiar glasses seemed to make sense.

Brainpool was the first band that arrived in the safe harbour of my music publishing company, Jimmy Fun. I was over the moon after hearing their cheeky demos, and one sunny day Ben Mariene, who was in charge at the time, signed them up. I then managed to make two humble achievements apart from shouting encouraging “yeah yeah yeahs”:

1. Tip them about producer Michael Ilbert.
2. Decide the running order on the “Soda” album, since the band had four different suggestions and couldn’t agree...

It’s been eleven years since the opening track on “Soda”, “That’s my charm”, rocked my little world for a while. This terrific compilation picks out the highlights from a pop group that’s gone from loved and influential to slightly overlooked and definitely underrated. So just listen and marvel: they actually were this good. Gold dust!

Per Gessle

P, C & C have a party in their heads (VII): Brainpool together ... for a night

According to TDR, CDON lists a Brainpool greatest hits album due out on June 1. The album, titled “We Aimed To Please,” contains various unrelased songs and single b-sides as well as a bonus DVD. The band’s website has not yet been updated to contain information on the new release. Christoffer Lundquist’s record company Junk Musik, which releases singles only in digital format over the Internet, has released a “lost” Brainpool single last Tuesday, on May 17. The song was recorded while Janne Kask was still the band’s lead singer. He left the band in August of 1997.

LJdM

Tonight, 21-01, Brainpool and former singer Janne Kask will play their favorite records at Pet Sounds, Skånegatan, Stockholm. Please join us this evening! We will be celebrating Brainpool’s forthcoming greatest hits album, “We Aim to Please”, talk about old times, listen to great songs and shout at the bartender.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

We have more news from "Junk Musik" site.

Jens Jansson and David Birde, two of the members of Brainpool, has been playing with Bo Sundström in some gigs of his Scandinavian Tour. Another "junkie", Magnus Börjeson, has also been with them. Bo Sundström's album was recorded at Aerosol Grey Machine Studio and produced by Christoffer Lundquist.

David Birde and Magnus Börjeson are working in a new project by their band Metro Jets.

LJdM

Bo Sundström will be on Tour this year to promote his debut album. David Birde, Jens Jansson and Magnus Börjeson (from Junk Musik) will be in many of the gigs:

25.4 Helsingfors, Tavastia
26.4 Stockholm, Nalen
29.4 Västerås, Prisma
30.4 Göteborg, Storan
05.5 Köpenhamn, Vega
06.5 Helsingborg, The Tivoli
07.5 Malmö, KB
11.5 Oslo, Rockefeller
13.5 Uppsala, Katalin
10.7 Gotland, Stenkyrka Mejeri
11.7 Borlänge, Borlängefesten
15.7 Västervik, Västerviksfestvial
21.7 Jakobsstad, After Eight
22.7 Stockholm, Stockholm Jazz
24.7 Pori, PoriJazz (Finland)
07.8 Göteborg, Göteborgskalaset
20.8 Malmö, Malmöfestivalen
11/11 Stockholm, Mondo

After several articles like this one in Swedish newspapers, it seemed like artist Bo Sundström was up for a hard time this weekend.

Bo Sundström’s new record “Skåne” includes a song about Denmark, which the danish people don’t like. At all. At least that was what the press said. The media reported that Bo Sundström was going to face an angry crowd when he played in Copenhagen, that people had made threats about “kicking his teeth in” if he showed up at the concert.

But when the band (which includes Magnus Börjeson & David Birde from Metro Jets and Jens Jansson from Brainpool ) arrived in Denmark, the audience was … lovely. It was a great gig. Everybody was really nice and there was absolutely no anger, says Magnus. “Skåne” was recorded in 2004 at the AGM, not that far from Denmark.

After releasing their single “Lady Gwendoline” here on Junk, Metro Jets (David Birde + Magnus Börjeson) are now working on the score to Magnus Gertten’s och Stefan Berg’s new movie. It is about Malmö in 1965 - a time when pop music was in full bloom and The Rolling Stones made a spectacular visit.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

Helena Josefsson, backing singer at AGM Studios (VII): Winokur's "I love you more"

Junk Musik, Sweden's first Internet-only music distribution and publishing company, has released the digital single "I love you more" by Justin Winokur.

Justin Winokur recorded his first solo album at AGM Studio in 2003 with Christoffer Lundquist, Jens Jansson and Helena Josefsson. "Thirteen songs about love" was published in 2004.

The song has reached number 40 on the Swedish download charts!

LJdM

P, C & C have a party in their heads (VI): Nick Lowe and goofing around in the studio

Nick Lowe (born Nicholas Drain Lowe, March 24, 1949, Walton-on-Thames) is an English singer-songwriter, bass guitarist and producer who records and performs in a number of different musical styles. He currently lives in Brentford, London. He performed in Gothenburg today.

LJdM

My big idol Nick Lowe performs in Gothenburg today and I want to see that. I’ve been goofing around in the studio with Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist, Jens Jansson and Helena Josefsson. Slowly but surely we’re putting new material together. I have a frame, an external skin that I try to fill with content. The feeling is similar to the one I had when I worked with Mazarin, something I do for my own, without compromises and much involvement. A feeling of freedom. We will see what it will result with.

Per Gessle

How many artists make their best albums after 30 years in the business? At our release party we talked about the strange fact that authors (mostly) get better and better, while many of our favourite bands (mostly) reach their peak and slowly head downwards after 10 years or so. That seems to be true for many artists, but not all. And certainly not for Nick Lowe (56), who played a couple of hours ago. At the moment, I really can’t think of any pop musician from the same generation who follows this unusual path. Any suggestions?

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

P, C & C have a party in their heads (V): Junk Musik release party

What are Christoffer Lundquist doing? Easy. While some Swedish artists sign an open letter to stop the downloading of their work, others find Internet a fast, easy and simple way to release music. This is the case of Junk Music, a publishing company founded in the spring of 2004 by Christoffer Lundquist, Jens Jansson, David Birde, Magnus Börjeson and Anders Mildner.

Lundquist, Jansson and Birde are members of the Swedish band Brainpool. Börjeson and Mildner worked together in Beagle.

Junk Musik became the first Swedish company to abandon the CD and release their first single online. The single in question is “Lady Gwendoline” by Metro Jets (David Birde and Magnus Börjeson). The song was recorded on Monday 18, mixed by Christoffer early yesterday morning and put on sale online a few hours later at the price of 10 SEK (approx. €1). Singles by Brainpool, Florian Horwath and Justin Winokur are also available via Junk Musik’s website.

By the way, Florian Horwath has premiered today his video When the light came around. The song was recorded at Aerosol Grey Machine Studio and produced by Christoffer Lundquist.

Florian Horwath is an Austrian songwriter and singer that lives in Berlin. Last winter, he contacted with Christoffer Lundquist in order to record his first album in the Aerosol Grey Machine Studio. Florian connected very fast with Chris and the other musicians (David Birde and Jens Jansson, from Brainpool). His style, that many compare to Cat Stevens, helped.

Florian has released his new album, We are all gold, in Germany and now Junk Musik will publishes a digital single, When the light came around (30.04.2005). He could tour with David Birde and Jens Jansson in Austria and Germany this spring.

LJdM

Welcome to Junk!

Yesterday, Metro Jets arrived at Christoffer Lundquist’s studio at 10 AM. They chose which song to record and got to work. At 12 PM the recording session was finished and the band returned home.
Christoffer started mixing at 7 AM today, and a couple of hours later Magnus Börjeson drove to the studio and got the file.

Now, we’re insanely happy to be able to present it to you. Metro Jets’ new single is magnificent. It’s called “Lady Gwendoline”. Metro Jets describes it as “Big pop in a big room”. We say it’s a big step for a small publishing house. Today, we have become the first Swedish company to abandon the cd.

Metro Jets single is now released. You can preview and buy it here, together with our other three new singles, from Brainpool (SWE), Florian Horwath (AU) and Justin Winokur (USA). You will find them all on our Singles page.

We have worked like crazy. We haven’t slept. But we were able to keep our deadline and the artists have recorded beautiful material. Now we will CELEBRATE. Our release party is at KB, Malmoe, 18.00 tonight. Join us! And once again, welcome to Junk.

Love, Junk staff

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

P, C & C have a party in their heads (IV): PG's View from the bridge vs. FW's Måla mitt minne

LJdM readers could remember one of the first works of the team "P, C & C": a song for the Oresund bridge.

Swedish musician Freddie Wadling (The Flesh Quartet, among others) will release a new album March 30. The album is called “Jag är monstret” (“I Am the Monster”), and contains songs written by other artists, like for instance Jocke Berg (Kent), Mauro Scocco and Per Gessle.

Per’s little contribution is “Måla mitt minne” (“Paint My Memory”), a mid-tempo song written for the “Mazarin” album in November 2002, but was never fully recorded. Some of the melody is borrowed from Per’s own instrumental “View From a Bridge”, written for the opening of the Öresund bridge a few years ago. Titiyo sings with Freddie on this song.

LJdM