Sandy Mouche's poems grow up abroad (I): From Sweden to Australia, New Zeland and even Brazil

Helena and Martinique Josefsson, from Sandy Mouche band, has joined the SKAP association (Föreningen Svenska Kompositörer av Populärmusik) in June 2006.

SKAP is one of three associations which each have two seats on the Board of the Swedish Collecting Society, STIM, together with FST (a smaller association of contemporary classical composers) and the Swedish Music Publishers’ Association, SMFF. SKAP was founded in 1926, primarily with a goal to secure and distribute composers’ royalties from sales of gramophone records – this was opposed at the time by music publishers, and SKAP was a response to this opposition. SKAP organises professionally active music authors (composers, lyricists and arrangers) covering a wide range of genres. From jazz to folk music, from theatre & film music to children’s music, from pop and rock to hip-hop and heavy metal.

SKAP has almost 800 members including such well known names as Benny Andersson (ABBA), Per Gessle (Roxette) and Esbjörn Svensson (jazz). SKAP is also represented on the board of the Nordic Copyright Bureau (NCB) which licenses mechanical and Internet rights in the 8 Nordic and Baltic countries.

Web site: www.skap.se

Hello! Surprise!



There are currently 427 bands listed in the website Hello! Surpise!- a guide to swedish pop - music made by Johannes ( hellosurprise@colorize.net ) /Johannes.

And Sandy Mouche is obviously there!

Sandy Mouche

Once upon a time on a beach in a kingdom far away from the northern cold a name was created. The name was Sandy Mouche.

What the creators didn't know at the time was that Sandy Mouche was so much more then only a name. It became a person. A person who lives in every member of the band Sandy Mouche. She gives them comfort and advice when life seems pointless and grey. Together they are an unbreakable team with a mission: To help people learn how to love themselves. It is only them you truly can be happy.

With sand still between their toes Helena, Per and Martinique returned from paradise to complete the task. They needed someone who could master the art of playing the bass and together with drummerboy Per form a solid ground for the band to stand on. Per turned to his older brother Ola, a blond prince with a history of excellent string handling. He accepted the offer and the bass was handed to him.

The band was almost complete and a messege had to be made. A message that could give the people a taste of what they were about to experience from now on and many years to come. A music demo was made.

They made it in a studio where they met Danyal, a peasant with ears made to discover pop classics. He fell in love with the tunes and the four members fell in love with him.

The band was now complete although a few changes were made. Danyal took the bass in his hands and held it like it was his own child. Ola did the same thing but with the electric guitar. A natural switch and the circle was closed.

Helena: Vocals
Martinique: Vocals
Ola: Guitars
Danyal: Bass
Per: Drums

If you're lucky enough to cross paths with the band the legend speaks of a rush of joy far beyond this world straight to your heart, right Sandy?

I think the information they have is from 2004(?), a bit old indeed. Danyal Taylan is not with the "mouches" anymore.

The last album is released
in Australia and New Zealand
2006 · 06 · 04
by Rajon Music/Big Records)

“"and poems for the unborn" was released today by Rajon Music/Big Records in Australia. We hope it will be nice weather there and good diving. Everybody hold your thumbs! The release date is june 4th. The strange thing is that Robert, one of my best friends, is in Australia just now and his birthday is june 4th. So now i have told him that he must travel to other countries to so that our music will be released all over the worldStay tuned...more info about Sandy around the world is about to come.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

Big Records is an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia. It was founded by Paul Paoliello, former Managing Director of Zomba Records' Australasian affiliate from its inception in 1999 until it's sale to BMG in 2003. Its artists include Tina Cousins, The Teenage Idols, 888, Melissa Tkautz, Groove Armada, Ashanti, Melanie C, and Hanson.

In Australia and New Zealand Rajon Music has teamed up with new label Big Records in a distribution deal that will give the opportunity to explore exciting new areas of music. BIG Records is a new independent record company established by music industry veterans - Paul Paoliello and Peter “Reggie” Bowman. Paoliello, the former Managing Director of Zomba Records Australasian affiliate and prior to that at BMG South Africa and Zomba’s Asia Pacific regional office in Singapore has teamed up with Bowman, a founding member of 90’s seminal hitmakers Southern Sons, an accomplished songwriter and more recently a multi-nominated ARIA producer and engineer.

LJdM

Congratulations for your Australian release; and for your European penetration as well. I wonder how do you handle the feeling of being-spread-all-over-the-world? ...How do you sense it? Is it a graceful feeling or a burden-feeling or a overwhelming feeling or all of these together? I know no band - at this very moment - that would deserve more than you to be spread all over the continents. And I mean it.

Look at you in the mirror, you have it all - the contrasts, the similitudes, the sound, the shades, the extraordinary, the ordinary, the spark, the words, the gentle tunes and the amazing out of tunes, the stream and the contra-stream.

And you can only get better and better. Everything that you have already done carries a big promise for the future.

Adela Toplean - A_T_ blog

It feels exciting, and we don´t know what it will lead to. We are so used to doing everything ourselves with very little budget here in Sweden, and it is hard to reach out like we want to. But now it is time to wish and believe that everything is possible! If we only have a long perspective of things I believe we will reach out more and more every album.

Thank you for the positive thinking!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Yes, Helena, I also think that everything is possible. And it's not about (indecently) expecting a miracle per day, but about making sure that every little thing that is up to you is properly done.

This way, you (and we all, in the end) gain a fine right to hope for further miracles. And I believe you did MORE than anyone could imagine even with the small budget you talked about. Your qualities (as singers, as an image, as composers) are beyond questioning. They don't even depend on the amount of money involved in a project. Now that a bigger release-opportunity came across this could only mean that your amazingly original (yet grounded!) musical message will reach more ears. Expect the best; you can hit people's most heterogenous tastes like no other.

I am not particularly fond of "positive thinking", I am just trying to stay objective. But when it comes to talking about your music, I could easily be "accused" of positivity when, in fact, talking about plain, unbiased truth. hehe

Wish you the best.

Adela Toplean - A_T_ blog

Hey what is with other countries for example like Germany and your new album. I think you will have a lot of fans here. So write to the radio stations. What are you doing at the moment, touring a little bit with Gessle, writing new songs or singing in a church at the weekend ;-) ??? So you get a big hug from me.
Muchos saludos to Martin.

Dominic Schimmelpfennig, from Berlin

So far Germany has not awoken but sooner or later hopefully they will! Seems like later, though... Yes I am singing in a baptising next week end in a church, how did you know? ;o)
I am doing some things in the studio by myself, too.
Have a lovely day!

Helena Josefsson - H.J.

Helena Josefsson, interviewed by a Brazilian fan
in Sandy Mouche's guestbook

Q: Hi! As I already said, I live in Brazil and am a fan of Sandy Mouche. Well, I am very curious. Where can I make download your music from Brazil? Is the cd going to be launched here?

HJ: Hello this sunny day! Not as it seems so far, but anything might happen! And of course we want to :o) I think on I tunes you will find it!

Q: How old are the members of Sandy Mouche.
HJ: Per Blomgren was born in October 2nd 1979, and Martinique was born February 21st the same year. I was born the 23rd of March 1978 and Ola Blomgren the 21st of April 1975.

Q: Is Danyal Taylan a member of Sandy Mouche? I see photos of him with Sandy Mouche, but I don´t see his name as a “member”.
HJ: Danyal Taylan is a former member of Sandy Mouche.

Q: Did you marry Martinique?
HJ: Yes I am married to Martinique, he is my first and only boyfriend who I met 10 years ago! He keeps getting more and more interesting to me! Hope I have the same effect on him :o)

Q: Which is your favourite color?
HJ: My favourite color is yellow, but purple and red makes me feel great too.

Q: I would like to see photos when you all were children.
HJ: A good idea to put in pictures of us as children! I will do my best :o)

Q: Do you like Cyndi Lauper?
HJ: Yes I love Cyndi Lauper! She has one of the best voices I have ever heard. And her whole person as an artist is so colourful and fun!! Time after Time is a wonderful song, True Colors too!!!

Q: Do you like Roxette?
HJ: Roxette is a band that I like even though I was more into Marie Fredriksson´s solo albums in Swedish. I have two on vinyl. I never bought any Roxette albums but now I have a lot that Per gave to me. I am like this: music that I hear all the time on the radio is not the music I buy. If I hear a song one time it will make me excited and I want to find the music even though it is not a big hit.

Q: Which is the secret of your pretty hair?
HJ: My hair dresser will get so happy about you commenting it. Her name is Johanna and she works at Boudoir in Malmo. Unfortunately I don´t know how she makes the colours!

Q: Kisses. BYE!
HJ: Kram. Have a great day!!!

Interview by

Evelyn Lott (aka Evy),

- from Timoteo, Brazil

Ronaldinho has nothing on this guy. No one kicks the football like the one… Here’s an amazing trick performed by Martinique Josefsson, the singer and songwriter in the band Sandy Mouche. You have to wait until about 14 seconds. The movie was shot by Robert Skytte.

Video by

Björn Folbert, from Löddköpinge, SE
- folbertdotcom

P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (II): Recordings at AGM

Per Gessle has left a new message on official Son Of A Plumber website where he comments about the recording of the new Roxette songs, which will included in the greatest hits Roxette will release this fall as part of the band’s 20th Anniversary celebration. Three members of Mazarinerna and Son of a Plumber are involved again: Christoffer Lundquist, Clarence Öfwerman and Jens Jansson. Helena Josefsson won't take part this time.

Christoffer Lundquist's studio has been very busy lately. You can watch the recordings of another band, The Men, with Chris as producer. Read Anders Mildner's words below.

Camera Obscura, a band from Glasgow, Scotland, have released their fourth album "Let's get out of this country" this month. "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken" is the first single. The album was recorded in several studios since September 2005, including the AGM Studios. Christoffer Lundquist features as audio mixer, but this time the producer is Jari Haapalainen.

LJdM

Marie Fredriksson and I (together with Christoffer, Clarence and Jens) spent a couple of days (and nights) in the Aerosol Grey Machine-studio recently recording two new tracks for the upcoming Rox hits-collection. It really sounds fantastic! Marie is in good shape, Christoffer is laughing all the time and Clarence has grown a beard! I’ll let you know the song titles shortly. I know you’re curious, my neighbour is…. Also, we did a great photoshoot with our old pal Jonas Linell the other day in a bowling alley. Strike!

It was in fact wonderful, and emotional of course, but also (hehehe) it took about like an hour, and then we’re back in the groove. It was the same jokes, the same… everything was like the same. So even though time has gone by, it feels as if time has stood still for a bit so… It’s not like it was before because, you know, Marie is somewhat a changed person, for all that she’s gone through. But nevertheless, she still sings very well and, you know, it’s just been a pleasure to be able to record these songs. If you had asked me like two years ago if this would ever happen, I would definitely would never believed it to have happened. I’m really pleased that we actually could do it.

It was great to work with Marie again! We had three fantastic days down in Skåne and we are very happy with the result. Everything was very easy, Clarence played keyboards, Marie prepared some coffee and Christoffer and I played hockey. I won.

Per Gessle

Maximum Swedish modband The Men in the recording studio Aerosol with producer Christoffer Lunquist recording tracks for Return - that will be released by Playground Music Scandinavia in sept 2006.

Our good friends The Men have released a new single called ”If I Can’t have You”, recorded by Christoffer at AGM Studios. If you let The Men describe their band, it sounds like this:

”The Men is a MAXIMUM R&B outfit from Lund, Sweden, and something of a small “supergroup” since they formed out of four already established Swedish garage bands, The Sinners, The Girls, Thee Expression and Colubrids. They got together a few years ago to form the ultimate live-band; explosive, stylish, tight, groovy, cool and fun (No shoegazers!) – a band the members themselves would love to see.”

Listen to their cool new song. They played this song twice when we had our one year party in Malmö in May. We loved it.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (I): The Rox Medley and Junk TV Opera

Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist (P, C & C) will be involved in the recordings of two new Roxette's songs at AGM Studios in June together with Marie Fredriksson. According to drummer Jens Jansson, the recordings has begun actually.

Per Gessle speaks about this project last weeks during SOAP European promo. The Plumber’s son opened his own MySpace page today: Gessle’s space. It will be a complement to the other sites, like SonofaPlumber.com. MySpace apparently has over 80 million members and is a must for today’s musicians that want to be seen, according to TDR’s sources.

In all quietness and secrecy a new single by Roxette will be released June 15. This single is called “The Rox Medley” and consists of a medley, newly remixed by Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist and Jimmy Monell (Shooting Star) at Christoffer’s studio the Aerosol Grey Machine. The songs included in the medley are “The Look,” “Joyride,” “Listen to Your Heart,” “Dangerous,” “It Must Have Been Love” and “Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave).” This is, however, a radio release only, and according to the info sheet distributed with the promo CD, something to start the Rox20 celebration with. The record’s call number is CDPRO 4392. This track will be publicly available as the B-side of the new single this fall.

By the way, Swedish people will be able to watch Brainpool's Opera, Junk, on TV, next June 8.

LJdM

There have been times when no one believed Marie was going to survive. She has been in a bad condition. Now she’s free of cancer and off her medications, but she has become a different person. That’s why it surprised me when Marie asked me on my birthday if there would be a need for new songs during Roxette’s 20th anniversary year. It solely depends on her, I’ve accepted it. The decisions are up to her. I’m up for anything – a tour, a new album – but I don’t expect anything. Every small step forward is good news to me.

We’re gonna do some new Roxette stuff in the summer and so I think there won’t be any Son of a Plumber shows, because I have to work on the new Roxette.

The RoxBox will be 3 CD’s, the core of Roxette’s music. It will have the most common songs as well as some hard to get songs like for instance “Happy Together.” And then we have the demo thing. And then we have a DVD thing, which is videos I think. We’re trying to get permission to release MTV Unplugged. It’s really hard, but I have people working on this, I’m not that involved. There are two songs we really loved, “See Me” and “Weight of the World,” which we didn’t include because we didn’t want to lose the tempo of the album by having these acoustic tracks, even though we loved them. So both of them are included here. So it shouldn’t have songs which are inferior to the others, it should have songs which are hard to get but really good.

The Rox Box includes a booklet about Roxette made by the best Swedish music journalist of all time, Jan Gradvall. He was our first choice.

I think touring with Roxette is a closed chapter. I don’t think Marie ever will tour again. I don’t think she will leave her family. But on the other hand I can’t speak for her, it’s really up to her, but I don’t think so, no.

Per Gessle

Today’s my birthday and I’m heading for the AGM studio to record with people born in the 50’s.

Jens Jansson - Junk Musik

On June 8, at 21.30, Swedish television Svt shows a documentary about Brainpool’s rock opera Junk. I haven’t seen it myself, but I’m told that we will be able to see everything: from the very first rehearsals to the big symphonic concert that launched the record. Exciting. In Dagens Nyheter, there is a quote from David Birde, where he says: ”We consume like pigs”.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik