Helena's first single (II): B-side - The moon is a grain of sand ...

According to Adela Toplean, The moon is a grain of sand, B-side in the new single by Helena Josefsson, is almost-almost displaying a cosmic fusion with Nature and a careful playing with the equivocal Powers Out There.

The song talks about a strange search. Helena has been searching everywhere: behind a couch, in Paris the town of love, under the weeping willow, wearing skis, climbing the trees, scratching hands and knees, under another pillow, behind a bar, in the backseat of someone´s car, under the shallow hellos, between sheets, licking the dirt of the foreign streets, underneath green jello, ...

But what has she been searching? The Big Power (?) that rules: the moon is a grain of sand in Its hand.

Helena also feels as small as a mite in the universe. And it makes sense because of the love: she is made to exchange some heat for motion. She doesn´t care where that Power takes us as long as she has once been loved.

The moon is a grain of sand could be inspired by Sandy Mouche's Paris Promo Trip in May 2006.

I´ve been looking behind a couch
I´ve been searching in Paris the town of love
I´ve been looking for you
under the weeping willow



I´ve been looking, wearing skis
I´ve been climbing the trees,
scratching hands and knees
I´ve been looking for you
under another pillow



I´ve been looking behind a bar,
I´ve been searching the backseat
of someone´s car
I´ve been looking for you
under the shallow hellos



I´ve been looking between sheets
I´ve been licking the dirt
of the foreign streets
I´ve been looking for you
underneath green jello



I´m as small as a mite
in the universe
What difference do we make?
But I want to be a mite in love,
I want to exchange
some heat for motion
and if you breathe I´ll feel cool
(Let´s change!)

Helena's first single (I): By your side

Helena Josefsson has released today her first solo single, with two tracks: 1. By your side; 2. The moon is a grain of sand.

By your side is a sad song. A girl is remembering with anger the end of an impossible long relationship.

She needed him more than he would know but it was not enough: there was no room for her kind of spirit in his home, although she spent years with the agony, trying to fit in. The hero lover became a marble statue and she feels he got what he needed and she didn't get anything: no real hug, no faintest sign of that she counted, no trust ... That's the reason why her sorrow has become anger. He is to blame because she loved him and could still be by his side. But now it's her turn to say that he can't come through or neglect her again. It's her turn to shut him out with this song.

Adela Toplean, from Sweden, reviewed it in her A_T_ blog.

Helena Josefsson is not coming from this world. She's completely otherworldly. She's mastering the imaginary and the real worlds with a very ferm hand. Her sounds are anything but usual, but the musical message has an indestructible coherence. A trained talent, yet amazingly fresh. She's not a "heard before"-kind of girl. I tend to believe that she puts it differently not only for our ears, but also for herself. Her music is definite and urgent. Once you hear it, you can't step back. No use of comparing it with Bjork. No use of looking for an analogy between her and the endless lists of grounded singers you see and hear all over our poor earth. You will come upon no similarity. I suddenly found her so good, I grew afraid...

LJdM

Helena Josefsson, backing singer at AGM Studios (XIII): Metro Jets Xmas Single ... very soon

Yesterday, fake snow fell on Metro Jets. Yes. This can only mean one thing: we are releasing a christmas single.

The song, which I think will be called ”Jingle Jangle Christmas” features Norwegian singer Vibeke Saugestad & Helena Josefsson from Sandy Mouche on vocals. The single will be released the last week of November. Some weeks after that, the song will appear as the theme in the Swedish tv comedy show Hipp Hipp. The new series is called ”Itzhaks Julevangelium”. Look out for a sneak preview of the single in our website Junk Musik later on. We can see the pictures from the recording session at AGM.

Anders Mildner - Junk Musik

Sandy Mouche's poems grow up abroad (V): quiet autumn - NYW in Italy, Martinique on myspace ... and friends' projects

Spiderweb suit,
soundtrack in New York Waiting (October 2006)

The Sandy Mouche song "Spiderweb Suit" is featured in the film "New York Waiting" by Joachim Hedén. Premiere in Italy: October 18th, 2006 in Rome Film Fest

LJdM

Welcome to the site. My name is Martinique Josefsson from Sandy Mouche, "G" Josefsson by the way... yeah. You can listen to my first solo song.

I am in search of a record company that can help me finish all the songs (12) and then release my debut solo album. So if you run a record company or work for one and you like what you hear here at my little space, feel free to share your thoughts with me.

The promo-cd will be sent around the world.

Martinique Josefsson - Sandy Mouche

Comments by friends:

My friend Martinique Josefsson has finally released a song from his, hopefully, upcoming album. Head on over to his MySpace (yuk!) page, check out the brand new song “End of time” and if there’s a beautiful girl/boy standing nearby, why don’t you ask her/him to dance and relive some of those fine 80’s moments. I know I will. No ass-grabbing though! The chaperons are watching!

Xlnt work dude! MySpace should add a repeat-button to their music player.

Björn Folbert, from Löddköpinge, SE
- folbertdotcom

Danyal Taylan (ex-Sandy Mouche) is now working in Malmö as graphic designer:

Danyal Taylan - Grafisk formgivning och service

We can see some designs by Danyal here:

Afgang sommer 07: Danyal Taylan

LJdM

Magnus Tingsek releases on October 25, 2006, his second solo album, World of its own. This boy grew up in Malmö and one of his first bands was ewing.1, with Helena Josefsson. We want you to listen to Tingsek. His friend Wranell's words can describe this world of its own very well.

LJdM

The war of our time is raging. The welfare states of the last century are crumbling. Ours is a time of greed, ignorance and sorrow. A sceptic might wonder; Is there really room for hope? Love? Life? Music? But of course there´s hope. We, the children of the third millennia, are it, and we couldn´t get a better interpreter than Tingsek.

Because the 90s are so gooooone, fuck the shoe-gazers, the indifferent & the blasé. We are a generation force fed with consumerism but starved of feeling. Magnus Tingsek is nothing but feeling. He loves life. Truly and madly and it seeps into his every song.

It was late one night after a gig just above the arctic circle. We were sitting in my hotel room downing too expensive beers and philosophising. In my usual vein of cynicism and hopelessness I had commented on the state of the human race when he suddenly lost it. He gripped me, shook me, as if to try to wake me, shake me. Trying to get me to understand the profundity of hope, the depths of love and the necessity of optimism. And that that, is all we really got.

If it wasn´t for the truth in his eyes and the sincerity, urgency, of his voice I would have laughed and shrugged it off. Now that truth of his is mine too.

This is his second album and he´s been on the road constantly since he released his first. On the first he was a prodigy that let loose all the songs that had been pent up inside him for such a long time. This time everything is new and has been recorded between gigs at breakneck speed. The trademark organic, living, sound of his first album is still there but like all great artists he has evolved. You can feel traces of the contemporary soul of D´angelo, the progressive rock of Dungen, the funk of Sly, the electrical echoes of Depeche Mode all in a supremely danceable, uniquely Tingsek style.



As eclectic as his times, Magnus blends perfectly into the thriving music&art scene in Malmö. Malmö, located in the Southern most tip of Sweden boasts the lowest rents and the best dj's. Naturally the city has become a centre for creative spirits and the parties in Magnus studio are legendary. Fittingly he shares the studio space with some of Swedens most talented artists, among others the painter Ola Kalnins.

Just as on his first album he has arranged and played most of the instruments on all the songs. But this time he has also brought in some of the most interesting musicians of the Malmö-scene. Måns Mernsten, Mårten Dahl, Johan Zaar and many more have added their tiny bits of flavour to this piece of supremely human call for feeling.

In many ways Tingsek is heralding a new era, both (the) musical and (the) sociopolitical. We´ve seen the end of cynicism and irony and the birth of neo-naivité. This is actually it, the death of callous despair and the birth & resurrection of naive hope. And Magnus Tingsek is the sound of that dawn breaking.

Mikael Wranell,
Tingsek's friend & co-wanderer

P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (VI): Hits and Metro Jets Sessions

Today "Roxette Hits" and "The Rox Box" have been released, with Roxette’s participation in the “Världens barn” (Children of the World) gala tomorrow and some other playback shows in November and December.

The two new songs recorded in June 2006 at AGM Studios are "One wish" (a pop song) and "Reveal" (a ballad). LJdM staff thinks that "Reveal" is a nice ballad (it sounds a bit 'weak' and 'empty', though). We agree Per's words: "One wish" is not a "song Roxette will be remembered by of course". We think the 20th anniversary is important but they should not have recorded new songs if the circumstances were not good enough. We are much than happy about Marie Fredriksson's recovery but the needs of the Rox fans, desperatly waiting for new songs, are not a good reason to record new songs before it is all ready. We find a lack of energy in the songs; it seems they did not find the way to their own sound. After the natural sound of Son of a Plumber, new Roxette's songs sound even more artificial.

One of the most interesting tracks included in the “The Rox Box,” the demo “Anyone/I Love How You Love Me,” is actually half a cover of The Paris Sisters’ hit “I Love How You Love Me.” The song, written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber, was produced by Phil Spector and was a big hit in 1961, when it reached #5 on the Billboard charts on October 30.

Per Gessle speaks about Roxette and about Son of a Plumber. By the way, Magnus Börjeson and David Birde, co-owners of Christoffer Lundquist's Junk Musik company, have begun the recordings of a new album.

LJdM

We have such a strong catalog of songs and we’re professional (read “old”) enough not to release any crap. I’ve always felt there is life in any band/artist if you can come up with the goods. We do our best. What’s there to lose? Getting a bad review? I don’t think I’m underrated! I think you more or less get the reviews and rewards you deserve.

It has to be up to Marie and me to decide what to release. If you have a band and want to release 2,000 demos, be my guest! I won’t argue with that, it’s your choice. And, down the road, a little frustration and confusion among some fans only makes the whole journey a bit more fun, don’t you think? Have another coffee! There was an entire CD of only demos made for the RoxBox but everyone involved (EMI people, Marie and Clarence, myself, etc.) fell asleep listening to it. So we decided not to release it and only keep some of the goodies for the box. I still think that was an intelligent choice. But, of course, in due time, more stuff will burst out, steaming, through the Rox Shower! You don’t like Mondays??? Well, Roxette certainly do! Starting Monday October 30 (and continuing until Xmas) Roxette.se will give you the opportunity to listen to some extremely rare Roxette demos, straight from Señor Gessle’s hidden vaults. Every Monday we will bring you a new special track, never before released. And yes, they’re all in stereo and no, you can’t download them, only listen to them.

The lively Marie is gone. Of course she’s a different person today. It’s naturally a different Marie today. When something like this happens one reconsiders everything. It doesn’t help how many gold records you have hanging on the wall when you get ill. It was scary. There are different grades of cancer and of course one lived in suspense. I don’t even think the chance was 50/50 for her to make it. It’s amazing that Marie has recovered. The singing voice is back at full strength, but there are other circumstances. She has a problem reading fast and trouble remembering things. Everything goes a little slower. Maybe it can be worked on, but it takes time.

Now Roxette is back, even if on a different premise. When the compilation became viable it was Marie who suggested that we should record a new song. Actually we haven’t discussed if we are going to do something more. I don’t know what I want to do. On the one hand it’s fun, of course, but I have no idea if there’s a point in continuing. It doesn’t feel so tempting to go on promotion trips and sing playback in Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid. Who would’ve thought that. Now we’re actually back, and have really no idea where it’s gonna end. We’re open to basically anything. So far a few TV’s have been scheduled. I’m doing quite a lot of media, phoners and face-to-face interviews all the time. One day I have to stop talking!

I always say that everything I do is coming from “the same tree,” it’s just different branches I use all the time. If you work with other people in a band (in my case Rox/GT) you have to compromise a bit, but that’s fine with me. In this case we wanted, and needed, a duet and a ballad and that’s what I wrote and what we recorded. And that’s how we sounded those days in June. I think the old Rox sound is dead and buried. For good reasons. From an artistic point of view it would feel awkward to walk in the same shoes forever. You have to change. That’s the fun of it. The two most recent songs are basically done in the same way as we did Son of a Plumber. Same guys in the studio, same attitude. It’s similar with my writing. I don’t write like I used to. Today I prefer not to make demos, for instance. And I’m much more fuzzy regarding ideas. They have to be really interesting (for me) to shine through… to become a song… that will be recorded.

It's been a giant step for Marie. It was sensational, at least to me, that Roxette recorded again. So I stepped up to the plate and I wrote a few songs. We thought "Reveal" would be the Big Hit, but in the studio "One Wish" flourished. Not a song we will be remembered by of course, but still as good as we could do under these circumstances.

I still consider SOAP to be my best work. It sounds EXACTLY how I wanted it to sound. It’s a shame for the human race that it didn’t sell. So many people would have loved it if they knew it existed. It’s almost double platinum in Sweden but it never really took off anywhere else. At least not in any numbers that makes an old fart like me impressed…

I’m working on new things, new songs, new everything like I always do. I like to keep my head busy. I would love to do another SOAP album some day and there might be some more Rox music in the future. Beyond that, sorry, but I can’t reveal anything more right now. But the hammock sounds nice… sunny beach even nicer…

I’m sure there will be more tours in the future. I like playing and singing my songs. I like getting the reaction I usually get from the audience. It’s hard to beat. It’s like a great go-cart lap.

Per Gessle

When we started Junk, we wanted to show that it was possible to record music one day and release it the following. Now, we want to show you some more. We want to invite you to a whole new show: the making of an album. Still, in 2006, albums are mythical. The whole process of recording an album is hidden in secrecy. But wouldn´t it be nice to actually be able to follow every step, to be able to hear the songs take shape? This is exactly what we are up to now. Welcome to our world & to the making of Metro Jets new album. Follow the sessions here at Junk in text, audio and pictures. We want your comments on this, so please, go ahead, let us know what you think. No one knows where this will end. Not even the band. But we start today and we hope you will enjoy the ride.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

We want to do a Metro Jets album. We are about to find out how, when, where and why. Easy pieces :-) For the last 8 years I’ve been using Digital Performer as my main Digital Audio Workstation. DP is a great linear DAW. A couple of weeks ago I tried Ableton’s Live for the first time and bought it on the spot. It’s fun and easy to use. It has more of a non-linear approach so it seems to complement DP very well. So on the hard edged technical side, the album is gonna be made up of recordings made in DP, Live and on tape at Christoffers’s place. Goodbye demo and hello first draft. So what’s this then? We’re abandoning the notion of the “demo”. We’re calling the first thing recorded a “first draft” and then it’s just onwards from there. Maybe the first draft turns out to be very special, then we’ll keep it. Maybe the first draft has some good elements in it. Then we’ll keep that and move on to the 2nd draft. Maybe the first draft is notoriously bad, and all the elements in it are even worse. The we’ll have a great place for that. The trash. David and me has always had grand brilliant ideas and concepts about what to record, how and why. In our thoughts we’ve probably made 3-4 albums and at least 10 singles over the years. Followers of Metro Jets releases can compare that to the actual output…and smile…or sigh :-) This time David had one idea. Have no idea! Write and record. That’s it. So that’s what we’ll try to do. …. and Metro-David answers some questions ….

Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik

What is it you want to do? – An album. We’ve been scheming for years. Now is the time to act! What will it sound like? – We don’t really know. We’re just gonna start and keep going until we’re finished. I’m as clueless as anyone about what this will sound like. It’s gonna be good though. Where does this idea come from? – From Norway, I think. Have you any rules for this project? – This project has been surrounded by different theories and dogms throughout. Now I think we’re down to: Lets use our inhouse equipment and talent (until we need outside equipment and talent!)

David Birde - Junk Musik

Ok, so the first day is done, and guess what? We’re starting with a cover! “Metro Jets” (suitable title, huh?) by Canadian glam-slime-dude Nick Gilder. The first sketch sounds like Prince meets David Bowie in a Miami marina 1982. But that says very little of what the final result might be like… Anyway, it’s a lot of fun and we’re really excited. Our dear friend Daniel Bexell came by and took some pictures that we’ll post here soon. Can’t wait for tomorrow (if Magnus just gets the hang of his new drum machine…) I can see his studio from my bedroom and I have a notion that the lights will be on for quite some time tonight. I think I will fall asleep tonight (after a couple of pages in Chuck Palahniuk’s excellent book “Stranger Than Fiction”) safe in the knowledge that he’ll have it all worked out for tomorrow’s session… I’ve been dreaming about the doobie brothers all night… scary indeed. Call me when you are ready to pop, Magnus.

David Birde - Junk Musik

So Metro Jets it is. In Meta. Wanted to try out the drummachine MicroTonic. Turned out it was fun and easy once I read the manual. But you try to put off reading the manual as long as you can. Don’t you? You’ve done it so many times. It’s like reading your tenth Beatle biography. You have to wade through all the “Liverpool after the war …” bits before you get to something remotely exciting. Anyway MicroTonic was exciting from the moment I double-clicked the installer. And now I have to pay up in order to make that annoying robot voice shut up. “You should consider buying Micro Tonic”. Kind of a nice touch though compared to the blasts of white-noise that most demo software fires at you every 30 seconds. All in all a good day. And a nice picture by Angry Uncle as well!

Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik

Cover-versions are difficult. It’s very easy to fall in the trap: soft song = heavy version / hard song = soft version or maybe super arranged song = stripped down version. All of the above are quite boring, so we’re taking a smooth song and making it smooth in another way. Smooth is however difficult. There’s a little thin line between smooth and rubbish. But as always in pop music, it’s when you get close to crossing a border (whichever it may be) but manage to stay on the right side (whichever THAT might be!) that you get the best results. Music that don’t take any risks is pointless and the same goes for lyrics. Questioning yourself and your work is (for me anyway) a majort part of the process. If you feel completely satisfied with a song from the moment you start writing it, up to its release, there’s probably something wrong with it… (Or you’re Noel Gallagher) (Or both.) Anyway, we’re slowly moving on. Today we’ll do some singing, to see where we’re headed…

David Birde - Junk Musik

Ok, so here it is: the Metro Jets project has started. You will find the media player in the right column of Junk Musik Website. This is where the audio files will appear. The band chose to start with a cover. The first thing they did was to try out some fitting loops to catch the smooth sound they are talking about. I have no idea exactly what they mean by ”smooth”, but I´m sure we will find out soon. The pic above is from Magnus F.E.E studio. Thanks for commenting on this project. We need your input. Spread the word, and we will be even happier. Cheers

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

Today has been a “do other stuff” day. There’ll be plenty of those before this album is finished I’m sure. And we won’t bore you with details about the rest of our lives. Tomorrow though will be a “do this stuff” day and hopefully we’ll have something to listen to. If it will be very concrete or not…let’s say…let’s see.

Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik

New week, new challenges… Work with “Metro Jets” - the song - continues. Prince has now left the Miami marina in rush, leaving Bowie behind. He went to Glasgow (!) and introduced his Linn drum machine to a couple of gloomy art students with badly tuned guitars… Yes, ok, enough! We’re moving on and it feels good. Soon we’ll be able to present more soundclips and by the end of this week we might even have started on the next song (working title: The Hymn). Thanks for your comments and, as Magnus said; please be patient with us. We’re as new to this as you are…

David Birde - Junk Musik

OK, in the player to the right of our web you can listen to what 30 seconds in Glasgow might sound like. And don’t forget, pads are the new black!

Magnus Börjeson - Junk Musik

Mom & Dad are Jens Jansson and David Birde, from Brainpool

Recording of a Mom & Dad album was supposed to take place this summer. But the Mom & dad-project is an ongoing process. It has not disappeared. We had to postpone the recordings to late fall. All music is written. Some titles: Was Ist Mehr Pop?, Childhood Beats, Frat Rock, mm … At the moment, Jens is in France. He’s playing with Peter Von Poehl as support act for top frenchies Phoenix. We all miss him desperately. Check out Peter: www.petervonpoehl.com

David Birde - Junk Musik

Like David says, it’s a little postponed. I’m in southern France and it’s great! Tonight we’re doing a show with Phoenix in Toulouse, which will be fun. If you’re in this part of the world, come and visit us! So far the shows have been really good, let’s hope that continues… But, in November it’s time for MOM&DAD recordings. En loop i handen är bättre än tio i skogen!

Jens Jansson - Junk Musik

P, C & C in a Rox-Plumber-Box (V): One wish and some lessons

The new Roxette single “One Wish” already got played in Germany’s radio stations on September 15 – unexpectedly early as the Swedish premiere was announced for next Monday. The video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, was premiered in Sweden on TV4’s “Nyhetsmorgon”. Roxette’s new single “One Wish” is the highest new entry this week on Sweden’s Topp 40 chart coming in at #26. “One Wish” also debuted at #17 on the Nielsen Radio Topp 20 chart.

LJdM staff has listened to the new song. We are a bit disappointed. It sounds very artificial, not special at all. We wished something new from the AGM Studio. Anyway, we enjoyed today's blog by Adela Toplean (Happy Birthday, Adela!): yes, Son of a Plumber is better than Gessle ... and much better than this 'One wish'.

Updated 2007: There has been no news about new projects of P, C & C (Per Gessle, Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist) because Roxette is supposed to be the 'central issue' this fall. But we have known that P, C & C have been since September 2006 in the AGM Studio again to record new Gessle's songs, mostly in Swedish.

According to The Cardigans, NONS record has released today a Swedish Indie Anthology featuring 42 tracks. It´s called Svensk Indie 1988-2006 - En Svensk kärleks historia. ( A Swedish lovestory) First track is Happy dead men´s Silent sigh city from 1988. The last track is The Concretes´On the radio from early spring this year. The Cardigans are in the bunch aswell, with Rise and Shine from 1994! And Brainpool’s At school (one of their hits) or Radio Dept’s Against the tide are also ther (2002, when Per Blomgren was in the band).

cd 1

Happy dead men- Silent sigh city
Wannadies- The beast cures the lover
Easy-Cloud chamber
Eggstone- Wrong heaven
This perfect day- This friendship of ours
Popsicle- Hey Princess
Brainpool- At school
Suredo- Average cell
bob hund- Fem meter upp i luften
The Cardigans- Rise and Shine
Hardy Nilsson- Hela hjärtat mitt
Broder Daniel- Luke Skywalker
Honey is cool- Georgia
Kent- När det blåser på månen
Fireside- Left rustle
The Bear quartet- it only takes a flashlight to create a monster
Cloudberry jam- Elevator
Souls- Expensive
Yvonne- Modern love
Drowners- Summer break my fall

cd 2

Bad cash quartet- Amuse you
Club 8- Missing you
Doktor Kosmos- Le punkrocker
Plexus- Elektroplux
Håkan Hellström- Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg
First floor power- We are the people
David and the citizens- Now she sleeps in a box in the good soil of Denmark
Hell on wheels- Soda
Silverbullit: Magnetic city
The Knife- Kino
The Embassy- it never entered my mind
Marit Bergman- This is the year
Differnet- Conflictionary
The Radio dept- Against the tide
Suburban kids with biblical names- Rent a wreck
Andreas Tilliander- back to the USA
Jens Lekman- Maple leaves
The Tough Alliance- Take no heroes
Audionom- DC2
El perro del mar- This loneliness
Frida Hyvönen- Once I was a serene teenage child
The Concretes- on the radio

LJdM

Roxette sold a decent amount of records in South America, but nothing remarkable. Maybe 30,000 records in Brazil. But when we released tickets we sold 120,000 - just in Rio. 60,000 in Sao Paolo, 55,000 in Montevideo. Totally amazing! Porto Alegre was like Albert Hall only much bigger. Someone in the band had the stomach flu and threw up on stage. That was fun. And after a TV interview in Amsterdam we saw a guy in a window yelling ’I love your record!’ It was Tom Petty, my old hero. ’We love your records too!’ we yelled back. Everyone considered us a one hit wonder when we broke through with “The Look” in 1989. But we weren’t in our twenties, we were almost in our thirties. We owned our own publishing companies, we had chosen our management, we kept a check on things. When we got our foot into things, we hung on. The climate of pop music is totally different today. Almost no artists get time to make mistakes anymore, it’s more of a product thinking these days. Suddenly Roxette stand out as the real deal. It’s for real, we write and produce ourselves and people know all our songs. When I was in New York this summer and went through immigration, the officer asked me what I did for a living. ’Musician’ I answered. Then he wondered if he should know about me. ’Well, I wrote that’ I said, and pointed to the radio which was playing ’Listen to Your Heart’. That was fun.

Per Gessle