Perhaps as a reply to the fans' demands, on October 30, Per Gessle started to publish old Roxette demos weekly on the Roxette website. All the demos that are being aired were recorded at Tits & Ass studio.
- "One Wish" (Tits & Ass demo, May 20, 2006)
- "Crush On You" (Tits & Ass demo, July 30, 1998)
- "Dance Away" (Tits & Ass demo, February 9, 1988)
- "My World, My Love, My Life" (Tits & Ass demo, December 28, 1999)
- "The Centre Of The Heart" (Tits & Ass demo, autumn 1997)
- "Fool" (Tits & Ass demo, December 27, 1999)
- "Dangerous" (Tits & Ass demo, February 1987)
- "Stars" (Tits & Ass demo, July 9, 1998)
- "It Hurts" (Tits & Ass demo, August 1995)
In 1991, Magnus Börjeson, Calle Håkansson, Anders Mildner, Benjamin Peetre, Jakob Peetre and Daniel Sandström, from Lund, Sweden, formed the indie pop band BEAGLE. They signed a record contract with Polar in Stockholm and released 2 albums in all Europe and Japan. In 1992, Beagle was nominated for best new popband in Swedish Grammies and The things that we say became a hit in Sweden. They had many gigs in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, Beagle transformed into Favorita and starts recording. The leader, Magnus Börjeson (bass and vocals) and Benjamin Peetre (keyboards) decided in 1994 to transform Beagle into a manic & wild & fast & loud new pop group, Favorita, with 4 members: Magnus, Benjamin, Fredrik Blank (guitar) and Conny Stade (drums). Favorita signed a contract in 1994 and played support for the famous band PULP in their gigs in Sweden during 1996. They also released their first single, Seven Comforts, but never released an album. Magnus talks about it: "The album was recorded over a very long period. Label negotiations dragged on and on. When the album was finished and the record deal was signed, the label was dropped by the mother company." The Favorita band members moved on to other projects (guitarist Fredrik Blank is in Montag Mania for example; Magnus Börjeson is in Metro Jets and works with Per Gessle and Brainpool). Now, 12 years later and thanks to Junk Musik, the long lost Favorita album is finally released in Internet. We are very happy about it. Visit: Magnus Börjeson, Beagle and Favorita Web and Favorita Myspace.
Now it’s a final recording. ‘Cause David has decided it is. That’s one of his fortes. Decisiveness. It’s not one of mine.
Of course we had to poke around with it a bit and add some stuff. But we started with that PowerBook recording. And you can listen to what we started with in the player to your right. Ah the wonders of technology. Same working title as a 1 1/2 years ago: AluBook.
And just now Apple announced upgrades of their MacBook Pro line. Did I hear anyone say synchronicity? I certainly did.
Let´s see… Metro Jets has written a couple of things on the blog and posted three pieces of music (you will find the player in the right column). But what are the sessions like? Are these two songs all they are working on? Are they writing new songs as they go along? What have they been doing since the last time we heard from them? In this project it is up to me – and all of you – to ask these questions. So go ahead: ask.
If you hate tech-stuff, don’t read this!
So Ableton’s Live is a thrill to track and improvise in. Absolutely super! Until strange things start to happen, i.e one strange thing. A synth that plays to it’s own beat. Anyway, I knew that we were going to have to move the whole project to DP for mixing sooner or later. So I did that sooner, to get out of the rocky boat. Little did I know that we were climbing into another. After importing all the files to DP everything sounded hmm…different. And different in DP is often good, but not always. The upfront feeling of the tracks seemed to have faded and after tweaking and tweaking it just sounded…tweaked. Oh no! “You’ve just entered the digital-summing zone!” Do different DAW’s sound different? Many believe they do, and I’m one of them. Something is going on under those shiny GUI’s when a mix comes out? But what? Pan laws, summing algorithms, flawed A/B tests, imagination. You can read your eyes red in the audio forums around the net. And I just did. You’re calling me obsessive? I have nothing to add to that…
The escape route came in the form of a 30 day trial of Logic 7. I own both Logic 5 and 6 Pro and fear them equally! They were not designed for humans. I swore to myself never to open Logic again. But come on, give yourself some slack, we’re having a digital-summing-crisis over here! Ten minutes after downloading the crisis was over. The track was back! Uhh, Logic is still ugly compared to the beautiful DP interface. So now we may be in for a GUI-shock but we’ll deal with that later… Let’s make some music… Track in DP 5 and Live 6, mix in Logic Pro 7. There’s a certain…logic…to that. (Sorry couldn’t resist)
Speaking of technology and music, if you’re in the Malmö region, don’t miss Junior Boys at Inkonst 21.00 tonight. It’s a Pink Flag arrangement. Should be good!
Junior Boys was brilliant! For many reasons… Thanks for the beer Magnus!
I’ve been playing with a man called Peter Von Poehl for a while and we’ve been supporting the nice members of Phoenix all over France. The tour is now over, but I’m still here… Well, now I’m in Lausanne in Switzerland on my way to Zürich.
The most memorable thing about yesterdays show was the two girls that came up to me afterwards asking for a baguette. This confused me at first since I don’t think I look like a baker, nor a waiter. They led me to the stage and pointed at the drumsticks and so I learned the double meaning of baguette in French. I gave them two. Voila.
In a week or so we’ll be joining Phoenix in Paris to do some more shows with them. I’ll try to learn something there as well…
All best from Switzerland
The other week we found something in a folder. “Robbie W’s bästa låt” (Robbie W’s best track, in English), What is that? When was that recorded? These kind of findings in the abandoned corners of you computer certainly raises questions. And we hadn’t hit play yet… And when we did, the questions really started to fly, like the birds in Hitchcock’s movie. Aow, can we do this? Ooops, but this sounds fun! Ouch!, does artistic consistency really matter? Or is it just another relic of what once was “the music biz”? Who cares? We? Anders, Jens & Christoffer? No one? I guess we’ll find out as we go along. In meantime hear for yourselves in the Player.
Jens said on 20th November: "Today we’ll start recording a new album with Florian Horwath who is sleeping in my sofa at the moment :-)"
David also wrote some words on 24th November: "Work is going fine here in the countryside. 14 great tracks down in four days! Cardigans-Magnus is cooking great food and serving wine as well as playing mean bass lines. At the moment we are however experiencing some technical fuck-ups but Christoffer is on the case."
Christoffer Lundquist, Mom & Dad (that's, Brainpool), will be in the recordings. Florian (where is his long hair??) has a new member in his band:
"Ja! We are recording at Christoffer Lundquist's in the fantastik birch forests of Vallarum, Sweden, and we happily welcome Magnus (his other band is called The Cardigans) as new member and magic hand on our wooden caleidoscopic band carousel"
Magnus is Magnus Sveningsson (Righteous Boy). The "German Cat Stevens" (although he is not German and he is no cat) has got a great band. It seems the Mom & Dad project is delayed and Florian's will be out soon. A nice band. And they enjoy it.
- Florian Horwath - vocals
- Jens Jansson ("Mom") - drums
- David Birde ("Dad") - guitar
- Magnus Sveningsson ("Righteous Boy") - bass
- Christoffer Lundquist ("Chris") - ? ... what's needed
We have no idea what kind of shows these programs are, but we hope they're good. Otherwise we apologize...
Hope you're all fine!
France is a great place when it comes to venues! They’re always in top condition and no one has even thought about writing their band name on the wall. The staff gives you cigarettes and provides you with coffee and more coffee. It’s all very charming.
After one of the shows some one told me that the airport next to the venue is crowded with deaf rabbits who lives in the grass between the runways and that the deafness has developed over generations due to the noise from the aeroplanes. Maybe this is a well known fact and applies for most airports, but to me it was new information.
I didn’t see any rabbits though.
Roxette Hits album will be released in January 2007 in th US, believe it or not. I'm going over there to do some promotion and to release "Son of a Plumber". Our music is played a lot, more than ever actually, especially "Listen to Your Heart" and "It Must Have Been Love," but do they remember Roxette? I doubt it. I don't know why I end up in the US all the time, it's a big and impossible country… But then again, it was the last time as well so…
Nothing really about Roxette's future right now. The slate's clean. It's a possibility but Marie can't decide now what to do next fall for instance, she takes one step at the time. I'm old and gray too now, but I don't need that much heads up. We do need at least six months in the studio to make a Rox album, maybe six months to prepare.
I am writing for two new projects: one in Swedish and one in English (a continuation of the Son of a Plumber project). I can't say which one will be released first. It depends on several things, I can't answer that right now.
From all of us at Junk Musik: Thanks for listening, reading, buying & watching Junk! We love you! Still thinking about the playlist for tonight? Here are some of my fav songs from 2006. Take Care & have a great evening!
- The Boom Boom Bap by Scritti Politti
- Flying Down Juniper by Lindsey Buckingham
- Saving Grace by Tom Petty
- Black Swan by Thom Yorke
- Perfume by Sparks
- Too Late For Us Now by Roger Joseph Manning Jr
- Western Skies by Roddy Frame
- River Duet by Madeleine Peyroux
- Accustomed To The Clearness by Jules Shear
- Ever Thought Of Coming Back by Kelley Stoltz
- La Costa Blanca by Josh Rouse
- Visit From The Dead Dog by Ed Harcourt
- Ain’t Talkin’ by Bob Dylan
- Spark by The Bird And The Bee
- I Made My Excuses And Left by Pet Shop Boys
- One Last Dance by Badly Drawn Boy
- … and of course Jingle Jangle Christmas by Metro Jets.