Interview with Rikard Sjöblom of Beardfish May5/08

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I had the chance to talk to Rikard Sjöblom of Sweden’s own Beardfish regarding their newest album – Sleeping In Traffic Pt. 2

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PA: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for our website!

RS: No worries!

PA: So for those unfamiliar out there, how would you describe your music?

RS: Well, a lot of people call us prog rock, I don’t know, we’re
definitely kind of labeled it. I guess prog rock is the common
denominator, what do you say? (he laughs)

PA: Yeah, based on what I’ve heard it sounds pretty proggy! ( I laugh)

RS: Yeah, most people say that!

PA: Would you say that you were influenced by prog bands?

RS: Yeah, sort of. I was influenced by a lot of 60s and 70s bands like
King Crimson and a lot of Frank Zappa’s stuff and that kind of things.
But we’re into later stuff as well like Radiohead and Soundgarden. So
yeah, basically all good music that we’ve listened to.

PA: Can you give us a quick run though of how you got here? Y’know,
previous bands that you were in and how you met your current bandmates.

RS: Okay, yeah! Well, David and I we started the band together back in
2001, we were in high school together. That was when we started, and we
had a different drummer and a different bass player back then. And
pretty soon we realized that the drummer wasn’t that into what we were
trying to do. Because we started out by playing stuff that was like
King Crimson, and I don’t think he was very into it, and he quit. But I
played with him in another band called Orca [interviewer’s aside – I
think I heard that name right]. And the other guy, Magnus Östgren, the
current drummer, he replaced him in 2002. And he had a friend, Robert
Hansen, who later on started playing bass instead of the bass player we
had back then. 

That line-up has been consistent since then, but we had a keyboard
player as well when we recorded our first album in 2003. He played on
the album, but when we were about to release it he told us that he
wanted to quit. He had some things… some other projects and he wasn’t
that into the kind of music we were doing, so. So he quit. I think
we’ve grown as a band because he didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse
and stuff like that. And after that we started rehearsing our asses
off! (he laughs) So we became a lot better.

Then we recorded the double CD, which was “The Sane Day” which was
released in 2005, and a couple record labels got the rights for us –
and one of them was InsideOut. And yeah, we signed to them and released
“Sleeping In Traffic Part 1”. Since then we’ve been getting things
together for part 2. So yeah! I think we’ve been moving in the right
direction at least (we both laugh).

PA: I’ve been wondering, you’ve often been touted as having a very “retro” sound, is that planned or did it just kind of happen?

RS: From what I’ve understood… I think the thing is that we use a lot
of retro sounds. When David and I play guitars we have sort of “fuzzy”
guitars, even though they’re downright clean. And the keyboards are
very often like Hammond Organs and those kinds of 60s – 70s
instruments. So its mainly ‘cause of that, and maybe because of the
actual songs.

There’s an equal amount of influences from the 60s and 70s scene, but
there’s also a lot of the stuff that came later – like the bands I
mentioned earlier… The grunge scene and the rest of the rock scene, you
know.

But I owe a lot to, like, Frank Zappa and that might shine through in
the song writing process, with me being the main composer in the band,
so that’s probably one of the things.

I can understand why people think it sounds more Zappa or Crimson than
people think that it sounds like Camel or stuff like that. Cause I’m
not very into that.

PA: You seem to be very big believer in “Humor Belongs In Music”, eh?

RS: Yeah, I’m a big believer in that, absolutely. (He laughs) I think, “The funnier, the better,” you know?

PA: Can you tell me a bit about the song “South Of The Border”, speaking of which?

RS: Yeah, sure! “South of the Border,” that was… I had a rather “rocky”
riff. I don’t know how to say it, but it’s basically a hard rock song,
I think. And I don’t know if you’ve heard a song called “The
Gooberville Ballroom Dancer” from “The Sane Day”?

PA: Yup, I have heard that one, yes.

RS: Oh, okay! ‘Cause that one also has a kind of humorous theme with
the guy who… he just wants to meet babes! (He laughs) But he has a
problem because he doesn’t know any cool stuff and so he tries to
corroborate his ballroom dancing moves with more present day music,
like, y’know, Hardcore – and stuff like that – and turns it into a
success and gets the ladies!

“South Of The Border”, in my mind, is the main character from
“Gooberville Ballroom Dancer”’s cousin, who’s called Garth, and hes one
of those assholes you see in the bars, you know? He smacks the ladies’
ass and comes out with those great remarks like, “Hey baby, you want to
get it on?” (We both laugh)

PA: I think I know too may of those people.

RS: Basically it turns out that he has this hostile… Y’know, the way he
treats the ladies is because, downright, he is gay. Nothing wrong with
that, it’s just that… it’s just an observation, you know. (we both
laugh). And I though – “Might as well turn that into a song,” so why
not.

PA: So with all these stories, are these all things you’ve overheard
in bars, or experiences that you or your band mates have had, or are
they just things that you make up?

RS: Well, that song was downright fictional. There’s no truth behind
it, except for… the common psychology of man, you know? We’ve all heard
stories like that, the guys who treat women like sh*t and stuff like
that. Basically they have repressed feeling that don’t come out. I
think that’s the same with a lot of different things.

PA: You’ve produced your own records up to this point, will that
change after spending some time with a major record label such as
insideOut?

RS: We’ve talked about it many times, it would be fun to work with,
like, a producer or something. The thing is that we have a very “work
in” approach to recording. And we always try to record the basic tracks
live… together. And we’re not that into over producing sound. Instead
of recording a guitar lick and then trying to perfect it afterwards. If
we want something overlayed on a guitar track or whatever we try to get
that down right away. We just want to paint a better picture.

I don’t know if a producer would get in the way of something we’ve
always done. It’s that outside force. On the other hand they could
probably enhance it in another way

It’s a tough call. I don’t know! (He laughs)

PA: Recording your songs live, do you find that difficult? Not a lot of bands do that anymore.

RS: Well, I know a lot of bands – but I’m not naming any – who want to
record mostly step by step. We do that as well, but if we have the
opportunity we like to play it together because mostly we get a better
groove, and it just feels better to play together.

We overdub stuff – most of the time it’s not a lot – on some songs
there I play guitar as well as the keyboards, and for the songs that I
play guitar we usually record it live with the guitars. Then I’ll add
some keyboards afterwards. 

It’s because of the lack of energy that comes when you’re in the
studio. Which is the opposite of when you play live. When you play live
there’s usually a lot more energy, even though we have no keyboards on
those songs. The energy can be hard to transfer onto record and stuff
like that sometimes, so…

Man, that’s a long answer! (we both laugh)

PA: That’s cool, that’s cool! So, in previous interviews you’ve said
that you thought that Part Two was going to turn out darker than Part
1, did it turn out that way?

RS: Ummmm… I don’t know, what do you think?

PA: Well, based on what I’ve heard it still sounds pretty upbeat, but I guess I can hear that element moving in.

RS: Yeah… (We both laugh) I mean, I think there are some things that,
in my opinion, are just darker. Some of the lyrics might be a little
darker, stuff like that.  But there’s also the quirkiness, with like,
“South of The Border” and “Cashflow” and those songs. Probably… (he
laughs) not that much darker, but there might be some darker elements.
Some parts of “Sleeping In Traffic,” the song, might be a little bit
darker. Yeah, I don’t know! It’s hard! (we both laugh)

PA: You guys aren’t dark people.

RS: Nah, not really. (he laughs) not especially…. No.

PA: The title track of the pair, “Sleeping In Traffic” long 35
minute suite, did you have this planned, like “Oh yeah! We’re going to
make this huge epic track”? Or did it just kind of happen?

RS: Well… the thing is that that song was actually written in 2002.

It was prior to Robert being in the band, and he was always with us.
This is a little side story, by the way. He was always with us on the
rehearsals because he was such a good friend with the drummer, Magnus.
That’s actually how we decided that he should be the bass player,
because he sat in on the rehearsals and he actually knew that song
better than the current bass player who was with us at the time.

There was never an intention of making a 35-minute song. Yeah, now I’m
back on track again (he laughs). But we only had the instrumental part
in the beginning of that song. Then I sat at home and started adding
more things to it, and it came up to the first part where there’s
vocals. And I realized, “Man, this song is going to be long, ‘cause I
don’t see an end to it! Y’know, these harmonizations these vocals are
not going to end, they’re just going to build and build.” And it did!

Then we rehearsed it, and we do that with songs. It’s good to know when
the song is finished – where it’s going to fit on an album. So it was
“Sh*t man! 35 minutes! What’s going on?” (we both laugh) “we can’t fit
that on an album!”.

We were going to record our first album back then and we just figured
that this was not going to fit the first album because we had a lot of
stuff already recorded. And so it took three albums before we decided
to use it. When se signed to InsideOut we decided, “well why not go out
there with a bang, and do two albums named after this song.”

So that’s what we did.

PA: Great! So I’m guessing you’re pretty happy with it after years of working on it.

RS: Yeah! We actually didn’t work a lot on it between 2002 and 2005 or
something. We started playing it around live a little bit between
2005-2006, and when we played ProgDay in ’06 we played it there. And
the crowd was very enthusiastic, they seemed to like it. That’s when we
decided “we have to record it again!”, because we had a recording of
it, but we weren’t satisfied. So we did in January of 2007, and then I
wrote some more songs, and then we recorded again in December. The
album was finished in December 2007.

PA: Based on “The Sane Day” and the “Sleeping In Traffic Pair” you
guys really like to do concepts. What are you going to do now that
Sleeping in Traffic is over? What can we expect from Beardfish in the
future?

RS: Umm, I don’t actually know! 

The thing is that there’s never been an intention of doing a concept
album. Almost half of the songs are finished for an album like “The
Sane Day” then I figure that there’s a lot of lyrics that could be
intertwined and made into a more satisfying whole. That’s where I came
up the concept thing, and where I wrote a little short story for “The
Sane Day”.

And I’ve had people come up to me and say that they’ve found meaning in
those songs… and that’s good for them (we both laugh). I don’t usually
know what they’re talking about… but that’s the fun part about music!
And I know I’m the same. If I listen to an old Zappa album like “The
Grand Wazoo” where there’s such a concept, and I know that Zappa might
not have all those ideas himself. It’s up to the listener most of the
time.

And I’m not comparing myself to Frank Zappa! (He laughs) It’s always up to the listener.

PA: With the “Sleeping In Traffic,” speaking of concepts, what was
the concept behind that one? Or was it another one that just kind of
happened.

RS: Like I said, we knew that we had this big chunk of music, the
35-minute suite, and we wanted to name the two albums after that. And
then I thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if the first one could be the day…
and the second one could be the night.” So it’s 24-hours in a person’s
life… not to be intertwined with the songs and stuff like that, but
it’s the same person in all the lyrics. And a lot of stuff happens with
him or her… probably him… because it’s semi-autobiographical. (he
laughs) Y’know, you get song lyrics from yourself.

So yeah, 24 hours, first part is the day, second part is the night. That’s it basically.

PA: Your debut album had a lot of Swedish in it. Do you plan on releasing anything in Swedish in the future?

RS: I have actually tried to write something in Swedish after that, but
the thing is that I find it more difficult to write in my native
language… that’s strange.

Those three songs that are in Swedish are probably the best songs I’ve
written that are in Swedish. (he laughs) and I don’t think that I’ll be
able to top them, so. I don’t know, I could be wrong and it could
happen. If it happens it happens, but InsideOut might not like that
because they’ve asked before, “maybe you should have translations of
those songs.”

We’ll see. I don’t know. (we both laugh)

But yeah, when we wanted to re-release those two albums it never happened, and that’s why progress records re-released them.

PA: After finishing this new album are you happy to have it finished or would you rather be back in the studio?

RS: Actually we always want to be in the studio. We’re one of those
bands who love to rehearse and love to record. So right now we’re
rehearsing some new songs that are probably going to be on the next
album. I don’t know when we’re going to record or anything, but it will
probably happen sometime soon, I guess.

PA: Right on! You’ve been pretty prolific with releases since you started, eh?

RS: Uh, yeah! There’s been a couple (he laughs), 4 I guess now.

PA: I know you guys love recording in that cabin, oh and your
rehearsal space too. Now that you’re on a big label do you think you’ll
go back to these places or will you go into a big studio?

RS: We talk about possibilities because it would be kind of nice to
have someone else take care of mic-ing, and everything… setting
everything up. Then there’s also the “know how” factor – those people
actually know what they’re doing. Over the years we’ve probably picked
up some stuff and we’ve learned.

But if we go into a studio I’d like to go somewhere where there’s an
old grey haired man who’s a professor of what he’s doing. But it would
be nice to record with some guy, or girl, who’s a genius with what
they’re doing.

PA: I’ve read in a previous interview that Beardfish was just a name
that somebody spurted out and you just decided to use. What other names
did you have in mind at the time?

RS: Oh man… let’s see… 

PA: All those years ago…

RS: (he laughs) yeah… I don’t think I remember anything! The thing with
“Beardfish” was that… I think it was the former bass player who just
kind of started it out. And we thought, “aw, what is that? It’s a
stupid name. We’ll keep it, but if something comes along…” but then it
kind of stuck in people’s heads. And that’s the main reason to have a
name, so why not.

Then we found out that there actually is a beardfish, it’s a deep sea
fish that has, like a shogun mustache. You know, the long long
moustache that runs down (he laughs) It’s actually pretty cool! 

I don’t know if we had any other names, I guess I’ve forgotten them!

PA: I’ve gotta know, your album art is fascinating, who does it?

RS: Oh, you think? Thanks! 

Well, part one of “Sleeping In Traffic”, that painting was made by…
like long ago, in 2002, by David’s then girlfriend – he had a
girlfriend named Hanna – We asked her “hey could you do something for
us?” because we needed something for a demo or something. And she just
painted this man who was walking a fish on a leash, and we thought that
was really cool… but the we didn’t use it, I don’t know why… it’s very
strange, but we got to use it on the first album for InsideOut. That
was nice, anyways.

And you know the layout - That’s David’s department, he always does
that. He actually studied some stuff, he’s educated in screen-printing,
he was studying that for a couple of years, so. He knows what he’s
doing with, like, photoshop and those kind of programs.

We just tell him “hey, we should have this,” and he takes it and goes off and does something.

PA: You guys are quite the sight to see live, are there any plans for a DVD in the near or far future?

RS: The thing is that we’ve played some shows, but there’s not a lot
available yet because… how should I put this… we want to save the money
because we have to pay for that stuff ourselves.

If we’re going to hire a camera team we should do it when we’ve been on the road for some time… and plan it for some cool venue.

PA: I’m coming to my last questions now… one of the would be – What’s the last CD you listened to?

RS: oh, the last CD I listened to was actually earlier today was with
Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger… I think the CD’s called Trinity or
something like that. It’s from the late 60s, probably 68 or 69. They
play covers on it, I think they play ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ by The Band
and “light my fire” by the Doors and stuff like that.

PA: Any final words for the fans and the readers and everyone out there?

RS: Well… no. It’s nice that we exist! (we both laugh) them too!

PA: Final thoughts on the new album?

RS: There’s something that I wrote in the liner notes in the booklet,
we’re really satisfied with the album, and we feel it’s our best one
yet. But maybe the songs are a bit trickier to get into at first. But
if you give them a chance, they’ll grow on you, because they did on us.
So… if you’re anything like us you’ll like them! (he laughs)

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Special thanks to Rikard for giving us this interviews, and best of luck
to him and Beardfish in the future!

And another thanks to our leads at SPV/InsideOut for setting all this up.

Check out the band's mySpace page here - The new album will be out on May 20th, 2008. Check it out!

Edited by King By-Tor - May 06 2008 at 03:22