Responsible
for one of the greatest releases this year Impressionable sounds of the
subsonic. In my mind one of the most exciting combos Sweden have produced in
later years, the first album proved a progression and was a springboard for
this one. A interview was a must,here
are the captains of space to fill you in on the past, present and the future of
First Band From Outer Space.
Interview with First Band From
Outer Space
First
of all a great salutation to your excellent new album Impressionable Sounds Of
The Subsonic, a fantastic piece in my opinion, how has the reactions been so
far from media and fans ?
People love us. Everyone has
given us a lot of positive feedback. All the reviewers are saying that we’ve
done well, so we’re very happy and proud for this album.
The
production of this as well as the first album was done at studio artisten, how was the progression of this one compare to
your first album We´re Only In It For The Spacerock , and fill me in on the studioenvironmont,
is this the definite studio to create the best FBFOS
sound do you feel ?
Actually the first five
tracks on “We’re only…” were recorded in our rehearsal room and only “Make
yourself…” at studio Artisten. The reason we chose
studio Artisten was that Johan was studying sound engineering
there and we had a chance to record in a good studio at a low cost. It’s
certainly not the definite studio for us even thou it is a good one. We will
keep on searching for new sounds and hopefully we will have our own studio in
the future.
Looking
back at We´re Only In It.. how was that recording process for that album and how well
have that disc been received from media and spacerock
fans ?
We recorded that album in our
rehearsal space lab. Our good friend Henrik Udd brought his recording gear, which he had just bought,
to our rehearsal room and recorded a few jams just for the fun of it. This
recording was never ment to be an album but all the
people we played the jams for just LOVED it! We’ got a lot of really good
reviews on the recording and later on it became an album “We’re only in it…” on
the Transubstans label. The song and video “Make yourself…” was recorded at studio artisten
later the same year, to be put on the debut album like a bonus.
Looking
back in time to the origins of FBFOS, how was the
band formed and what reactions did you have on your early demos
?
The band was formed in 2001
when Johan and Frippe both came to live in Göteborg. They grew up in the same town and had played
together before. Frippe has always been a space rock
fan and his idea of playing in this genre came true. It wasn’t until 2002 when
Carl joined the band that we started to function as a real band. We recorded a
demo called “Further Magic” and we sent it around to
different labels. The first response we got was from Scott Heller who still
answered mail sent to his old label “Burnt Hippie Recordings”. He gave us a
great review on the Internet zine Aural Innovations.
This was our first mark in the history of music. Scott Heller has now become
our friend and he has played some spacey synthesizers on a couple of gigs with
us.
The
title of this new one Impressionable Sounds Of The Subsonic, is it any specific
concept to that title, what is the main message ?
Sound and music affects you
no matter who you are or where you come from. We want to concern the listener
with our sounds and send them to outer space, we also want the listener to
influence us and they can do that with the Impressionable Sounds Of The Subsonic.
To
me is this album a much more progressive item compare to the first one that was
progressive but had much more of a jamsession effort
to it, this is wider, have much more freedom of expressions and is way more diversed, how pleased are you with the outcome of this one
?
The album is definitely a
progression from the first one. In different from no. 1 this album was bound to
be released on earth. We knew we had to step it up a little. With a little help
from other musicians to develop our sound and a lot of hard work in the
rehearsal room we wrote some good songs. We wanted to make a long album and it
had to be wide-ranging. We like playing in different moods and fluctuate with
jam sessions. We also wrote lyrics in three different languages just to stay
varied over the whole album. We are very happy with this album; it turned out
to be everything we wanted it to be.
When
I saw you live the first time I had not had a chance to check out the releases,
but I was stunned over your performance, it had a cool outcome, it had that
magic effect and it caused a impressionable atmospheric sound, to me this and
the latest gig I saw have really hit it on me, What is the main difference do
you feel between FBFOS live to FBFOS
studio ?
The
audience basically! The crowd gives us a lot of energy and love which we thrive
on.
I
rate the latest one to be one of the greatest items to have come out for this
year 2006, it have a memorable soundpicture from
mellow psyched out travels to ripping intense folkinspired
spacerock, how pleased are you with the variation of
this album and how long did it take to rehearse it ?
Utan att veta
and Gröna Händer had been
with us for quite a long time. The other songs we’re written in the last month
before the recording. Of course the four years of working together has resulted
in this album. The songs are still open acts which can sound differently from
time to time. As we’ve said before the album turned out to be everything we
wanted it to be.
You
play Spacerock, it haven’t been any combos since Darxtar here in Sweden to have managed to bring out such a
strong and intense performance, I have heard a few that have tried to make some
Hawkwind similar stuff but not quite hit it off like
you have, what was the inspiration in the early stage to play in this kind of
forum?
The Spacerock
scene is quite small and very underground. We want to bring this genre to a
wider audience and open up this musical world to more people. A lot of humans,
almost everyone, are fascinated by the thought of travelling in space and we
want to give them the opportunity to do it, at least in their minds through our
music.
Talking
about the influences musically and lyrically, what is the main inspiration for
you in the musical standpoint and what is the main subject in the lyrics?
Musically it’s in essence Hawkwind and Pink Floyd who started playing Spacerock in the end of the sixties. Their music is
fantastic and has brought a lot of inspiration to us. Lyrically we write about
everyday things that affects us, such as meetings with people close to us and
different social structures. We also write stories about space travels that
don’t have a connection in real life, these are just stories.
The
name, First Band From Outer Space is a great name,
where did that come from and how well do you feel that the name fits the
concept that you have?
It’s the only name for us! In
the beginning when we didn’t have a name we thought a lot about different
names. One evening during a party a friend of ours just said it and it was
clear, we couldn’t be called anything else. It was one of those moments when
you feel it is in perfection.
Talking
about the reactions you have had when have played down in
The Germans have bought quite
a few albums from us which is good. They seem to like
our jamming parties and they appreciate Swedish bands because we have nice
quality. It’s difficult to say what the reaction was on our gig since we
haven’t read or heard anything about it. At the time and during us playing
there we got a good response and it was good fun for us.
Talking
about the great cover on this one, the magic mushrooms, the
huge amplifier with the earth in it, the alien figure that is in there, it’s
pretty tripping, how did you get idea for that cover?
We asked a friend called Mikael Samuelsson to illustrate
the cover and this is what he came up with.
You
are planning a follow up to Impressionable Sounds... how is that going to sound
compare to this one?
We’re going to try another
way of writing our music. It’s not too different from before but now we have
bought some recording gear which we’re setting up in our rehearsal room. We
will record everything we play and then we will take the good stuff and make
arrangements from it. If we get the opportunity we will probably release some
of our jams, hopefully on vinyl.
The label Transubstans, how
pleased are you with their support so far ?
Transsubstans is a very small label. They’re working hard but they have a small
budget. So far we think they’re doing a good job but there are very few
possibilities with them. We hope to grow together with Transsubstans.
What
is the next plans for FBFOS, are you planning to do
any splits, any EPS, any other gigs, fill me in on whats
happening.
Right now we’re working hard on writing new music. We
jam a lot and record a lot. We have recently moved to a new lab at
First
Band From Outer Space contact:
mail: contact@fbfos.com
Transsubstans www.recordheaven.net