A few months ago, Paperheart interviewed Johan sigerud, frontman of My orchard and The Softeye...enjoy !
Are you busy writing/recording a new cd ?
We do have plenty of songs
ready for a new album already, and have about 7-8 songs recorded as demo
version. We are actually mixing a new set of demo songs right now to show
for our label and maybe also shop for other partners too... It will most
def take a while though, since Jon are living up north for the moment
to make music videos... He'll return in spring/summer and then we'll start
rehearsing for the real recordings...
Will it be closer to "5 years" or " ?"
Hmm. Not sure. I think
it will be different from all the past albums but it'll most definatly
have some similarities...
We do get a bit less and less "punk guitarish" each year it
seems, and right now i'm a bit bored with it so... We'll see when we start
rehearsing again, maybe the songs will turn back to that sound. I think
it might be a bit like "5 years..." in case of experimenting
with sounds though...
You've
been busy with other projects, right, lately ?
Yes. Mostly with my band The Soft Eyes, but also writing music
for movies and an electronic project with my friend Linus, that we call
Parakitos. We just saw that a crappy band released some trance cover under
the name Pakitos though, so we're gonna have to change our name...
The last years i've also been guesting the swedish electronica artist
Sophie Rimheden quite a lot on her albums. It's fun to work in different
environments and people...
Are
the other members of the band also involved in other projects?
Only Jenny. She has a punk/pop type of band that they call Norma
Bates and are bound to release a single before the end of the year. They're
quite busy playing live and recording at the moment.
How did it happen that you had a song on a PS2 game ?
We actually had two. Well, it was through our swedish label Massproduktion.
Microsoft heard the songs that they got sent to them and choosed "Too
cool for school" and "Alone to decide" to be in that car
game...
Who does what in the band ? who write the songs ?
I write the basics and then we all arrange it together. Sometimes
we find ideas for a song while rehearsing and build from that. It depends.
Right now me and Tobias are the ones working on new songs and mixing demos...
Why
always record on analogic tapes ?
It has a nice feel to it. A compression and warmth that digital
sometimes can lack. Last album "Silhouettes" was actually recorded
digitally and then mixed down on analog tape, two times, to get that result...
Are there bands/artist who really influenced My orchard ?
Of course. Eric's Trip, Sebadoh, Joy Division, R.E.M and Sonic
Youth was probably some of the reasons why we started the band. Influenced
by the do-it-yourself vibe and the pop tunes mixed with noise. I guess
that Peter Hook has been very important for Tobias bass play as Lou Barlow
has been for my writing and maybe also singing...
Do you have plans of touring abroad ?
We would love to after the release of the next album. But not
until then.
Do you have friends bands with whom you like to tour or which
maybe sound a bit like you ?
I think it would be kool to do a combined The Soft Eyes/my Orchard
tour but besided that we've always been very close to the band Leif Karate
and also toured Sweden together before. Well, there are so many good swedish
bands that we like that would fit perfect; Peter, Bjorn And John, The
Radio Dept, Sambassadeur etc.
Personnally, what band made you wanna start your own ?
A combination of Sebadoh and Sonic Youth.
Do
you do it full time or do you have to work to get money for the band ?
I work part time with authistic kids. That way i get a lot of
time for the music and it's also very easy to be free for shows and recordings...
Still on massproduktion label ? how did you enter in their team
?
Yes. Mats from Massproduktion saw us on stage way back when we
were like 18. He approached us and a week later we signed a contract for
3 albums. So i guess we're kind of out of contract now!
It seems like they wants continue working with us so i think we will do
this next album together too... We're quite close with Mats, have know
him for almost ten years now. He's a really nice guy.
What
are your feelings on your past records ?
"GREBO" was very much youthful. we recorded it when
we were 18-19 and jörgen cremonese who produced it really made it
sound youth like i think. noisy, feedbacks, big drums, sloppy play and
alot of energy. it was pretty much us at that time.
"5 years long and as tall as a dream" was us growing up in a
way. experiencing alot. we switched instruments with eachother (since
we thought we almost had learned to play our basic instruments at that
time). I play bass on like 3 songs and Jon synthesizers while using the
drum machine and Tobias guitar for the first time in my Orchard. It was
quite a bitch playing live sometimes, with all the switching of instruments
hehe. It was a pity that album wasn't released like 2 years later or something,
alot during that period had a sound very close to it. "5 years..."
was abit under rated and misunderstood i think, if i'm allowed to say
so myself.
"Too Cool For School Ep" Our biggest "hit" and 3 kind
of good but weird songs. "Out of focus" was played alot on the
radio too... Dunno what more to say.
"Silhouette" The first record with Jenny on it. Pretty weird
since she joined the band just months after the recording of "5 years..."
The latest one and our most homogenic release. A bit dirty pop music.
I like it.
if
you want to learn more about My Orchard and their other projects :
http://www.myspace.com/myorchard
http://www.myorchard.net/
www.thesofteyes.com/
www.myspace.com/hejtheband
http://www.massproduktion.com
My orchard - Too cool for school
My orchard - Meet me at the motel
The Soft eyes - Let us all act psychotic ( the demo of this song is on our compilation Hi-fi songs for lo-fi hearts )
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