eggstone feature, stokage 15

(1997)

 

since i for the first time pulled out that piece of vinyl, from the beautiful national geographic inspired sleeve with its gorgeous backsleeve notes by the imaginary charles frost, i've been a devoted admirer of the fabulous three-piece eggstone.

that was back in -91, and the piece of vinyl was 'shooting time', eggstone's second 7" single. these four tracks indicated a talent beyond everything else i've heard from a swedish pop band. now, it's -97 and eggstone has released their third album 'vive la différence!', which is ten shining pop songs.

there is the sad 'il trascurato' with its elevating melodies, the charmingly happy 'taramasalata' and melancholic songs like 'birds in cages', 'never been a better day' and 'neil'. it's an album filled of fine melodies and arrangements that makes you long for summer afternoons lying on the beach, not a single problem in sight and the beach's so wide it hurts your eye. it makes you long for a past you've never had. yes, it's their top album together with the debut 'in san diego'.

when reading my tributes to eggstone, you could easily form a picture of the nervousness i felt before my meeting with them at vågen in gothenburg, where they supported the wannadies. on my way backstage peter, who is with me as photographer, says hello to someone. it's per sunding, singer and bassplayer in eggstone. he's on his way doing a interview for some fanzine or music magazine. then it's patrik bartosch, the guitarist, and maurits carlsson, the drummer, left.

after meeting them backstage and talking about the text on the latest album, which i think are their most well-laid lyrics up to date, the nervousness is beginning to vanish when i realize that maurits and patrik are the nice and polite men i've imagined. patrik's sitting on the floor in front of me, wearing one those shirts you're used to see him in. maurits' sitting beside me in the sofa. after trying to help me with the mini cassette-recorder i borrowed for this occasion it's a feeling of stillness which leads me to ask, even though i tried to wait, about some funny details that i've been wondering about.

when you rhyme with rain, spain and insane in 'birds in cages' it's the same words as is used in 'my trumpets'. i take this as a discrete self-commentary. am i wrong?

patrik squirms, and smiles in a way that confirms the suspicion i had about eggstone as a band that enjoys secret messages in their music.
then he admits. maurits, who has mostly been sitting listening beside me in the sofa while patrik's been doing most of the talking, lean forward and agrees. then they start to tell how they try to slip small references into the lyrics and link one song to another one. they like the thought of how there is more to discover for the confirmed fans, or for those who really listens.
patrik begins to tell me about a literary researcher that published an article about eggstone's lyrics, in the swedish daily newspaper sydsvenskan, who had found some things about "local occurrences" in their lyrics. the researcher found some things that were inserted deliberately by eggstone, others that he didn't found, and finally, he found some things that were not made by eggstone with a purpuse to create hidden meanings, according to patrik.

how do you work when you're writing lyrics?

"well, there are different ways", patrik says. "it can be a word, like rhubarb for example, a special sound or a mood that we want to put into the song. "
"in most cases we have a complete song, but without lyrics", maurits continues. "then we sit down talking about the atmosphere in the music. after that one of us gets the commission of writing the lyrics. but when we made "head around" on the new album, per just sung nonsense when we played and afterwards we put together the words that suited."

when the 'bubblebed' and 'shooting time' singles came in the early 90s you were quite alone in doing that sort of music in sweden. since those days it has come a wave of bands that has been influenced by eggstone in some way...

patrik begins to tell about how they before the making of their first (as he puts it) easy listening attempt 'wrong heaven' (on the 'shooting time'-single, later on the reissue 'at point loma' and the debut album 'in san diego'), hadn't listened to that kind of pop music before.

"it's now at first that we begin to explore the music that we've made people believe we came from musically." then he tells me, as an example, about how he for the first time listened to the 60's popband love only a few months ago and recognized some sounds and arrangements from their own eggstone songs (which made me think of some friends of mine, who made the intro to heavenly's 'so little deserve' before they even heard of heavenly).

how are your feelings when eggstone, who has been a catalyst for swedish pop, support the cardigans?

"well, we don't write any hits, but aren't bitter in any way, patrik emphasizes. we'll get by well, we do what we want completely without compromising. we're striving for doing everything by ourselves, and we're in that position now, i mean; the thought of selling a lot of records have crossed our minds but we don't compromise for the cause. it has been said that we make music specially written for japan, and that's so bloody stupid!"

when i say that it has been a long time between the eggstone records maurits gives the explanation that it takes time to do everything by their own, the building of their tambourine studios in malmö for example. the eggstone concept has become a lot more than just putting out records, patrik means.

this, i think, have made eggstone sometimes sit in the shade of the successfully tambourine studios. when i ask if eggstone gets less attention than their studio, patrik thinks it's a natural effect.
"we haven't put out any records in quite a long time, then the writing is about tambourine studios instead." then he assures me that everything's all right now, since they released the 'vive la différence!' album.

i've read that saint etienne will record their new album in tambourine studios. how did that happen?

maurits says that it was a girl at their own record label vibrafon records who met them at a festival somewhere, and the rumour that has been spread thanks to the cardigans' success in the uk. patrik starts to tell, with a smile, about the rumour that spreads around the world, and when i ask if it possibly could be saint etienne that admires eggstone he says that he don't know. “i haven't been listening to saint etienne", he says.

you have been supporting the cardigans in the uk, how did that turn out?

"not too good, i think", maurits says. "we have no distribution for our records in the uk, so there isn't many who've heard us", patrik adds. maurits says that there are a small numbers of fan.
"when we played there back in -92 nobody cared about it!". patrik continues and makes an simile between the attention they've got at the time and between some hungarian orchestra or something. today it's different, swedish bands receive much attention. patrik mean that it's based on that there comes a lot of good music from sweden today.

is there any eggstone cover on record?

"yes, there is a cover on 'water' by a japanese, hideki kaji, who has been recording his album in tambourine studios", says maurits. ''sometimes we get cassettes sent to us from girls in japan, who has covered 'sun king', patrik continues and seems amused about it.

you have been playing your first single 'bubblebed' on your concerts lately. are you going to do a reissue?

"no, it wouldn't be right to give it out again, in the same sleeve and so on. we think it's kind of profit-thinking to do such things", patrik says and goes on talking about plans for a compilation album, for release in japan, with some odd tracks and maybe some new, previous unreleased, songs. but there is no definitive decision about it, i guess one have to wait and see as usual.
what you don't have to wait for anymore is eggstone on lp since they've released the latest album on vinyl. patrik is talking with delight about the qualities of vinyl, the beauty of it, the sleeves, and i'm not surprised at all. an eggstone album should be released on vinyl. it goes hand in hand with their music and idea of making music, i think. then they promise more of that, which i think pleases you, eggstone admirers.

it was quite a funny idea, this songbook to the new album. are you selling any of them?
"we have sold a handful of them" says patrik, and adds that it was mostly done as a funny thing to do. it was a economic disaster, but they already knew that from the beginning. the embryo of the idea that people could buy the songbook and play these songs before the album even was released was enough satisfaction for them.

the more you get to know about these nice men, the less surprising this strikes you, i think. the fascination over such things, i remember per sunding presenting the songbook and the idea behind it, on the swedish tv-channel ztv. it was an enthusiastic young man, who showed such a happiness over it. of course, they should be proud. they're one of a kind, even if you sometimes think you've heard it before.

what has become of eggstone opposed to what you thought it would, in the beginning?
"it has been larger, more projects" patrik thinks, and says that there weren't any thoughts of doing records in the childhood of eggstone. and when i ask if they had any dreams back in those days maurits says that he always have had this dream of an own studio. patrik's more unsure and says he hardly remembers. then he smiles and gives a rambling answer, something about becoming a star and all of that, but he seems unsure about it.

"in the beginning one took short cuts that completely failed" maurits remembers, and they both are aware that they made some mistakes in the beginning. but they've learned, and say that they've come to the conclusion. now they do everything on their own conditions. and i'm sure they've made the right decisions. the brilliant bunch of pop songs on the vive la différence!' album is a fine proof of that.

what are you listening to?

"well, i haven't got much time to it. i watch mtv sometimes" patrik says. it's surprising i think, and easy to think eggstone's a band that listens to a lot of music (which they do in fact, when producing other bands), but they don't run about chasing obscure records. maurits says he listens to the radio. "there's so many who think of what one should listen to. we get a lot of music sent to us", patrik continues.

after a long time of discussions with patrik and maurits you realize how down-to-earth they are. you get the main idea, they're friends who together joined a band. they're still fascinated that one can play different tunes together and form something new out of it, i don't think it's stardom they're striving for, even if they deserve it. and when they enter the stage smiling, maurits has changed to that striped shirt he wears on the record sleeve, i always gets the impression that even if they should be forced to play at old people's home, they would do it with a smile.

many of their songs sounds quite different live, and when i ask singer per after the concert about this other dimension of eggstone he is thrilled to give his explanation. he says that if you compare the sound on a concert to that on a record they have to make longer stops in 'birds in cages' and in the same way 'never been a better day' is such a heavier song on their live performances. it's two sides of a coin, the way of expression that suits.

someone has brought another load of urquells and the singer from the mopeds, who is one half of eggstone's brass section, begins to joke about the grandstands at vågen. how he thought, after playing each song, that judges should show up there and show their results.
a girl from some magazine hands out a poll to the bands that are playing tonight. ''who in the band eats most" and things like that.

peter's going to take some photos, but it seems to chaotic at the moment. wannadies have started their gig, i hear. it didn't seem too important at the moment, but i left anyway. and i did it with a smile on my face.

 

jörgen svensson
stokage #15, 1997