Solen. Photo by Marlene Magnussen.
It’s impossible to avoid puns when writing about Solen the band because solen means the sun in Swedish. Not like The Sun, the tabloid paper, but the sun, the source of all life. In Sweden, Solen are, here’s one pun, the brightest band to come out of their genre in a long, long time – despite their pretty indifferent and dark lyrics.
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Erik, Nils, Olle and Gustav are four 20-something boys from Gävle. It’s a city where, at least in the late 90s/early 00s when I was something of a jailbait, everybody who didn’t listen to hip-hop, listened to rock bands such as Jumper or kent. And those who refused pop, mostly listened to Broder Daniel. Although this is a broad generalisation, these bands somehow defined the teenage years of plenty of Swedish kids growing up in small towns. May it be Gävle on the east coast or Båstad on the west coast.
So when Solen released their second – dubbed their debut – album Till dom som bryr sig in October last year, an entire generation of now-adults welcomed their sound with open arms. Not because they are copycats of kent; they’re not. But rather because they’ve given new life to a musical style that most of us associate with nostalgia.
Last year in Norway however, Solen’s sound wasn’t associated with contemporary, resurrected rock in the same way as it was/is in Sweden. In the month after their album was released, the band went on a three-gig tour in Norway. This has been captured in Simon Sved’s three-part documentary Til de som bryr seg, which we’re premiering the first part of today, below.
Last week, I had a talk with the band over Skype, just ahead of the Swedish Grammis. They were nominated for Rock of the Year alongside Hurula, Hello Saferide, and kent.**** Here’s our conversation.
Noisey: So how does it feel to be nominated alongside kent?
Olle: I guess it feels pretty fun. Or It feels great, but that [we’re nominated alongside] kent, I don’t know… That’s fun as well.
I don’t want to go all deep on the kent references, but I think it feels like you guys have been listening to kent, I don’t know, maybe when you were younger?
Olle: Yeah…
Gustav: We listened to kent today.
Olle: Did we? Our older siblings did when we were young.
Gustav: Vapen & Ammunition was my first record [with kent].
Is it all a coincidence that you sometimes sound a bit like kent?
Olle: Maybe not that much of a coincidence. But it’s more of a coincidence than what it was meant for it to be.
But say you won over kent tonight, how would that feel?
Olle: It would feel fun. Eh… I don’t know…
Gustav: I think that would feel like a triumph.
Olle: Yeah, I guess it’s a triumph. I think it would feel even better to win over Hurula.
Gustav: But he’s really nice.
Olle: Yeah, he’s nice but, it feels like he’s a popular dude.
Is Masshysteri something you’ve been listening to a lot?
Olle: Erik has.
Erik: Yeah, but not more than kent. I listened a lot to their second record. That’s good! I wouldn’t say it’s been a source for inspiration though.
What exactly is your source for inspiration?
Olle: I don’t know. Mixed rock and pop. It depends on who you ask, but now it’s me who’s talking so I can answer for me. Iron Maiden, and like, well, that kind of music you know. None of us are listening much to the kind of music that we’re playing. But it’s that kind of music that we happened to know how to play best. Or pretty well, compared to the other.
Why do you think you’re better at doing that kind of music? Is it because of the city, Gävle, you grew up in? Like, the small-town life, or the high school you went to or…?
Olle: Yeah, it could be that. I think so. And that it’s pretty simple music. It hasn’t demanded much from us, more than a good voice and a good chorus.
Gustav: If you play similar music to Iron Maiden, you have to be able to know how to master it.
Olle: And we don’t master that kind of music. We play the kind of music we know how to and what’s easiest. It’s not only that we know how to play the instruments within that genre. But we’ve found our voice, too.
I like you voice. And I like your lyrics, too. When you write that kind of melancholic and border-depressing lyrics, how do you guys make sure that your lyrics don’t become too geeky? How does that process look like? Do you argue about synonyms and stuff?
Olle: That’s a good question…
Gustav: I don’t know if I’ve been thinking much about that, actually.
Olle: When we’ve been sitting in the kitchen in Aspudden, there have been times when we’ve been like, “no, that sentence is way too geeky, remove that.”
So you’ve actually been thinking in those terms, huh.
Olle: Definitely.
Gustav: I think that when you write about the kind of things we write about, there will always be people who think we’re geeky. I’m sure there are plenty of people who think we’re geeks. But we obviously shouldn’t be too much of geeks.
Do you have a line or two that happened to be on your album despite that you didn’t agree about whether it should have been or not?
Olle: Probably not the occasional… But if we should look at ourselves from a self-critical point of view, it’s always, “You and Me, Me and You and You and Me and You.” The lyrics are always about you or me.
Gustav: The lyrical dilemma that I remember most is that we discussed whether we were going to use Skåra [slit] or Fåra [groove] ‘cause all we thought about was stjärtskåra [bum slit].” [Laughs]
Haha. Let’s talk about the documentary. How come you went on a tour in Norway so early on in your career? Considering that your lyrics are in Swedish, and your pretty Swedish sound.
Olle: We have this connection with Norway… Our previous management is Norwegian and it was their Sweden office that initially picked us up. They are in touch with our Norwegian booking agent. I guess that’s why we even have a Norwegian booking agent at all. And he likes us… And those who make decisions in Norway, or whatever you should call them, they like us.
Gustav: But those who don’t make decisions…
Olle: Yeah, they didn’t seem to know much about what people in Norway dig.
What do people in Norway dig?
Olle: The same as we dig in Sweden I guess, it’s just that we weren’t big enough. I mean, the three guys who went to see us seemed to really enjoy our music.
Gustav: Yeah, but they were Swedish.
Olle: Yeah, that’s right. But at our gig in Bergen, there were like 20 people, and they seemed to really dig us. So overall: the people who attended our gigs really liked us. But there weren’t many people attending. I guess it all comes down to an error of judgement to go [to Norway].
Gustav: I mean the evening before leaving we weren’t sure about it at all. But we did…
How does it feel now when it’s all over and done? Does it feel like a good experience, or does it only feel like a heavy weight on your shoulders?
Olle: Well, it doesn’t feel like a conquest. But it was fun. We had fun. We got to value other things such as the Norwegian countryside, which is lovely. And things such as having fun in the car. And sleep at hotels.
Gustav: Yeah, we got to see much.
Olle: It wasn’t fun to gig. But we had built this myth around Norway – that it’s supposed to be pretty, which it was.
Gustav: I think it’s a good thing to go and do these type of failures together. I think we’re going to be friends for a longer time thanks to us doing this trip.
Have you guys gone through things that have made you doubt about whether you should stay friends or not since you became Solen?
Gustav: Yeah.
Olle: We’ve been through things both when we’ve been rehearsing and outside of that type of environment. So both our friendship and band constellation have been going through some tests. But that’s the way it is whether you play in a band or own a company together. Sometimes you’ll have to put the friendship on the side.
Gustav: Whatever it is that you do together you have to find a way to get along. And all of us four have pretty strong desires. There’s no point in trying to hide that we have to battle with each other in a way. Being good friends means that you have the right to be annoyed with each other. I guess people don’t have to go though that thing if they are solo artists.
So how was it to work together with a fifth person, Stefan Brändström? He produced your album, right?
Olle: Do you know him?
No, but I’ve interviewed bands that have been working with him in the past. What kind of question is that? Is there something you think I should know about him?
Olle: [Laughs] Nah. I think it was fun.
Gustav: Yes it was for sure.
Olle: He’s the first producer we’ve ever worked with so we don’t have much to compare with. I think it’s healthy to work with several different producers, so if there will be a next album, we might work with someone else.
It almost sounds as if your experience this time wasn’t very positive.
Olle: It was, but I think that we had a pretty naive picture of how it would be like.
Gustav: I’m really happy with how it all turned out in the end, but then again, it didn’t exactly turn out the way we thought it would have.
Olle: But maybe it never does. We’ve barely done this. But either way, we have one friendship more, which is nice. At least I hear from him from time to time. We text each other.
Have you listen to albums that he’s produced before you worked with him?
Olle: No.
Gustav: I have a bit. Holograms!
But you’re happy with your album?
Olle: Yes.
Great. That’s all that matters, right? Good luck tonight.
Watch part one of the Solen documentary Til de som bryr seg above. Listen to Solen’s album Till dom som bryr sig on Spotify. Listen to their first album, Solen, too – it’s great.
***kent won the Grammis for Rock of the Year, which means they’ve won most Grammis than any other artist in Swedish Grammis history…
