Scandinavia
has a pretty impeccable record when it comes to progressive rock and
pop as it was a key country during the genesis of prog-rock back on
the continent back in the early 70s. Now in 2010, 30 years after
the end of the 70s now, prog continues to grow in Sweden with
a whole new generation of musicians, over the past ten or fifteen
years. One band carrying on the tradition of the 70s with a
vital infusion of post-prog rock in 2010 is Moon Safari. In
the spirit of Swedish guitarist Roine Stolt and The Flower Kings,
and looking back from great European bands of the 70s like Dutch
prog-rockers Kayak, the second Moon Safari album, a double CD set
entitled Blomljud is just the ticket to take the bands
sound far and wide. Prog mavens at The Lasers Edge in New Jersey
rightly described the Moon Safari sound as a cross between recent
Swedish proggers like The Flower Kings with a touch of late 90s
Yes and a penchant for Brian Wilsons wall of sound vocal harmonies.
The first Moon Safari album, A Doorway To Summer was recorded
in wake of the bands formation in 2003 but their 2008 double
CD set, Blomljud is really something to behold. With all the
music written by the group, the groups four part harmony sound
truly sets them apart from many other prog-rock groups and in the
spirit of prog icon Jon Anderson of Yes, the Moon Safari sound is
really upbeat. With long extended tracks, with some that run over
twenty minutes, much of the Moon Safari music is written by the groups
lead vocalists Simon Åkesson (keyboards) and Petter
Sandström yet theres plenty of key contributions from
Pontus Åkesson(guitars),
Johan Westerlund (bass) and Tobias Lungdren (drums).
Clearly a growing band with much talent, Moon Safari continues to
hone in on their song writing skills and lets hope they develop
even stronger melodies for their big breakthrough release which is
coming in 2010 with the planned title Lover's End. myspace.com/wespintheworld
MUSIC WEB EXPRESS 3000 presents
JOHAN WESTERLUND of the group MOON SAFARI
Guitars Center Stage
Guitarists making waves in the music world,
their new recordings and gear!
Musical Background
Our musical
background as a group is very much fragmented. Simon, who plays all
keyboards and is one of our lead vocalists and his brother Pontus,
our lead guitarist, both grew up with choir music as their first form
of musical expression. Their father being a world renowned choir leader
and all, it was the natural place for them to start. For both of them,
a lot of the bands that we end up playing alongside at festivals are
as foreign as the actual concept of what is traditionally called progressive
rock. I think those ingredients in our music are very important. Ignorance
is actually bliss in that aspect, as they can look at what we are
making without the frame and the mental restrictions that comes from
having an idea of what the truth of a particular type of music is.
It frees us when we create songs.
The
other side of our background that certainly influences our sound is
Petter's upbringing in a home that praised The Beatles, The Byrds
and Bruce Springsteen alike. He was the one shaping the message from
the start. Even though at the the time of us getting together both
me and him probably considered progressive acts like Shadow Gallery,
Marillion, Genesis and Yes as the highest forms of music, his early
influences certainly shines through in Moon Safari and it will do
so even more so on this our third album, Lover's End, which
will be released summer 2010. The love of The Beatles and other inventive
pop bands like CSN, Jellyfish and The Beach Boys is actually something
that unites us all, and pop music is probably our common ground from
where everything spreads. If you listen to our music it's quite obvious
that what we are making is essentially pop songs, with pop-song structures,
but set in a musical context that allows us excess of 18th century
proportions.
What I'm getting at is that we are not traditional instrumentalists;
we are all really just singers, songwriters, and musical lovers. Pontus
and Simon and Tobias did start playing their instruments at an early
age, and me and Petter quite a bit later, but we came together as
a group because we had a common idea of how songs should be written,
and so the playing was secondary. Although, we truly enjoy each others
company playing both in the studio, in the rehearsal room and on stage.
Another thing about our background that has shaped us is that, except
from our eminent drummer Tobias, we all grew up in the same small
village in the north of Sweden, called Bergsbyn. We like to believe
that our mindset comes from that place, those people and the atmosphere
that we grew up in. It's our holy ground, our mental home, and even
though we don't live there anymore the place unites us in a strange
way and makes us one when we create. There must have been something
in the water.
New CD
The new
CD as I mentioned that we are releasing in 2010, is going to be called
Lover's End, but the way we recorded Blomljud and how
we do it now is quite similar. First we lay down the drums. Tobias
plays to a background which often is just one or two keyboards recorded
as a frame for his playing. We use Cubase 4 to record. Then the Hammond
B3, which we borrowed from Black Bonzo, the other progressive act
in our town, is added. Then the bass gets in there and then Anders
Petterssons pedal steel guitar. Anders playing is something
that sets us apart from normal bands in the genre; we use the pedal
steel guitar to create a certain atmosphere, and it really works out,
he creates a flow in the music and is often just improvising everything.
He had never heard the songs on Blomljud before the actual
recording and it's almost disturbing how well he handles the 100 minutes
music in his head, he's kind of like our 6th member. The acoustic
guitars then were recorded with two Neumann U47 mics; both close to
the guitar, one around the 12th fret and another one further up the
neck. The Ibanez 12 string sounds especially good using this technique,
it actually always sound good even though it is relatively cheap.
After that we move and work on the guitar parts and the keyboards
in Petter's home studio. The electric guitar is recorded through our
recently acquired PodFarm by Line6. That is a great easy way to save
a lot of money on studio costs, and as this pre amp is very diverse
and has really authentic sounds, its a great alternative to
the 1969 Fender Twin reverb which Pontus plays on live. Blomljud
was actually Pontus first album with the band, as he joined right
before we started recording. His guitar-playing has since become an
important part of our music and I dare say that on Lover's End
his position in the sound is going to be even more prominent. For
the vocals we've used a Neumann U47 for all our recordings, which
has worked really well for us. It has very subtle, very genuine qualities
and basically leaves the sound emanating from the singer untouched
and unaltered. That's our basic set up equipment wise when we record.
Favorite
Guitars
Pontus
used a Gibson Les Paul to record his electric parts and a Simon &
Patrick 6 string for his acoustic additions. He uses Elixir strings.
Petter, besides using his 12 string Ibanez for the acoustic parts
also uses a Fender Stratocaster when he adds some touches of electric
guitar.
I play both a Ric and a Thunderbird, and also on Blomljud I
used a Gibson Ripper for the most part. My amp is the Fender Bassman
100+ 4x12 cab which I've used on everything we've done. To me Fender
beats Ampeg every day of the week even when it comes to bass amplification.
The keys that Simon uses live are all from ClaviaNord Wave and
Nord electro 2; this way we get the entire spectra of progressive
keyboard sounds with only two actual keyboards. On Blomljud
we used the different mellotrons from the Nord Wave and the rest;
moog, piano, pads were all software. Tobias plays Pearl custom drums
with mainly Sabian cymbals.
Musical
Influences
Pontus,
when asked at an American festival who his influences were, he said,
off the top of his head, Mike Holmes from IQ. Actually, both him and
Petter are great fans of his sound. His earlier inspiration comes
more from players like Ola Andersson from A.C.T, Pat Metheny or John
Petrucci.
Petter greatly enjoys the work of Francis Dunnery, George Harrison,
Roger McGuinn, but also guys like Piff Williams.
For me it's Chris Squire that remains the top choice. His sound is
unmistakable and far more charming than that of any other bass player.
For Simon its his affection for vocal groups that stand out;
The Hi-Los, Singers Unlimited, Take 6 and so on. His favorite
composer is the legendary Gene Puerling; who founded and led the two
first of the aforementioned groups.
Tobias favorite drummers are Jaime Salazar from the Flower Kings
and Paul Cook from IQ; both chosen for their subtle and tasteful yet
surprisingly advanced playing, he says. But he also told me not to
leave out Phil Collins.
Upcoming
Plans
We will perform for the first time in England in March. That
will be a great experience. Besides that we are working on the third
album right now and following that we hope to be able to make the
trip across the pond again at some point. During 2010 or maybe 2011.
Web Site
If anyone wants to check us out our most communicative forum is on
Facebook; so you can look us up there. Otherwise it's myspace.com/wespintheworld
if you wanna listen as well.
And
if you're interested in buying the music our CD's can be found on
American soil at www.kinesiscd.com
or www.lasercd.com.
If anyone has more questions about the band or the music the email
is: info@moonsafari.se
A big thank you from the band! Hope to see you guys in the future!
Cheers!