INTERVIEW - THE MOVEMENTS (SWE)

Last autumn the European psychedelic music scene became highly attentive to the new album of Sweden´s “The Movements”, called “Like Elephants 1”. It´s a wonderful homage to the music of the sixties, but it sounds also very fresh, cool and psychedelic.

We got the chance to talk with the band about their music, so say HEY to “The Movements”:

Hey guy´s, great to have you here for an interview. First of all, congratulations for creating such a great album. Do you think it is your best, yet?

Thanks! Ever since we decided to do this album the intention was to do an album that was way much better than anything we recorded before. For some years we were very restrictive to do tours, so we could focus on songwriting. When we started to record the album we had to work very hard to get the sound we wanted and when we finally found it we were so into this progress that we just kept on going and made two albums instead of one. We started to record these albums in 2010 and then we worked ourselves through it in various sessions. Everyone in the band makes songs and we have become much particular in choosing the material to work with. That´s why these two new albums are superior to our old ones, the songwriting is much more solid and the composing of the album is much more carefully planned. We have worked a lot harder with our lyrics as well. During the years we also learned a lot about recording and producing so for the first time we really made the album(s) that we intended to do.

The reactions to your album are fantastic, all over Europe. Many print media have discovered your band after the release of “Like Elephants 1”. Did you expect such a big reaction?

Well... We really like the album ourselves and have never doubted that it's a good one. But on the other hand: to hear and read nice words about something you spent hours, money and energy on making is something you want but never can expect. We're happy that people like it, what more can I say?

The first songs are floating into each other and it seems like the band is totally under stream and passion to play. Is there a special meaning why the songs are connected?

We have worked a lot at the flow of the music through the albums. Everything floats together, as you hopefully have noticed. The important thing for us is that every song fits in a good context with the other songs on each album. It was important for us to create strong albums and not just compilations of songs, and that the albums would to create a whole, a kind of continuity, together. But the challenge was also to make songs that could stand on their own as well. We tried various order of songs but at one point or another, the albums created themselves you could say.

Sweden seems to be an unbelievable fountain of great rock music, especially for retro stuff. This is completely different for example to Norway, as the guys from Lonely Kamel once told us. What do you thing, what could be the reason for that?

I have hard to believe that it's something in our water or school system that make great rock bands. Or the politics for that matter. One of the reasons might be that retro sounding bands get a better or second chance if they're Swedish. The "Sweden-brand" gives bands wind under their wings and that makes it easier to keep working, do shows abroad and so forth. Bands from outside Sweden also play great music but maybe they don't get the same attention right away if they're Norwegian, Danish or German. It's a positive spiral for Swedish bands, starting decades ago. That's my guess, anyway.

To clarify: I'm not saying Swedish band get more attention than they should, I'm saying people should pay more attention to what bands sound like than where they come from, which unfortunately isn't always the case.

What where your most important influences?

On these albums we were influenced by elephants. I don´t know if you know this but elephants have ways to communicate which goes beyond our understanding. They can communicate with some kind of sixth sense. We humans don´t really believe that we can do that but I think that music is exactly that. A way to communicate with each other. Sometimes it works much better than all other forms of communication and tells a lot more about a person playing or a person listening. The albums are about how we can sometimes glimpse that spiritual communication but we seem to have a problem opening up fully to it. To get the whole picture you can say. With these albums we hope to achieve some kind of deeper understanding of who we are to the ones listening to the albums, if they are interested.

We also have some musical influences, for example these records:

Morgan Delt - Barbarian Kings / Black Tuna Gang 7"

Entrance Band – Face The Sun

The Pyramids – King of kings

John Coltrane – Interstellar Space

Gene Clark – No other

Bombino - Nomad

Bo Hansson - El-Ahrairah (Music Influenced by Watership Down)

Do you listen to sixties music yourself or do you prefer more the modern versions of psychedelic rock, bands like Vibravoid for example?

I don´t know if I would classify Vibravoid as a “modern band”, even if they are from nowadays, he he! But they are a great band that we really like!!

For us it´s not important if a band/record is new or old. We like to listen to good music and then its unimportant if the recording are from 1929 or 2014 as long as it´s good.

As we said, German psych fans have reacted very positive to The Elephant. Can we hope for some live shows in Germany soon?

Yes, we are gonna do a tour in Germany in February so check our calendar for when and where in Germany we will be. You can expect us mainly performing songs from these two album´s, we have so many songs now we like to perform so I think it will be a very cool set this time.

What about Like Elephants 2, is it already written or are you going to create new songs and compose some new stuff just in future?

It will be released 7th of March 2014. Both of the records are recorded in same studio sessions and have a similar sound and concept, but with different songs of course. Some days ago I got the test press of “Like elephants 2”, and it sounds terrific.

Thank you very much for you being so kind to give us this interview. Like Elephants 1 was the first time for me to get in contact to your music, but surely it will not be the last. I´m looking forward to meet you on stage next time and of course to Volume 2 of The Elephant!

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by Michael