Band Of The Week #0098 - Konradsen
This week’s Band Of The Week is Norwegian duo Konradsen, otherwise known as Jenny Marie Label and Erik Vildgren, who have just released their debut album ‘Saints and Sebastian Stories’. They took a moment to talk to us about the release and community within it.
Your debut album ‘Saints and Sebastian Stories’ is out now, is there any meaning behind the title? If so, what is it?
One approach to writing songs that we have is to just rig up some gear, get ourselves behind the instruments and microphones, and just play.
That was the way we wrote «Written to the Others.» And somewhere in this recording we found this line «Saints and Sebastians stories..» that Jenny sung. It’s the first line in the 2nd verse. When we were searching for the album title, we searched for good lines in our lyrics and rediscovered this one, and it’s just a beautiful line that sums up the record in a good way.
It holds a few different meanings to us. First it sounds and looks visually nice. It’s got thee S´s in it and it evokes a quite strong image. And it also represents the music on the record quite well. There are the stories we tell and Sebastian is a specific name. It’s something concrete, earthly - like the sounds we use, the samples, the odd noises. And saints is the more ethereal sides of the project. Like on «Baby Hallelujah» when we all sing and come together.
Sebastian is also the name of a dear friend of us. So maybe it’s got something to do with that too?
Where was the album recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the recording process?
It was mainly recorded in three places. We started the process of making the album in Eirik’s bedroom when we recorded «Dice». We tried to record the rest of the album in a studio, but we realized that for this album we needed to keep that bedroom-vibe going. So the main place for recording the album is actually Eirik’s bedroom.
We also spent a lot of time in Propeller Studio in Oslo, working with producer veteran Kåre Vestrheim. It was very good for us to also come out of the bedroom from time to time and get some new impulses and to be challenged on certain things by Kåre. And they’re so nice the people working there. We mastered the album in the same studio with Morgan.
The third place is the studio in the university of Oslo. While Eirik was going there we could use the studio so we recorded a lot of the drums there. It’s hard to record good drums in a bedroom.
What are the main lyrical inspirations in the album?
I’m very inspired by the people around me and the stories they tell. In general all the things that grab my attention and leaves me with something new. Life wisdom from a dad, a great album, a lecture, the news and of course my own experiences.
There is a huge sense of community within your album, with friends playing instruments and helping with artwork for the release. What made you decide to that?
It was not so much a decision, than it was an obvious choice for us. We are very lucky and have a lot of talented friends. And we wanted to ask them to help us with the stuff that they’re really good at, and we’re not really that good at. So the decision was maybe more to do with giving this aspect of our project attention in the way we talk about it and in the way we present ourselves. We’re both from community backgrounds and it felt very natural to us to include this aspect in the project.
You both came from musical backgrounds, but somewhat different ones, how did you end up meeting? Do you think your musical backgrounds have helped shape your sound on this album?
We met in high school in Tromsø, but we both moved to Oslo at a certain point. I guess we just started playing together and it worked really well.
I don’t think our musical backgrounds necessarily are that different. Our common ground in music is rather big. But our backgrounds are definitely a big part of shaping the sound. It’s the only thing one can do when making something, you got to create from the inside.
Now that the album is out there, what next? What are your plans for the next few months?
We’re doing a small «Saints and Sebastian»-tour in November. We have three shows in Norway. First, a big show in Kulturkirka in Oslo the 8th of November. We’re inviting a lot of our friends to that. We’re bringing saxophones, a trombone, viola, more vocals, guitar, visuals and a few nice surprises. And then were heading for Trondheim and Bergen.
Jenny just got her first baby, so it’s important to also prioritize that the first period. But turning 2020 we have a lot of exciting plans.