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Interview:
Thomas Denver
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Here's another
songwriter from Northern Europe, this time from Sweden: Thomas Denver
Jonsson has pleased us with his "Hope to her", in the middle
between lo-fi and country-rock.
Thomas is such a young and determined author: he is already reaching out
beyond
Sweden and making his way towards american music.
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Mescalina: Thomas, I know
you are from Sweden, but could you describe more where are you from?
Thomas Denver: Right now I live
in a small town in Sweden called Grums, actually where I grew up. We have
this big factory here that's making a lot of paper and the whole town is
working there (not me though). We also have this great scandinavian nature
here with a lot of water and woods, that's a good thing to be close to the
nature, I think. About a half-an-hour ride from Grums we have the closest
city called Karlstad where I spend the most of my time, I got my band and
the record company there. So I'm living both close to the city and the
country. I like them both in separate ways although I'm enjoying to live in
the city the most. To spend too much time in Grums can really choke you.
Mescalina: Cold weather?
Thomas Denver: Yes, horrible cold
weather. I have been hoping for the spring to come for months now and then
we have one or two nice days and then it's starting to snow again. In the
summer the weather use to be great though.
Mescalina: Quite unusual to find someone coming from Sweden and
playing Americana … I mean, listening to "Hope to her" you could
say you are 100% from the U.S., your sound is deeply rooted in american
music: how did you start and develop this?
Thomas Denver: Well, I would say
the main reason why I sound the way I do is because I started to listen to
other music than I did before. Before I listened mostly to Swedish music
but then I discovered american. You know, like Bob Dylan, Bonnie Prince
Billy and such acts and I loved it and I still do. So I started to sing in
english in the summer of 2001 when I recorded my first self-released EP. It
was very lo-fi, I recorded at my student room and you have to crank the
volume to maximum to hear the guitar when you were listening to it. Then
after a while I built up a reputation after I have record a couple of EPs
and after I had performed a lot of shows. After a while I started to listen
to a lot of country music as well, and the mixture of lo-fi, country and
that I have things I really want to write about has been the way I'm doing
it since then. I'm doing my best trying to do something own and I think I
have succeded to do that the whole time.
Mescalina: Is there a real interest in Sweden for this sound?
Thomas Denver: Both yes and no,
we have a lot of acoustic acts in Sweden and some of them are selling quite
good. But in my case I would lie if I don't say that the most attention is
coming abroad. I can feel that it's a little bit strange that me and the
band gets a lot of really great reviews from some of the biggest magazines
and webpages in Europe, but still there's little attention in Sweden. But
on the other hand you have to remember that I released my first album for
just 5 months ago on a little independent record label. Frankly, I think
that people, press and radio haven't heard of it yet, I'm a little ahead of
my time right now, but that is only good. The thing right now to do is to
find ways and channels to reach out with the music. I got fan-mails almost
everyday from people around in Europe and the U.S.A., so I know there must
be a lot of people who can enjoy this and I can't really describe how much
it means to me. It's such a great feeling to know that a lot of people is
listening to my music and likes it. I appreciate that so much.
Still, of course there's interest from Sweden too, I have got good reviews
from most of the Sweden's biggest music magazines, so I guess I just have
to continue work hard and to write songs and things can start to happen. It
just takes a little bit of luck and a some dozens of great songs.
Mescalina: What kind of scene do you have in your country? How do you
see yourself in this scene?
Thomas Denver: Well, things that
sell the most is radio pop and on the independent scene we have a lot of
garage rock bands who's selling. To me who is fed up with the crappy top
charts I love to mention José Gonzalez who is a guy here in Sweden who
recorded an acoustic lovely Nick Drake-meets-bossa nova-record in his home
and released it on a new label and sold over 70,000 records. That's great
and he's really good. Jose´s album "Veneer" together with Songs
of Soils selftitled record and Bjorn Kleinhenz "Yeah baby whohaa"
is probably the only Swedish singer-songwriter and alt.country-albums I can
recommend. As I said, we have a lot of white sad guys with even sader
guitars in Sweden, and I am so fed up with them I could die. It's just pale
imitations of their heroes. I hope I'm not like that myself, I think me and
the band did a record that really stands out. In fact I think we did one of
the best records in the world last year, but hey, that's my oppinion and I
guess I'm supposed to think so. So that's up to the listeners to judge.
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Mescalina: Have you other toured outside Sweden? To
the U.S.?
Thomas Denver: I have been
touring in the nearby countries, Denmark and Norway some times, but at the
time most of the shows has been in Sweden. But right now I'm trying to book
an European tour for the autumn and has got a lot of attention from several
countries. Regarding touring in the USA I got some interest there too. It
would really be a dream come true and maybe a one in a lifetime experience,
so I want to at least release one more record before I go and be just a
little more experienced. I am convinced that this music would be really
appreciated in the USA too and that a long US-tour will occure within the
next 4 years. If I can keep this urge of playing, I think I can reach all
of my goals with just a lot of hard work and a little patience.
Mescalina: Listening to
your cd, it came to my mind artists like Springsteen, Neil Young … any
influence? Sounds like you really enjoyed "Darkness on the edge of
town", some Springsteen harmonica and Neil young, but at the same time
you are not going exactly the same way …
Thomas Denver: "Darkness on
the edge of town" is one of my top ten favorite records. It's such a
great piece. I love it so much. There's a lot of people writing and
comparing me to Springsteen in his Nebraska-period. But even if I think
that the Boss' acoustic moments is great, they can't even be compared to
the magnificense of his electric albums "Darkness of the edge of
town", "The River" and "Born to run". Man, that's
so extremly good. I believe that Gram Parsons, The Beach Boys and Will
Oldham has been very important to my own music together with Rosie Thomas,
Townes Van Zandt. I wouldnt say that I have copied any of them, but they
are role models in their way of finding and perform good melodies and they
have great voices. The melodies are so important, I think the lyrics is the
most important element in my songwriting but they would be worthless
without a good melody to carry them.
About Neil Young, the funny thing is that I started to listen to Neil Young
because everybody said that I sounded like him. And what can I say, a guy
who sounds like me can't be bad and of course he's very good. He's a really
important artist and songwriter. Listen to "Silver & Gold",
"American Stars & Bars", "After the gold rush" and
"Harvest" and you are just amazed.
Mescalina: How long have you been playing with the September
Sunrise? To me there is some lovely desolate in your music, even the name
September Sunrise brings some melancholic and hope together …
Thomas Denver: I have been
playing together with the September Sunrise since the summer of 2002 when
my record deal was signed. The name of September Sunrise is mentioned on my
records, and they do have a very big part of how the music sounds. They are
a couple of very gifted musicians and arrangers and we have a very good
collaboration that I hope will last for a long time.
Mescalina: The record came on october last year and after that you
have released also an Ep and a mini-album …
Thomas Denver: I must say that
you have misunderstood the order of my releases. The truth is that the EP
and the mini-album (with my other project "The topeka twins") was
released early 2003 and the album about 9 months later. So I haven't
released anything after the album. But both me and the record company are
looking forward to release more stuff other than just the ordinary albums.
Right now we are planning a new EP and I'm also writing a lot of songs for
the next forthcoming album. I'm writing a lot right now and I believe it's
a good thing to release both albums and more rare items, like
7"-vinyls. I can only speak for myself when I say that I really like
other artists who are doing it the same way.
Mescalina: How did you come to this record? Long way?
Thomas Denver: The truth is that
everything was happening really fast. About half-a-year after I did my
first self-released EP I was signed to Kite Recordings. After that it took
about 18 months to get the cd done. Me and the producer Carl Edlom (who is
also one of the guys who is running Kite Recording and playing guitar and
piano in the band) has really been working hard to get the record the way
it is. I know that Carl had severe sleeping problems for a long time when
he arranged, recorded, produced and mixed the album. He's done so much work
on it and the album hasn't been nearly as good if he wasn't around. But the
same goes if I haven't been around, so I think it is the result of a great
collaboration between Carl and me and of course the rest of the band.
Mescalina: Are you planning any tour?
Thomas Denver: Yes, all the time,
I want to come out and play as much as possible and I think it's possible
to do that as well. Things are going forward so fast right now, but you
have to remember I'm still in the beginning, in the start-up place.
Mescalina: If you should get the opportunity to move to the U.S. for
your music, which records would you bring with you from Sweden?
Thomas Denver: I almost never
listens to swedish record, but I should be able to mention 5 at least.
1. José Gonzalez - Veneer
2. Björn Kleinhenz - you go your way and I go your way too (EP)
3. Soundtrack of our lives - Welcome to the infant freebase
4. Stålfarfar - Barnatro med stålfarfar
5. Hip Whips - Hip Whips
Mescalina: The opposite: which records would you bring with you from
the U.S.?
Thomas Denver: That's easier, so
I write ten:
1. Jeff Hanson - son
2. Haley Bonar - the size of planets
3. The Stooges - Raw power
4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Ease down the road
5. Candi Staton - s/t (new best-of compilation)
6. Solomon Burke - We're almost home
7. Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
8. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness of the edge of town
9. Emmylou Harris - Luxury liner
10. Rosie Thomas - Only with laughter can you win
I could easily have written thirty, but this should be a great collection.
Mescalina: Anything from Italy?
Thomas Denver: You have to excuse
me, but I don't have any music from Italy at all other than a 12" with
Gianna Nannini and some punk rock 7"-singles from the Kraktoa label.
Send me a mix-cd with great Italian-bands!
Mescalina: I will do that, you'll see we have so much good beyond
the charts … nice to see there is some everywhere, even in places you don't
know … hope to you.
Thomas Denver: Hope to you.
Thanks.
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