Interview I/E, Issue no. 10, Spring 1996 Conducted by Darren Bergstein Anekdoten aren't the first progressive band to use the muscle and sinew of King Crimson as raw material, but they're easily one of the most accomplished, having already established a formidable recording style after only two albums. Nucleus, the band's follow-up to their dynamic debut Vemod, already relegates Crimson to fading memory - in a relatively short time, Anekdoten's complex musical schemes, embracing not only dark art-rock but elements of metal and free jazz to boot, have situated them on a contemporary pivot that, as the century draws to a close, seems to be pointing in all the right directions. Bassist Jan Erik Liljeström reveals the band's different shades of red. Where did the band name come from and what does it mean? Back in 1990, before Anna Sofi (Dahlberg, cellist/mellotronist) had joined the group, we played King Crimson covers under the not-too-serious name King Edward, which at least in Sweden is a type of potatoes. With Anna Sofi we started to concentrate more on our own material and because of this change of direction we thought it would be appropriate to change the band's name. We all made lists of name suggestions and examined the lists and took votes on which name to choose for the group. One of Nicklas' suggestions was Anekdoten, which means "the anecdote" in English. We all liked the name, but we were not too keen on having a Swedish name for the group as all the lyrics were in English and we were eventually thinking of aiming at an international market. However, we found that it was very difficult to find an English band name that felt right for the kind of music we were playing. After several futile attempts to find one we decided on Anekdoten shortly before the release of the first album. Nucleus is an interesting follow-up to Vemod in that although it retains the former's heaviness, it sways towards more of a 'song'-conscious style rather than Vemod's symphonic strains. We have no preconceived strategy when we write our music. We played Crimson covers together before we started to write our own music and the Crimson heritage is strong on Vemod. We wrote much of the material for that album rapidly. We were inspired by the new possibilities that had opened up when Anna Sofi joined the band and that led to a productive phase. The main bulk of the songs for the album was written during a couple of months at the end of 1991 and these songs remained almost the same until we recorded them for the album. We felt that we should let more other influences come forth on the newer material, but not all of these ideas were realised on Nucleus. These songs have gone through more changes from their earlier stages - there has been a lot more experimenting with the arrangements. The basic material was, for some reason, easier to vary and experiment with than the material on Vemod, probably because there was more room for interplay between the instruments. In some ways I see Nucleus as the more 'symphonic' of the two albums, because "Book of Hours" and "This Far from the Sky" have more symphonic arrangements than anything on Vemod, but I guess that we have been stretching out the concept at both ends of the spectrum. Nucleus feels less dated and is not as easy to categorize as Vemod. It is definitely the more demanding of the albums, because there are a lot of things going on in the production and not all of it can be categorized as easy listening. We feel that Nucleus wins in the long run, so I hope that the people who buy the CD and don't like it after one listen give it a few more chances. How did Anekdoten's various elements eventually come together? Nicklas (Berg, guitarist) and Peter (Nordin, percussionist) had been playing together in different local bands since the beginning of the '80s. I had also played in several groups, but never with them. Nicklas and I started to make plans about playing together at a party early in 1990. At this point in time Nicklas, Peter and a bass-player were playing music heavily influenced by Hendrix and Cream and I had spent a couple of years in a band that was influenced by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. However, both Nicklas and I were heavily into King Crimson at the time and we started discussing getting together to play some Crimson covers just for the fun and the challenge. Peter was the most obvious choice for a drummer, but at that point we only saw the collaboration as a 'project'. We started to work more seriously as a band when Anna Sofi joined in August 1991. Anna Sofi shared our interest in the more aggressive progressive rock of the '70s, though she had not played in a rock band previously. Since the Crimson mystique is a vital reference point for the band's music, is there a danger of being viewed as merely the sum of your influences? Our music builds on this heritage, but we don't perceive ourselves as a nostalgia band. There are many people that enjoy our music but don't know anything about King Crimson or Yes. I saw a review of Nucleus recently where the reviewer said he "felt as if I had heard Nirvana, Ozric Tentacles, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree and Japan all on one album." It seems as if many of the progsters are pretty restricted in their listening habits, which means we're almost always compared to the same ol' prog artists in reviews. We do not deny that we are heavily influenced by many of the so-called progressive acts, but there is also a lof of other stuff that influences us. Nucleus seems to have established, and fairly quickly, too, a specific band-style. Yes. Nucleus is less of a standard prog album than Vemod. The production on Nucleus is unusual for a prog album as it is pretty heavy and dirty, whereas prog productions nowadays generally are unoffensive and clean. The songs are also more original although they are still often rooted in the Crimson tradition. Our aim, however, is not to be original - it is to make music as good as we can within the limitations of our talents and skills. How do you perceive the climate regarding progressive rock both in your country and abroad? There have been some good new progressive acts from Scandinavia that made their debut in the '90s; however, this is more of an artistic than a commercial movement as the music is still very underground. There is an interest, but it is far from overwhelming - we played three times as many gigs abroad during 1994-95 than in Sweden. I still haven't heard many bands from the rest of the world that have interested me in recent years. It seems much contemporary 'progressive' rock has entered a cul-de-sac it can't escape from, re-applying established motifs in an effort to appeal to the fans while compromising their integrity and the need to truly progress and change in the process. Do you or any of the other band members share any or some of these ideas? There are too many mediocre clone-bands releasing records within this genre, but as many of the buyers are collectors and not very choosy about the quality of the music these releases are commercially defensible. So there is a potentially bigger market for progressive rock, but the average prog release does not deserve a bigger audience than it has. Too much respect and worship is generally shown for the Great Prog Acts from the Past and not enough new blood is distilled into the genre. It is quite possible that a new progressive act can become commercially successful, but I don't believe in a big revival for the genre as such. Where do you feel the band fits in the progressive community, if at all? It seems like we have more in common with prog acts that have experience from heavy metal/rock'n'roll then the ones that come from the pop or classical sphere. Among contemporary music we often prefer bands that started out from a rock/pop focus and have added some experimental influences, to the bands that label themselves 'progressive'. Describe the recording sessions for Nucleus and how succesful you all feel the album is artistically. The drums, bass and guitars were recorded at Studio Largen, which was the same studio that we used on Vemod. We worked quite a lot with song arrangements when we recorded the demo, but still many things got changed for the final recording. We also used a producer for Nucleus, Tommy Andersson, who is mostly known for his contributions as a guitarist/singer/songwriter, and he had many valuable ideas when it came to arranging the songs. Unfortunately, he got electrically shocked in the middle of the recording session. This happened when he was rehearsing with his band Stonecake and he was hospitalized for more than a month as a result. So the recording was made over quite a long timespan, until it was finally mixed at Largen. We had troubles in getting good mixes on some of the songs, but when we prioritized feel over a technically well-sounding production, things started to happen. "Book of Hours" and "Here" especially took a long time to mix and it wasn't until we got radical and used some distortion and unconventional panning that we achieved what we were looking for. Nucleus is not a record to listen to when your are under stress, but I feel that it works very well as a concept. I am very happy with the overall feeling of the album. Do you have any affinity at all for what Fripp and his cohorts are doing today? What occupies the band's listening time these days? We like all incarnations of King Crimson, so of course we feel some affinity to their work in that sense. I also hope that the essence of King Crimson - energy, intensity, eclecticism - can be applied to Anekdoten. However, we don't want to compare ourselves with King Crimson, because they obviously have quite a different perspective on things than we have - they were threading unknown territory back in 1969. We scamper about in theirs' and other artists footsteps in the '90s. Ad for playlists, myself: Jack Bruce, Björk, Captain Beyond. Nicklas: Smashing Pumpkins, Earthling, Massive Attack. Anna Sofi: Höyry-kone, Zeni Geva, Tricky. Peter: Magma, Arvo Pärt, Landberk. Since you've already transcended and conquered the Crimson ethic, what new directions of course might the band take in future recordings? We have been able to stretch out to some listeners outside the prog community, but this is a much more difficult market to penetrate, so our hopes for a 'real' commercial breakthrough are not high. It would be nice if this trend will continue so that more people get to be interested in each record we make. What we can do in order to make this happen is to play in front of people as much as possible and this is what we are going to try to do now. However, we have been lazy since the completion of Nucleus and as we are doing the promotion and marketing of the music ourselves we have been quite busy with these things during the last number of months. We have some ideas to work on, but it is too soon to say anything definite for the next album. It will probably be less complex than Nucleus, perhaps with more flowing pieces. We feel that improvisation is an element that's had too little place in our music this far.