The Murder of My Sweet Interview
Doctor T: You go into the history of the name of the group a little, but it could stand a little further explanation. Where’d you come up with that?
Angelica: When Daniel and I started working together we found that we had one thing in common, the passion for movies and of course score music. And when we were to decide a name for the band it felt natural to look into the movie scene and see if there was something fitting for us. We came across and old Film noir called Murder, my sweet. We found the contradictions of love and murder in the same sentence very interesting. But we wanted to make it our own so we made it The Murder of my sweet instead. More like a statement and something that draws attention. And we also thought that that name captured the big range of elements our music consists of.
Doctor T: So how do song titles fit into this motif or do they just go in different directions.
Angelica: Not necessarily. Each song has it’s own story, they are like a small movie. There is a cinematic sense that drives the music for the band. And, consequently, there is that theme running through the CD.
Daniel: Yes, the lyrics are like small stories and yes, the songs do try to match the title of the album. In that sense, it is a concept album, the concept being the stories or small movies.
Doctor T: A Swedish band using films as a vehicle for doing metal. Not something you see every day. Could you describe how that developed?
Angelica: I guess that was a thing that developed naturally as we wrote the songs. Daniel is amazing at arranging strings, keyboards and horns in the way of score music and when took a step back to listen to what we had created we realized that this was something new. I don’t know of any band that uses score music for film in rock music so we thought “what the heck” let’s do it. Push the envelope a bit.
Doctor T: When you say score music, what exactly does that mean, define that a little.
Daniel: Well, we are attempting to reflect music done exclusively for a movie, a small movie. It’s a different way of making music, a different direction. It’s music for a picture, like you are planning to make a movie. Are goal is to try to put music to Angelica’s stories.
Doctor T: This is a first effort. But the band sounds like they’ve played together for years. How did things mesh so quickly?
Daniel: When music is done in good fun and not too many arguments you have albums like these. It doesn’t sound forced. Many albums sound forced in my honest opinion and I didn’t want any of those. We are all good friends and know each other since along time so that is certainly am factor. Another one is that we recorded it in my studio with looking at the clock all the time, that helps J allot if you want freedom, musically speaking.
Doctor T: What types of listeners to you aim your music at? Who are your target audience? Your music seems to cross some musical lines.
Angelica: That’s what I think is so great about being in this band. We have such a broad audience. I guess we are enough metal to catch the rock dudes and enough catchy to attract the more mainstream listener. And we didn’t really aim for one kind of listener when we wrote our songs, we wrote them in a way that was natural for us combining our different backgrounds and influences and this is what it became.
Doctor T: So could you be a little more specific, there are a lot of genres out there, which would you assume you might appeal to.
Angelica: No, I don’t think we’re aimed at any one audience. Given the nature of the material, that it has a movie theme in a sense, we rather expect that it will be of interest to a variety of listeners as opposed to a specific audience. That way many different people can appreciate it.
Daniel: Right, the music isn’t aimed at any one in particular. Many different people can like it. It doesn’t matter who you are. We put a lot of time into making it easy to listen to. But there is a deeper level to it, we want to make it interesting, and worth listening to.
Angelica: And being as how it is female fronted, that adds a bit of difference to what we usually hear in Sweden. Many people seem to appreciate that.
Doctor T: There’s some great production beyond the obvious talent at song writing and performing. Could you talk a little about that?
Daniel: Oh, there is not much to say here really. It’s all about hard work and getting the album done before deadline. Having good songs help but there have to be a precise goal before entering the studio. All have to shear the goal and enter this state of mind. After that there so much hard work you would believe it… and even more hard work… after that you have a good album .-)
Doctor T: Do you tend to work as a group or as individuals and then bring it all together?
Daniel: No, we work together. Most of us live close by, one guy lives a bit further out and comes to meet us on the train. I think there is a magic that takes place when the entire band works together. I know that other musicians sometimes work from distant locations and send their work in to be mixed, and, given the economic realities of the day, I can understand that. However, I prefer to be face to face with the musicians I work with. And we have a lot of fun doing it, and getting together afterwards. We are a pretty close group. The other arrangement you talk about does happen, but I don’t think it’s the future.
Doctor T: The song writing on this production is exceptionally strong. Could you discuss the development process, who does what and how?
Daniel: Angelica does mostly the lyrics and vocal lines and I take care of the chords and music. Usually I start with some chords and melodies and then she comes in with weird lyrics and from that point on times really fast, in the end of the day you have a small demo of the song. You live it there until next morning, if it feels good next morning, it’s a keeper.
Doctor T: I suspect most people will talk about Bleed Me Dry and Death of a Movie Star. But what are your favorite songs on the CD, or are they the same?
Angelica: You know we wrote more than twenty songs for Divanity so we had a hard time limiting them down to only twelve (plus two bonus tracks for the digital and Japanese release). The songs that ended up on the album are all favorites in a way. Bleed me dry of course is the single, that actually ended up on the 14th place on the Swedish international charts the first week (very rare for a rock band in Sweden) and Death of a movie star is the song I am most proud of on the whole album but I really like One bullet and Valerie to.
Doctor T: Where do you take your musical influences? What types of music do you listen to and why?
Daniel: I listen to allot of styles (not death metal or Jazz) but everything in between those. I love listening to movie scores and that where I find most of my influences. Angelica is a more of a radio girl, listens to everything in the top 40 charts but she also listens to some harder bands like MUSE and Metallica.
Doctor T: We don’t get a lot of music from Sweden. What’s the music scene like there? Is it like Norway, like Finland? How is your music received?
Daniel: Well, Sweden is not the kind of country you easily build up a fan base. It takes time to make Swedes like your music, even harder if you are Swedish. Most bands have to sell millions of albums outside of Sweden before any Swede can even think of buying the album. Most of them living here follow trends and what’s “in” in either London or New York.
Doctor T: You mean it’s that different from the other Scandinavian countries. I guess most Americans see them as all pretty similar. What would the locals be looking for in music from New York or London?
Daniel: Well, the music scene is different here than in those places. When you walk down the street in Stockholm, you don’t see clubs with music. There is some music but it tends to be Indie music. There is a lot of British influence here. And our music is a bit different. Of course, you could argue that the entire music industry is in trouble. The music is too easy to come by and downloading is the problem. People can get as much music as the want and not pay for it. There’s not much left for the performers. I know a lot of people think that Finland is the land of unlimited music, especially this kind of music, but they’re in trouble too. It’s no different there.
Doctor T: How has the band meshed together? Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don’t. What’s the chemistry like with Murder of My Sweet?
Angelica: The guys are my best friends. Although they knew each other before I didn’t know any of them when I joined but today we do everything together and Daniel has been sort of a musical mentor to me these last few years. I think being close is very important in a band but it doesn’t mean that every thing is hunky dory all the time. Daniel has pushed me so hard in the studio some times that it brought me to tears but the outcome of the recordings was better than it ever could have been. You have to keep the tension and reality alive to make it real and I believe you can hear that in our songs. We are totally present.
Doctor T: What are your plans to support this release, touring, where, when, with whom?
Daniel: We are doing shows here in Europe for starters then we will see how the Americans response to our music (so far it’s been GREAT) and from there you never know. We are entering the studio in Autumn, that one thing is for sure.
If we go on support gigs it will be with some bigger act, but we have no proposals until this point.br>
Doctor T: DDo you have some preferences regarding bands you listen to? Do you prefer Scandanavian bands, bands from your area or are there other characteristics that would make a particular sound attractive?
Daniel: Well, I grew up listening to the music my mother enjoyed. I liked ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), The Beatles, many others. Winger is a current favourite as well as the American band Testament.
Angelica: Yes, the band reflects a variety of interests. Some like classic rock, bands like Whitesnake, Giant, Journey. Andreas is into Symphony X, Dream Theatre, others like death metal. And, of course, our newest member, Johan Niemann, who previously played with Therion, has that background and interest.
Doctor T: Yes, I noticed that name and was interested, especially being a big Therion fan. It was sad to see that previous band composition come to an end.
Daniel: Well, Therion has a great new cast and will be releasing a new CD shortly. I’ve been friends with the Neimann brothers for years so I’ve been following those developments closely.
Doctor T: Any future plans, or is it too soon following this release?
Angelica: Our focus right now is to promote Divanity and the next single witch will be Tonight. But then we’ll start working on the next album and I can tell you right now that we have a lot of really cool songs on demo stage that we will develop. We will bring it to another level this time, take it up a notch. It will be cool, you’ll see.
Doctor T: Any sneak previews?
Angelica: Well, we are releasing two new singles with two new bonus tracks. And, of course, we’re working on new material for a second release. And there may be some language variation there, possibly a little Swedish, who knows.
Doctor T: Well, that would definitely be interesting. Sounds like you have a lot going on and we look forward to it, and possibly seeing you perform sometime in the future over here. In the meantime, thanks so much for the time and the thoughts. We certainly wish you the best. And, for more information regarding The Murder of My Sweet please visit the following sites:
http://ww.myspace.com/themurderofmysweet
