|
|
||||
 
|
||||
|
|
MOON
SAFARI |
|||
|
Our musical
background as a group is very much fragmented. Simon, who plays all
keyboards and is one of our lead vocalists and his brother Pontus,
our lead guitarist, both grew up with choir music as their first form
of musical expression. Their father being a world renowned choir leader
and all, it was the natural place for them to start. For both of them,
a lot of the bands that we end up playing alongside at festivals are
as foreign as the actual concept of what is traditionally called progressive
rock. I think those ingredients in our music are very important. Ignorance
is actually bliss in that aspect, as they can look at what we are
making without the frame and the mental restrictions that comes from
having an idea of what the truth of a particular type of music is.
It frees us when we create songs.
The new
CD as I mentioned that we are releasing in 2010, is going to be called
Lover's End, but the way we recorded Blomljud and how
we do it now is quite similar. First we lay down the drums. Tobias
plays to a background which often is just one or two keyboards recorded
as a frame for his playing. We use Cubase 4 to record. Then the Hammond
B3, which we borrowed from Black Bonzo, the other progressive act
in our town, is added. Then the bass gets in there and then Anders
Pettersson’s pedal steel guitar. Anders’ playing is something
that sets us apart from normal bands in the genre; we use the pedal
steel guitar to create a certain atmosphere, and it really works out,
he creates a flow in the music and is often just improvising everything.
He had never heard the songs on Blomljud before the actual
recording and it's almost disturbing how well he handles the 100 minutes
music in his head, he's kind of like our 6th member. The acoustic
guitars then were recorded with two Neumann U47 mics; both close to
the guitar, one around the 12th fret and another one further up the
neck. The Ibanez 12 string sounds especially good using this technique,
it actually always sound good even though it is relatively cheap. Favorite
Guitars Pontus
used a Gibson Les Paul to record his electric parts and a Simon &
Patrick 6 string for his acoustic additions. He uses Elixir strings.
Musical
Influences Pontus,
when asked at an American festival who his influences were, he said,
off the top of his head, Mike Holmes from IQ. Actually, both him and
Petter are great fans of his sound. His earlier inspiration comes
more from players like Ola Andersson from A.C.T, Pat Metheny or John
Petrucci. Upcoming
Plans
|
|
|||
|
||||
Scandinavia
has a pretty impeccable record when it comes to progressive rock and
pop as it was a key country during the genesis of prog-rock back on
the continent back in the early ‘70s. Now in 2010, 30 years after
the end of the ‘70s now, prog continues to grow in Sweden with
a whole new generation of musicians, over the past ten or fifteen
years. One band carrying on the tradition of the ‘70s with a
vital infusion of post-prog rock in 2010 is Moon Safari. In
the spirit of Swedish guitarist Roine Stolt and The Flower Kings,
and looking back from great European bands of the ‘70s like Dutch
prog-rockers Kayak, the second Moon Safari album, a double CD set
entitled Blomljud is just the ticket to take the band’s
sound far and wide. Prog mavens at The Laser’s Edge in New Jersey
rightly described the Moon Safari sound as a cross between recent
Swedish proggers like The Flower Kings with a touch of late ‘90s
Yes and a penchant for Brian Wilson’s wall of sound vocal harmonies.
The first Moon Safari album, A Doorway To Summer was recorded
in wake of the band’s formation in 2003 but their 2008 double
CD set, Blomljud is really something to behold. With all the
music written by the group, the group’s four part harmony sound
truly sets them apart from many other prog-rock groups and in the
spirit of prog icon Jon Anderson of Yes, the Moon Safari sound is
really upbeat. With long extended tracks, with some that run over
twenty minutes, much of the Moon Safari music is written by the group’s
lead vocalists Simon Åkesson (keyboards) and Petter
Sandström yet there’s plenty of key contributions from
Pontus Åkesson(guitars),
Johan Westerlund (bass) and Tobias Lungdren (drums).
Clearly a growing band with much talent, Moon Safari continues to
hone in on their song writing skills and let’s hope they develop
even stronger melodies for their big breakthrough release which is
coming in 2010 with the planned title Lover's End. 
The
other side of our background that certainly influences our sound is
Petter's upbringing in a home that praised The Beatles, The Byrds
and Bruce Springsteen alike. He was the one shaping the message from
the start. Even though at the the time of us getting together both
me and him probably considered progressive acts like Shadow Gallery,
Marillion, Genesis and Yes as the highest forms of music, his early
influences certainly shines through in Moon Safari and it will do
so even more so on this our third album, Lover's End, which
will be released summer 2010. The love of The Beatles and other inventive
pop bands like CSN, Jellyfish and The Beach Boys is actually something
that unites us all, and pop music is probably our common ground from
where everything spreads. If you listen to our music it's quite obvious
that what we are making is essentially pop songs, with pop-song structures,
but set in a musical context that allows us excess of 18th century
proportions. 
And
if you're interested in buying the music our CD's can be found on
American soil at