This is an album of many stories. Gustaf Kjellvander and his friends forming The Fine Arts Showcase, has made a cover album, entirely based on songs from the Swedish, rather unknown, jangly, lo-fi band Rough Bunnies. Why is that? Let’s make Gustaf himself explain:
“I was first introduced to Anna Vermina and her cousin Frida, the founding members of Rough Bunnies and Inside Riot, through mutual friends. Frida gave me a CD-R just days before they were about to move to Berlin. About six months later I was looking for someone to rent my spare room. I bumped into Frida by chance, who told me she had moved back from Berlin to Malmö and needed a place to stay – so she moved in. I was already smitten by Inside Riot at this time, and when Frida played me the songs they had recorded in Berlin, along with the Rough Bunnies record C-sides, it blew me away. I played it to everyone who came over to my house. They became an obsession that carries on to this day. I knew I wanted the Fine Arts Showcase to cover their songs. The problem was that with a catalogue of songs as amazing as theirs it was hard to pick just one, so I came up with the idea that we should do an entire record instead (in the Merle Haggard sings Jimmy Rodgers tradition).
And here it is: a musical love letter to two of my favorite songwriters, a celebration of the pop geniuses of the Vermina family. Rough Bunnies (and their twin group Inside Riot) have inspired me more than any other band this side of the millennium and this record is my way of thanking them. ROUGH BUNNIES SAVED MY LIFE.”
- Gustaf Kjellvander
The extra, on top of it all, twist to the album is that it is mastered by the legendary Mr Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub. That is another one of the stories involved. We were really frustrated there for awhile. The master was lost and we didn’t know what to do. All we could do was rolling out thumbs in despair and finally it all turned out excellent.
The first regular single from the album was “Dance With Your Shadow”.
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