“I was after a different sound and as well as a different way of working when forming the idea for 'Love Is Not Pop'. The songs were mostly written during a stay in Paris in October last year and it was around this time I got in touch with Rasmus Hägg from the Swedish duo Studio. I've been a huge fan of Studio ever since I heard their early releases and me and Rasmus had been talking about doing something together before but time had never really been on our side - until now. The initial idea was actually for him to make a remix of one of the songs on the album but after having given the whole thing some thought both he and I thought it would be even more interesting and challenging to have him co-produce it together with me. We had long talks about the sound and feel of the album. I knew I was after the bassy and percussive mystic groove that is one of Rasmus specialities and I explained to him that I was ready to let him just do his thing. Funnily enough I had just caught him in the making of his solo album and he couldn't stop talking about using acoustic guitars and live drums. Rasmus had just started playing drums and really wanted to use live drums only on the record. After hearing his first recordings it didn't take him long to convince me it was a great idea. Rasmus plays all guitars, bass and drums on the record. It's beautiful, how we'd met in a time where both of us were looking for something new, something different than what we'd done before. It just happened to be a magical coincidence and an even more magical collaboration.
It's not by pure chance I chose to do the Lou Reed song 'Heavenly Arms'. Lou Reed, I would say, has been the spark and the main influence for me all throughout the work of 'Love Is Not Pop'. In some way I would say his music for me in many ways is the very essence of what this album is about: the dream of a pure love in a dirty world. I have a memory from last summer when I spent some time in New York feeling pretty miserable. Lou Reed came to my rescue with this very song. At the same time I stumbled into this beautiful book by the photographer Bruce Weber and on one page alongside a photo of River Phoenix I found the precious and yet so immediate poem 'It is something to have wept' written by G.K. Chesterton. I had just bought a Stratocaster that day and it took me 2 minutes to put music to those heavenly words that became the track “It Is Something (To Have Wept)”. These two, Lou and the poem, was the spark to what later came to clearer life in Paris and which was finally realized in my studio in Gothenburg, Sweden.”
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