Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Soul

“in good time I’ll be having a child / I’ll name it Brian Wilson”

times Punk collides with screams and happy shouts surfing over sunny brilliant guitars, like glad mandolino in the sun. We’re not dealing with the neglected stepchildren of Brian Wilson. And we’re not in California, baby. Sun is only a bulb in cold room, and we’re still in Sweden, not so far away from Malmö (actually… IT IS Malmö!). I had the pleausure to talk with Henrik Kyhlberg, from Caroline Soul. It turned out to be a nice interview.

Mark Zonda: How did you decided to start a band and why “Caroline Soul”? Is it  a hint to Mr. Brian Wilson?

Henrik: In 2000 Henrik, vocals, approached Fredrik, guitar, who was holding a copy of the Joy Division box-set “Heart and soul”, waiting for an English-class to start. Fredrik had just bought a small portable studio, and Henrik, who already had plenty of songs written, soon became eager to record. The rest is, as they say, history. About the name of the group: it’s not a hint to Brian Wilson. One of Henrik’s favourite band names is Souls (a Swedish hardcore outfit), and during the time we were discussing different names for our band Fredrik had taken interest in a girl called Caroline. We simply spliced the two names together, and came up with Caroline Soul (imagining that the girl Caroline’s last name was Soul).

Mark Zonda: Was “When you do it” inspired by personal experiences or is it pure fiction? How the song has born?

Henrik: That song is very much based around a personal experience. A girl had just left me, that sort of stuff, you know.

Mark Zonda: I’ve red somewhere that you’re the Swedish answer to “Belle & Sebastian”. But what was the question?

Henrik: I don’t really know what the question was… except that it comes from way back in the day when we didn’t have a drummer, only a conga player.

Mark Zonda: Did the arrival of a drummer in the band changed your attitude on writing new material?

Henrik: Absolutely! When there was no drummer we were forced to play in a very rhytmic kind of way, as if we were hearing drums that no one else was hearing. And that could come out somewhat akward at times. My little brother David, nowadays known as The Morning Pape, began playing with us, and everything started to flow in a whole different way. It enabled me to write songs more freely, not having to think about ”the groove” so much. The songs became more powerful in one way, and also more delicate, because now we suddenly had the possibility to choose between “pop with drums” and “pop without drums”. The songs became much more varied. And better, of course.

Mark Zonda: “”Please I know don’t want me” is my favourite song from “Caroline Soul”. It reminds me, don’t ask me why, to Simon & Garfunkel. Why do you think nowadays Sweden Indie scene looks back to the past? Is there space for innovation?

Henrik: “People I know don’t want me” is one of my favourite songs too. I’ve never seen it as connected to S & G, and I won’t ask you why. About looking back to the past: I think there indeed is space left for innovation, but so many groups in Sweden nowadays consists of two friends making lo-fi indiepop in their bedroom. It sometimes can be very tiresome. So to make something really interesting music, I think you need to go back to the roots and maybe update them just a bit, or maybe not even bother to update anything at all. I’ve always found groups interesting, who are not ashamed to let me here their influences. It’s nice when you recognise a bassline, a piece of harmony, or, in the case of “People I know don’t want me”, a line from a Beach Boys-song.

Mark Zonda: How did it happened you came from Cloudberry to Quince, and what’s your impression on the Japanese music scene?

Henrik: We actually came from Quince to Cloudberry, but there you go : ) Well, they asked us if we wanted to release some songs, so we said yes. Right now we don’t have any contact with those labels. Maybe in the future, who knows. And as for the Japanese music scene: a lot of the music there is great. And they seem to like Swedish bands a lot, so maybe we’ll send some new songs over and see what happens. We’re recording new stuff right now.

Mark Zonda: Can you unveil anything from the new stuff influences and musical directions?

Henrik: On the new songs (actually already 2,5 years old…) I’ve been trying incorporate some new elements. I’ve been listening A LOT to Animal Collective, for example, and the way they can break up a perfect popsong and take it somewhere else and then back again. I also try to work a lot more on the lyrics, making up short psychedelic stories that sound very good in your mouth. I’ve written one of my best songs ever for this record, so I’m very exited about it. But everything takes such a long time nowadays, with two of us having newborn babies to take care of, and another one on the way. Maybe I’ll have to write about being a dad next time, I don’t know.

Mark Zonda: We’re looking forward to hear that stuff. Meanwhile we’ll go back to the old songs. Thanks a lot. It was a nice interview

Henrik: Thank you, this was fun!

Caroline Soul – “In Good Time”

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