Too Many Feelings At The Same Time (2008)

Me and my friends and collaborators, Johan Zaar and Magnus DeOliveira
felt that we needed to get away from the city as quick as possible. Living in an old office space in the harbor without a real kitchen or a shower had taken its toll. We found an old farm outside of Malmö that we could rent (from the military, actually) and it was perfect. We moved instantly and set up my studio. I didn’t have a drivers license at the time so I was kind of stuck if no one else was home because the closest bus stop and grocery store was an hour walk from there. In many ways this was excactly what I needed and I almost never went in to town. I stayed in the house until it was time to tour.

Anyways, after the “World of its Own” album, wich was an album made of me just goofing around, recording music, I felt I needed some structure.

So I hired my brother to co-produce. For the first time in my life I made music on a schedule and it was WEIRD. In many ways I loved it but I was so not used to it. Of course, I lived in my studio so I worked day and night for 6 months but still, I had to be up and ready to go once my brother knocked on the door. Another new thing was that I could afford to by a decent studio set-up so this was my first album recorded with Pro tools HD and with more than just one mic. As you can hear, my recording and mixing skills was still pretty rough around the edges, especially with the Drums. Fucking drums, gotta be so hard to record properly… My brother, Anders, definitely came in with another point of view on things and it made this record a lot better than it would have been without him. He co-wrote; “You amaze me” (that riff is all his) “I’m Not Supposed to be Like This” and “A Simple Mind”. He also pushed me forward a lot and made it possible to make this record in such short amount of time. Six months might seem like a long time, but if you do most things yourself and those months include writing everything from scratch at the same time as you’re touring the last record, it’s not.

Johan Zaar and Magnus De Oliveira that also lived there were obviously involved in the album as well. Johan played all the horn parts, just as he did on the previous two records and Magnus played some guitar and did some backing vocals. Mostly they served as tastemakers, I dragged them into my studio countless times to give feedback and the positive vibes they gave was a big part of the confidence that’s needed. Måns Mernsten was of course part of it as usual (Without his keyboardskills and vibes my albums wouldn’t be the same at all) and once again I wrote the string parts together with the amazing Tomas Ebrelius, who also played all the strings.

This was the first of my albums written and recorded whilst in a relationship and lyrically it’s obvious. She wasn’t there a lot during the recordings because she was travelling but it definitely affected my writing and my way of doing things. ..Another part of the new, somewhat more structured life…

One great highlight of this album, I think is the first 40 sek of “I’m not supposed to be like this” where the Nylon stringed guitar and piano meets the pump organ, flutes and clarinets… mmm that’s my kind of vibes! Another is on March Moon between 1.04-1.32. I just love the flutes that float on the piano and clock like drums.

The song; “Coming Back in from the Cold” is probably my favorite and that string arrangement makes me shiver with pride.

Recorded at Studio Kranke, Skåne, Sweden 2007-2008
Produced, Engineered & Mixed by: Magnus Tingsek & Anders Tingsek
Mastered by: Hoffe Stannow at Cosmos Mastering, Stockholm
Photos by: Jens Nordström Artwork and Design: Karl Arvidsson