Swedish Retro Rock Sounds

A National Acrobat · Post by **A National Acrobat** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:19 am

So Sweden has been cranking out some cool bands with the retro-70's rock vibe over the last few years.

It's not so much that the songs are all that amazing but the production on them just leaves me in awe.

I love their ability to draw in an extremely authentic vibe to the mixes that compliments the actual song perfectly.

My friend said 'wow, it's like they dug up a recording studio from 1972'.

Any ideas, especially regarding drums, on how these tones are being derived?

Mic's, mic placement, tape, etc? I'm assuming it's entirely analog.

I have three songs from three different bands for reference and thoughts.

Thanks for your ears, as always.

https://rcpt.yousendit.com/827432215/d7 ... 84ff44effb

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:30 am

How about you ask their engineers?

They'll be glad to tell you what they used, I'm sure...

A National Acrobat · Post by **A National Acrobat** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:42 am

noeqplease wrote:How about you ask their engineers?

They'll be glad to tell you what they used, I'm sure...

Sorry.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:25 pm

Nice!

Back the mics off sources, back off the compression, don't try to get everything equally in yer face... that's a good start.

I would love to hear what everyone else has to add.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:32 pm

Have you looked to see if the bands share a common producer?

A National Acrobat · Post by **A National Acrobat** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 7:26 pm

I dropped Horisont a line on MySpace and they referred me to the producer and to the engineer. They work here:

http://www.musicamatic.com/

If you take a look, you can definitely see how some of these sounds could originate there.

The producer already wrote back thanking me for the kind words but I don't want to bother him with further emails like 'hey, how did you get that drum sound?'.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:08 am

A National Acrobat wrote:I dropped Horisont a line on MySpace and they referred me to the producer and to the engineer. They work here:

http://www.musicamatic.com/

If you take a look, you can definitely see how some of these sounds could originate there.

The producer already wrote back thanking me for the kind words but I don't want to bother him with further emails like 'hey, how did you get that drum sound?'.

Shy?

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:20 am

You should at least put a thread in the 'Tape Op Magazine' section requesting an interview. You never know! I would love to get more info too.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:32 pm

Who produced them? The Swedes seem to have a knack for getting sounds that are evocative of another time. I'm thinking The Caesars, early Hives and the Cardigans. Also two of my favorite albums were produced by the same Swedish producer (Tore Johansson) who produced Franz Ferdinand, Saint Eitenne's Good Humour and all of the Cardigan's records amongst many other things.

madtho · Post by **madtho** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:53 pm

There was a great article in Sound on Sound (June 04) about Tore Johansson recording Franz Ferdinand. Very in-depth.

Trick Fall · Post by **Trick Fall** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 10:21 pm

madtho wrote:There was a great article in Sound on Sound (June 04) about Tore Johansson recording Franz Ferdinand. Very in-depth.

Thanks, I had read that when it came out, but just read it again. I'd love to record a record with that guy.

jammybastard · Post by **jammybastard** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 3:47 pm

One of the main studios in the Southwest of Sweden is
Svenska Gramophone in Gothenburg.

http://www.svenskagrammofonstudion.com/

It's owned by Kalle Gustafsson, he's also the bass player for The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, and has been used by bands like Division of Laura Lee, The Hellacopters, Mando Diao, etc...

They have an insane collection of vintage gear and turn out some amazing recordings.

If you haven't heard of TSOOL you owe it to yourself to check them out, they are by far the best band to come out of the Swedish retro guitar rock/psychedelia scene of the past 10-15 years.

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:47 pm

I know Gustav Ejstes of Dungen self records/produces, etc. From the looks of all the photos I've seen....he uses old gear. Plus he's a creative little devil.

They kinda got big now, but maybe drop them a line:
http://www.dungen-music.com/contact.html

From the production aspect....get trippy. Spring verb, echo chambers, modular sythns, old console organs, distant micing, big rooms, tape hiss, analog distortion, drums hitting tape too hard, using only 8 tracks. stuff like that.

It's kind of expensive to do it authentically. Also, many of these studios have been since the 60's, so they have this kind of equipment. It may be more realistic to seek out a stuidio that specializes in the old school methods of recording that has big open rooms and killer vintage gear.

kuene · Post by **kuene** » Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:55 pm

thats a pretty cool studio. i noticed one of those producer/engineers did the hellacopters high visibility album. that record (i bought it on vinyl on a whim when it was released) opened me back up to a lot of 70s rocks. it rocks.

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