“Shout Out Louds' Aussie influence” |
| Shout Out Louds' Aussie influence Posted: 28 Dec 2010 10:20 PM PST Australian infouence on new songs ... Swedish pop group Shout Out Louds, who play Peats Ridge Festival, Glenworth Valley, tonight and the Annandale Hotel on January 2. Source: Supplied ADAM Olenius is feeling better now. There was a time anyone paying attention to his lyrics would have sensed a tortured soul. But now he's heading back to Australia with some great new songs, most of which had their beginnings in this country. Olenius is the chief songwriter, guitarist and singer of Swedish band Shout Out Louds. So what was he doing in a tiny room in Melbourne writing songs? As if we couldn't guess. "It was about a girl, and now she's back in Sweden. But I spent three months in Melbourne. You are in a different time zone, feeling more relaxed, without people calling from Sweden," he says. "It's the first time I've had the chance to do anything like that. At one time I was on my way to London to study graphic design and I was going to be there for three or four years. Then the band started and that was the end of that. "This felt good, really nice to be in the one place for a long time and not be in Stockholm." While Down Under, Olenius was armed with a synth, a guitar and a laptop. The songs he wrote during that time appear on Work, the band's third album, recorded in Seattle. This was their first experience of recording overseas, and the guiding hand of producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, the Shins) was a revelation. "We had already decided we wanted to do a very stripped-down record with just guitar, piano, bass, drums and vocals, which is why we chose to work with Phil," Olenius says. "That's his thing, to make the band feel very comfortable and to make sure that the band sounds really good. "He taught us about nailing the song. We are quite lazy, when we play we're not looking for that perfect performance. It's always been about having fun, shows where anything can happen. We still have that but now we make it sound good and still have that energy!" It has been a long, slow build for the band, formed in Stockholm by childhood friends Olenius, bassist Ted Malmros and guitarist Carl von Arbin, joined in 2001 by drummer Eric Edman and keyboardist Bebban Stenborg. "We recorded an album in Sweden in 2003 but it took two years for it to be released in the US and Australia and the rest of Europe. We toured that record for a year and a half. Then we recorded our second album (Our Ill Wills), so we really needed to take a break before we started on Work," Olenius says. That first album felt exuberant. The second, as the title suggested, was not, with songs of heartbreak and tragic accidents. Now the gloom has lifted and Work reflects that: sunny, poppy and uplifting. While Olenius writes the lyrics, the band all pitch in to complete the songs. "Usually I keep a song to myself for a few months before I show it to the band. Some songs I hold on to for years. Sometimes I just have a melody I sing to the band and we start to write and arrange everything together. "For this album everyone was in different parts of the world, so when I came home we had a Christmas dinner party and everyone started listening and adding things on top from there. "But playing live is where the true sound of the band comes from. We're a band that likes to play and this year has probably been our best year, both in the way we are playing and in the bigger audiences. "We love going somewhere to play, especially somewhere as far away as Australia. It's exciting to get there and that comes through in the way we play. We're excited!" SEE Shout Out Louds, Peats Ridge Festival, Glenworth Valley, Dec 29, 8pm, peatsridgefestival.com.au; with The Seabellies, Annandale Hotel, Jan 2, 8pm www.annandalehotel.com
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