noisedfisk

An interview with Sambassadeur

2005.07.08

— Music

If you live in the UK or -even better- in Sweden, you’ve probably heard of sambassadeur before, thanks to their single Between the Lines, which was kind of a hit in both countries. If you don’t, you’d better hurry and download this fantastic song as soon as possible. “Between the lines” is an appropriate title for this interview, too: Joachim Läckberg was kind enough to answer my questions, even if the band has been rather busy in the past weeks. That’s why you’ll have to interpret some of their short answers and, consequently, read “between the lines”. I’ll give you some clues, if I can.

Where does the word “sambassadeur” come from?
We took the name sambassadeur from a song or album of Serge Gainsbourg, I think it’s called Les sambassadeurs. We think that French pop from the 60’s is very melodic and focuses on strong melodies and since melodies are important to sambassadeur we like artists like Gainsbourg, Gall and Bardot.
[Between the lines: I would have liked Joachim to talk about Scandinavian culture as well, but I'm not sure it is that important to sambassadeur, after all. Two members of the band have studied in France, one in the south in Avignon and the other in the north in Reims, and when I first e-mailed, they answered in French (and I realized that they're fluent in it). That's probably the place where they discovered French pop.
But this music is not their only influence. In some reviews, you'll read about Belle and Sebastian, My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Go-Betweens. As for me, I'd say that most of their songs are kind of close to Camera Obscura, the Aislers Set and the Radio Dept.]

You are signed to the Labrador label, which seems to be the best Swedish label at the moment. Does it mean something to you?
To be on the Labrador label means freedom to us. We do almost everything ourselves from album covers to recording songs, we record everything at Daniel Permbo’s appartment on his computer. We’re good friends and fans of Suburban kids with biblical names.
[Between the lines: sambassadeur members are Joachim Läckberg (Guitar), Anna Persson (Vocals and guitar), Daniel Tolergård (Bass), and Daniel Permbo (Vocals and guitar). The band was formed in 2003 in Göteborg. Since then, they released 2 EP and one LP on the Labrador label. Labrador could be as famous as creation or sarah records, with so many great bands: the Radio Dept, Acid House Kings, Club 8, [ingenting]… You’ll find many mp3s to download on their website. Don’t expect post-rock experiments: this is pop, you know.
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names want to “turn all the dance floors into a burnings inferno of Ba-ba-ba” to quote the Kids themselves. I’ll write about them in the next future…]

How would you describe your new album?
It’s hard for us to say… It contains twelve songs that we’ve recorded the last two years. We like the songs and hopefully others will too.
[Between the lines: oh yes, we do love those songs… And by the way, the album contains a cover of a Gainsbourg song, "La chanson de Prévert", which is quite nice and sweet. The album could be described as "an offspring between shoegazer and tweepop" (I read this somewhere, but don't remember where exactly...) ]

What’s the best novel and the best film by a scandinavian author/director in your opinion?
En kärlekshistoria by Roy Andersson. Fanny och Alexander by Ingmar Bergman.

Thanks to Joachim

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