LimeWire Music Blog

Having spent the past ten-plus years building their reputation as Sweden’s finest purveyors of indie pop, Labrador signed a deal with IRIS back in July to digitally distribute their music throughout North America, including the LimeWire Store. Here at Lime HQ, we couldn’t have been more excited by this news, since Labrador is one of our very favorite labels. Musician and label chief Johan Andergård was recently kind enough to answer some of our questions about his ever-growing pride and joy…

How, when, and where did Labrador get started? Is the label built around some sort of mission statement?

Labrador was founded in 1997 by Bengt Rahm in classic small scale indie fashion. The first two releases were 7” EP compilations with Swedish bands like Acid House Kings, Hell on Wheels, and First Floor Power. I wasn’t a part of the label at the time, so these are the only two releases I don’t have to stand for completely

I was, and still am, in the bands Acid House Kings and Club 8. Neither of these bands were released in Sweden at the time and Bengt got in touch and wanted to release “The Friend I Once Had” by Club 8 in Sweden and include Acid House Kings on the mentioned 7” compilation so that’s how I got to know Bengt. We quickly found out we shared ideas and taste in music. I was running the label Summersound Recordings at this time which released bands like Happydeadmen, Edson, and Chasing Dorotea and we decided to merge these two tiny labels into, well, one single very small label.

Our official mission is to spread the best Swedish pop bands to the world, but on a more personal — or egoistic — level, I think it’s just a matter of me trying to force my taste in music upon other people. I’m not sure why I think it’s so important that other people listen to the same music as me, but I do.

For such a relatively small country, there have been many critically-acclaimed musical acts to emerge from Sweden in recent years. What is it about the scene there that produces so much talent per capita?

I think it’s because people see music as art and not a career. In the UK or the US, bands might have management planning what they’re going to do once they have their first platinum disc before they’ve even released their debut single. It’s not like that here. Most bands, artists, and song writers in Sweden create and develop themselves without thoughts of taking over the world. That makes it easier to make something genuinely good, interesting, personal and new instead of something that the so called industry think is going to appeal to the masses.

The last I heard on your site (back in September), the latest Radio Dept. LP wasn’t finished, and you hadn’t set a release date yet. Any more news on that front?

The album is “almost finished.” They were supposed to master the album in October 2007 actually [for those who don’t know: mastering is the very final touch that you do when all the mixing is done]. They called me two hours before the time we had booked in the mastering studio and said they wouldn’t be able to finish in time. And it’s still “almost finished.” So in the world of The Radio Dept., “almost finished” means it could be finished tomorrow or in two years’ time. You never know. But that’s okay; I’ve listened to the stuff they’re working on and I can honestly say it’s going to be absolutely amazing. So if we need to wait until the year 2011 for it, so be it. But my guess is that it’ll be released in March or April.

Most of your artists — with the notable exception of [ingenting] — sing their lyrics in English. Why not more Swedish-language songs? I, for one, think Swedish has quite a beautiful cadence.

It could be that most bands grow up listening to music being sung in English, so it just seems natural that music is something you do in English. It could also be that you come from a part of Sweden where you accent sounds really weird — Stockholm for example — and you’d rather have a funny English accent than a funny Swedish one.

What is one band you wish you had signed?

Anders Persson och Carl Smith released an absolutely amazing debut album this spring. I would happily have released that one. And I really like Taken by Trees, so she’s welcome too.

Have you ever tried to sign a band from outside Sweden? Would you consider signing a band from the U.S.?

There are so many good bands coming from Sweden, and I really like the idea of having a clear profile: Labrador being the place to look for lovely Swedish pop. Everything we signed is based on my taste in music, and my taste in music isn’t too diverse. If you’ve heard and like one of the Labrador bands you’ll most likely enjoy a large part of what we release. So, we’d probably have a quite obvious profile even if we released non-Swedish bands. But if you can narrow it down even more, why not do it? If Sweden runs out of great bands I’m sure we’ll re-consider. Or perhaps if Television Personalities want us to put out their next album…

Pretend you’re producing a covers album for charity, using Labrador artists. What songs do you choose, and who plays them?

Acid House Kings – “Boys Boys Boys” [original by Sabrina]
Club 8 – “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe” [original by Barry White]
[ingenting] – “Far Away And Lost In Joy” [original by Television Personalities]
Irene – “Kirsty Says” [original by Nixon]
The Mary Onettes – “Riding On The Equator” [original by Felt]
The Radio Dept. – “In The Ghetto” [original by Elvis]
Pallers – “Skuld” [original by Ulf Lundell]
Pelle Carlberg – “And Tomorrow The Stock Exchange Will Be The Human Race” [original by McCarthy]
Sambassadeur – “Just To See My Holly Home” [original by Bonnie “Prince” Billie]
The Sound of Arrows – “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me” [original by Morrissey]
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names – “Airhead” [original by Brighter]

Which upcoming Labrador releases are you most excited about?

The Sound of Arrows’ debut album will be a real gem. I’m very much looking forward to hearing finished versions of their new songs. But right now I’m working on the Pallers 12” which will be out on December 3, so at this exact moment I’m probably most excited about that. Or the upcoming single from The Mary Onettes, which is due out in the spring. Their new songs are just gorgeous, so whichever song will be chosen as the first single for their second album, it’s going to be absolutely beautiful.