“Bigtime”
from the album Origin, Vol. 1
2005
iTunes
A funny thing started happening seven years after The Soundtrack of Our Lives formed: People finally began listening to the band’s music.
The group never had a problem finding an audience in its native Sweden, where it won awards and the affection of critics for its psychedelic jangle rock. It was outside of Sweden that proved to be the sticky wicket.
Marketing a rock band that can’t be easily summed up with a catchphrase is always a challenge. When the band in question comes from a country best known for Ace of Base and Roxette, finding an audience can be more difficult than peddling catnip at a dog show.
“We always thought of our music as having a broader reach than the borders of Sweden,” said Ebbott Lundberg, the band’s bearish lead singer. “So it was frustrating.”
It wasn’t until the band was packaged with fellow Swedish bands The Hives and Sahara Hotnights under a “Swedish rock invasion” label that it found a bigger audience. Lundberg appreciates having made the leap to the United States and Great Britain, but Soundtrack of Our Lives sounds nothing like those other two groups.
As opposed to the edgy punk of The Hives or the New Wave-influenced melodies of Sahara Hotnights, The Soundtrack of Our Lives looks back to the chiming, swooping, post-hippie rock of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band achieves this while avoiding the secondhand-store rock cliches of nostalgia hawkers such as Lenny Kravitz, who wears his influences a bit too obviously on his flared sleeves.
“We just try to create what we’re missing,” Lundberg said. “These are the sounds that we grew up with. We try to reflect what’s going on now, but we’re very analog at the same time. We just love that sound.”
The British press have referred to the band as “genius” and “a godsend.” The band’s Behind the Music (2001) was nominated for a Grammy in 2002 (it lost to Coldplay). Radio finally began taking notice.
The band’s fourth album, Origin, Vol. 1, is yet another swirling experiment in psychedelic rock. Lundberg said the band was unsure what direction to take after the sudden success of Behind the Music.
“There was an adrenaline rush, and at some point it felt like we were going crazy,” he said. “We thought we had to record a double album because we had so many songs. But then we realized that it wasn’t going to work, and we decided to record two albums, which is why we’re calling this one Origin, Vol. 1.
The Soundtrack of Our Lives has been together for ten years, most of it spent under the radar of listeners outside of Scandinavia. Even Lundberg, who sounds like a self-assured Viking through most of the conversation, seems surprised that the band is still gaining momentum.
“I’m actually shocked that we’re still together. We all have very strong personalities,” he said. “It’s really hard to play in a band. After my last band, I declared that I wouldn’t play in a band ever again. But we all realized that this was going to be a challenge. I think we’ve been gaining more energy as we go along. I feel younger than I did ten years ago. I guess we’re just late bloomers.”
The Soundtrack of Our Lives came together after Lundberg’s previous band, Union Carbide Productions, self-combusted. Union Carbide also played rock from a previous decade, but the influences came from slightly more rollicking sources, such as Captain Beefheart, The Stooges, Black Flag and the Germs. Lundberg felt that Union Carbide had painted itself into a corner with its proto-punk sound.
Lundberg brazenly declared that The Soundtrack of Our Lives “could go anywhere without screwing up.” He feels invigorated by its recent success, and he said that he isn’t seeing any immediate end to the band’s retro-looking music.
“People will say, ‘What are you doing? You’re just repeating what’s been going on for the past 40 years,'” Lundberg said. “But if there’s any soul in it, then it’s worth revisiting. There’s something comfortable about looking back. It makes the world a less scary place.” ~ Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe
 The Soundtrack of Our Lives |