Pelle Ekerstam
Robert Qwarforth
Thomas Axelsson
Olle Dahlstedt
Lars Halapi
Richard Krantz
Therése Börjesson
Peter Forss
Stockholm Session Strings
Emotions o a leash-video
Emotions on a leash-live at Nyhetsmorgon
(You've already passed) This moment -live at Nyhetsmorgon
Ageing -live at Vasateatern (feat. Stockholm Strings)
Influences
Divine Comedy/
The Smiths/
Stephin Merritt/
The Beach Boys/
Rufus Wainwright/
Elvis Costello/
Arvo Pärt/
Nicole Krauss/
Paul Auster/
Jonathan Safran Foer/
Morrisey/
The Cure/
Arcade Fire/
The single "Ageing" is available on 7" VINYL! You can buy it at PET SOUNDS (Stockholm) and COSMOS FACTORY (Stockholm).
Be shure to get it before it's too late!
Click on albumcover to purchase.
Buy the new album (You've Already Passed) This Moment from iTunes or CDON.COM
Sometimes it’s just more fun doing things on your own.
After being a driving force in alt-country band Yukon AK, packing several tours, gigs and a record in the bag, Pelle Ekerstam felt it was time to do something by himself.
Born and raised in Värnamo, Småland, with an upbringing where the church horn-orchestra was the natural way to go for aspiring musicians, music soon became the main interest for Pelle as well. He survived the tuba and the trombone, and formed his first band in school, which became the first of a long run of bands before leaving the forests of Småland to move to Stockholm.
- I had a job at a plastic factory in Värnamo and realised that I’d never get anywhere with the things I really wanted to do as long I stayed at the factory. So I just had to move.
On arriving in Stockholm, Yukon, AK was formed which gave him the space to develop his own song and lyric-writing, where one could sense the spirit of American folk / country artists like Neil Young and Bob Dylan in the music.
The influences from the great land in the west had to take a step back though when the songwriting for his solo-album under the new moniker “A Beautiful Friend” lent more towards artists like Sufjan Stevens, Richard Hawley, Divine Comedy, Rufus Wainwright and Elliot Smith. A richer tonal language which demanded a new expression, with more room for the lyrics and lush orchestrations.
- but nowadays, I don’t really look for influences like I used to, says Pelle. These days I find as much inspiration in books as in music, and can find as intriguing subjects and thoughts in writers like Truman Capote, Jonathan Safran Foer and Paul Auster as in a great record.
Pelle played some early recordings for Robert Qwarforth, a keyboardist who’d helped Yukon, AK with some pianos on their album, and Robert took a great liking to what he heard. Before too long, the two of them started recording in Qwarforth’s kitchen in Bromma, a suburb outside Stockholm.
Friends were roped in, favours called, and every trick in the book was used to reach the result that they wanted; a record that, in every aspect, would feel timeless - grand without alienating the listener, intimate without becoming pretentious. The end-result doesn’t give away, for a second, the fact that it was recorded in the company of a refrigerator, sink and toaster. What does show is a strong foundation of classic song-writing, unlike anything you’ve heard recently, but classic at the same time. Songs that you’ll turn to for comforting now, in two weeks time as well as twenty years from now.
The first sign of life from A Beautiful Friend came in the form of a limited edition, numbered vinyl 7”. “Aging” is virtually impossible to find these days as it sold out more or less immediately. After a few smaller shows in the summer of 2007, the second single “Emotions On A Leash” was released, seeing A Beautiful Friend (or, to be more precise, Pelle and his old Tandberg tape-recorder with all the strings on, to make sure the full sound was delivered live!) opening for The Perishers on their Scandinavian tour, and John Hiatt on his Swedish tour. Emotions… bats an eyelid towards Richard Hawley, Scott Walker and Rufus Wainwright if one wants to draw comparisons… but – influences or not, it’s without doubt the music of a great new talent, finding his own means of expression, and doing so in a very convincing way.
Men vilken fin cover du har komponerat ihop! Synd att jag forfarande är liten och inte kan ta mig in på Göta Källare. Men vi ses säkert i sommar eller nåt. :) Kramar / Isa
