Have a good look at the album art on Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds‘ new album Magic Trip. Wouldn’t you just like to step right in? Imagine it’s summer in Sweden, the country of folk stories and endless forests such as these. The stories often take place in forests too. Stories about fairies, elves, kobolds, and trolls. Creatures of nature that sprung from people’s imaginations while processing the beauty and stillness of so much pure nature. This is the place Per Svensson comes from, and this is where he finds inspiration for his psychedelic sounds.
Magic Trip feels in every way like an “old” album, one of those forgotten gems that you picked up at the local thrift shop just for the artwork. And then it appears that there is a whole world behind it, a hidden forest of old school psychedelic blues rock, street poetry, and Woodstock trippin’. When Svensson sings “Get together” on Together In Darkness, guided by a subtle Hammond organ you feel he is directly channelling Morrison at that moment. Per Svensson is the real deal, so much is clear. His deep baritone voice is in line with the great dark rock voices like Cohen, Cash, and Cave.
Aside from the great nostalgic journey, Magic Trip is a many sided kaleidoscope as well. There are subdued hazy bluesers, heavy rockers, deep trippers, and even a song sung in Swedish. It is a great tour through that ancient Nordic forest summer land, and the best thing is: no mosquitos in sight!
I find Per Svensson not in his native town of Gothenburg, Sweden, but as an artist in residence in Berlin! In this urban environment he attempts to find new inspiration for further musical outings. For if anything becomes clear immediately about Svensson is that since the early 80s he has been working music around the clock, and he is not stopping any time soon…
How are you? How was the pandemic period for you?
Alive and kicking. Working on a new exhibition and my new album In Berlin right now. Been here half a year now. Recently I recorded new material at Hansa Studios in Berlin. Last year and the year before was a struggle during covid. But I spent my time doing the LP album ‘Gothenburg Sounds’ so I was in the studio in Gothenburg a lot. I also recorded a lot with my other band Cosmic Garden Project in the Swedish forests at Silence studios in Koppom together with Dan Söderqvist and Pontus Torstensson. We even did some touring in Sweden during the pandemics with Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds
Can you introduce yourself and the other musicians on the album?
I do a lot of writing of songs and record a lot in Green Street Studio at my old portable 8 channel cassette studio. An MT8X I then re-record work with Hans Olsson at Svenska Grammofonstudion Studio 1 and 7. My fellow musicians in Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds are: Pontus Torstensson on drums, Rasmus Alkestrand on Sitar, Linus Kuhlin on Bass, Gunnar Frick on organ. The band is based in Gothenburg, Swedish West coast.
What can you tell me about your musical background?
I started out in the mid 80s making soundart and poetry in combination, experimenting. Building home-made instruments, using tools on metal bars, field recordings, feedback from electric guitar, contra bass, mixed with poetry readings. Released my first Ep The Sound of Ground Materia/ The fifth Element on Radium 226.05 Records in Gothenburg in 1987. At Radium label office and parties I met a lot of creative freethinkers like me; Freddie Wadling, Ebbot Lundberg, Patrik Caganis, Henrik Rylander, Jean Lous Huhta, Leif Elggren to name a few, whom I later worked with in different bands: Audio Laboratory, Gold, The New Alchemy, The Kingdom of Evol.
We had a vinyl record store called Svens Källare in Gothenburg where you could listen to the new stuff coming out from England and the States. It was like a library for musicians. The first LP record I bought was Cortex – Spinal Injuries in 1983. I saw Cortex live at Sprängkullen in 1980. In 1983 I went to Reykjavik by boat to see Icelandic band K.U.K.L with Björk and Einar Örn. It was great! I have always liked poets like Rimbaud and other Beatnik poetry, The Stooges, The Doors, CAN, Neu!, Led Zeppelin, and Joy Division. Music in combination with great Poetry. Swedish acts like Hansson & Karlsson, TGS, International Harvester and of course Bo Hansson, a legend.
What does a regular day in your life look like?
I wake up, eat breakfast. Go to the studio and create music or art until the sun goes down.In the weekends I go out with my wife or spend time with family. At times I go to concerts or play live. Sometimes studio work.
What is the best thing about Magic Trip?
The Sound of the instruments and the poetry of every composition. The thing is…. it’s the creative process, the journey of creating a whole album I like. The songs are like images, memories from my life. The songs are about life and death and the journey of the spirit via nature. The album tells different stories, combine poetry, field recordings, melodies, expressions, colour and temperament in an obscure way. Nature is a source, Instruments and voices are recorded with analogue equipment.
Where do you live and what is the environment like for musicians like you?
Right now I live in Berlin for a while which is a city of creativity. recording, painting, doing a new album. Got a residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien via IASPIS Art organisation in Sweden. In the summer I go back to my hometown Gothenburg and continue my work in my studio there, writing, recording and mixing new material. I will focus on making new art for a while first.
What role do psychedelics and “tripping” play in your life?
Only for medical use. It’s in the music.
Who are some contemporary musical heroes of yours?
Savages, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop. Many heroes out there, most of them are gone.
Can you tell me about how you go about composing and recording songs?
Often I sit with my harmonium doing drone raga harmonies. Sometimes I use guitar or Hammond organ. Songs appear via the poetry or the storytelling: lyrics are added and vocals create the melody on top of the drone waves or riffs. Other instruments are added. I use my 8 channel portable cassette recorder when doing sketches for songs. And sometimes I re-record the track in a larger studio at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg or like now in Hansa Studios in Berlin. Often I invite my band members to add their thing to the song. Live in the studio, often one take. I like to be direct.
What are your immediate and long term future plans?
To play live on the Album Magic Trip
What should the Weirdo Shrine reader do after reading this interview?
Turn on, Magic Trip, Freak out, Create new music and Peace on.
Weirdo Shrine 