Jeniferever - Interview

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 19 / 4 / 2009

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Article

Jeniferever is a brooding ambient/post-rock outfit from Uppsala in Sweden. First formed in 2006, it currently consists of Kristofer Jönson (vocals, guitar), Martin Sandström (guitar), Olle Bilius (bass, keyboards) and Fredrik Aspelin (drums). Jeniferver has to date released two albums, ‘Choose a Bright Morning’ (Drowned in Sound, 2006), and this year’s ‘Spring Tides’ (Monotreme Records), as well as several singles and Eps. Always more popular abroad rather than in its own native country, Jeniferever has toured in Europe many times, including Britain on various occasions and twice in recent months, firstly in support to I Like Trains and then again on its own headlining tour. Pennyblackmusic spoke to Martin Sandström about Jeniferever. PB : Why did you decide to call your band Jeniferever and not Jennifer Forever ? MS : Well, the trick is that the name is a way of playing with the name Jennifer and the word forever, isn´t it? I suppose Jenifer with one ’n’ looked better. So, Jennifer Forever would be something not as good sounding and boring in comparison. PB : How long has the band been going in its current form and how did you all meet ? MS : The band as it is now has been going since 2003 with the same members. I joined the band when the previous guitarist, Johan, left the band. We had all known each other from the music scene in our home town since they had played shows with my old band. PB : You toured Britain with I Like Trains. How did you enjoy that experience ? MS : We met them a couple of years ago when we played together in Leeds and then a year and a half ago we did some shows with them in Sweden. And then this winter we toured with them in the UK. They´re all great, sweet and kind guys, so touring with them was really good. Musically I think we fit quite good together as we´re not too different nor too similar to each other. It´s always inspiring to play with bands who knows what they´re doing and they really do. PB : How would you describe the band ? MS : I always try my best not to. Describing music in words is difficult. It doesn´t translate that well, and it always comes back to what references you can draw from. I´d say: melodic, melancholic, epic rock music. Which might not say much. PB : I asked your bassist, Olle, at one of your gigs with I Like Trains the same question and he said to me, "Do you like the Cure ?" Obviously the Cure is a massive influence Who are your other main influences ? MS : We´re influenced by a lot of different stuff. We don´t really have any specific bands that we compare ourselves with. I think it´s very important to find your own sound and not listen too much to other people´s music while writing your own. I´m kind of more influenced by us playing together and wherever that takes us than anything specific. I mean if you´ve been doing this for a while you´ve probably developed your style of playing and your sense for melody so I guess the more music you make the less it sounds like everything else. PB : How do you go down in Sweden which is, of course, also home to Abba and the Cardigans ? MS : Not too many people seem to know about us here. And in Sweden everything has to be very hyped for anyone to notice it. In general I don´t like the music scene in Sweden at all; there is not many good bands and barely any good cities or venues to play. PB : Other than your own country is there anywhere else that you particularly enjoy playing ? MS : We don´t really ever play in Sweden. At the most we do a few shows here each year and it isn´t that much fun to be honest. I really enjoy playing anywhere as long as there are people there who likes it. Of course the UK is special to us since that´s where we´ve played the most. Germany and Spain are among my favourites too. PB : Thank you.

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