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Interview
Sambassadeur
Article written by
Paul M - Oct 21, 2012
Sambassadeur are a Swedish dreampop band formed in 2003, in Gothenburg. Named after the Serge Gainsbourg song "Les Sambassadeurs”, the band are signed to the Labrador label, and to date, they have released three studio albums and a handful of EPs and singles. Their most recent album was European, released in February 2010 so we caught up with Joachim Läckberg from the band this week to find out what they’re up to now...
SXP: You have a single coming out soon. Tell us more…
Joachim: It’s a double A-side with two new songs. We decided to release them now instead of saving them for our upcoming full-length album since they differ a lot from the other songs. The songs were recorded during a weekend in January in Gothenburg.
SXP: It’s been two and a half years since your last album, the amazing European. Any plans for the next one?
Joachim: Yes! We’re busy writing songs at the moment and we hope to have something out late 2013. Since European we all got kids so it’s not as easy to find the time for songwriting nowadays. We’re also looking for a new producer. Finding a decent producer is harder that one can imagine. Since our new songs seems to be more guitarbased and suited for classic rock-setting, we’ll need someone who’s good at that.
SXP: You’ve been with Labrador for a number of years now. You’ve presumably got a good relationship with them…
Joachim: Yes, it’s a healthy relationship. We’re satisfied as long as we have the freedom to do whatever comes to our minds. We’ve been recording and releasing songs for nearly a decade now. I don’t think that would have been possible on a bigger label.
SXP: If I had to name a favourite Sambassadeur song, I’d probably pick the incredible Sandy Dunes off the last album, but what do you consider your proudest moment?
Joachim: Thanks! We’re quite proud of the fact that we’re still recording and releasing albums. Other than that, satisfaction arrives thinking of the tour in Spain, Migration, playing with The Bats, our latest show in Gothenburg etc…
SXP: Your sound is quite distinctive; soothing and mellow but with strong melodies and production values. Do you ever fancy doing something more lo-fi or rockier?
Joachim: Yes. I think that’s obvious listening to “hours away” on the upcoming single. As it feels right now, the future album is going to be rockier and somewhat of a guitarfest. There’s a huge difference between how Sambassadeur sounds live than that on our records. We’ve always been quite noisy live and that will be reflected on the upcoming album.
SXP: You don’t perform live very often. Why is that?
Joachim: Time and money. We would love to go on a real tour someday and hopefully we will. We really want to do our songs justice live. To make that happen it takes a lot of time, effort and good musicians. We played our first show in two years this summer in Gothenburg with partly new musicians and it was one of our best shows ever so we’re not far from a world tour now. :)
SXP: You’re from Gothenburg. Is there a decent scene there at the moment?
Joachim: No.
SXP: Who else do you listen to in your spare time?
Joachim: Taking a quick look at the latest Spotify-playlist you’ll find Richard Lloyd, Grace Jones, Replacements, Tom Verlaine, Linda Ronstadt, Magnus Uggla, Kindness, Tobin Sprout etc...
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