Liechtenstein interview
Thu 2 Jul 2009
Removing The ‘All-Girl’ Prefix
Studying, running a record label and working as a theatre producer sounds like a pretty full-on work schedule, but the girls from Swedish band Liechtenstein somehow find time to make post-punk infused pop music that has seen them compared to Vivian Girls. I talked to the band’s guitarist Renee about Liechtenstein’s past and future plans.
Growing up in the grey streets of Gothenburg, Sweden, Liechtenstein’s rise to the top of the indie ladder is starting to gain momentum. The band has just followed up a run of 7″ singles dating back to 2005, including the excellent single ‘Stalking Skills’, with the release of their debut album Survival Strategies In A Modern World. Pitchfork wrote “Survival Strategies’ crystalline pop apes bands whose influence lives on through just a handful of singles,” and Renee confirms Pitchfork’s comparison, listing the band’s influences as “Dolly Mixture, Mo-Dettes, Girls At Our Best, Talulah Gosh, Television Personalities and The Carousel.”
Having recently released Survival Strategies In A Modern World via Renee’s own record label Fraction Discs, the band has total control over their creative work. “I run it together with my boyfriend Jorgen,” she explains. All of Liechtenstein’s work has been released through the label, which has been around since 2004. The album also has distribution in the USA via Slumberland Records, home to other emerging indie breakthrough artists like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and Crystal Stilts. Renee juggles running the record label with her university studies, which she attends along with drummer Elin. Bassist Naemi recently graduated and now works as a Theatre Producer.
Like most young bands, Liechtenstein has been working on their debut album for a number of years. Renee says, “I wrote some of the songs about four years ago.” Thankfully the recording process didn’t take as long. “We worked on the the recordings for the album for about six months… we recorded drums and bass for some of the tracks in a studio, but the rest we recorded either at our rehearsal place or in my flat,” she says.
Many of the the songs were written back when Liechtenstein had a fourth member, guitarist Teresa. However, after the release of the band’s first single Teresa decided to focus her life in another direction, a decision that was fully supported by her fellow band members. “She felt she didn’t have time for the band when she was accepted to an education in textile design course. She’s still studying and will become a famous designer one day,” Renee says, offering her long time friend her full support.
“Eventually, if more women make music and inspire other women to start playing perhaps we will speak simply about ‘bands’ and remove the ‘all-girl’ prefix…”
Musically, the band had few problems adjusting to playing as a three piece. The loss of a guitar player failed to leave too much of a hole in their sound, it was the vocal harmonies that took the most work. The band’s unique style sees all three members singing at once, forming a beautiful overlapped vocal harmony. Renee explains, “on record it’s basically the same, since I write most of the songs, but live we’ve had to adapt to the fact that we are only three people trying to perform vocally, like a small school choir.”
Like many of their recognised influences, their voices combine to create a powerful lead vocal. They’re joined by several other young bands attempting a similar sound, among them New York band Vivian Girls who has enjoyed a moderate level of international success. Renee is happy to have Liechtenstein compared to Vivian Girls. “To me that’s a good thing. I think it’s true about most musicians that they take inspiration from others and try and make something of their own from the music they enjoy, whether they admit it or not.” It’s true that the girls take inspiration from other female bands and with the rising tide of of female representation across all genres of music they hope to help eliminate the fascination people have with using gender as a measure to pigeon hole all-girl bands. “Eventually, if more women make music and inspire other women to start playing, perhaps we will speak simply about ‘bands’ and remove the ‘all-girl’ prefix. Those are my hopes anyway, but I don’t know. There are so many ‘all-boy bands’ on each ‘all-girl band’, so I guess it will take some time,” she says.
For now Renee, Naemi and Elin are focusing on getting their record out to the world. Renee says “we actually haven’t focused that much on Sweden because we know it’s hard to sell records here.” They’re relying on Slumberland Records to get their record played in the USA and hopefully it will lead to touring in early Autumn. In August Renee says the band “will get together at Elin’s parents house in Gotland (a small island outside of the South-East coast of Sweden) and record new songs and a new music video”. Her personal goal is “to release another seven inch single”.
Liechtenstein- Roses In The Park: MP3
Posted by Nick Fulton under Sweden
