Art Fact – Page 4 – A digital shrine

A song a week #12: Let’s Make Story

Hold on, because this song exist in three versions!

It’s 1987. Thirteen-year-old Måns sits at home on Västmannagatan 33 in Stockholm and writes an uptempo song. He records it with what he has available: a piano and his dad’s TR-505, Tascam Porta 05 and MicroVerb. The result is a catchy but somewhat confused production.

A year passes. Måns has now teamed up with Olle and Anders to form Art Fact, using the songs recorded as a proof of concept. The first song to be tackled is Let’s Make Story. Anders owns a Yamaha PSR-70, and Olle a Casio CZ-101. Together with the TR-505 these synths are used to make the song sound more like a synth band. The result is even more hectic than the original, with a pumping octave bass and a nice monophonic synth hook. The arrangement is slightly less whimsical and clocks in at 1:40 instead of 2:19.

Fast forward to 1990. Art Fact are working on their second full-length demo cassette entitled Nowadays. Having trouble getting enough songs together, Let’s Make Story is once again remade, this time using the Roland D-20. As it is probably the most uptempo song in their repertoire, it is decided to put it as the opening song. A very long intro (including Anders’ brother counting backwards in Russian, as well as samplings from a aircraft carrier documentary and a Richard III movie) opens up to a slightly calmer and more structured version of the song, clocking in at 3:05.

Måns on Grevgatan where Anders lived and the shop Artefacts resided.

What more can be said? Hearing the first version of this song was really impressive I remember. I also remember playing back the second version to a friend at school, and being disappointed when he didn’t like it as much as I had expected. I mean, it had drums and a cool synth line! What’s not to like?

I have no clue what the lyrics are about, but using a word like “history” seemed very grown-up and cool at the time. The out-of-character kick drum and tom fills have survived even into the final version, being somehow an essential part of the song. The drum sounds on the final version are very typical of the D-20, and not a favorite now.

Overall, this song was a milestone in Art Fact’s history. It got the band together, it was the first song we recorded as a group, and it opened up Nowadays, maybe our best effort.

A song a week #11: The Dust On Your Floor

Olle is looking moody on a Stockholm back yard.

We’ve made it almost all the way through “In Fact” and the very last track of this cassette is a nice one. I think it gives quite a good insight into what is to come in the future, since it’s got more of a dark mood and classic synth-pop vibe to it.

It begins with the intro, which uses a lot of percussion sounds to create a moody landscape leading up to the timpani drumbeat.

This song is all Roland D-20, with some creative drum parts where we used the rim sound for once. But what’s really interesting here is the very sweet melody going in the bridge. We were always trying to combine nice melodies with a dark atmosphere and mood, and in this track it really paid off, I think.

The vocals sounds sort of forced, and they were recorded using a drum microphone, so there isn’t a lot of full vocal sound there to work with in the first place. There is nothing wrong with my singing, but the sound is very sharp and piercing.

After using our synthesizers separately all through “In Fact”, we were now learning how to hook them up to each other using MIDI. This would give us a whole new range of sounds to combine for our next cassette, “Nowadays” which had a lot of truly great tracks on it.

With this, we leave “In Fact” in the (quite literal) dust and move forward into the 1990’s! Next week, we start with a song that leads on “Nowadays” but is actually from the “In Fact” era. More on that soon!

A song a week #10: No, No, No!

Jonas photographed from some video experiment.

Another personal favourite from In Fact, this track has some nice features that show that we were getting better and better at writing and producing songs. First of all, we used the fact that Olle could also sing really well. It is he who sings the backing vocals in the choruses, which probably means that we used all four tracks available for once.

Second, the middle-8 part is really good and serves its purpose. There are some nice chord changes and melodies (including a nice FM bell from the Yamaha V50). If we would have been even better at producing we would have cut the last verse after the middle-8 and gone straight for some finishing choruses. The song feels a bit long now.

The chord sequence in the verse is sort of an extended 12 bar blues, which works pretty good with Måns’ pseudo-bluesy vocals. I don’t know where we got this influence from, maybe from Yazoo who at least I listened to a lot during this period. This song was probably written mostly by Måns, so maybe he also did.

Finally, the intro and ending, or outtro as we used to call it (still do actually). The intro was once again some kind of field recording sound, in this case Fröken Ur, the national speaking clock. I don’t think there was any thought behind this selecting, it was just one of the few things available to record. The outtro is, just like the middle-8, a bit more elaborate than usually for this period. I think the fast arpeggio was recorded using the V50 step sequencer.

Overall, this song is an indication towards a more mature style and expression (if you can say that about 15-year-olds) that was more developed on the second cassette Nowadays.

Listen on Spotify.

A song a week #9: Tell Me Why

The whole gang during our first photo-shoot in 1989.
From left: Jonas Embring, Anders Ljung, Olle Söderström, Måns Jonasson.

Oh, yes! I’m so happy that it was my (Måns) turn to write this week. This is definitely one of the very best songs from In Fact, and I have very vivid memories of recording this song too.

“Tell me why” stands out as a great little pop ditty with, for Art Fact, very well-defined song structure. There is nothing hidden in this track, nothing left to the imagination or that could have been done that wasn’t done. Simplicity, pure pop. I love it! Of course, this is pretty far from synth-pop and I’d say that our influences from Erasure are very clear in this track.

This track is made with Roland D-20, although I am fairly certain that there was an earlier version made on the PSR-70, sadly gone today because it was probably never recorded. There are a couple of cute quantizing errors very typical for how we worked with the D-20, because we never knew if we should quantize in 1/16 or 1/32. Sometimes we did it wrong and there are a couple of off beats in this one.

The bass line is classic octaves, in a bouncy, sort-of slap bass sound. A weird choice maybe, but it works. One thing that is very different here is that we allowed Anders to add a GUITAR to the chorus. Again, I blame Erasure since Vince Clarke was dabbling with guitars at this time as well, at least in the “Sometimes” video, which we loved. I know that Anders doesn’t like that guitar sound any more, but I think it really works and blends in nicely.

Vocals then. The vocals are, in my own opinion, probably the best ones I recorded on In Fact. I did the recording in my bedroom in my parents’ home at Västmannagatan, and I remember that it was fairly late so my little sisters were sleeping and I sang so loud that my step-mother came to tell me to quit. Anyway, I got it done and today I still really like how they turned out. Blues-y, and really “on”. You need to remember that I was only 16 years old or so, which is the main reason I’m impressed today.

The lyrics are nothing special really. It’s all about rejection and not understanding why, in a teenage angst sort of way. The up-beat music doesn’t really match the lyrics.

Listen on Spotify!

A song a week #8: Problems

Bild 30-003 — Måns walking past the square outside what much later became rock club Debaser in Stockholm.

It’s hard to remember how some songs were written. On these early tracks it was mostly Måns who came up with the general form, while we others had opinions on details I would say. This sounds like a song that was created in the sequencer rather than on the piano. It has som awkward seams between song parts, especially every time the intro comes back. It sounds like the song grinds to a halt.

Listening back to it now, my favourite part is the chorus (if you can call it that) when the the drum fills answer Måns vocals. I find it rather groovy for being Art Fact! Also Måns bluesy slides on some notes in the verse are nice, and quite typical.

We often had trouble coming up with a middle-8 part, and in many songs we would just do a drum break or something without new chords or melodies. Here we at least came up with some new weird bass notes and something similar to an arpeggio with a filter sweep, but I wonder if the song wouldn’t have been better if we just cut that part out.

This song was clearly all produced using the Yamaha V50, its sound is very distinctive. All synth sounds are very dry. I don’t think the V50 had any onboard effects, and it doesn’t sound like we added any later. Since there is only one vocal, I guess we only used 3 of the 4 tracks available in the Tascam Porta 05. That’s minimal!

Listen on Spotify!

A song a week #7: Dig A Hole For Me

Anders outside our "studio" in the school Måns and Olle went to. — Anders outside our “studio” in the school Måns and Olle went to.

…

Oh boy.

This is quite akward. This song is really, really hard to listen to, since it really shows how young and silly we were. This is almost a novelty song, with stupid jokes and laughs throughout. If you can take listening to it, some of the details below might be interesting.

The bass line is the “fantastic” Yamaha PSR-70, the first machine Anders owned (I think) and I would borrow it, use the built-in very simple sequencer to write songs, and sometimes it would be impossible to find replacement sounds when we actually wanted to record the song. This bass sound is actually quite cool, I like it. The “strings” are also PSR-70 I believe! Other than PSR-70, the drums and sound effects are Roland D-20, and the bridge lead is most likely from Olle’s Casio CZ-101.

The lyrics are stupid. Something about wanting to die, but clearly not very serious, regardless of the message. The only part of the lyrics I like now are in the intro: “I searched for hours, days and for weeks. I know now my search was in vain.”

The vocals are good, as usual on In Fact. It’s easy to hear now why listeners were impressed by my vocals, as I had a very clear and distinct voice, being schooled in choir and opera. I think all of the backing vocals on this track are improvised during the recording, which is quite impressive, at least in the intro where it works quite well, even with the weird screaming at the very top.

OK, let’s stop this now. Next week we’ve got one of the best tracks from In Fact (at least in my opinion) so I’m looking forward to reading Anders’ writeup of that instead of this nonsense song.

/Måns

A song a week #6: Shirt

This song existed even before I joined Art Fact. Måns and Olle went to music school, and had already started a band called Cairo. This was in 1987 or so. Måns recorded some songs, including this early version:

This version uses his Måns’ father’s Tascam Porta 05 portastudio, Roland TR-505 drum machine, piano, and Alesis MicroVerb. I think Olle later added the synth line intro using his Casio VL-1 and loooots of reverb. There are lot’s of similarities between the early demo and the version that ended up on In Fact, but two (in my opinion) major hooks were added:

First of all the drum fill intro. Måns played some drums at the time, or at least he had a practice kit set up in his room. He knew how to play the standard drum fills on toms, which in 99 cases of a 100 go from smaller (high pitch) to bigger (low pitch). But when programming the intro to the song he came up with a fill that in all its simplicity I’ve never heard before or after. The upwards motion works really well as an intro, and leads the way to…
The drum beat. Most drum beats have a snare on beats 2 and 4, but the early version only had it on beat 2, and the In Fact version only on beat 4. This gives the song a sort of half-beat feel.

The last hook on my list is the same in the two versions, and that is the lyrics “I am clean and you are dirt / You tell me to wash my shirt”. I have no idea what this really means, but it’s a line that has stuck in my head for many years.

The In Fact version again uses the Tr-505 but then mainly Olles Casio CZ-101. Those who owned one can easily identify it’s sound in the break.

At the time I was extremely impressed that Måns and Olle had written and recorded songs of their own. Not just by the musical skill to pull it off, but also by having access to a portastudio and drum machine. Back then, this was more or less rocket science and really expensive. I knew I had to team up with those guys….

Lyrics: Rain in the south

After that night we put on our emotional shields.
Now, when some time has passed, I think it’s time we break those seals.
Let’s relax our grip, let’s face our problems of today
Let’s admit that it’s nice to slip away somtimes.

Oh, there’s a rain in the south. I think I’m gonna go there.
Oh, there’s a rain in the south. I think I’m gonna go there.

Held by no sense of time we searched for another way
You are maybe forced to play a part in this silly play
Tell me anyway if something will happen backstage
Maybe if nobody knew you’d be able to make me to stay.

But there’s a rain in the south. I think I’m gonna go there.
Oh, there’s a rain in the south. I think I’m gonna go there.

Oh there’s a rain in the south. I think we’re gonna go there.
There’s a rain in the south. I think we’re gonna go there.

A song a week #5: As You Say

Art Fact live at Adolf Fredriks musikskola, 1990. — One of Art Fact’s very first live shows, in 1990. Anders behind the D-20 and Måns behind the microphone. Also pictured: totem pole!?

If “In Fact” had been a real album instead of a cassette demo, and if Art Fact had been on a major record label, the label might have pushed for a single before releasing the album. And if that would have been the case, my money is on “As You Say” as their choice for first single.

Why? This song is one of the most accessible and least “synth” songs we ever made. In fact, at one of our live shows we performed “As You Say” with just Anders on guitar and me singing, since “unplugged” was all the rage at the time. This song works well that way, but I think it also works pretty well as a little synthpop ditty.

Preparing for this post, Anders gave me two pointers. He said “One, the handclap should have only been there when there are no vocals” and “Two, the lead synth in the chorus is CRAZY loud in the mix”. I agree with both points, but it’s a little funny how bad we were at hearing these kind of things at the time. The chorus, with my “aaah”, reminds me of some song with Swedish artist Thomas di Leva, and that might have even been the inspiration for that part, since it’s very unlike our regular sound.

Once again, the trusty old Roland D-20 is alone on this track. The drums might be presets, in fact most of the sounds might be presets since this was a quite early production, and we had not really started messing around with the sounds too much yet. I like the sound, except maybe the bridges. They are quite boring. Obviously something more should have happened in the song/sound structure between verses. As it sounds now, all verses are identical, which is quite boring.

Bonus points to ourselves for the nice pizzicato sound in the verses and the cool intro. Those are the only two things that stand out to me now that I listen to it, production-wise.

The lyrics on this track I wrote as one of very few Art Fact songs that were based on a true story. I had in fact received a letter much like the one mentioned in the song, and my only possible response was to accept the letter and go on with my life. Very typical teen stuff though, and the lyrics are no masterpiece.

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A song a week #4: I’m Jealous

In-Fact

This week we’re taking the time machine back to 1989, and the quite interesting track “I’m Jealous” off of our “In Fact” cassette. This song is more or less a forgotten piece, made almost entirely around a single sound from the Roland D-20, which was the only piece of equipment used on this track.

The sound heard in the intro and throughout the song is probably a pitched-down percussion of some sort – this was during the time we were experimenting a lot with the sounds from the D-20 and trying to make it do things it really was not designed to do. The result was sometimes quite good – as in this case I think, where it does sound like something else.

Typically, for this time in Art Fact history, we are using only drums and one more sound for the verses. This left a lot of of space for my vocals, which were recorded through the Alesis Microverb with quite a long reverb. So 80’s, indeed.

There is not much else going on here – either lyrically or melodically. It sounds very dated and old in my ears today, and the only notable idea was the use of whispering in the repeating “I’m jealous” of the chorus. Also, that’s quite a scream at the end! I used to be very afraid of hurting my tender choir voice, so I’m surprised that I would scream like that. It’s all there though, raw as it was on the tape, just as raw today.

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