29-member pop collective I’m from Barcelona hail from Jönköping, Sweden. Where principal songwriter Emanuel Lundgren creates perfect summer tinged pop symphonies made with an eclectic mix of instruments such as clarinets, saxophones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions, kazoos, guitars, drums, and keyboards among others. The promo for their single, ‘We’re From Barcelona‘ currently at large on YouTube has got bloggers around the world buzzing about the band. We went to find out more.
Can you tell me a bit about the background of I’m from Barcelona, how you got all the guys together originally?
It was late last summer, I was about to have a four-week vacation from my work, and that’s when you begin thinking of great plans for your vacation, but I just found out that in the four weeks I could write songs and record things. I love doing that but I wanted to meet friends as well so I tried to combine those two elements, and made a few songs and thought that I want to put my friends on there too.
Are you all friends originally?
Yes, they’re all my friends. I’ve been hanging out with them, rather than playing with them, so it was a big change for me. If I compare this to other things I’ve done, I didn’t only ask musicians to be in the band, I asked my friends. So some of them have been playing for years and other people in the band have never been on stage before, so basically it’s a kick for me actually seeing the energy and faces of people that are doing this for the first time.
How do you all work as a band. Are you primarily the songwriter and then do you take them into the studio?
Well, the studio is my apartment, so I write from home. I’m the songwriter, so I have an idea of what it should sound like, but when you put that many people on a recording you find a lot of good things along the way.
Can you afford to tour with 29 members of the band?
We mainly play in Sweden so that’s not a problem to deal with, its kind of annoying with the kilometers, when you have an idea, you want to get as close as possible to the original idea, I hope we will get over to England for some shows.
What kind of feedback have you been getting on the record?
A lot of good feedback actually. I didn’t expect any feedback when I did this cause I did it as a kind of hobby. So for me to get a lot of attention for this album, I’ve been shocked for a year, and now that its kind of international that’s kind of confusing for me but I’m very flattered that a lot of people seem to like it.
You’re a big hit on the website YouTube, what are your thoughts on websites like that?
I love the idea of that kind of thing, because I’ve been working as a web designer, so I’m into the internet a lot, I love the idea of sharing and that everyone gets the same amount of attention in a way, a small band gets as much attention as Metallica or something. So I think its great if you‘re wondering what I’m from Barcelona sounds like it’s easy to connect to the computer and have a listen and a look.
You’re named after a reference from Fawlty Towers?
Yes. That’s correct. That was kind of a late night idea that seemed OK the day after and I’ve always kind of had a connection to Manuel in the series of course cause my name is almost the same as his. He used to say all the time that he is from Barcelona. It was kind of embarrassing when we were over to play in
Barcelona when a journalist asked about the name, saying is it about that you love the city so much, and I’ve never been there before so I had to explain about Fawlty Towers. In Spain it’s over dubbed so he’s from Mexico, it was big news for them that Manuel was not from Mexico.
So do you relate more to the Manuel character, or do you run the band more like Basil Fawlty?
Maybe I’m a bit confused and stressed out sometimes like Basil; I’m kind of a mixture between those guys.
What other sitcoms are you a fan of?
I’m kind of traditional I guess, I love Seinfeld more than Friends, and I just found a couple of episodes of that comedy that I watched as a kid, Alf. It’s really good, with more grown up jokes than I understood as a kid. I can recommend it. Look at Alf again!
When you’ve been playing live has anyone ever got on the stage with you who wasn’t supposed to be on stage and you haven’t noticed?
Well, I used to drag people from the audience up on stage live, cause I love the idea of not knowing really who’s with the band and who’s with the audience, and I think that kind of confusion is very good and entertaining and so there’s often more people in the band than not.
Your music has been described as ‘explosively happy pop songs’; do you have to be in a good frame of mind to write a song?
Well, I think it’s easier. I’ve written a lot of melancholy stuff before, but the music kind of follows the mood you’re in. So if I’m sad I think I sit down and write Tom Waits kind of songs. But I’ve noticed that I’m a better songwriter in the summer than in the winter. The positive energy you bring into the song writing, goes back to you when you play it live and see the audience dancing around and singing along with it, so its kind of a good trip.
You must be the happiest sounding band ever on Mute Records.
It’s kind of crazy that they wanted to work with us because they have some heroes of mine, Nick Cave and Depeche Mode, so I think it’s hopefully about song writing, but I think we stand out as a happy band in that family of course.
Do you feel part of any musical scene?
No. Actually in Sweden the whole music scene is kind of concentrated to the capital in Stockholm and I live about four hours away in a little town and I don’t feel into any scene. I'm into music; it’s as simple as that.
What about the rest of the band? What kind of backgrounds are they from?
You get everything! I got that question earlier, and someone wanted a list of every occupation, and it would take too long! We have students, architects, teachers, journalists, human resource people, unemployed, so there’s a lot of different occupations, but not one of us is a full time musician.
If you were on the computer, what kind of websites would you be looking at?
I discovered YouTube this year, and I think it’s great to sit for an hour or two and just look upon all the 80’s videos you’ve never seen. You’ve grown up with the songs maybe but you haven’t always seen it with your eyes and I think that’s great.