ARTiST: Weeping Willows
TiTLE: Fear And Love
LABEL: EMI
GENRE: Rock
TiME: 45:34 min
SiZE: 62,4 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Feb-13-2007
RELEASE DATE: Feb-14-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. If You Know What Love Is 03:59
02. The Burden 03:56
03. A Man Out Of Me 04:10
04. You'll Never Know 03:45
(How Good You Really Are)
05. Everybody Is Lonely 03:08
06. Grains Of Sand 03:30
07. Shiver In The Morning Light 02:53
08. The Moon Is My Witness 03:31
09. Drifting Away 04:14
10. Peace & Love 04:23
11. Whispers 03:36
12. I Can't Feel It In Here 04:29
Release Notes:
WEEPING WILLOWS BIOGRAPHY
In the summer of 1994 The Hillbilly Boys played att
Kvarnen, a beer hall in Stockholm. It was a half
decent country/rockabilly band. The singer Magnus
Carlson and Thomas Sundgren, the tambourine player,
both worked there as bartenders. Kvarnen was packed
and the applause echoed against the wooden walls
when sad song after sad song was played on badly
tuned instruments. The band had been formed in june
with a repertory of songs made famous by Elvis, Gene
Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Hank Williams and Johnny
Cash. The Hillbilly Boys was a band made out of The
Clash fans romancing about the fifties and the
sixties. They had bowling shirts with the band name
embroidered on the backs. They did a few more gigs
that year.
In the audience at Kvarnen that night were some
members of Apache. The backing band of Swedish
singer Stefan Sundstr÷m. Stefan Axelsen (bass) and
Mats HedΘn (keyboards) went up to Magnus and Thomas
after the gig and praised them for good singing and
tambourine playing. During the following weeks
Magnus and Thomas were exotic guest artists with
Stefan Sundstr÷m & Apache at a couple of their gigs.
Magnus, Thomas and Apache (Stefan Axelsen, Mats
HedΘn, drummer Anders Hernestam and guitarist Ola
Nystr÷m) felt like they wanted to play more often
together so they added more cover songs to their
repertoire. Roy Orbisons öOnly The Lonelyö, Gene
Pitneys öTown Without Pityö and Walker Brothers
öMake It Easy On Yourselfö for example were
practised to perfection in the rehearsal studio in
the S÷der part of Stockholm. A couple of gigs were
booked at Munken, a restaurant in Visby on the
island of Gotland. Now they needed a band name.
Since all the songs were about deep unhappiness,
love problems and loneliness they decided on
öWeeping Willowsö. A Weeping Willow is a tree that
grows by the water (think: a dark cold river), has
hanging branches (were you can take cover under when
it rains or hide under) and has deep roots. The
weeping willow is a romantic symbol of comfort often
crooned about.
Weeping Willows dressed in black suits and started
to do more and more shows around Stockholm. They
slowly built up a reputation as a myserious live
band playing the saddest songs ever written in a
totally serious way. Like a band from a David Lynch
movie. Now Niko R÷hlcke (pedal steel, guitars and
keyboards) had been drafted to the band to complete
the line up. The height of the groups öcover band
eraö was when they did a gig at the former porno
club Lido. öEverybody was thereö, record companies,
journalists, other bands, trendies and people that
had caught the rumour spread around town. The day
after everything changed for the band. A praising
review in the major morning paper DN on the culture
pages is not the critical approval just any cover
band in Sweden will get.
Stefan and Magnus had started to write own material
and it was mixed in with the cover songs. Anders
started to write songs too and a demo was recorded
and put together in their rehearsal studio. The
cassette was passed around and a copy ended up at
the music magazine Pop. They thought the demo was so
exciting they decided to do a three page article
about the band. Andres Lokko did the article and
straight away every record label and publishing
company in Sweden got in touch.
The band signed a record deal for Virgin Records.
They would get their own label (Grand Recordings)
and the people there were whole heartedly into the
music. The debut album was recorded at Atlantis with
a huge string and horn section, Sixties style.
During the summer of 1997 the band went out on a
tour with two other bands they were friends with
(bob hund and Whale). In september öBroken Promise
Landö was released with top reviews everywhere. The
Weeping Willows sailed on an underground wave of
success. Magnus quit his day job.
Early on the band had a reputation of making grown
men cry and it has followed them ever since. They
were always sincere about the music and were never
into the öfame bitö. Integrity was always more
important than being seen in the gutter press and
crappy tv shows. Everyone in the group is
contibuting by music and all members write for the
theatre and movies as well. Magnus writes all the
lyrics, though. They have always had a very mixed
audience. Never fit into any specific style box.
They doesnÆt want to. They prefer variation and
doesnÆt want to get stuck in a corner. In 1997 they
played at a big party at the Cannes Film Festival.
They also released a Christmas EP (öDecember
Songsö). A version of John PrineÆs öChristmas In
Prisonö. The first two years they were extremely
busy with touring, releasing singles, doing tv shows
and participating in Colin Nutleys Oscar nominated
movie öUnder Solenö, where they played themselves.
After the second album öEndless Nightö Thomas left
the group. For that album they wrote loads of songs,
each one trying to be more pompous and grander than
the other. A video (öTrue To Youö ) was shot in
Mexico and everything went a bit too far. Constant
touring and recording during 1998 and 1999 made the
band want to slow down a bit in 2000. Magnus
released a solo album in Swedish 2001 (öAllt Σr bara
du, du, duö).
In 2001 the band got together with producer Johan
Forsman. Weeping Willows wanted to change the
musical aim to a more ömodern soundö. The retro
thing was stripped down and the melodies were backed
with the aid of synthesizers instead of strings and
horns. The band was very inspired and the third
album (öInto The Lightö) was their biggest success
so far. The big hit was öTouch Meö. It was one of
the major hits in Sweden 2002. The band tried new
ways and the windows were wide open. House-, Hip
Hop-, Techno- and Big Beat-remixes were made and
everything seemed possible. They had a Ska-band (The
Tulos, which later turned into Club Killers). Magnus
released a second solo album (öEtt Kungarike F÷r En
Kramö) in 2003. In 2003 they worked on the
öPresenceö album together with Carl-Michael
Herl÷fsson. Influenced by british guitar rock and
(as always) the sixties crooners. Another big hit
(öStairsö) paved the way for another successful
Scandinavian tour. A gig in Helsinki was filmed and
released on DVD. In 2005 the band put out a Singles
Collection (öSingles Againö) with a limited edition
double cd with all the b-sides and rare tracks. The
single öIÆm Gonna Let Love Find Meö came out and
they did a "Best of"-tour in December 2005.
The Weeping Willows have played in cafΘs for a cup
of coffee and they have headlined the biggest
Scandinavian festivals. They have stayed the same
but they have also changed a lot. They have spread
their music further than they could have imagined
yet they are still quite anonymous. Variation, just
the way they like it. ItÆs all about the music.
2007.
In the fall of 2005 we released an album that
compiled our first ten years as a band. We had by
then gone from a dramatic 60's sound via semi
electronic anthems to grand guitar rock. During all
these years we have occasionally also recorded
stripped down acoustic songs. Sometimes the least
arranged songs have become the most grand ones. Left
more to the imagination of the listener. Sometimes
less is more. We started working on our new songs
last spring. Slowly but surely we understood that
this album was going to be calmer, more naked and
more romantic than "Presence". In many ways we have
travelled further with the new material but at the
same time we have returned to the kind of music we
did at the time of "Broken Promise Land". Andy Bell
from Oasis was brought in to produce and Sigge
Krantz (winner of a couple of Swedish Folk music
production Grammy Awards) was hand picked to
engineer.
Our recording sessions during the summer has been
very pleasant and giving for us. We did whole takes
of the songs and tried to keep away from too many
overdubs. We wanted to have an organic live feel to
this album. When we needed an extra musician we
brought in Martin Hederos or Andy Bell. Patrik
Andersson played on one of the tracks. Everything
was kept within the family. When it was time to mix
the songs we wanted to bring in someone from
outside. Someone who hadn't been involved with the
recordings to take the songs to another level.
Mikael Herrstr÷m did this at Atlantis, the best
studio in Sweden.
Now it is finished at last. Our first album in three
years. We are proud of every second of it. It's
called "Fear & Love" and is released on Valentines
Day, February 14.
The first single is called "The Burden"/"The Moon Is
My Witness" and was released on January 3.