"I`ve never played in a band before. Us and Them is my first and probably the last one too"

What was the first record you bought? When, where and why? Where was it the last time you saw it?
Anders: I don’t really know. A bit strange when I think of my early obsession with pop music I general and records especially. Maybe it was a Top of the Pops compilation (for you who don’t remember it was a record with hits played by studio musicians that did their best to sound like the original). The first original album could be Gilbert O’Sullivan’s ’I’m A Writer, Not A Fighter’ but if I wasn’t such an honest guy I would say David Bowie’s ‘Pin-Ups’ which was the third one.
Britt: I can`t remember the first record I bought, but I do remember the first record I got. In Sorsele, the north of Sweden where I grew up, every kid were in Sundays at Sundayschool at the Pentecostal. One day we got a record as a gift. It was a Christian singer called Evie Thörnqvist and the album called ‘Evie, Till Mina Små Vänner’ (Evie, to my small friends). I think I was maybe seven years old.

What was the first gig you remember going to?
Anders: Chicory Tip in Motala Sports hall when I was 10 or 11. They were a glam rock band that had a couple of hits in Sweden at the time and were a bit exotic because of their use of a synthesizer. Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotti wrote the hits and they wrote the other ones by themselves. Of course it was fantastic, how could it be anything else? In fact Chicory Tip was the second gig I went too. They came back the year after, without the synthesizer sound and not nearly as good as the first time.
Britt: The first gig? Hmm. You know Sorsele is such a small place and when I lived there no one were playing in a band or something like that. Maybe the first gig I saw was Carola Häggkvist and that must have been 1983.

What was the first band/solo artist you obsessed about?
Anders: The summer when I discovered pop music I think I was obsessed with every artist that came my way. But the obvious answer must be Kate Bush. From the first time I heard ‘Wuthering Heights’ there was no turning back and the obsession hasn’t gone away.
Britt: That must be a Swedish artist called Tomas Di Leva; he was some kind of Jesus-figure and he talked a great deal about love, love and love.

What was the first gig you played? what was the name of the band and what kind of stuff did you play?
Anders: The band was called Heavy Rock. The first gig was in the bass player’s garage (without telling his parents). The average age of the band was 11 1/2 years and the music was indescribable (that’s the nicest thing I could say about it). Britt: Boring answer. I`ve never played in a band before. Us and Them is my first and probably the last one too.

What was the name of the first song you wrote/recorded/released?
Anders: It is a bit hard for me to recall which was the first song I wrote. But I got very clear memories of the first time we was in a studio and got released on a record. It was two songs on a compilation album. The ‘’producer’’ had one advice to us, stick to the first take. Then he could get the next band in as soon as possible to the lowest cost. Of course we were not too exalted with the result. The music was an unholy alliance between The B52s and new romantic, or something like that (I hope our age and that it happened in 1982 excuses us a bit).
Britt: The really first song we recorded before we were Us and Them was when we made Richard Thompson`s ‘The Great Valerio’. We recorded it just for fun. I was curious on how my voice would sound on a record.

Other than the people you currently play with, describe your dream backing band
Anders: I’ll make it easy: Bring me the whole 1969 line-up of Fairport Convention and I will be rather satisfied.
Britt: Maybe a duet with Nick Drake or David Bowie, with The Beatles as a backing band.

If you were stranded on a desert island with a record-deck, which three albums would you want with you?
Anders: ‘Five Leaves Left’ by Nick Drake and ‘The Dreaming’ by Kate Bush are two choices I know I won’t get tired of during all the years on the island. But the third one will satisfy my demand for variety, a compilation called ‘Fading Yellow volume 8 - Hymns For Today’ UK sike pop folk sounds 1968-1975. It has 21 songs and all of them more or less fantastic. It has some artists I was familiar with before like Harvey Andrews, Fuchsia and Andy Roberts but also some new ones like PC Kent, Nadia Cattouse and Vigrass & Osbourne (we like the album so much that we couldn’t resist doing a cover version)

What is your favourite era/genre of music?
Anders: There are a lot of genres I could put here but if the genre contain the word ‘’baroque’’, the chance that I like the music increase dramatically.
Britt: Oh, another tough question where I have to choose. I like music that sounds like it comes from the sixties. No guitar solos for me, please!

...and your favourite band/artist/album of the last five years?
Anders: The first one I think about during the last years is Midlakes The Courage of others.
Britt: And the first one I think about is The Divine Comedy ‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’ and Sufjan Stevens ‘Carrie & Lowell’.

Who do you regret never seeing live?
Anders: There is a lot of fantastic artists and band that I am too young to have a possibility to see live. I really wished I had seen Bert Jansch. I looked at his tour plans regularly, then suddenly he was gone. I guess all hope is gone to see Kate Bush, but you never know. Britt: It would be fantastic to see Kate Bush and Vashti Bunyan live, for example.

Which artists/labels have you collected over the years, if any?
Anders: I have a lot of records but I would not categorize myself as a collector (I suspect some of my friends think otherwise). I did always choose to buy a record with new songs instead of a record with maybe a new mix or a live version of a familiar song. But I think I’ve got nearly all records that Smiths and Kate Bush have released (but not if I’ve already got all the songs before). When I think about it I’ve got all the Yachts records (but they only existed two and a half years so maybe that doesn’t count) and most of the records from Associates, Alan Rankine era.

Name three memorable album sleeves
Anders: Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath, North Marine Drive – Ben Watt, Pin Ups – David Bowie

Beatles or The Stones or Dylan or Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin? why?
Anders: The easiest question thus far, Beatles; there’s so much to say on that subject, so I stop here.
Britt: Beatles.

What is the most embarrassing record in your collection? why is it there? Anders: Nowadays I’m not so concerned about embarrassing things in my home. A traditional embarrassing record is nowadays either a guilty pleasure or cult. If you asked me for twenty years ago it could have been the 7 inch single My Chico with the Italian disco star Sabrina. I got as a birthday present together with other goodies like a Saxon single
Britt: The records I don`t want to keep, I sell at fleamarkets.

Which do you prefer - on-stage or in the studio? and why?
Anders: I prefer work in the studio. Mainly because there’s so little of what we record that we could do live. We have had plans to set up a type of Us and Them live group but it requires a lot of time and we are not there yet. But I also feel that it’s good for us to do a couple of gigs per year
Britt: As my background as an actress I must say the stage. I really enjoying to play live and have that meeting with the audience. When the last song is over I always think that the time has been flying away and I feel, what? We`ve just started!!!

Describe your current/typical recording set-up (where and what)
Us and Them: Since a year back we got a room at home to do our recordings. We are living in an apartment, so when we are doing recordings that are a bit loud (for example with acoustic drums) we record in the backroom of a place called Larry’s which is a combined shop and café. On our winter release on Fruits de Mer, ‘Fading Within The Dwindling Sun’, we collaborated with the mellotron wizard Tony Swettenham for the third time. In that case we are a bit nontraditional. We haven’t meet Tony. We send our recordings to Tony and then he sensd us back the most beautiful additions that we mix into our songs.

What are your recording/release/gig plans for the next six months?
Us and Them: The next release in early December will be a 10 inch record (a favourite format of ours) here on Fruits de Mer called ‘’Fading Within The Dwindling Sun’. We have taken on what could be a mission impossible, to interpret songs by Sandy Denny. For us Sandy is one of the greatest singer ever and a fantastic songwriter so we are a bit nervous about that one. The following release is a 7 inch single on Mega Dodo in January with two of our own songs. It will be released in January and is one of four singles in the singles club. It is also available as a single on its own.
We are not exactly a touring band but we do a gig once in a while. Then next one is on October 15th and it’s a kind of small festival with five artists that will play during one evening. Then we will have a release party for both the new releases in January where we will perform.
At the moment we are not working with any specific record in mind. There are work with new songs in different stages, some songwriting, a bit recording and a couple of new songs that just wait to get a proper mix. So the main work is with our own penned songs but we are also working with a few interpretations of other peoples’ songs. At the moment we are working with a song we wanted to do for a while, Kevin Ayers’ Lady Rachel. We hope we could induce the dreamy surreal sense the lyrics convey. To be continued.