Interview with THE CHRYSLER...

1. Does The Chrysler fit into any particular segment of the music scene in Sweden?
All scenes in Sweden are very temporary, and you cannot say that we fit in too good anywhere. We don’t put our roots down. We know good people from the death metal scene on the West Coast as well as the most hyped pop scene on the East Coast. I think we had a good chance once to be a part of the beautiful indie-hype-crowd, but they kicked us out for bad behavior before giving us the secret password.

2. Is there a unifying musical or lyrical theme that underlies the songs on Failures and Sparks?
Not directly unifying. Much of the music and lyrics go way back in time before The Chrysler got together as a band, but found their complete and final form as songs on our debut. When trying to find some unifying force, lyrically, it deals a lot with opposites; love and hate, companionship and loneliness, failures and sparks.

3. How did you go about writing these songs?
We didn’t write much of the songs directly for Failures. We took the best out of the stuff we’d written a couple of years back that didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, decided to start a band, and gave it away to our new baby monster, The Chrysler.

4. Were there any particular influences in the song writing?
We’re a non-political band. Of course we follow what is going on in the world, politically and musically, but at the time of recording Failures and Sparks we closed all windows. In a way, Failures and Sparks is a sensitive and dark album, living in a world of its own, allowing no influences from the outside. Not for itself, its songs or its listeners.

5. How did you go about recording Failures and Sparks?
We went into the studio with the songs until-then only played on acoustic guitars and some melodica. There was not really a The Chrysler sound, so it had to be invented. Drummer Martin laid the basic tracks for the entire album in a day in August 2002, without even having heard all of the songs before. We played them to him in his earphones. I think there were about fifteen songs at the time. A lot of things where done sporadically over the fall, we went in and put on some guitars here, some bass there. We used a lot of dubious electronic equipment and producer Henrik recorded a lot of things happening between playing to get ambience. I guess half of what's on there are echoes and shades of alternative takes and just messing around with equipment. The studio we recorded is in the basement of a tenement house in central Södermalm, a borough in Stockholm, and the ceiling is filled with water pipes that hiss a lot, especially when you're trying to put vocals down. The sound when we listened back to it before doing the vocal tracks was all a murmur, but Henrik told us it was ok. We put the vocals on and brought on the horns in the spring of 2003, then went home, waiting for Henrik to do the mixes. When we got back he had strained the sound, sharpened things up and what we heard was good. It was 3-D.

6. Were there any specific musicians, songs, or albums that influenced the recording of Failures and Sparks?
There probably was, but we better not mention any. People tend to make too much out of namedropping anyway. The music, TV shows, and films that inspired us to write and record the album are probably not the same that people think about when they hear it. That's fine with us.

7. What is your least favorite live show that The Chrysler has performed?
We played at a birthday party where everyone was made to wear funny hats. We thought of course that this didn't include the band, but wrong we were. Imagine singing “What I Must Keep With Mine” while looking like Crocodile Dundee!