The Evolution Of The Concretes

"No one wanted to sing, for starters, but me, so I did that," recalls Victoria Bergsman, the soft-spoken, gently-crooning singer from genius Swedish pop-band The Concretes, harking back to the band's beginnings in mid-'90s Stockholm. "We wanted to have a band because all the boys we knew had bands, so we wanted to show them that we could have a band, too. So, we started The Concretes, us three girls."

They may've been born into the world as three teenaged girls — Bergsman as singer, Maria Eriksson on guitar, Lisa Milberg on drums — but The Concretes have grown and grown in the seven years since. These days, there are eight people in the band, and a ninth-member/fifth-Beatle type always floating around. Live shows regularly find a dozen people on stage, and they've even played a whole show as an 18-piece. Their sprawling sound is beautifully displayed on their debut self-titled set, an utterly gorgeous mixtures of Velvety twang, girl-group grooves, and romantic film music. Issued in Sweden last year, it was far and away my favorite record of 2003, and it's recently been let loose upon the world at large.

Whilst it's The Concretes' debut album proper, it was preceded by another longplaying disc, 2000's Boyoubetterunow, which was a compilation of their first releases, two 10-inch records. Recorded with newly roped-in members on bass, organ, trumpet, and mandolin, these were the first foray into the studio for all of them. "I was afraid of the microphones, the drums, and all the sound. Everyone was afraid, I guess," Bergsman remembers.

How did she calm herself down? "I had a whisky," she deadpans. "And then we just sat and talked about it. Sometimes, you have too much respect for things, like the recording studio. We all had too much respect, and we had to break that down."

Given the growing nature of the band, discussion has become the thing they're most familiar with. "We spend more time talking, and having meetings, than we actually do rehearsing," offers organist Per Nyström. "There's so much planning of everything, and every decision must be discussed."

"We always talk everything over," Bergsman concurs. "Sometimes, for 10 hours. Most meetings seem to take five hours, even though we'd like to do them in one. It's always like that; it goes on, because everyone has to have their say. And that means, sometimes, up to 12 people. It's very democratic."

Such democracy meant that in the leadup to recording their first proper album, the band — together and with their producer Jari Haapalainen — talked over their intentions at great length. They played record after record, talked of old-soul recording techniques, vintage film-music scores, and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and dreamed of bringing in a harp to add romantic flourish. "We all agreed that we wanted quite a big sound, and that's why we have all those strings and horns and things,” Nyström says. "That was the main idea, creating a big record."

Whilst such grand orchestrations seem like the perfect product of an eight-piece band, there are still moments where their more frail beginnings linger, with Bergsman's beautiful murmurings — so often compared to Hope Sandoval — backed by lonesome piano or a gentle acoustic strums. "When we started out we were very sparse, and you can still hear some of that," the singer says. "But the songs on the latest album, they needed that big sound, those other instruments. 'Say Something New,' it needed to be explosive, and 'Warm Night,' it needed to be romantic."

All this grand symphonic sound has, in turn, influenced their live shows. The Concretes' live shows, currently split mostly between Sweden and the UK, have become celebrated spectacles, and, with the nervousness of their beginnings forgotten, they've started to become a more dynamic outfit. "We started out as a really, really quiet band," Nyström offers. "But, since, with our live shows, we've tended to make more and more noise each time we play. Everybody plays a little bit more loud, and a little bit less careful now." — Anthony Carew [Friday, October 29, 2004]