Yonder..s journey - a brief history of the band
I met Mats about ten years ago in a blues club in Stockholm. We were jamming rather than talking. The music in those days would be quite loud and improvised, I..d be playing the electric guitar, trying to find a space for myself in the music. Many times I left disappointed and frustrated with my ears ringing, felt like I had to struggle just to make myself heard.
I could sense that Mats too was waiting for his moment to play, never pushing himself on anybody. And when he did play his harmonica he would always come across with more of a country sound than the other harmonica players. More of Sonny Terry than Little Walter, if you wish. The Swedish folk roots were always there too in his sound, something that set him apart.
We discovered that we shared a love for the prewar Delta blues music, the spiritual music and old timey mountain music from the twenties and thirties. We would talk about the simple beauty and poetic quality of those early primitive recordings. The atmosphere of those people, what they radiated out. Qualities you have to look hard for today.
There was always a giant gap between the acoustic music I would play in the stillness of my home and the music I had to play live in order to get a gig. I knew that Mats too was longing to take things down to a whisper. It feels like we..ve spent years dreaming about this band and music before we actually started playing and singing in public.
Somewhere along the way we crossed paths with double bass player Björn Lundquist. My first impression of Björn dates back to the winter of 1981 and the jam packed Café Ricardo in the Old Town of Stockholm. He was pumping out steady roots reggae bass lines behind the mighty Babatunde Tony Ellis. On his left side the legendary Bosse Skoglund would be playing the drums, practically sitting in the audience. The room was incredibly small, you could hardly move. I felt I had close to religious experiences some of those nights and learned a lot just by watching the interaction between those heavy players. For some reason it doesn..t seem that long ago.
Björn got us a gig as a trio in late 2003. It was a bit shaky, we played mostly other peoples material, country ballads and blues. I was alone at last on the guitar. With Björns double bass as a backbone I felt really free to play less than ever before. My role as a guitar player has always been a complimentary one, adding parts, never actually carrying the song forward. I have great respect for the art of rhythm guitar. For some reason there was always someone else already doing that, leaving the ornaments to me. Soon after that Björn hooked us up with drummer Kjell Gustavsson.
One of my first memories of Kjell is from the infamous Stockholm club Lilla Maria where he once played a gig with me backing up blues troubadour Eric Bibb with the Needed Time Band. Björn and Kjell have a long history together as a rhythm section, touring and backing up people for years and years.
The first time all four of us got together to rehearse I remember Kjell spontaneously singing sweet harmonies and putting away the sticks and brushes, playing the drum kit with his hands. Mats and I started getting together to work on songs. Sometimes he would have the whole song ready and waiting to be played, sometimes a few scribbled lines leant themselves to a couple of chords I had floating around.
We wanted to play original material but also do our own take on the old timey stuff we love. The ambition was to keep it simple and leave a lot of space and silence in the music. We decided on the name Yonder. Then we started to play gigs, not so often, maybe three or four times a year, but always trying to be well rehearsed. We drew a small but listening crowd of mostly friends. The more we took it down, the more people seemed to pay attention. I would come home from those gigs feeling peaceful and lit up inside.
One day, in June of 2006 we spent 12 hours in the studio, recording the basic tracks for our first record. It was all recorded live and we ended up using mostly the first takes. Four months later, in October, we spent another two days overdubbing some harmony vocals, chord zither, mbira and mixing everything. This first Yonder record has been a long time coming. We hope that it will reach out and touch people and help us get the opportunity to come out and play for you all in the near future.
Christer Lyssarides
If you want a taste of all our songs on the new CD go www.rootsy.nu
Yonder at Judys Cypress Grove
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“…This is the kind of quiet-without-being-boring type of roots music that some of us welcome with open arms. Personally, I wouldn't have thought to look toward Stockholm to find it, but this band's gospel tinged debut has made me into a believer…â€
RANDY BAKER, THE EAST BANK RADIO NASHVILLE
