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Under Byen

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Location: Denmark

Website: http://www.underbyen.dk/

Bio: In a house full of secrets Under Byen (pronounced Oh’nah-Boon) began recording their new record. The basic try outs – what was later to become ... (more) "Samme Stof Som Stof" - took place in an old 18 century house in Brussels, a house in which the leather wallpaper hung loose from the walls and the heavy planks on the floor would creak with every foot step. Ahead of the recordings Under Byen had played a long string of European shows, which over the past few years have gained many fans in many cities, scared some elder out of concert halls, and made a strong friendship with a loving couple in Brussels. With all these shows kept in mind the band decided to attend the recordings as a live band, being honest to those developments the many shows had affected their sound. The band would challenge themselves and experiment with unfamiliar sounds, new ways of recording and famous Belgium beer. During the summer and the winter and next summer, the songs would slowly evolve and the recordings started to sound like an album. Transformations of songs that cracks but rises again in new shapes. Violin player Nils Gröndahl and piano player Thorbjørn Krogshede led an open battle war of effect pedals – their mutual reinforcement have had a considerably effect on how Under Byen sounds on Samme Stof Som Stof where the audiotive excursions stays in opposition to the differently composed pop tunes. During the process Henriette Sennenvaldt fell in love with a built microphone, that distorts the words. Some would say the meaning as well, if you read close enough. Drummers Morten Larsen and Stine Sørensen found more trashy metal to built up their drum kits, cellist Morten Svenstrup would spread brittle fear from the cello's string while Sara Saxild would answer that with a deep feedback. Anders Stochholm was still Anders, now with warm feeling foe the kalimba. In a deep forest in Sweden, Under Byen decided to record the songs as live takes, just as they had been doing in Belgium. The electronic London based musician Leafcutter John would be the music teacher, or distracter, as he would name himself. Under Byen then had a raw shell of songs of the finished album, however it was important for the band to go even further to the extremes and through that being able to underscore and develop each emotion within each song. Therefore New Yorker Kevin Salem, who had formerly worked with Yo La Tengo and Giant Sand, was asked to mix some of the songs while Danish pop producer Carsten Heller would mix some as well. Finally the band itself would take care of the rest of the mixing. And the album started to take shape…. But shape is, for Under Byen, a very fragile word and of the same reason the band would work on the recordings up to the night before the mastering, do some dubbings, get rid of songs, taking them into consideration once again, a few were – so we think- getting rid of once more, the tracklist kept us awake the whole night through. Well, we came up with Samme Stof Som Stof. It's a spike heel for one foot and a military boot for the other. We hope you'll like the album. (less)