In Conversation with
“Evergreen Days”
November 2005
A little background:
Saluations to the following for the inspiration
With this interview
Jimmy Posession, the editor and chief of
“Robots and Electric Brains”
http://www.robotsandelectronicbrains.co.uk/
and Martin who runs the indepdent Swedish
record label “My Secret Garden Recordings”
http://listen.to/mysecretgarden
Now for those who do not, I have been a
Subscriber to “Electric Brains”, which is
A fanastic groovy little magazine which
Really does cover indepdenet music,
Often of all sorts of territories as seen
With previous Setting Sun interviews
With Trilemma, Horotwiz, Japhy Ryder
And Guitare Brothers to name but a few.
The point behind the magazine for me
Is it is a great little introduction often
To all sorts of music.
Take Sweden’s “My Secret Gardens”
the music on this little label, which
are often limited to something silly
to 30 to 50 copies of each release
are so underground they are almost
buried, but within each release is
a charm that is rarely found on major
record label releases.
On the latest issue of “Robots….”
There is as always a free CD on
It which focuses on a variety of
These little labels and I first discovered
Everygreen Days on there and was
Hooked almost straight from the
First chord.
This was a artist that reminded me
Almost instantly of two old Setting
Sun favourites Thrill Racer and
Laura Watling combinded together
indie pop from the days when it
truly meant something.
I e mailed Emelie Berg, who is
Evergreen Days and the resulting
Interview followed…
Thanks to Emelie for the interview
And I look forward to hearing
Hopefully future recordings off
You soon.
She can be contacted directly
On [email protected]
And you can track down her cd’s
At My Secret Garden at
http://listen.to/mysecretgarden
Many thanks
Andrew N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what's happening at the moment?
Evergreen Days:
Things are good, I´m studying hard for an exam right
now so I´m buried in books and haven´t got time for
anything else. But next week it will change and I
will have time to see my friends and go out riding in the
woods again.
Setting Sun:
Now can you introduce yourself to us and tell what
started you off in music etc?
Evergreen Days:
Well, I´m 22 years old, I live in gothenburg
and I´m studing at the institution for social
work at the university here. I started doing
music a couple of years ago, under the
name "Set Designers". I had just bought an
8-track portable studio and I started recording
songs with guitar, tambourine and vocals. It
was so much fun and a 7 inch single was released
on a small label in gothenburg.
Then I got my hand on cubase, and I started
experimenting infront of the computer. I
played with effects and added reverb, echo
and other things on the songs I recorded.
I had no intention off releasing any off it until
one of my friends heard it and thought that
it sounded really good. I trusted his advice and
Evergreen Days was born.
Shortly after this Martin from My Secret Garden
Recording told me that he wanted to release
Evergreen Days on his label.
And so the first EP was out!
Setting Sun:
What are your influences (music wise) and
what are you listening to at the moment?
Evergreen Days:
It´s an hard answer, cause I dont
think that I´m influenced by music in
the way that I hear something and think
that "this is what I want my music
to sound like", but off course you must get
some influences from the things
that you listen to.
I mostly listen to music from the sixties,
northern soul, 60´s pop and psychadelic garage,
and indiepop from the 90´s to now.
Right now I´m listening a lot to psychadelica
from different compilations
and easylistening/folkrock/pop groups
like the association and harpers bizarre.
Setting Sun:
Both of your two releases "If I only knew the
answer" (2004) and "Something we once had" (2005),
both released on My Secret Garden Recordings both
carry some truely lovely (and in some cases in the
same song haunting) songs. On the first EP" If I
only..." this is heightened by by the inclusion of an
ovely instrumental track to open the EP " Happy Home"
which is a great way to lead people into the EP. Can
you tell us a little bit about the track and what you
chose to start the EP with this?
Evergreen Days:
The song was the first I created in cubase,
I had come up with this melody on the guitar
that I couldn´t get out off my head. So I started
recording it and sat for a couple of days
just adding and adding more guitar. And one day
I thought that it sounded quite good, and I
decided that I didn´t want any vocals on it,
it sounded complete anyway. I wanted it as the first
track on the Ep because off the feeling the song
gave me and it just fitted right in with
the other songs. And it shows that when I have enough
patience I´m a quite good guitar player!
Setting Sun:
Your new EP" Something..." is just as lovely an EP
and on tracks like "Tonight" and "She can't sleep" -
there is a slight shift I feel in your sound. How did
the sessions compare for you between the two EPs?
Evergreen Days:
Well, the songs on the second EP was done a lot
faster, I didn´t add so much to them, they are,
I think, a lot clearer and more clean than the
songs on the first EP.
Instead of adding more and more vocaltracks I
borrowed this syntheziser or whatever you call it,
and added another instrument instead.
I think this made a big difference and it was so
much fun to work with something new.
Setting Sun:
I must admit I also love the name "Everygreen Days"
as it is has a early spring sort of feel which bounds
beauitfully with the artwork and title for your first
EP" If I only knew..." Can you tell us a little more
about why you chose Evergreen Days as a name for your
project / band.
Evergreen Days:
Evergreen Days is a re-write from the Felt song
"Evergreen Dazed". A friend suggested Evergreen
Dazed and I just changed it a bit. I thought that
it connected with my songs and I´m very
thankful to my friend wo helped me
come up with it!
Setting Sun:
As "Evergreen Days", have you played any concerts
yet? If not, how do you think they would differ /
compare to your releases?
Evergreen Days:
Oh no, I have a terrible stage-fright and I don´t know
if I´ll ever have the courage to stand in front an
audience and sing my songs! The thought makes
me so nervous. But, you should never say
never, but in any case I think it will take
some time. A long time.
Setting Sun:
What plans do you have next? (Music-wise).
Do you have any more releases in mind?
Evergreen Days:
Right now I have two songs that I think are really
good, but I don´t know when I´ll release them.
I think I will wait until I´m really really
pleased with them and then we´ll see!
Setting Sun:
I also seem to recall you come from Gothenburg,
Sweden. What's the music scene like were you live?
Have you seen any good concerts recently?
Everygreen Days:
The music scene here is great, even though it is a
small city.
Every other people you meet have some sort of band or
music projects, and a lot of really good music has sprung
out of here. The last concert I saw was the Clientele,
together with Jens Lekman (also from Gothenburg) and
Everyday mistakes.
It was a good show.
Otherwise I´m not very good at going to
concerts anymore. It´s a shame..
Setting Sun:
Anyway, a few slightly more less serious questions
to finish off with - firstly, what would you be your
dream job if you were not a rock and roll star?
Evergreen Days:
If I weren´t a rock and roll star? haha, well,
I would probably be what I´m studying
to be now, some kind of social worker who
works with therapy and young people with
problems. Or I would be some sort of farmer
and own a lot of horses and other animals and spend my
days riding in the woods. That would be nice.
Setting Sun:
Lastly, something light to finish off (Borrowed
from a pal's zine almost) - Imagine you were ship
wrecked on a desert Island and could have (Clearly
have second sight here – lol) the choice of having 5
records or Cd's with you with a stereo of course- what
would be your desert Island discs?
Evergreen Days:
Oh, that is the worst question!
It will haunt me for days!
Uhm..well….
these are the first records I can think of
that I really don´t want to live without.
Nick Drake- Bryter Later
The Clientele- Suburban Light
Fairways- Is everything alright?
The Association- Birthday,
and a compilation with northern soul from the
Groovesville-label.
Oh dear, I would really miss my
other records too!
I hope that if I end up on a deserted
island, my mp3 player will be saved with
me so I can spend my time sitting by a
coconut tree and have at least
100 records to listen to..
