Photo:Daniel Blom

To fans of the Swedish hip hop Simon Emanuel is no newcomer – the past years he has been dropping full length albums, mixtapes and singles. Simon Emanuel now left his cocky alter ego Paragon behind, the young chicken that used to look up to the bigger inspirations like the staple Biggie and Jay-Z for guidance and inspiration. Time has changed and Simon Emanuel is now back with new alias and new album. The young Swede has broken out of his shell and is no longer worried or scared of what people might think of him. Surrounded by hungry beatmakers, Simon Emanuel is pouring out his soul faster than Drake could type on his Blackberry. And it comes across as truthful, heartbreaking, sincere and most of all inspirational.

What made you change from Paragon to Simon Emanuel? 
When I picked the name Paragon I was a teenager listening to the Wu Tang. To me it symbolizes that period in time. I had that name for like ten years, after awhile I just felt like moving on. Switching over to Simon Emanuel was crucial for me; it marked a new beginning, both musically and in some ways as a person. The whole Paragon thing felt old to me, I couldn´t do anything more with it. That period had some great moments but Simon Emanuel is who I am now.

How did you come up with the idea of making these collaborations, Fläskkvartetten is pretty surprising and sampling indie pop favorite Jens Lekman is a pretty ballsy move, have you had any feedback from these people on your tracks?
I’m just a fan of great music. I’ve always wanted to do something with like an orchestra. We had this song “Bli Min Död” that we felt needed some big, beautiful strings on it and I knew the daughter of Örjan from Fläskkvartten so she made it happen. That song is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever done. The song that samples Jens Lekman is called “Hennes Farväl” and was originally on a mixtape I released last year. When my manager reached out to Jens Lekman to clear the sample, Jens told him his landlord had actually played my song for him already and that he liked it. That felt good.

Have you ever considered going back to rapping in English again, so you could reach a broader audience?
No, never.  It’s not for me.

How would you best describe your album for our listeners that are non-Swedish speaking?
Big, dynamic, beautiful, spooky and spiritual,sonically speaking. The subject matter is quite dark I guess, a lot of emotions and frustrations. I always try to deliver every line with finesse though so it’s still a lot of slick rhyming on there. Even if you don’t understand the language you should give it a listen for the music alone.

Since you’ve mixed it up on this album, if you could, who would you partner up on track with (non hip/hop) and why?
I would love to do something with Robyn. She’s great. She’s a survivor who stood the test of time and I respect that a lot.

When and where can we see you perform next time?
We did a release party in Gothenburg and Stockholm, both extremely fun.
Hopefully I’ll do some touring this winter after the album is released.

What’s in your iPod on heavy rotation right now.
Right now I’m listening to a lot of How To Dress Well, Active Child and The Dream. I’m also listening to a whole lot of old Roc-a-fella stuff. Just mixing it up as always.

Tell me a little bit about Suntanas, what’s you involvement with that?
Suntanas is basically a collective of friends, a bunch of creative guys throwing parties, playing records, doing artwork, making clothes, shooting videos etc. The Suntanas thing started out as a joke almost, we came up with the name last summer while drinking, and now we got a website, a monthly club and we’re getting booked for shows all over Stockholm. We’re just having fun with it.

What’s next on Simon Emanuel’s agenda.
I’m released my album Sånger Från Andra Våningen on the 26th of October. The album took me like two years to complete so to finally release it to the public is such a great feeling. We’re doing a bunch of visuals around it, so expect at least two more videos from it and some other cool stuff. We’ll probably drop some bonus tracks a couple of weeks after the release of the album just to keep the momentum going too. Other than that I’m about to start on some other projects I’ve got in the pipeline. I’m doing a EP with a production team called Sum Comfort Food, another one with Swedish producer DJ Large and so on. The album will serve as the platform for all this new music I’ve got coming. I just want to keep surrounding myself with good, creative people.

On this album “Sånger Fran Andra Våningen” Simon has detoured from the stereotypical “Hip Hop” sound and engaged in unexpected collaborations, Jens Lekman, Jonas Lundqvist and Mapei.The sound is more melodic, still raw, but with the maturity of an artist who is finally ready to speak openly about the dark side of relationships and the fears that constantly occupy his mind. The track “Bli Min död” will take you back to that crossroad we’ve all been at, the ache and feeling of potentially parting ways with a loved one, and somewhere that song works itself up to feel like a Kanye-esque track with vivid strings and heavy beats.

It’s not an album that anyone should disregard as “just an” hip hop album, this new material is showcasing the work of someone pushing hard to break the barriers and borders for what compiles a certain music genre. It’s an album made by an artist who ran free with his inspirations and emotions and the result is something that should excite many different types of listeners.

Download and listen to Simon Eamnuel’s Flow Motion Mix, mixed by DJ Taro. Songs that inspired and have been on heavy rotation in Simon Eamnuel’s ipod during the past year. You can buy Sånger Från Andra Våningen on iTuens or listen at Spotify

http://www.simonemanuel.se/

By Louise Lund

Flow Motion mix by Simon Emanuel & DJ Taro (Right Click – Save As)

1. Adele “Hometown Glory”
2. Jhene Aiko “Stranger”
3. Active Child “Playing House” (feat. How To Dress Well)
4. Everything But The Girl “Walking Wounded”
5. Kendrick Lamar “A.D.H.D.”
6. How To Dress Well “Ready For The World” (xxxy Re-Edit)
7. Terius Nash “Wake Me When It’s Over”
8. The Streets “Blip On A Screen”
9. The Radio Dept. “I Wanted You To Feel The Same”
10. Kendal Johansson “Blue Moon”

After taking a refreshing three-year break The Touch comes back with a new refined sound and a new release. The Touch also hooked up with the French mastermind and power house Kitsuné from Paris that put out their two latest releases.
The Swedish electro outfit describe their music as pop music with a “dancey” undertone taking influences from 90‘s tribal and NY-Disco from the 70‘s and early 80‘s they’ve developed a genuine sound. Olov Andersson, Lina Öhman, and Johan Wahlberg from the band let us in tap into The Touch over an ice-cold beer on a hot Stockholm afternoon.

The Touch – Sermon (Official Music Video) from The Touch on Vimeo.

So let’s start with the name, what inspired you to create the name The Touch?
Johan: We’ve heard many stories about how we found our band name. And we’re actually not sure which one is true. We read somewhere, that we stole the name from a Dallas based rock band… but we’re not sure if that’s true. The only thing we can say is that we were in a hurry and we needed to come up with something fast. There’s no greater meaning to the name, really.

How did you make the switch from just DJ-ing to be a live band?
Johan: Well one day we made a song with a verse and a chorus. And it felt kind of natural. We felt that we knew that was the way to go. After that, the live shows came in to place, pieces were coming together. Before that, it was kind of hard to know, are we suppose to DJ? Are we suppose to play live? Should we have different singers all the time? (Which we ended up doing)
I think we made good tracks before, but we didn’t have a long-term perspective. But now what we do feels really natural, and we’re all comfortable with how it is.

What is your take on the current Swedish electronic music scene?
Olov: I would say living in Gothenburg a few years ago you got pretty spoiled. You could go out one Friday and dance to Kevin Saunderson and the next Friday to…Simian mobile disco and the next to Jerome Sydenham and so on, it was pretty crazy actually.

Johan: We really grew tired of the electro “banger” music, like 4 years ago. So that kind of scene I don’t miss. But The Eye was something else. And TrunkFunk Records is something else. Genuinely good dance music. So if we should talk about anyone in Sweden doing something for Swedish club culture it would be DJ Nibc. He’s the manager of the other label we are on (TrunkFunk Records). And he’s a really good DJ. He influenced us a lot, especially in the initial face.

You recently hooked up with french label Kitsuné, could you tell us a bit of how that happened and how it feels to work with them?
Johan: They wanted to feature our single for Kitsune Maison Compilation 11: The indie-Dance and an also put out an EP release with Sermon. So the compilation is a promo for the single “Sermon” that is out 11th of July.

Lina: We’ve always wanted to be released by Kitsuné so it’s been a really nice experience.

Wow, great. Speaking of your single “Sermon”. Could you tell us what it’s about?
Olov: Lina and I were suppose to meet to work on a song, and the last track I was listening to before I left the apartment listening to Diana Summer’s “Does your mama know about me?” There was line that stuck on me: “don’t you turn your back on me”.
So before I left the apartment I had pretty much all the lyrics to Sermon settled, it just came to me. So that’s what inspired me. The line. Don’t you turn your back on me.

A few weeks ago, you played in Stockholm at Debaser Medis. And you had a spring gig in Berlin. Do you feel a difference when playing abroad than when playing here in Stockholm?
Lina: I feel that Swedes observe the actual concert and take in the music rather than just dance. It feels like they might be a bit more reserved. The crowd we had in Stockholm was really good. We felt a strong connection with the them. I felt like they were really interested in the music. Berlin was a lot more dancing and feeling the music in a different way.

Johan: In Germany they’re more DJ oriented and maybe not too used to live gigs. So people dance much more, they usually have they’re backs to the DJ. So it feels a bit weird if you’re a band and they turn their back on you. But I guess it’s still nice that they’re dancing and really enjoying the music.

How does it work with your gigs? Do you plan them? Or just go with the flow?
Johan: We have a set list, but usually try to be pretty spontaneous. We feed off the crowd, and we like to interact with them. Our performance sort of depends on the connection we have with the crowd.

So now lets help you get in touch with your senses. Watch the new video and download the mixtape The Touch has put together especially for The Swede Beat.

The Swede Beat Mixtape Vol 5: The Touch. Download and Stream Below
The Touch’s mixtape for The Swede Beat by ThTch

1. Ikue Mori – Joganden Shooting Moon
2. ULYSSES – Gibson in E
3. Slight Delay – Can You Feel It?!
4. Nacho Patrol – El Fuego En Nosotros Todo
5. ESG – Moody (Spaced Out)
6. 23 Skidoo – Jalan Jalan
7. Augustus Pablo – East Of The River Nile
8. Louis Philippe – Don’t Blame It On The Summer
9. The Durutti Column – For A Western
10. Konono No 1 – Kule Kule Reprise
11. Percy Randolph – Shine
12. S. Olivier Nakara Percussions – Balimba
13. Diskjokke – Sengon
14. Miriam Makeba – Amampondo
15. Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Sports Spootnicks
16. Sly & Robbie – Side Walk Doctor
17. Testbild! – Sarkofag
18. Pixeltan – Scatter
19. Tele Music – Disco Free (Faze Action Edit)
20. Ichisan & Nakova – Valhala
21. Isolée – In Our Country
22. Pearson Sound – Wad
23. The Future Sound Of London – Calcium
24. Aural Exciters – Maladie D’Amour

http://www.facebook.com/thtch
By Vanessa Gil

Last spring The Swede Beat fell in love with the sound of Stockholm’s Montauk that was introduced to us by the Holiday EP – a breezy compilation of summer’s sweetest disco house. Since the summer season is upon us again we caught up with Victor Holmberg and Johan Cederberg of the duo to chat about two of their biggest passions: disco and DJing.

You guys are one of the few acts on Sweden’s nu-disco scene. Is the genre popular in Sweden or does your stuff sell better overseas?
It feels like the nu-disco scene here is relatively small. Sweden is easily influenced of what is happening in places like London, Paris and North America, so we have noticed the nu-disco scene growing lately to be”hip”. More and more we can see an interest here in Sweden for our music, but still the majority of our audience is overseas…

What do you love about the genre?
Chillin’… What we love is the feeling you get, the mood it sets. We never know what we are doing when we are starting on a new track. But the fundamental idea is based on your feelings, what mood you’re in or what mood you wanna be in.

What do you guys like to DJ when playing at bars and clubs in Stockholm?
More and more we like to play good old-fashioned disco. Mostly we play older tracks, hits that you have some relation to. We grew up listening to 90′s house and dance so there is something there that we’ll never shake off. Always love playing some Armand Van Helden or TC Crew – I Can’t Do It Alone. There are also some really good new acts we like to play, mostly disco and edits though…

Any memorable moments from DJing you would like to share?
Last summer we played at Debaser Slussen and we were really hyped up. It was pretty late, and we played house music. We were about to do a mix and Victor got so excited that when we did it he got some kind of stroke or something. He got like a cramp in his chest. I don’t know if that is a good thing?

Where do you go in Stockholm to get your disco fix?
The place we escaped to a lot this winter was Huset Under Bron. Their bar upstairs is the best Balearic disco bar if you feel like dancing. Otherwise I would go to Tranan, always good music there.

How would you describe this mixtape and how it’s related to Montauk’s sound?
These are tracks we’re enjoying right now. A taste of a not so disco-ey night out with us.

Montauk just relased a new EP, Newsroom on Canadian label Brilliantine. Stream it here:

http://www.myspace.com/ilovemontauk

The Swede Beat Mixtape Vol 4: Montauk. Download and Stream Here (Right click to save)

1. Madonna “Live To Tell (‘At Close Range’ Extended Instrumental)”
2. Madonna “Live To Tell”
3. Todd Terje “Snooze 4 Love”
4. Genius Of Time “Drifting Back”
5. Alice Smith “Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Remix)”
6. Richard T Bear”Sunshine Hotel”
7. Shine 2009 “Graduation”
8. Harvey Presents Locussolus “Next To You”
9. Montauk “Bombachas”
10. Fleetwood Mac “Hypnotized (Zambon Edit)”

By Lydia Kellam

The interesting sound of Uffe & Leoparden (meaning Uffe and the Leopard in Swedish) put this emerging hiphop duo on our 2011 watch list for new acts of Swedish heritage. The band mix hip-hop breaks with electronic sounds. And elevates their funky beats with slick rhymes sung in Skånska, the smooth sounding accent of Sweden’s dirty south.

The Swede Beat’s first meeting with the band was in the backroom of Whiteslab Palace, a small bar located at Manhattan’s Lower East Side in April 2010. The occasion was the opening party for last year’s version of MusicDoc Film Festival. It was also Uffe & Leoparden’s first show – ever (!)
The crowd’s bobbing heads, dancing feet, clapping hands and smiling faces was the proof we needed to validate our liking for this new band. After almost a year of silence we are very happy to have them back on our radar. A new demo was just released and a mixtape – made exclusively for The Swede Beat Magazine. (Download below)
We had a little chat with singer Ulf Alsterlund to see what’s up in the world of Uffe and Leoparden.

Who is Uffe & Leoparden?
It’s me and my friend Daniel Leopold. Outside of our band I work and teaches at one of Sweden’s largest performing arts school Kulturama. Daniel is a music producer and musician involved in a lot of different projects, making music ranging from electronic to indie.

How did you guys come up with the name?
I don’t really remember exactly how and when the name came up. When the project started we had another name for it but with time Uffe & Leoparden grew on us. That’s what a lot of our friends actually call us and it’s kind of simple and unpretentious in a nice way.

How would you describe your music?
We have sometimes talked about this… and in some ways maybe it’s easy to define but in other ways really hard (like all musicians when they try to talk about their music). But I guess one could say it’s like a mix of hip hop, electronic and pop – actually a kind of natural mix of the stuff we’ve listened to and been exposed to growing up in Sweden in the 80ies and 90ies.


Who does what in the band?
Leoparden makes all the music and I write all the lyrics, sings and raps.

When did you start creating music together?
We’ve been making music together on and off in different kinds of projects since the late 90´s. This project started when we both moved from the south to Stockholm. The project started to form itself when Leoparden came back from living abroad and stayed in my apartment for a while. The idea slowly progressed and when we realized that we had material for a few really good songs it became a bit more serious.

Best and worst thing of creating music and being friends at the same time?
The best thing is that we know each other really well; it makes it really easy to be honest and constructive with each other. For example it’s easier for us to give and receive criticism about what we are working on. Also we share and understand each others musical references in a very intuitive way.
Maybe the worst thing is that it’s hard to separate the music from the friendship. Most times when we meet it ends up being linked to the music in some way or another. We don’t just hang out and play video games as often as we should.

Who are your favorites from Sweden’s music scene?
We tend to listen more to foreign music than Swedish but some favorites worth mentioning are: Bob Hund, Kaah, the mighty Peps Persson and lately both Little Dragon and Marcus Price has been putting out some really nice electronic music.

What are you listening to right now?
One of Leoparden’s recent favorites is the album Jewelry by British act Micachu and almost everything that German duo Modeselector’s been putting out is appreciated by me.
Check out the mixtape (see below) for a nice smorgasbord of old and new favorite tracks.

What do you guys have planned for the band?
Right now we’re in the making of videos that will be spread together with some songs during the spring and early summer.
We are about to finish up our new live set so we want to start playing as much shows as we can.
The complete album will be finished during this year so we have more to come and look forward to.

Uffe & Leoparden – Lange Leve Karleken by Uffe & Leoparden

www.soundcloud.com/uffeandleoparden

The Swede Beat Mixtape Vol 3: Uffe & Leoparden. Download and Stream Here (Right click to save)
1. Gold Panda – You
2. Modeselektor, TTC – Dancing Box
3. Active Child – When Your Love Is Safe
4. J Dilla – Mash
5. Micachu – Turn Me Well
6. Saul Williams – Twice The First Time
7. Toro Y Moi – Talamak
8. Dead Prez – Hip Hop (Diplo Remix)
9. Armando, Sharvette – Don´t Take it (Thomos Edit)
10. Marcus Price & Carli – Mat Bira Kvinnor Weed
11. Ophex – Analog Porn
12. Gold Panda – Marriage
13. Uffe & Leoparden – Musiken
14. Donald Byrd – Black Byrd

By Lydia Kellam

The Swedish crowd known Moneybrother for quite some time now. Back in 2001 Anders Wendin from Ludvika, a small city in the Northern part of Sweden, made his first official appearance at the demo stage at Huldsfreds festival in southern Sweden. At the time Wendin played with several bands, soul-ska-punk band Monster was one of them. Two years after that debut Wendin released his first solo album: Blood Panic, a compilation of pure indie rock mixed soul, ska and reggae. He received a handful of awards for this accomplishment: Male artist of the year, Newcomer of the year, Live act of the year – the list goes on. It’s an understatement that 2003 was a good year for Sweden’s Moneybrother.
In 2005 Moneybrother released the sophomore album “To Die Alone”. That spring there wasn’t a radio station or indie pop club in Sweden that didn’t blasted his single “They’re Building Walls Around Us”.
The success continued and Wendin released a few albums that took him on several rounds in Europe including a sold out tour in Germany.

Moneybrother’s current agenda is bringing his unique blend of Swedish northern soul and indie – rock to other parts of the world.

The Swede Beat went see his live concert at Terminal 5 located in Manhattan’s Hell Kitchen March 3, 2011.
45 minutes of Swedish funk and rock n’ roll witnessed by thousands of New York city punk kids who were there to enjoy a performance by The Flogging Molly, an Irish punk band.
The pairing was quite odd, but Wendin and his team managed to get the kids moving. His live band consisting of Gustav Bendt on saxophone, Yoni Gordon on guitar, August Berg on drums, Karen Kanan Corrêa on bass and Wes Shippee on keys delivered an energetic set that manifested Moneybrother’s role as Sweden’s very own rock n’ roll soul star.

Photos by Lydia Kellam. More on our Flickr Page

We asked Moneybrother to put together a mixtape of tunes that inspire him to create music. Stream and download below:

The Swede Beat Mixtape Vol 2: Moneybrother

1. We Will Not – Bad Brains
2. Alternative Ulster – Stiff Little Fingers
3. A Song for While I’m Away – Thin Lizzy
4. Simply Beautiful – Al Green
5. Maybe Tomorrow – Mink Deville
6. Rita – The Drowning Men
7. Can I Change my Mind – Tyrone Davis
8. Fisherman’s Blues – Water Boys
9. Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
10. Fisherman – Congos

Text By Lydia Kellam

Hailing from the tiny Swedish west-coast town of Bovallstrand (450 inhabitants) – this 5-piece disco-indie-pop outfit formed almost a decade ago, when the youngest member was at the tender age of 11.
Now in the ripe old age of their early 20’s they’re signed to hip-label Bonjour Recordings and have released a debut album with another one on its way.
The music is fresh, fun and funky pop, dramatic in places and according to their myspace they take in a range of influences from Manchester to Motown.

The Swede Beat managed to track down lead-singer Andre Vikingsson for a few words on the band’s future plans. Since the release of Compass the band have been touring Europe steadily building a solid fan base. However a new album is underway with the working title International Business Machine.
According to Vikingsson, several songs are written and more or less finished, inspiration for the album has been found in the early 90’s indie sound as well as its art and architecture.
Like Compass, the band’s follow-up album will also be produced by famed Swedish producer Mattias Glavå who has worked with the likes of Håkan Hellström, Broder Daniel, Dungen and Anna Järvinen.

Vikingsson goes on to explain Bye Bye Bicycle’s ambitious plans for 2011 – which include further exploration and touring of Europe with planned shows in Germany, Netherlands, Poland, France, Spain, Portugal and more to follow. The band also plans to release their second full-length album in Autumn/Winter with the first single timed for early summer. Vikingsson emphasizes their main goal is to finish the album without forcing it – which is difficult due to the size of the band and members holding down 9-5 jobs when not on the road or in studio.

The five male members of Bye Bye Bicycle – Samuel Petersson, Nils Bengtsson Blomstrand, Jakob Schroeder, Viktor Engstrom and Andre Vikingsson – just finished a whirlwind tour of Germany so if you happen to be in the area check out their website for dates and info here.
Famous for their energetic live shows, and armed with plenty of shows and an album en route – keep your eye on Bye Bye Bicycle in 2011.

The Swede Beat Mixtape Vol 1: Bye Bye Bicycle by theswedebeat
To post mixtape on our blog or site click and copy link or embed code.

Track listing
1. Rene & Angela-I love you more
2. Hiroshi Satoh- lady of the nile
3.Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds- Fallin in love
4. MF DOOM- Rapp snitch knishes
5. Beach boys- Our prayer
6. Ariel pink- Life in L.A
7. Woubshet- ?
8. Part time- If I lose my cool I die
9. Syket- fishband (tiedye remix)
10. French Montana feat. Currensy- So high
11. Kanye west- Devil in a new dress

http://www.byebyebicycle.com/
By Samuel Sweetman