Chapter 8
THE RECORDING OF MUSICAL DIFFERENCES
DECEMBER 1996
Mon 2nd-The first session of the new album (with the working title “Disco”) began, with Nille Perned producing the first tracks.
1997
JANUARY 1997
Tue 7th—Sunday 12th – The sessions continued with Nille Perned.
The band worked on songs like Go Away Girl, Shining, Idiot’s Delight, My Worst Friend and We’re Not an American Band.
Hans also did some extra work producing an EP with “Porcelain Satellite”, and helping out on a solo single by Peter Svensson from The Cardigans.
FEBRUARY 1997
Thur 27th – A short tour in France, to promote the just released split single with Gang Bangers in Annecy close to the Swiss border.
MARCH 1997
While waiting for the studio to be available, the band worked with their label. The latest release is the second single with the Swedish band The Hellacopters.
APRIL 1997
Mon 7th – After a lot of waiting there was finally time to continue with the album. During this week the band worked with the producer Torsten Larsson.
Everybody’s making plans, Two of These Days and How Late is Too Late? were the songs worked on this time.
Monday 14th – Two tribute songs were recorded: Come On And Love Me by Kiss, and The Boys’ track Talking. Two more tracks, still in the vaults, were also done this day – Brown Eyed Son by The Waves and another one by The Boys: Backstage Pass.
Tue 15th – The first two tracks were mixed by Henryk Lipp
MAY 1997
Pat Fear from White Flag visited Gothenburg to do some sessions with Sator for the White Flag album “Eternally undone”.
JUNE 1997
The studio was booked all the time, so while waiting Kent and Chips wrote some more songs like Tie Me Up and Ask The Shadows (with Pat from White Flag).
Sun 8th – Kent and Chips joined Redd Kross on stage, at a show in Gothenburg, for “massive guitar versions” of The Red Kross song Annie’s Gone and a cover version of Heaven Only Knows, a song performed by both Baby Demons and Redd Kross.
Fri 13th – The Karlshamn festival. More guest spots. Chips became the bass player for The Nomads this night, since their original bassman Björne Fröberg we’re checking out the islands of Greece.
JULY 1997
Fri 4th – Pathfinder lands on Mars. Sator’s sessions were all cancelled this month due to illness.
Fri 18th – Chips played guitar on two tracks on Idde Schultz album “Vad man gör och inte gör”. Also playing guitars on the same tracks were Maria Engstöm from Docenterna and Hans Östlund from The Nomads.
Wed 30th – A song called Next was written and demoed.
The album is now called “Before and after”
AUGUST 1997
Mon 25th – Another session was cancelled. This time because of a missing producer!
SEPTEMBER 1997
Mon 15th – Finally back in the studio again! The backing tracks to Love MF were put down on tape. Torsten Larsson worked with the band this time.
Tue 30th – Nille Perned were back in the studio with Sator. This night the track Friction were recorded. Other songs worked on this week were Tie Me Up, Next and Swinging London.
OCTOBER 1997
Mon 6th – Three non-album tracks were quickly recorded; You Ain’t Nothing, Smoke Screen and So Dressed Up.
Wed 8th – TV-Night and Ask The Shadows were finished
Sat 11th – A secret show at a party in Hultsfred took place. This was the only Swedish show this year. Joppe Philgren and Maria Engstöm from Docenterna were guests on The Undertones track Teenage Kicks and the Docent Död track Bensin i blodet.
Tue 14th – Everybody’s Making Plans and Welcome Back Home were finished.
Tue 21th – A one off show for an instrumental surf band called “Kiesbye, Johansson, Granberg and Young” took place at the release-party for Robert Johnson and The Punchdrunks. The band consisted of, apart from Chips, Johan Johansson (KSMB, Strindbergs…) on drums and Per Granberg (Charta 77) on bass.
Neil Young couldn’t make it.
Two Robert Johnson songs and one newly written (the same morning) instrumental called Rope-A-Dope was performed. The song was later recorded by Robert Johnson and Punchdrunks and can be found on their “Fried on the altar of good taste” album (released early 2000).
NOVEMBER 1997
While waiting for the producers and the studio to be free again, two more vinyl singles were released on Planet of Noise Records; The Fancy Lads from Los Angeles and a split with the Swedish band Moonboys and The Halfbreeds from New York.
DECEMBER 1997
Mon 1st – One year anniversary of the recordings! The band was not celebrating but they started working again and continued to finish several Perned produced tracks during this week. During this month Michael Olsson were also involved in his “side-project” 45RPM together with Jörgen Cremonese from Whipped Cream. Several 45RPM songs were demoed at the Music-A-Matic Studio.
1998
JANUARY 1998
No Sator work. Kent recorded a demo with his other band, Speed of Sound Enterprise. Among the members of “SOSE” are Daniel Levin, who will show up again in our story.
Kent: “Since Michael and Chips had moved to Stockholm we didn’t rehearse that much. So addicted to playing music as I am, I really needed some guys to play with. Through a friend (Johan Johansson from Swedish punk heroes KSMB) I got the word that the “Levin twins” Joakim and Daniel were eager to start a new band since their old band De Lyckliga Kompisarna had ceased to exist 6 months earlier. I met Daniel on Saturday at the Hultsfred festival 1997 and started talking about forming a new band. The following Monday we rehearsed for the first time and I was suddenly in two bands”.
FEBRUARY 1998
Fri 6th – Gothenburg, Speed of Sound Enterprise tried out their newly recorded material in front of an audience for the first time.
MARCH 1998
Wed 11th – A Song to You was recorded for another French split single. This time with the French band Garlic Frog Diet.
Wed 19th Malmö. First night on Blue For Two’s final tour. Chips played guitar with the band as he has done on several tours over the years. On keyboards you could see Charlie Storm who would later show up again in the Sator history book.
APRIL 1998
Fri 24th – The very last weekend of the never ending album sessions. The last thing recorded was a completely rerecorded chorus for Two of These Days.
Sun 26th – All the recordings were done!!!
Chips: “The idea was that with two producers we could work much faster but it really became the other way around! This was easily the hardest album we’ve ever done”.
MAY 1998
Sat 2nd – The first mixing sessions with Michael Ilbert took place. The following four days Everybody’s Making Plans, Shining and How are things in California? were mixed.
Thur 21st – Friction was mixed
Wed 27th – Two of These days was mixed. While waiting, Michael did some more drumming with 45RPM.
Several non-album tracks were also mixed with Walle Kaaling during this month.
JUNE 1998
Mon 1st – TV-Night and Tie me Up were mixed.
Tue 2nd – How Late is Too Late? was mixed
Wed 3rd – Love MF also finished. The album, now rechristened to “Frictions”, were finally coming together.
Thur 4th – Another track got mixed, Welcome Back Home. Kent also found time for a late night show with his other band, Speed of Sound Enterprise.
Tue 9th – Chips did another show as bass player for The Nomads at a show in Stockholm with the American band The Drags.
Thur 11th – Speed of Sound Enterprise played the Hultsfred festival.
A very short Sator-set at this year’s festival. The band did the first encore for
Docenterna doing their song Bensin i Blodet for them.
If you were unlucky/lucky? you could also see a secret shambolic backstage-show with a band called “The Raggare”. The group consisted of Hans Gäfvert on bass, Fredde Andersén from “The Bones” on drums, Chips K on guitar and several guest singers from the audience. A chaotic event with cover versions of songs by The Ramones and The Rude Kids.
Sat 20th – “Gearfest” at Tantogården in Stockholm. Another informal party-gig at a party for the American magazine “Gearhead”. You could see a line-up which pretty much was the who’s who of the Swedish rock scene. First out was The Flaming Sideburns (actually from Finland) followed by The Strollers, The Robots, The Turpentines, Backyard Babies, Sator, Sewergrooves, The Nomads and The Hellacopters. That’s quite a line-up for a party!
JULY 1998
Sat 4th – Still waiting for the last mixing sessions. The boys reprised the encore from Hultsfred at another festival in Östersund. This time they were not all alone. On extra guitar you could hear Stefan Kauppi from the legendary early Swedish punk band Shit Kids.
Kent also joined Docenterna for the rest of their tour this summer doing guitar and backing vocals.
Tue 14th – Chips worked on a single with the metal-band Misdemeanor.
Fri 18th – The very very last recording session for the Sator album (now called “In technicolor”). The Flesh Quartet adds strings to Idiot’s Delight.
Mon 20th – Idiot’s Delight and Ask The Shadows were mixed.
After 20 months of mostly waiting the album was finally done!
No title change this day.
AUGUST 1998
Sator signed with the Swedish label Pool Sounds.
Thur 6th – Hans son Charles was born so Hans took the rest of the year off from the band.
Sat 8th – Chips got married.
Thur 20th – The new version of Sator started rehearsing in Gothenburg. Kent now played guitar – on bass there was Daniel Levin from Speed of Sound Enterprise” (where he plays guitar). Since Hans just become a father he was temporarily replaced by Charlie Storm (who toured with Chips earlier this year in Blue For Two) Michael and Chips stayed on their earlier positions on drums and guitar.
Complicated?
SEPTEMBER 1998
Tue 1st – To avoid a law suit the album title was changed to “In Color”
Thur 10th – The “new” Sator played 6 songs at an unofficial show supporting
” Fint Tillsammans”. Mostly new songs were chosen.
Mon 14th – The album title was changed again! The final title became “Musical differences”.
Wed 16th – A “double-bill” tour with Whale started at “Sten Sture & Co” in Uppsala. The bands played 16 shows in 19 days together in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Sator got great reviews and most of dates were sold out in advance! On most nights the two bands ended the show together doing The Dead Kennedy’s Too Drunk To Fuck. The show in Lund was captured on film for a video to Love MF.
The first single, Everybody’s Making Plans, was released during the tour, but no video was made this time.
OCTOBER 1998
Sun 4th – Oslo, Norway. Last night on the tour.
Mon 19th – “Musical Differences” was released in Sweden. It was basically received well by the press with just a few complaints about “Sator not sticking to the formula”.
Mon 26th – The band performed two songs live on the air on “Nyhetsmorgon”. A breakfast show broadcasted between 6,00 and 9,00. A strange time for rock ‘n’ roll.
NOVEMBER 1998
Mon 2nd – Another TV-show. The re-opening of “Nalen”, a classic venue in Stockholm. The place used to be a very important club in Stockholm from the 1930’s up to the late 60’s when it closed down.
Several more TV-shows, both live and playback, were recorded this month.
DECEMBER 1998
Tue 1st – The single Love MF/This Side of Nowhere was released in Sweden. The second song was actually recorded back in 1995 and was written by Bill Bartell from White Flag, Javier Escovedo from The Zeros with Chips and Kent adding a bit to it.
Sat 12th – Last show of the tour in Linköping with Monostar as support band.
Tue 15th – Chips started working with The Nomads producing their “Big Sound 2000″ album at Sunlight Studio in Stockholm. He also co-wrote several songs on the album.
White Flag released their Swiss 10” “Empty Heaven” All of Sator can be heard on Halter Top.
1999
JANUARY 1999
No Sator work at all but Kent joined Chariot on stage in Gothenburg for a couple of songs. Chariot contained members of White Flag, The Zeros, Posies and Fountains of Wayne.
FEBRUARY 1999
Tue 9th – Chips turn to do some songs with Chariot in Lund. (Black ‘n’ White and Wimp).
Fri 19th – Back in Lund at the same venue as the Chariot show last week. Sator played with The Halos as support band. Hans was now back in the band after his “baby vacation”.
The rest of the month was spent in the studio. Kent started recording the Speed of Sound Enterprise album. Chips worked with The Nomads.
The TV Night/Smoke Screen CD single was released.
MARCH 1999
More shows.
The first demos for “Barbie-Q-Killers vol 2” were recorded.
APRIL 1999
Sat 17th – Alone in the endzone was recorded for a forthcoming Radio Birdman tribute.
Sat 24th – The backing tracks to I’m Bored, a track by The Zero Boys, was recorded. Joakim Ericsson and Björne Fröberg from The Nomads played drums and bass, returning a favour. (Chips sang backing vocals and produced their Radio Birdman tribute Hanging on earlier this week)
Tue 27th – Time and distance was recorded for the Droppin’ out! EP
The tracks were produced by Jörgen Cremonese who once played in Whipped Cream (see earlier in this story) and now plays with Michael in 45RPM.
The other tracks – How are Things in California? and Dance To The Rocket From The Crypt – were recorded sometime between 1995-96 but got left off the album so this was the first chance to hear those tracks.
MAY 1999
Droppin’ Out! was released at the end of the month.
JUNE 1999
Sat 5th – Sator played a festival in Stockholm against racism. “My worst friend” was also included on their special festival CD.
Fri 11th – Chips started working on pre-production on The Turpentines album
“By Popular Demand”.
Thurs 17th – 45RPM, a band that includes Michael Olsson on drums, made their world premier at the Hultsfred festival. Sator also appeared at the festival the day after.
JULY 1999
Sat 10th – Last Sator show before Chips went on tour with Thåström on the “Kalas” tour. It’s a travelling mini festival with Weeping Willows, Petter, Jakob Hellman and some local acts (all Swedish). Apart from Joakim Thåström (who toured with Sator in 1991) the other members in the band were Heikki Kiviaho and Jörgen Wall from the band Whale who, as you might remember, toured with Sator in 1998.
It’s all connected in some way!
Sat 31th – Sator played in Västervik.
Because of a misunderstanding Chips was still on tour with Thåström playing at the same time in Stockholm! But the show must go on!
So for one night he was replaced by Jörgen Cremonese of 45RPM.
Some songs sung by Chips had to be dropped but with a back catalogue like Sator’s there was still enough “classics” to keep an audience happy.
Michael: “We don’t really have a dress code in the band but everybody usually wears black. It looked a bit strange when Chips, a short guy in black, was replaced by Jörgen, a tall guy dressed in all-white leather!”
This was the first and only Sator show ever without Chips.
AUGUST 1999
Chips recorded a demo with Matching Numbers and did several studio sessions with Thåström.
Sat 28th – Gothenburg: Sator played “The Rogues” in a performance based on the movie The Warriors. The Rogues are the bad guys in leather jackets who shot Cyrus and gets killed in the end. Since The Rogues are supposed to look like scum and wear leather-jackets, no stage clothes were needed, just a touch of make-up. The band Lok were The Baseball Furies, Sahara Hotnights the Lizzies and Hammerhill Click starred as The Warriors. M-Rock from The Stonefunkers was Cyrus. Between the action, short sets were played. The Sator set consisted of four Sator songs and four songs written by The Ramones.
Hans: “It felt completely right for The Rogues to sing Beat on The brat (with a baseball bat), Now I wanna sniff some glue, Loudmouth and Today your love, tomorrow the world. It certainly was a very interesting and strange night.”