Intervista a Parker Lewis!

Molti di voi conoscono già Emil Johansson aka Parker Lewis, molti invece ancora no. Be' il nostro amato cantantino svedese è in procinto di girare il nord Italia (come al solito noi centro-sudisti dobbiamo abbozzare..) grazie ai fantasmagorici ragazzi di Headphonesman Booking che portano nel nostro paese sempre dell'ottimo indiepop! Emil sarà inoltre accompagnato dai New Decade, la band capitanata dalla sua ragazza.
Noi di Frigo abbiamo deciso di fargli una breve intervista; lui ci ha raccontato dello stato della musica svedese, delle polpette Ikea, e naturalmente del contenuto del suo frigo.

Enjoy!

Emil, in your songs there are a lot of references about Italy. Why is that?
Because I'm a frequent visitor and I really love your country. Italy means very much to me since it was one of the first countries that picked up my music and I also met my girlfriend on the Motron festival two years ago. I'm a huge fan of italian food and one of my big musical heroes is Giacomo Puccini. Via Emilia is not a song about Italy but with all the references to Thunder Road I found it suitable to name it after my favorite road in the world. Haha.

This is the second time you come to our country (let's forget for a minute you always visited just nothern Italy). Tell us some of the biggest differences you've noticed between Italy and Sweden.
Actually it's the fourth time. I played at Motron Festival in Modena two years ago and in the summer of 2006 I supported Le Man Avec les Lunettes and Rough Bunnies on a couple of shows on their tour through the north. One thing that amazes me is that people always show up for shows and people often drive over big distances just to see a show. In Stockholm people won't even go on a 10 minutes subway ride to see a show.
By the way: I'd love to come to the south of Italy and play soon. Hopefully next time!

Don't take it as a negative thing, but I can hear a lot of similarities between your (wonderful!) music and other swedish ones, like for example Jens Lekman, Erik Hallden, Stars in Coma, Pelle Carlberg...do you think you swedes have got a common musical (pop) background? Where does it come from?
I've hardly heard any of those artists except for Jens so I don't know really. Sometimes swedish bands and artists are good at finding the real essentials from other music cultures and purifying it into something that sounds swedish. We had an amazing punk-scene in the late 70's and early 80's that in many ways copied the british scene but still made a sound of their own. I don't like much of the contemporary swedish pop music. Except for maybe five or ten bands and artists I think that most swedish music is crap.

Whoa! We actually think it's really good. Why you think most of it sucks? Which swedish artists you like most?
Oh. Maybe not most of the swedish music but a lot of it. I think that there are a lot of bands that just gets too much attention for sounding like bad copies of british 80's indie bands. I think that TIAC made one of the best albums in the world last year, but they've gotten very little attention for it which is just unfair. I also love Florence Valentin, Kalle J and Eldkvarn. And the new El Perro Del Mar album is very nice. And of course Hammarin&Robin and Xplo-Sean. The new Hammarin&Robin-single is just amazing. They've got something really special going on. And the new Mixtapes and Cellmates album's gonna be smashing.

Last question: what's in your fridge? Just Ikea meat balls or something more? :-P
Actually I think that we do have vegitarian meat balls in the freezer right now.. But it's a rare incident! I have the stuff you need for every day cooking (and some home made pasta! how about that?) and also a huge and very expensive cheese-cake that my girlfriend got for free from a bakery she's working next to.

Ecco le prossime date italiane di Parker Lewis!

Mer 06 - Brescia @ Enosteria
Giov 07 - Pordenone @ Deposito Giordani
Ven 08 - Arceto (RE) @ La Salumeria del Rock
Sab 09 - Cesena @ Lego Café
Dom 10 - Ferrara @ Zuni

> Parker Lewis - Save My Heart
> Parker Lewis - sito ufficiale
> Parker Lewis - scarica l'intero album di debutto