- Links to other major music streaming services: https://songwhip.com/strangetales
Strange Tales is a Swedish synth act. The band started out together in mid 80’s with the members Karl-Johan Larsson, Tobbe Lander and Jonas Berg. After a few gigs and a 5-track demo cassette, the band took a break in 87, and they all took on different careers after finishing high school.
Tobbe Lander started the legendary CLUB ROMO NIGHT music club in Gothenburg, which booked all major acts to play live. Bands like The Human League, Howard Jones, Boytronic, The Twins – just to name a few. The dance floor was jammed with new wave and electronic music, and people travelled a long way every month to go to this venue for 20 years.
The band also started the record label ROMO NIGHT RECORDS, just for the fun of it, as they all missed the music somehow. The first release was in 2019, a limited edition vinyl, 500 copies only. ”A Collection of the New Brat Pack vol.1”, which featured unsigned acts and bands in the new romantic spirit of 2019.
For this album release, Strange Tales made a brand new track called ”NASA”. That led to taking up music-making again and looking for the perfect producer for it.
The band waited out the producer Charlie Storm, who they all found would be perfect for them, and in 2020 they started recording tracks for an upcoming album release.
Strange Tales‘ inspiration are bands like Visage, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Human League, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, OMD and other classic 80’s acts. But also Beatles, ELO and pop songs from the 50’s and 60’s
The band’s music production always starts with a demo and then all melody lines, vocals and sounds are re-recorded using old-school analog and digital synths and instruments. Gear like: Pro One, Prophet 5, OSCar, EMU SP 12, DX7, Wasp, Doepfler Modulars, Arp 2600. And of course all kinds of Roland, Korg and Yamaha synths, together with classic drum machines and SDS Simmons drums, Synsonic.
We’ve had wonderful, creative recording sessions at the Cloud Chamber studios, the best kept secret studio in the upcoming industrial hipster area Ringön, Hising Island, Gothenburg in Sweden.
The band’s music
Karl-Johan says: ”We want to make music, that we want to hear ourselves. That’s our ambition”.
“We want to use all the classic instruments, that we have only read about on the album covers back in the days. It’s a dream come true using them to make music. Music that we love and to be together in the studio”, Karl Johan tells.
“Just like ABBA , we got back together after splitting up in ’87 – and after teaming up with Charlie Storm, the best – but also the most busy producer we know – we really hit it off. We have the loveliest time ever in our lives. When I write, I always aim for melodies in the first place, that stick. Without a strong melody, I don’t think there’s any real point in even making the effort. Then comes the lyrics, telling a story, a tale of something from real-life… situations, conflicts and of course heartbreaking love. “, Karl-Johan says.
“Every song is a little story itself – a strange tale if you like – with bits and pieces of reality and fiction. The music just appears in my head when I expose myself in everyday situations, and then I record it on my phone… if it still sounds good in my head after playing it back later on, I start putting it down into my machines”, Karl-Johan says.
Tobbe: ”After 20 years of running the best new romantic club in Scandinavia, Club Romo Night, it was time to reconnect to composing again, and to be a part of saturating the 80’s music, which is now climbing the charts again, and finds new a audience.”
Jonas: ” Playing live again was amazing, and also to make the new look and feel of the bands appearance”. Instead of the classic depressing synth look, we went for a mix of pop culture and tv-series we like”.
Strange Tales loves to play live and has been supporting act for e.g. the legendary Swedish new wave band Lustans Lakajer.
In 2023 Strange Tales finished the debut album recordings with the producer is Charles Storm in his Cloud Chamber Studio in Gothenburg, Sweden. Strange Tales debut album ‘Untold’ was released on November 24th, 2023.
Charlie is a really talented musician himself, now in a band called ”Exit North”. He is even playing gigs in far places like Japan. Recording and producing rock and pop for bands like Sweden’s biggest act in indie now, Håkan Hellström. Charlie has been busy with a lot of the indie acts, like Broder Daniel’s solo act Henrik Berggren along with Mando Diao. He has a fantastic collection of analog synths, drum machines and samplers He also record and produces acts like Anna Öberg who was the winner of ”Synthsläggan” 2021. A Swedish grammy kind of award in electronic music.
Buy Stange Tales’ debut album on CD here:
https://strangetales.se or on Bandcamp: https://strange-tales.bandcamp.com
Follow Strange Tales
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/bittersweetmelodies
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strange_tales_the_band
