EF 2022

One of Sweden´s longest running post-rock bands "EF" will release a new record on November the 4th. We sent over some questions to see how things are going and what we can expect from the new record. Here´s what they have to say...

                                                    Photo: EF

First of all, it´s been four years since we talked the last time. How have you survived the period of Covid-19?

We’ve all survived - yes! All of us got it of course but no one got really bad which we feel lucky about. I believe all of our close ones also gone through the pandemics without anything worse than a tough cold.But the pandemics was also what made us contact each other again and start figuring out a way to create music again. The boredom that sneaked upon you when you couldn’t party, travel or even meet your old folks was horrible. 

 

 

In November of 2022 you will release your new album entitled ”We Salute You, You and You!”. We have heard the first preview from the album called ”Moments Of Momentum” and it´s a killer song. Could you tell us about the recording process and the transformation of early ideas that lead to the completion of the album? 

 

As I mentioned earlier it was the boredom of the pandemics forcing our creativity minds to actually meet and greet again. The original core members of EF met in one of these Ready-To-Rock places you can rent per hour with crappy amplifiers and a half working drum kit. We rocked without any certain agenda and it was also the first time we created with Danny again since 2016 which was special. The equipment sounded shit, the room sounded shit but there was some nice harmonies and melodies created right there and when our 3 hours was over we all felt we had some nice stuff to continue to work and had some stuff recorded on our iPhones in case our old senior minds would fail on us til next time. We continued to do this every second Sunday for about 3 months before we felt the need of moving on and record the material for real. We couldnt really develop it further with just noisy iPhone-recordings and that’s when we contacted our old friend...

 

The new album has a clean yet powerful production. Could you tell us a bit about who produced the new album?

...Kim Ruiz at legendary prog-rock studio Nacksving in Göteborg to record our loose ideas and help us cut and paste em into real songs. We mixed and mastered it together with Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna-fame) as we’ve done with the last couple of albums. He really gets that POW into the songs.

 

                                                                        The New Album
 

 

To celebrate the new album you will head out on a European tour in November of 2022. What can we expect from the upcoming tour? 

It will be our first tour since 2018 and we’re both excited and anxious about it. We don’t know how the world will look like in November. Does people afford to go to shows? Will there be electricity available? Have the pandemic got worse? And do people still have interest in EF? There’ll be new songs being played - of course! But we’ll also play some stuff we haven’t played in 10 years. You can also expect our core member Danny back on stage. He stopped touring with us back in 2016 due to his personal health and that’s of course awesome to have him with us again. 

 

When you compare to when you first started EF, what has changed the most after all this years?

We’ve gained a few pounds and our once fancy hair cuts have turned grey. But we’re still pretty much the same stupid dudes that once decided to start the band. No one has matured. 

 

You hail from the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. How has that shaped you as human beings? 

None of us are from Gothenburg originally. We all moved there because of different reasons. I dont think Gothenburg as a city have made any impact on our sound or such… We hardly play live here and there’s hardly any bands in our genre around (even if there used to be some). Even the biggest touring bands in the genre usually skip Gothenburg on their tours… I guess EF would have sounded pretty much the same if we met in Kalmar. 

 

Now a imaginary question. If you would arrange your own festival, which bands would you invite and why so? 

23.00 Radiohead would headline. Explanation is unnecessary.

22.00 Mineral - the greatest EMO band when emo was real music and not just rich and bored college kids with make up

21.00 Breach - keeping things aggressive for a while

20.00 Lack - one of the most underrated indierock bands in Europe. Their last two albums have definitely inspired us a lot

19.00 Do Make Say Think - Canadian jazzy postrock at its best

18.00 Idles - Energetic kick-starter

The political landscape in Sweden has just changed with the recent election in September of 2022. How has that shaped you as musicians and as humans?

Pretty early on we decided that EF shouldn’t be a political outlet for any of its members but the outcome of the latest election definitely wasn’t what any of us were hoping for and it will probably not be in favor for anyone connected to any type of alternative cultural occupation. But we definitely are pro democracy and will try to stick around to make a change in 4 years from now.

 

Do you have time for any side projects apart from playing in EF?

Time is the least we have...

 

The last question for this time. How do you imagine EF in 10 years from now?

Gosh! It was 10 years ago we released Ceremonies so I guess there will be a 6th album ready to be released… IF we survive the electrical bills this winter. 

 

For more info on EF, please check out: 

http://efmusic.se/

 

Swedish tour 2022:

2-4/12-2022 - Viva Sounds Festival, Gothenburg

10/12-2022 - Jönköping, Sofiehof, Underjorden