Interview with Kenny Håkansson from the Tapers Of The World Book - 2018

Kebnekajse is a swedish band that incorporate rock with folkmusic. They were active during the 1970´s and then made a comeback in 2001. They are still playing concerts and release new records up until this very day. We had the luck to get the guitar player and occasional vocalist Kenny Håkansson to answer some questions for the book about the period from the 1960´s up until today. Except for being part of Kebnekajse he has also played with various bands like “Dag Vag”, “Baby Grandmothers”, “Psychedelic Dream” as well as early bands like “The Agents” and “T-Boones” which were active during the 1960´s.

 

 

 

What kind of audio equipment did you use back in the 1970´s when recording albums? Also how did you record concerts? Did you use “Reel-To-Reel”?

 

Our group Kebnekajse did not form until 1971, and before that we didn't record. What I did, was using a stereo tape recorder, where it was possible to record left channel separately, and then move this recorded sound on to the right channel together with next sound. Then move the two sounds over to the left channel together with next sound, and so on. The early recorded sounds got more and more diffuse for every "overdubbing" you make, and I loved that sound.

 

 

If we talk about tapers and taping as a phenomena for a while, did you have any people that recorded Kebnekajse back in the 1970´s or did they appear later?

 

Yes. Silence Records Company recorded us in the 1970's.

 

 

If we should try to explain what kind of country Sweden was back in the 1960´s and the 1970´s, is it fair to say that most people were “leftwing” back then? Would instrumental and psychedelic music have prosper as much if Sweden would have been more “rightwing” in your understanding, or is this just pure overanalyzing?

As you say, it is hard to say, but I think that movement would have come anyway. All over the western world there was a musical revolution as I see it. You didn't have to be musically educated to be in a band, and you could play any kind of music you´d liked.

 

Many people also regard the 1970´s as the golden era of Swedish proggmusic. Except for Kebnekajse there were bands like “Träd, Gräs& Stenar”, “Arbete & Fritid”,

“Fläsket Brinner”, “Samla Mammas Manna” and “Turid” to mention just a few. Some bands were morepolitical orientated yet Kebnekajse seemed to be more into instrumental music and escapism that took the listener away fromthe ordinary life. What´s your thoughts on the “political bands”and the bands that played purely because of the joy for the music?

 

Of all the bands you mentioned in your question, none of them were politically focused, and all were mostly instrumental, except Turid. We were in the "left" movement, as being outside the "commercial music industry", and therefore looked upon as being political. There were other bands though that were using "lyrics" in their music. None of them were particularly musically progressive.

 

Kebnekajse went on a long hiatus after the 1970´s up until 2001. You did some soloprojects including the album “Springlekar och Gånglåtar” from 1978. This album was the first I heard which could somehow be connected to Kebnekajse because my father had

bought this record back in the day. I remember that after listening to it the first time I didn´t “get it”. I was more into bands that had lyrics and that had a lot of attitude, like “Guns N Roses” or “Nirvana”. Then somewhere around 2009 I saw you performthe song “Vallåt” on Swedish TV4 and I thought that these old progbands really could play. I realized that instrumental music were more interesting than the ordinary 3-minutes formula of “intro” – “chorus” – “bridge” – “refrain”. Why do think that instrumental music has made such an impact on the younger generations again?

 

I believe instrumental music makes the mind wander freely. You see and feel and react to instrumental music in a direct way.

 

I do like music with lyrics too, and I listen to it probably more often than purely instrumental music, but the words never get me "high" in the same way as instrumental music do.

 

 

Talking a bit about the period after the first Kebnekajse-era, what happened during the 1980´s musically speaking and also when it came to the audio equipment being used?

 

1979 - 1981 I was in a group named "Dag Vag". After that I tried fora while to form a band of my own again. It didn't go so well, so in the end of 1984 I, Bill Öhrström and a couple of guys started a "blues & boogie"-band. In the mid -60's I listened to, and played a lot of blues. The T-Boones were a blues band a bit equal to the Stones. Blues is always working, since we discovered it in the sixties. In 1987 I got my first computer with sequencer and midi. Together with that, and video-tape recorder, I worked up until I recorded my album "2117 m above sea level" 1996. This music was again rooted in Swedish folk style. The proper recording was made in Silence studio on a 24-track tape recorder.

 

Is it accurate to say that the Swedish proggera

was quite “dead” during the 1990´s or is that just a big overstatement? How would you describe the 1990´s, both with the bands that you played in with as well as the general climate of music and recording?

 

I felt it like the progg era ended in the late seventies. Then it was taken over by the Punk era, as a world movement. And after that, nothing. I had a few years, -89-91, when I listened a lot to heavy metal. That was where I thought the progression were. Guitar sound. Guitar playing techniques. Compositions and lots of things I hadn't heard before. After -91 I got tired of the attitude these bands had. Too much macho for me. The climate, for me, was colder. More difficult to find a place where you could develop.

 

More difficult to find venues to perform in. It was really getting tighter. Had to let go of my status as a "progg"-guitarist and jump on to whatever was there. Even driving busses for local transport company.

 

You have always mastered the guitar and although you have played in so many different bands and projects I believe that the “folkrock”-tag is the most common used. Could you tell us why you wanted to incorporate traditional Swedish folk blended together with rock music?

 

I was on tour with one of the most famous sing-song-writers of Sweden 1972. In this touring band there were two fiddle players. In the backroom, before one of our shows, they were warming up. Then Igot "struck"! I felt the strength of this what they were doing. I felt this music is from the ground I am walking.

Before this awakening hour, I was moderately interested in Swedish folk music. I saw it as something old conservative people were doing. It was nerdy. I felt it like "I have a mission"! "Spread the word". And the way to do this, was to play this music with 100W'sMarshall amplifiers on loud, with drums and bass.

Kebnekajse had already released one album, "Resa mot okänt mål" as a four-piece band. A year later we merged with another band, which made Kebnekajse a 10 piece-band. Five guitars, two bassists, two drummers and an African jembe-player. That is how to play Swedish Folk-music so it can be heard by many.

 

 

In the mid 1990´s something happened after the “MTV”-era bands like “Nirvana” and “Guns N Roses” disappeared. “Britpop” were all around with bands like “Blur” and “Suede”. A bit off the common radar of mainstream music there were a second coming of instrumental and experimental bands in stark contrast

to the“hitmusic” being played on the radio and TV. Later these bands would not fall into the category of “Progg” or even “instrumentalrock”, yet they would usually be called “Post-Rock”. One can hear many prog influences when you listen to early “Post-Rock”-bands like “Mogwai”, “Explosions In The Sky”, “God Is An Astronaut” and“Mono” just to mention a few. These bands has helped many people born in the 80´s or 90´s to discover progg music. Do you listen to any of these instrumental bands from the 1990´s and 2000´s or do you prefer something else?

No, I haven't. Thank you for telling me. I will listen.

 

Going back to the tapers and taping. In Sweden there is a couple of tapers located in mostly Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö that tapes bands like Kebnekajse, Träd Gräs & Stenar, Fläsket Brinner and the new upcoming proggband “Agusa”. In USA there were a big tapingscene with Grateful Dead partly allowing

tapers to tape within a “taperssection”. Why do you think that Sweden is unheard of when it comes to taping? What are your views on tapers and taping?

 

Nowadays people seem to be using their phones for making all kinds of recordings, but what you are talking about I haven't been aware of. We have been "taped" by some of the local sound engineers who are mixing us at the gig, and they then send the multi channel recordings for me to mix. Maybe that isn't what you mean by tapers though.

 

Interview and photo by: Damir "Danne" Bodnar - 2018

 

Also available in the book: "Tapers Of The World" (2018 - Lemunda Publishing)