Put a musical instrument into the hands of a Swede and you never know what they’re going to create.
The land that runs the musical spectrum from ABBA to Opeth, Bathory to Peter, Bjorn and John to The Hives and The Tallest Man on Earth – Sweden truly spans a musical genre gamut that influences and gains international attention which few other countries can boast about.
Now we have Baskery, a trio of Swedish sisters, Greta, Stella and Sunniva Bondesson, who have been making waves across festivals in North America by surprising audiences and not allowing people to pigeonhole their style and sound. Baskery have described themselves as “killbilly” and “banjo punk” and are known to leave audiences a bit speechless when the diminutive, blonde trio take to the stage to do whatever they want for each performance.
Baskery plays this year’s Canmore Folk Music Festival, Aug. 2, along with J.P. Hoe, Guy Davis, Deep Dark Woods, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and Strumbellas.
Baskery’s third album, Little Wild Life, was released late last year and the trio has been touring behind it heavily ever since.
“With our third album we didn’t feel we had anything to prove, so we had written songs and it happened pretty fast because we had all the songs. We wanted a real tight recording so we decided to do it in Berlin,” said Sunniva Bondesson (guitar, vocals).
“I live in Berlin partly and I found a great studio there with really high ceilings and a real classic ballroom atmosphere and we went in for 10 days and just found a great sound.
“We brought one producer in from the U.S., but other than that it was very intimate and no record company people involved; just us and a few friends. It was almost like going off to a cabin in the woods, but it was in Berlin, which was a little weird, but exactly what we wanted where you can go out at night but still be isolated in the studio.”
Baskery has earned a reputation for sticking to their guns in the studio, and won’t just let a producer tell them what to do.
“Yeah, I think we’re pretty hard to produce actually. We’re sisters and we’re a strong force together and normally we stand behind the same opinion. If one guy is trying to change our opinion he has to be really, really good at it,” Bondesson said.
“It would probably depend on who you ask, but we never argue on stage or about music or anything – we’ve played together for a long time and we’re best friends really... we hang out so much, sometimes we’re like one person.”
Sunniva has lived in Berlin for the last two and half years and says she really just wanted to show and share it with her sisters (all three spend a lot of time working in Nashville as of late, but Greta splits her time with the U.K., and Stella in Stockholm).
“Berlin is such a traditional place and it has a lot of that rock, punk and post-punk feel to it and for us having a bit of folk-country flare, we didn’t want to emphasize that so going more international to record maybe would have been too obvious,” Bondesson said. “Berlin was just grittier, dirtier in a sense, and there’s really good people there and there’s variety there compared to Nashville. We could have probably found the same kind of studio anywhere else, but you’re not going to find that atmosphere anywhere else.
The group of talented sisters also have their own indie label called Mother Tarantula.
“The label is something we started ourselves and we have a plan now to sign other artists, it’s just a matter of handling the release of our album and being in control of all the finances. When you have your own label you can decide which people you’re going to hire for promotion. It’s much cheaper to make a record on your own than with a big label because you get a much better deal when you’re independent,” Bondesson said.
“We’re too busy to do another record right now... we’re going to take a break with that label because we’re too busy, too many administrative things, distribution deals and contracts. We just want to make sure the music is available everywhere, but now digitally you can have your album released around the entire world, so it’s easier in that sense.”
So why does Sweden produce such an insane amount of varied and talented, internationally recognized bands and musicians?
“I have my own analysis on that,” Bondesson said. “First of all, music is very big in Sweden, almost everybody plays an instrument. It’s not really a big ‘jam’ country, but when you go to school you’re offered to play an instrument for free and take lessons – it’s always been a tradition to support the arts – like Canada.”
