Björn Synneby – vocal, electric guitar,
backtracks/projections at laptop and projector
Daniel Högberg – Keyboards
You’ve spent a sun-drenched day relaxing on the beach and you’re looking out at the ocean – see that very strong bright light on the water? That’s what new band Pacific! are all about, and it’s a warm sunny emotional feeling that imbues all of their music. “We have been very inspired by that light and we wanted to capture it in our songs,” explains Daniel.
Pacific! hail from Gothenburg in Sweden, and consist of Danny and Björn who were actually in school together from when they were seven years old (they are now 35). They were good mates when they were younger but in their teens they sort of drifted apart, but then three or four years ago they met up again by chance and just clicked. They spent a lot of time drinking coffee and talking about stuff and what they were doing. Björn was with a band called White Seeds and Daniel was involved in some other projects. So they decided to get a place together, a sort of studio that they just filled with lots of instruments, and then they started writing music together and it just sort of developed very organically. It was a great friendship-building process.
So for the past year they have been grafting away in their sort-of-studio and have made a trilogy of rather wonderful 12” EPs; the first, Sunset Blvd, garnered them an immediate fanbase and myspace following – it’s now sold out. The second, Hot Lips, is out and is building on the success of the first, and their fanbase is swelling. With the third Number One out recently, you can expect Pacific! to be the name on everybody’s lips.
It is no wonder they are already beloved to so many – it’s both music you can dance to and music you can really listen to. Each tune is a brilliant shimmering slice of pop and melodic funk that references influences as wide as French turn-of-the-century Renaissance composer Claude Debussy as well as Air, Phoenix, Daft Punk, Justice, Royksopp, Death in Vegas and the Beach Boys. “We were definitely influenced by the whole French contingent; we love that music and vibe. We were also listening to a lot of traditional American West Coast music, so Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys and all that West Coast psychedelia was important.” Listen out for the “woooo-hooos” in the background to ‘Sunset Blvd’ and you will know exactly where they are coming from. “We are also inspired by the South Pacific and Asia – Japan especially. So we felt the name Pacific was a name we could swim about in, ha ha ha!”
As luck would have it they chanced upon (over myspace no less) a talented illustrator, Stephane Manel, who has since become their main collaborator, creating beautiful dreamy pencil drawings for their trilogy of EP covers, as well as doing their press photos, the new animated video for ‘Hot Lips’ and the forthcoming album cover too. “We love him. It’s a marriage made in heaven; we are so happy about it. He invited us to come to Paris and meet him at an exhibition he was having and it was so weird, it was like walking into the visual equivalent of our music.”
Their current plan is their album release at Dolores Recordings. “We want to keep quite a low profile,” claims Daniel. However, they are off to Japan soon to play some gigs to their “small but very dedicated” Japanese following… we suspect they won’t be able to keep a low profile for very much longer.
| Booking: Robin Sumpton Phone: +46-(0)8-578 679 02 robin@luger.se |
