Here

Here´s some answers to your questions.

It was difficult to answer some of the questions. And then I mean the political questions because I think that politic isn´t something you can write about in some words only. It´s a way of life and that you can express through live and maybe write a book. We plays music. It´s a way to show things in a meaning. We have chosen to live on money from the social welfare and not do do anything else than play music. Iraq is important and do you want to know more about those things I suggest that you phone me and we can talk about it.

You said that you only have the album and the latest EP and that´s most actual so it´s good.

Magnus Bjerkert

History?

I have taken the biography to get a good picture of us:

The Malmoeband David & the Citizens played on their first year as a band 1999 on Hulstfred and Emmabodafestivals. They got a rumour about them as a fantastic liveband which did that they got gigs all over Sweden and they get themselves a good public which followed them even before they have released any record.

On the spring 2001 David & the Citizens released their debut-EP. And then til the summer of 2002 they released two ep`s , one single and the "For All Happy Endings" (march 2002). They did a lot of gigs , on Hultsfred and Emmaboda both years and on Roskildefestival, Arvikafestiva and Storsjöyran 2002. Some of the songs became small radiohits and “Song Against Life” was in the first position on MTV:S “Up North” four of the seven weeks it was on that chart.

After that the band have been concentrated to come out outside Sweden and they have played in many european countries. Later this spring David and the Citizens record their second album in Gula Studion but first now their new "New Direction EP".

For David & the Citizens is it important to go their own way and to be honest to themselves and they don´t have to the things they ”must” do. In one and the same song it can be both happiness and sadness, calm and hard, harmony and frustration and whispers and shouts.The songs have often it´s base in davids guitar and builds up with trumpet, organ, stylofon and some other instruments. The lyrics which often are storeies about life and death, is also a important ingrediense in David & The citisens music. Prcisly as almost all other material is the new EP ”New Direction” recorded in Gula Studion in Malmoe and produced of Jens Lidgård.

On the Ep it´s four new songs which is a little more straight foreward than before but it follows David & And the Citizens old way, in other words it goes around in many ways musically.

Please tell me a little about every member, family, interests and something bad about every one?

-Magnus Bjerkert – Trumpet, plays everything and also much organ. Lives with my girlfriend in Malmoe. Have no interests except the record Company Adrian Recordings and the bands I´m in– David & The Citizens and Sharif. Sits in periods in Malmoes on bad pizzerias and drink beer and when I´m bored on that I´m sober for a while.Have been to a psycholog once when my old girlfriend thought I was pyroman. I have never any money but I´m convinced that I´m going to be rich sometimes.(maybe) I had a near friend who hang himself, it was terrible. Have study a lot of filosophy. I´m raised in Hultsfred. Born in Kalmar, have lived in Vimmerby and Linköping

- Alexander Madsen, mother, two brothers and my brothers twins, silverfishes on the toilet and some animals in my closet. Plays guitar(no surprise there), my computer(no surprise there either), wine. Women and singing( no surprise there either)something bad, hmmm, I wash my hair once a month. Is that terrible?

I compare you with groups like Smith, jam and so on, comment?

-Magnus: David who write all our songs have no Smithsrecords and he had never heard of The Jam. I(Magnus) is grown up with Smiths and I love The Jam. We have had many comparements but these two I have never heard before.

David: I have never listened to Smiths or Jam, so I can´t relate to any of them, but it´s flatering and nice to be compared to bands you never have listened to before. When I started to play out with the Citizens so was we compared to bands like Calexico, Beck and Dylan, bands which I haven´t listened so much to and today I like both Dyland Calexico...

Alexander: -I can´´t say that I compare myslef to Johnny Marr or Paul Weller but it´s falletring I think. In my youth I listened a whole lot to The Jam actually but I don´t think it can be heard in my style of playing. I think I´m once upon a time tried to sound a little like J.Mascis

What other groups are you being compared to?

-Bright Eyes, Ben Folds Five have benn the most used. No bands that we listens to ,Elliott Smith, Tom Waits, Supertramp, Robert Wells, Elton John, Guided By Voices, is other bands we have heard we sound like.

David: We have been compared to a lot of bands through the years. But of all comparions is the most odd bands like Frank Zappa, Robert Wells and Supertramp. Otherwise many writes that we sounds like Ben Folds Five, which is bullshit.

Alexander:- I think it´s a little bit hard to say because I don´t listen to the sort of music that we play and then I thinks it´s difference between our songs so it´s hard to see parallels in our music.

Do you care about reviews?

Magnus: Yeah, I´m sad to say.

David: Reviews is a sensitive part, but I take the bloody seriously. I´m vary safe in my way of doing songs and what I want with my music, so I shouldn´t take reviews so hard, but it´s hard to read in the papers about my music if the reviewer don´t like what he/she hear. In Dagens Nyheter it was written about our fullength that we´re a band which lies and take it easy on pillows. Everyone who have seen us playing live know that´s not so. Not on record either.

Alexander: - I can´t say that I care so much about reviews. But when a good review come to me I can think: Yeah-Nice. But if it´s a bad review I don´t care so much about it. It´s only one persons opinion.

Which is the most peculiar review you have got?

Magnus: DN wrote that we did music to lie on pillows and feel cozy to. That we think was really weird.

And then wrote a paper in Norrköping that we play highschool(funk) music and that we was very good at our instruments. I must say that this one of our first gigs and that Micke who played the drums only have been drumming for a half year. We were really lousy on our instruments except David but he don´t know what a single chord is calledor what the strings on his guitar is called

Alexander: -No idea but we haven´t got so odd reviews, not the one that I have read.

How is a good gig with you?

Magnus:As a train which is going without a driver with a tunnelvision.

David: Violent, happy ,chaotic and warm.

Alexander:- A really good gig with us is fucking fucking good. A bad gig for us is also fucking good.

How does the average David and The Citizens fan look like?

-I don´t think it´s are some. It´s very varied people who listens to our music.

Alexander:- Isn´t it so that you don´t notice the average people?

Is it much response outside Sweden? Where are they most interested?

-Our website have about 1000 hits a week and half of them is from USA. And of course it´s there they are most interested. And then it´s much people in England who have our record. We´re going to release records in both these countries. And then we were in Baltica and played and there´s some people from there who likes us.

David: I don´t know so much about how it is outside Sweden.

Are you the type of group who gets very good reviews but don´t sell so much?

Magnus: No, I don´t think were that sort of group. We sell a lot of records and they have got good reviews.

David: We have got good reviws everywhere and for a band of our size and our resources we have sold a lot of records. Of course we want more to hear and see us…it´s not precisly so that we lives on our music , it would be nice to pay our bills with money from the thing we love and burn for. We will see how it´s going in the future.

Alexander: The most negative for me is that I must find some way to earn money and I can´t focus on this for 100 % and in the end of the month you notice that you haven´t any money at all to pay your bills for.

What drives you to play music?

Magnus: It´s the only thing we can. We´re helpless without it. We would stare into the wall and be nothing without the music. It´s nothing else to do.

David: It´s first a need in our soul, the feeling that is if I don´t do this I die. And it´s some curious feelings on what songs will I write in a year from now, what will it be and how will it sound

Alexander: This is the only thing that I have done for more than 6 months in my life and don´t have been bored of. It´s something special to sit on a minibus with 5 men in 8 hours.

What´s the most important for you when you do a song, is it to have a good lyric, good melody or to have a refrain that people remembers?

David: Lyric and melody goes hand in hand for me and it´s often written in the same time. That thing with having refrains that people remembers I don´t know anything about, it´s never planned.

Alexander:I think it depends on which of it you´re most satisfied with but I´m an instrumentalist so can I only be satisfied or dissatisfied with the things I have done.

What´s the difference between hitlistmusic and your more indiestyled music do you think?

Magnus: That hitlistmusic is trying to give people what they want. We do music that people wants without knowing it that they wanted it.

David: Is our music indie? Does it means that we´re underground I don´t know but I´m sure that if we laid a lot of money on adavertisment and marketing we will sell a lot of records too because our music isn´t odd or peculiar in any way. It´s pop.

Alexander:It´s no difference if you will get out the things the way that you thought you would do from the beginning.

What´s the best and what´s the worst of being in a band?

Magnus:The best is the magic which comes in the rehearsal romm or on stage between all in the band and you only look at each other and know that this is right and averything only glides on and you is best in the world.

The worst is when that´s not the feeling and you try with everything to understand and analyze why it´s not sounding good and you get fucked up on the other ones because of the fact that they play wrong and that I do it and everything is bad and you go home and start thinking of quit the band and be a soloartist and write own songs and do excactly as you want.

David: The fellowship and happiness you feel when you have done a good gig, or the peculiar feeling of friendship you have when you´re on tour I think it´s the best. The worst thing is that you must think of to have respect to all the other members in the same time. I think that everyone must compromise in the same time. That can be a painful thing.

Mikael: Ithe best is the feeling to do music together with the other musicans, it sounds pretentious maybe but that´s the way. What else? If it had been bad in playing in a band you haven´t continued with it. Smaller problem you can´t avoid and they take time sometimes but it´sifficult to avoid them if you want to do any seriously of the music.

What´s the most peculiar which have happened you on stage or in the audience when you have played?

Magn (Magnus) was stagediving for his first time when we played in Kalmar the last time, he was playing Stylophone and it was fun and peculiar.

Otherwise it´s two gigs…

Badhuset in Kristianstad,Sälen:

Mikael: The gig in Kristiantstads bathhouse must be the most peculiar we have done. It´s was the city´s idea but it really went out wrong. The warmth and the damp which was there did so it was condensation on our gear and you was sweating really much.

David: I don´t know. But the most peculiar gig must have been in the bathhouse in Kristianstad. It was warm and it was echoing and a guy was bathing during the time we played. Very surrealistic thing.

Alexander: I got a bra throwed at me in Emmaboda and on the same gig one girl showed her tiots…hmmmm I don´t really know what´s the meaning with that was.

What´s the best and what´s the worst of living in Sweden?

David: Honestly, if I shall good and bad things about Sweden it would take a whole lot of time. Sweden is a wonderful land and it´s much good to say about Sweden. But unfortunaly it feels like the our society glides far away from our citizens. I don´t feel that I´m a part of the society and nowdaays it´s lesser than it was before. To play in a band or the be a cultureworker I any form isn´t easy because you must always authorize yourself and your way to live to the majority and the middle class of Sweden that we call Svensson. I have chosen to keep on doing music and therefore I always lives in economic problems with butterflies in your stomach if you can´t pay your bills. Not until you´re first on the hitlist or when you will be interviewed in breakfast TV people understand people what you´re doing it feels like….blablabla…I wasn´t ansering your question.

Alexander:I have only lived here so I haven´t anything to be compare with.

How does you think that Gudrun Schyman, Göran Persson doing?

In Common:

Magnus: Decent. I agree with Göran Person when Göran Persson talking about the Iraqwar. He thinks like I do that USA have broken people´s right and that it was wrong to go to war. He and I ain´t so keen about demonstrating. I hate to be grouped with other people. If you demonstrate so are you in a special style and then you got many opinions that you don´t want to have.

Schyman was good until she dribbled everything away. It was good that she isn´t leader of her party anymore.

Alexander:Yeah, you think a lot of this but it´s a hell of a work to decide over a country and everybody complains how you do it or what you take for decision.

What do you think about the things in Iraq right now?

David: The war in Iraq is wrong in every way. USA and Great Britain are raping not only Iraq , maybe on the whole world because of the fact that they have ignored United Nations. I don´t have so much sympaties för Bush precisly. Of course it was terrible with World Trade Center but somewhere a bell rings that say “the things you do to others come back in some other way” The ongoing war in Iraq will not erase terrorism and I don´t think it get people who likes Bin laden will do it any lesser, I think it´s the other way instead because when no talkings or mediation works, the weak must have terrorism as a weapon. USA scare me more than Bin Laden.

How did you react when the terrorist attack was, with anger , fear or what?

Magnus: I got terrified. I thought it would be a new world war. Which is maybe have been , the only thing is that it don´t look the way the other two have done.

David:When the planes crashed we was in the studio and recorded ”4 th of July” and that felt really , it felt like a fate in a scary way. But honestly I got scared when we saw those pictures because I udnerstand that it would be something going on after this in some sort of war.

Have this have affected your life?

David: No, I wouldn´t say so.

Adrian recordings what type of company is this, have it any more bands? Is it a good label and have not any bigger labels written, phoned or so?

Magnus: It´s working fine and it´s me who have the label. Read everything you want to know about it on www.adrianrecordings.com

Some bigger and almost big labels have been in touch but we have said no thanks.

What´s the best of being on a smaller label?

David: Close contact with the label, you have more to say, and it´s not so many included who must say their things about everything.

Is there any good band sin Sweden today?

Magnus: Swedish bands which is good: Isolation Years, Logh, Laakso, Bob Hund

David: There´s a lot of bands which is good – Isolation Years, Hell on Wheels, Pelle Ossler, Håkan Hellström, Björns vänner, The Knife, Laakso + and a lot more that I have forgot. As usual the most of the good bands is all to invisible because of the fact that they´re on small labels and don´t can get out to the public they deserve.

Alexander:

- Of course

Please rank your five favouriterecords, five favouriteconcerts and five most important things in life?

Mikael:

Answer : The records I listen most to right now

1. Cat Power – You Are Free

2. Songs Ohia – Magnolia Electric Comp.

3. Bob Dylan – Live 1975

4. Neko Case – Black Listed

5. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Magnus:

Mogwai – Mogwai EP

Guns n’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Lambshop – What Another Man Spills

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – I See a Darkness

Allt med Sonic Youth

Magnus:

Bob Hund Roskilde 1997

Afghan Whigs – KB 1999 eller 200 minns inte riktigt

Mogwai – Vega Köpenhamn 2001 (Kanske)

Swervedriver Hultsfred 1992

The God Machine Hultsfredsfestivalen 1993

Mikael:

Five favouriteconcerts:

1. Lambchop – KB, Malmö

2. Mogwai – Hultsfredfestivalen 1999

3. Pavement och Sonic Youth – Köpenhamn 1992

4. Neko Case and her Boyfriend – Köpenhamn 2003

5. the Microphones – Köpenhamn 2002

Magnus:

Safeness

Music

Alcohol

No violence principle

Thoughts

Mikael:

Five most important things in life:

1.Helth

2.Love

3.Friends

4.Music

5.The spring

Alexander:

- One can you get: Let Love In Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

First last and the most expensive record ever bought?

Magnus:

The first record I bought was Alphavilles Forever Young.

The last record I bought was Sigur Ros ( )

I have never bought a record for over 200:- I refuse. It´s unmoral to buy a record so expensive. You have music to listen to.

Mikael:

Answer: First record can be Naked Raygun ”Understand”.

First CD; Ned’s Atomic Dustbin ”Godfodder”.

Latest record; Cat Power ”You Are Free”

And the most expensive is a Dylan bootleg which I bopught in Nww York for 500 mswedish krona.

David: I don´t buy records.

Idols when you were small?

Magnus: Shanghai, Guns n’ Roses have always been my idols.

David: Beatles

Alexander:I have never had any idols have always been into myslef to notice what happens around me

If some political party or soccerteam would like to have on a gig or a tributerecord, would you do it and which are you going to do it for?

.Noone in the band is interested of soccer so some soccerclub would´nt we support anyway , it would be really silly.

I can imagine playing on a party for The Left wing Party, The Green Party, Attac or something like that. Or on a peaceparty or something against racism and nazism. But only if it´s without people who only shouts a lot of words and don´t know anything. If you´re going to get things in order you can´t shout , then you must talk.

David: Doubtful.

Alexander:Support, I don´t know that but there´s some things we never will be doing.

Futureplans for the band?

David: Record a new record in may, tour in the autumn.

And for yourself?

Magnus: I´m unemployed in the summer and I will live in the streets maybe

David: Look over this, I have no life...

Alexander:Live well and have a good life.

Wisdomword?

Remember!

If you're about to make music:

Be honest or pretend!

Don't compromise with jerks!

Follow the only road!

Be nice or hate!

Scream or whisper!

You can't compete in music!

Do it yourself if no one else does it!

Don’t hide!

Don’t wait!

Let everyone hear!

David: I don´t have any wisdomwords.

Alexander: Live well and have a good life.

Something to add ?

-Magnus: Very hard questions to write answers to and then it been very big thing to write and I don´t have the time right now

LÄNKAR

www.adrianrecordings.com

www.thecitizens.nu

www.lottaw.com

www.bjornsvanner.mine.nu

www.laakso.nu

DISKOGRAFI

Now She Sleeps in a Box in the Good Soil of Denmark – 2001

I’ve Been Floating Upstream - EP – 2001

Pink Evening (Send Me Off…) – 2002

For All Happy Endings – 2002

Song Against Life - EP – 2002

STOP! – 2002

New Direction - EP – 2003