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Renaissance Of Fools.... An interesting name, an interesting band, time to learn more about the Swedish! Thanks to guitarist Daniel Magdic, drummer Magnus Karlsson and bassist Björn Taumann for answering my questions!
When you first started working together you named the band Cudfish, why that name? And what does it mean?
MAGNUS: First I want to make it clear that Fools are not the same band as Cudfish. (Should have phrased it differently... - editor)
Me and Daniel got together after Cudfish was put to the grave and made some new music.
The first members of the band besides me and Daniel was Per Bergkvist, Gustaf Hielm and Kristoffer Pettersson. It later turned out that some of the members had other duties to attend so we asked Björn, if he was interested in joining the band. The rest is history.
DANIEL: Cudfish doesn't really mean anything. Magnus suggested Codfish and we thought he said Cudfish – what kind of fish is that!? But then we thought it was cool with a name that no one would understand. (laugh)
Then two of you moved to L.A. to join L.A. Music Academy, that was the end of Cudfish. Did you stay in touch?
BJÖRN: We've stayed in touch for the whole time. I've been playing in Chainwreck with Mathias for years, and he also put together our new homepage.
Have you been involved in some projects when studying at LAMA?
BJÖRN: The other guys sent me new Cudfish songs to work on when I was still there, and I co-formed a cover band with some other guys at the school called The Rock'n'Roll Review. We did some club shows and private parties, playing a mix of 60's and 70's pop and rock.
After returning to your home country you re-started your collaboration, but named the band Renaissance Of Fools, why?
DANIEL: Actually, at first, it didn't have any deeper meaning. We just fooled around with different names, and when Renaissance Of Fools came up we thought it was kind of cool. What I find cool about the name now is that you can put different meaning into it. It can refer to the Western society, and this was the first meaning I personally filled the name with. At the time Bush was holding the White House getting into war at vague grounds and without listening to the UN, and to me he very much represented the fool.
Or maybe it could refer to the jesters who were the stand-ups during the medieval, and the only ones who could criticize the king without losing their head.
Or maybe we're just four fools starting a band. :)
When did you start writing songs for Fear, Hope & Frustration? And is the title summing up the time before the recordings? During recordings?
DANIEL: The song are written over a long period of time - some ideas are probably 10 years old. We didn't write song for a record this time – we just wrote songs. The title sums up the themes of the songs, but it has not anything to do with the time before the recordings.
Is there a main songwriter? Or does everybody chip in?
DANIEL: For this record the original ideas comes from me, but everybody takes part in the process and the song seldom turn out the way I thought them.
Where did you record the album? And how long did recordings take?
DANIEL: The drums and bass were recorded at Secure studio in Falun, and the guitars were done by Kjell and me where we rehearse. The song were recorded by Pelle Saether. In real time we probably spent 14 days or something recording it.
For the keyboards you got Per Wiberg, a friend of yours?
DANIEL: Yes, he's an old friend of Kjell, so as we started talking about how it would be to have melotron on the Intervention outro, he called and asked Per if he could do it. He did a really great job!
The mix was done by Pelle Saether, why him?
DANIEL: Well, he did a very good job with Thalamus (Kjell's second band) first record and Kjell had good contact with him, and he did some test mixes which we liked.
And why did you choose Ty Tabor for the mastering?
DANIEL: Well, at first I'm a real fan of Ty Tabor and Kings X, so having him work on the material and get response from him was a real thrill. Second, he offers a great workmanship along with a good price, so that choice was easy.
What about a video clip? The biography says something, but I can't find it...
DANIEL: Yes, that's definitely something we need to do and there are plans, but we haven't had the time yet.
But I found a YouTube channel where you have some live stuff posted, some stuff is already two years old... Kinda testing the waters back then?
DANIEL: We've been playing for quite some time now and we've done a couple of gigs over the years. Those clips are probably from the first shows with Kjell.
There are acoustic versions... Can we expect to find some as bonus tracks next time? Or live?
MAGNUS: The acoustic versions that are around is a one time thing. We did a acoustic gig for a festival called Peace And Love. I don't think it will happen again. But never say never.
Any plans to hit the road?
DANIEL: No, not at the moment, but we certainly hope we get the opportunity. That would be great!
What are your plans for 2012?
DANIEL: Well as I said, we hope to do some shows and then we have started to write some new material. We will probably start the recording process during 2012, I think, but that depends on what happens.
So, it's all wait and see. But I guess the majority has to wait for their next album while some might get the chance to see Renaissance Of Fools live...
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