They were with us from the very first moment…

V průběhu 90 let kytarista a zpěvák Björn Dixgård spolu s Danielem Haglundem (keybord) založili v jednom malém švédském městečku jménem Borlänge skupinu ´Butler´. Z této skupiny vzniklo v roce 1999 Mando Diao. Na začátku stáli kromě dvou výše jmenovaných i Gustaf Norén, Carl-Johan Fogelklou a Samuel Giers. V roce 2004 byl Daniel Haglund nahrazen jiným hráčem na klávesy jménem Mats Björke.

Po tři roky musela skupina koncertovat ve své rodné Skandinávii než si její existence všiml hudební průmysl. Ale hned jejich první album ´Bring ‘Em In´ získalo obrovský mezinárodní úspěch.

Intenzivním koncertováním nejen po Evropě jsi Mando Diao postupně vybojovalo místo v srdcích milovníků rocku po celém světě. Jejich tajemství, to je mix retro rocku, soulu, brilantních melodií, severské chladnosti a značné dávky arogance.

V součastnosti Mando Diao patří mezi nejúspěšnější hudební skupiny ve Skandinávské hudební historii.

Unplugged album ´Above and Beyond´ je jejich první (a doufejme že ne poslední) živé album.

 

Was this unplugged show for you a long-cherished wish or a nice possibility to do a concert in a different way?

Gustaf: Both.

CJ: You can actually say we’ve been waiting for this for some years without artificially speeding it up.

Gustaf: Two years ago we saw a TV show with Johnny Cash. This totally blew us – the way of performance, the connection between the guests, the background, the entire form of presenting his music and person. So since then we wanted to make something similar and discussed numerous details about it. So when later MTV came with the offer, we put two and two together and had our idea of a successful unplugged show almost ready in the drawer…

CJ: … because it was absolutely clear for us – this traditional way of sitting on a pair of bar stools and singing the usual songs a bit softer wouldn’t do. We wanted to make something different of it, something bigger.

So, you had, so to say, the “Beyond” part almost ready in your head – with four screenplays, the guests, the costumes?

Gustaf: More or less yes. What was missing came overnight. For example the idea with four rooms literally suggested itself.

CJ: When you have understood for yourself that as a rock band you want to give your fans something more than other bands do, you always have such ideas in your head. The art was to sort these ideas and to check their feasibility. So there was no lack of ideas but rather the possibilities to accomplish them all.

Are there other unplugged performances that you’ve set as an example for yourselves?

CJ: Not really. This Cash show was also in its special way an unplugged story…

Gustaf: … and then we of course were already influenced by the Nirvana unplugged show. We were 14-15 when they played unplugged on MTV and I speak for all of us when I say: that show was and is unbeatable. There can’t be a better unplugged. Not only because it was one of the first but also because it’s incomparable in its intensity. We also got inspired from that show concerning the sound and technical aspects because their acoustic sound is what it should be in our opinion: rough, direct and eternal.

Mando Diao stands out for five characteristic features: melody, tempo, keeping to the basics, tension and intensity. The first three can be easily transferred into acoustic but what about the last two qualities – without losing the tension? 

Gustaf: Good question. The most important is not to think too much about it. Otherwise you’ll go crazy and it’ll lose its natural feeling.

CJ: Both mentioned aspects largely depend on the interaction between the band and the audience. And during that evening this was really special – I don’t know how that evening would have been without that crazy excited audience. They were with us from the very first moment…

Gustaf: … and have made their input to make this one of the most intimate as well as intensive shows we have experienced so far.

Was the selection and invitation of the guests – among them Juliette Lewis, Klaus Voormann, the leader of The Kinks Ray Davies and almost-forgotten ex-band member Daniel Haglund – as simple?

CJ: Absolutely. These were exactly the people whom we wanted there and they all agreed. With Ray Davies it was uncertain for a longer time, almost till the end – there was no final confirmation. Then he suddenly appeared one hour before the beginning of the show and said: “So, here I am. What do I have to do?”

Gustaf: For me it was really special that we had our first keyboarder Daniel on the guest list. Yes, we’ve had conflicts before and haven’t spoken to each other for years. But this happened years ago and media would blow it big till today. We can only draw a line there and say: Alright, we like each other very much again.

How was it with the equipment? Each of you plays one and the same instrument all through the show. Was it difficult to find something appropriate for each case? 

CJ: No. We have an acoustic expert in the hindquarters…

Gustaf: … a crazy guitar doctor as we call him…

CJ: … with whom I worked in close cooperation during the preparations.

What’s his name?

CJ: That’s a secret. You better keep such good contacts to yourself or it’ll spill out [grins]. Anyway we were looking for something that sounded purely acoustic but was actually semi-electric. He suggested Lace Helix guitars of 1951 that we’ve had for some time already but had never used. For the purely acoustic parts we used Gibson Nick Lucas and for the rest – Larrivée. In my opinion these are the best acoustic guitars of the present times. A bass was a problem because in my opinion there is no one single bass that has a really good acoustic sound. So I bought a semi-acoustic Höfner President of the 60ies, which looks like an acoustic bass but at the same time has the intensity of a real bass. And so we had already collected what we needed.

How much influence will an unplugged experience have on your next album?

Gustaf: Only in the form that we have finally determined: we are at our best when we stand together in one space and keep playing. I want to say once again: there won’t be anymore a record of ours that will be recorded “track by track”. We want it live, direct and unvarnished. On the whole we knew it earlier but now it’s obvious: we’re never better than when we play a concert together.