"Bastard" is Markus Krunegård's tenth solo album in order, and it's hectic days before the release.
At first, you think "this is no problem", then it starts: Is the mastering good? How should the poster look? What should I wear? Have I signed that contract? Who's going to play guitar this summer?, he says.
Wonderful
Releasing the album means that it gets a life outside the basement studio on Södermalm in Stockholm, and that's when the real fun begins, even for a veteran like Krunegård.
Releasing it exactly when it's ready means that you still have that naive feeling that everything is wonderful. You haven't really had time to analyze what you've created, he says.
Besides solo albums, Krunegård has over the years also released albums with Laakso, Hets, and Serenades. Add to that his participation in TV4's "Så mycket bättre", countless tours, and collaborations with artists like Veronica Maggio, Mauro Scocco, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Charli XCX. He has released an album in Finnish and a song that's an hour long – a back-and-forth that has become a method for him, he thinks:
It has become so without me thinking about it. But if you jump between different projects, it suddenly feels free to do a new, ordinary, Swedish album with ten tracks. I usually think that the worst would be to be in a successful band – then you have to hold together and always do the same thing.
High tempo
But despite Krunegård having kept a high tempo since Laakso's debut in the early 2000s, it's still fun:
It really is. The great thing about music is that it's different pieces all the time. First, you live and get things to write about, gather subjects. Stumble and hit yourself and see a movie and get happy and sad. Look back and forth, he says and continues:
But often at album releases, I feel that now it's finally done. But it usually sneaks up on me again, just because it's a pretty comfortable cycle. It suits my undiagnosed brain well with that switching.
In the spring, a tour awaits, and a gig at Platinumcars Arena in Krunegård's hometown Norrköping, a classic arena that, with the gig, opens up for music events again after many years as a sports arena.
It's way too big for me, anyway. But what's the worst that can happen? In the best case, someone will come and check it out. It's like when you were little and Cirkus Brazil Jack came to Norrköping – nobody was interested in sea lions and Russian acrobats on horses, but you went and checked it out anyway!
Tour schedule: 21/2 Örebro, 22/2 Eskilstuna, 7/3 Falun, 8/3 Karlstad, 13/3 Uppsala, 14/3 Umeå, 15/3 Gävle, 21/3 Huskvarna, 22/3 Skövde, 28/3 Lund, 29/3 Malmö, 4/4 Varberg, 5/4 Göteborg, 4/7 Norrköping.
