Symphony Of Sweden released their second album, Saints Of Yesterday on the 3rd of February, along with the official video for "Madness".
Since last July the band started to release new songs from the highly expected material: "The Grim Reaper", "Angels" and "Will She Fight" overall have more than 35.000 views on YouTube and 50k+ streams on Spotify.
In the past few weeks "Saints Of Yesterday" has been reviewed by several international media outlets and it was critically acclaimed.
Lee’s statement about the album: „It was awesome seeing all the nice words, I knew many people have been wanting to hear the new songs - but those feedbacks have been out of this world!
I hope our fans will hear us trying some different roads but still hear Symphony Of Sweden. Some songs are a bit heavier but we still have the mixture of our workminds in it.
A lot of songs (in this album) were hard to do. I had to do songs that are better than "Giants" and "She's In My Head" from our first album, Inner Demons. It was huge pressure. But the track "Saints of Yesterday”... I don't know how many times I started from scratch with that song. I even got Evan and Jim to record it all over again in another key. But now, for me, it is so worth it. It is one of my favorite tracks on the album.”
Evan’s statement: „Being the first time we sent out an album for reviews it was a bit scary indeed, but the response is totally way beyond our expectations!
The returning listeners will for sure be familiar with the sound, but with some additional surprises, with some tracks being a few notches harder sounding than previously released tracks, while overall we are extremely satisfied with the outcome of all the new tracks.
The process compared to the first album was definitely more of hard work than a walk in the park, and also some moments of kill your darlings, but in the end, we couldn’t be happier with the result!
Both "Madness" and "Champions" were tracks we recorded and mixed and had finished versions, but later on, decided we could improve them in different ways. Regarding "Madness", Lee completely wrote new lyrics and melodies as we thought the first try was not optimal. With "Champions" we had the killer chorus but in the first version, the verses were not perfectly there yet. So, when making new verses, we also needed new lyrics for the chorus, which means recording new choruses, re-recording multiple layers of backing vocals again... However, both tracks ended up as true bangers, meaning we don’t regret the extra work to get the ultimate versions in the end!
Also, "Angels" was kind of a struggle as we got an idea to make it in another key, and when you're working with real instruments it's not just a matter of using a transpose feature in the computer, it means re-recording everything, except the drums. But in the end, we went back to the original key, meaning the days of re-recording the instruments was…a waste of time. (laughs)
Which is my favorite song? That is a tricky question, like who is your favorite child? But well, I would say "Champions"… It has a great chorus and an epic and majestic middle 8 but still in a format of a 3-minute pop song."
Last year Symphony Of Sweden released their debut album, Inner Demons, and the second material came out now, just one year later - so, the question pops up: are they already working on the third album? "We are always a step ahead, a bit into the future so to speak. (smiles) So yes, we are constantly working on new material. We have recorded loads of drums already, which will likely end up in upcoming music from Symphony Of Sweden!”
Lee's statement about "Madness": "We wanted to do a real freak-out-dance-your-feet-off song. And with the name "Madness', we really hit it out of the park.
Usually, we have slower verses and big choruses, but in this, the verse is really strong from the start and the song keeps on going from start to end."
Evan's statement about "Madness": "The initial idea of the track was to make an uplifting song, which is just about to feel great energy. I think I said to our guitarist, Jim Wallenborg, that he should come up with some riff in the style of the Kiss track "I Was Made For Lovin’ You". (laughs) So, it became a kind of disco/rock crossover which was a new thing to us!"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3uDeNH5
About the band
Welcome to the musical world of Symphony Of Sweden!
Coming from the North of Sweden with winter and ice bears all over the place, the music is the other way around. Grand and epic with huge arrangements, the missing link between pop and metal – this is Symphony of Sweden! Add the powerful voice of Linus “Lee” Wester and the creative talent of Pontus “Evan” Hagberg you will have a concept that brings you on a journey from here to eternity.
Symphony Of Sweden is:
Pontus „Evan” Hagberg
Linus „Lee” Wester
Contributing artists:
Jim Wallenborg (guitars)
DrumErik
Evan and Lee lived in the same small town up north in Sweden. Lee had his own little service point, betting shop, tobacco store nearby which also happened to be Evan’s local service point where he went to get his parcels. After saying hello to each other for a couple of years, there was one day Evan had a parcel to get – which obviously was music-related. They fell into conversation with each other, a few days later Evan invited Lee to his studio. Evan: „he had found one of my instrumental tracks on Youtube and sang it with a new melody on top and lyrics for me in the studio, right there when he just arrived! I was blown away, and a week later we had our first ever track produced and completed. As soon he sang his first two words in the studio I wanted to work with him!”
The band released their first album, Inner Demons in January 2021, and their second album, Saints Of Yesterday came out on the 3rd of February, 2022
