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I'm From Barcelona
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Hometown: Jonkoping, Sweden Summer 2005: Jonkoping,Sweden: fueled by love and vacation, Emanuel Lundgren, member of struggling indie-band Valley Days, writes a couple of explosive happy pop songs and decides to gather all his friends to record them as some kind of side-project. Usually a notorious control freak Emanuel this time lets his songs come straight from his pop heart and he essays his melodies with an infectious playfullness. His apartment turns into a factory filled with creativity as people come and go loaded with banjos, accordions and kazoos. Some weeks late,in August 2005, a homemade EP is finished and Emanuel gathers almost all the 29 participants for a one off live show. Emanuel has never been to Spain but he decides, as a tribute to classic John Cleese TV-series Fawlty Towers, to name the group after butler Manuel´s catch frase:" I´m From Barcelona ".What he thought was an ending was in fact the beginning of numerous rumours and talk about this new band. One show soon turned into plenty. Swedish media express sheer delight, noticing that, rather than a curiosity, I´m From Barcelona is viable recording band and bloggers all over the world starts sharing their knowledge about this Swedish big band. In only a couple of months more than 20 000 people have downloaded songs from the bands website, and right now their video has been streamed by more than 140 000 – and counting… The EP "Don't Give Up On Your Dreams, Buddy!" is released on EMI Sweden in early 2006 and is followed up by the full length album "Let Me Intruduce My Friends": a sackfull of bubblegum classics filled with etravagant call-and-response backing vocal hooks. Emanuel Lundgren´s voice soars with coy suggestion, ecstatic and moronic. It´s a world of possibilities: every stamp in your collection is a place where you can go. In interviews the songwriter explains song titles like "Treehouse" and "Chicken Pox" by stating them as tributes to the energy of children. He believes that youth is not wasted on the young and in these songs he tries to remind himself of the magical juxtapositions of times and places. Emanuel describes his own childhood memories: it was a time of immense optimism and hope. Remembering how he moved from small places like Kågeröd and Örkelljunga to larger Jönköping where music soon started to creep subtly into his life. Right now the anthem "We're From Barcelona", with its all conquering chorus: "We aim for the stars/ we aim for your heart", is all over the airwaves and the band is headed for a summer of festivals, including Primavera Sound in Barcelona.
I'm from Barcelona embraces the do-it-yourself ethic.The class photo cover of the debut EP is no coincidence: during their performances there is no wall between band and audience. As you learn to separate the LA LA LA´s from the BA BA BA´s we´re all in the same choral sweep. We´re all from Barcelona now. |
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