Caviare Days live at Beyond Retro London

Caviare Days outside Beyond Retro - Photo by Steve Worrall

It was great to finally get to catch Caviare Days live after just missing out on seeing them last December when they played at one of the last Soundtrack of Our Lives shows in Stockholm at the Södra Teatern. Today, they were appearing at the Beyond Retro store in Shoreditch as part of the London Fashion Week, which followed a live session and interview on BBC Radio, which you can still catch here. The band will release their next single "Who Deprived You Of Your Smile" very soon, in fact they are just finishing off the video now, so keep a check on their official web-site for news of the release date. The track is taken from their self titled debut album and has been produced by Mats Björke of Mando Diao and Jorge Elbrecht of New York based Violens.

Maja and Lina Westin - Photo by Steve Worrall

On the album, the band mix Sixties Californian Haight-Ashbury Psychedelia with a dash of melodic shimmering dance music to great effect, but live they are a slightly different prospect. With the addition of the excellent guitarist Boris Grubesic, they are far heavier than I was expecting, and the energy was quite electrifying. The band are based around the songwriting sisters Maja and Lina Westin, who share lead vocals and harmonies and of course provide quite a stunning visual impact, bouncing off each other, sometimes quite literally! But the good thing about seeing Caviare Days live is that you quickly realize that they are a "real" band, in fact the sisters don't appear until the guys run through an impressive swelling instrumental opening number. 

Boris Grubesic by Steve Worrall

We mentioned guitarist Boris, who really throws himself into his guitar playing, and with his hair flailing away he reminds me a bit of John Frusciante. Drummer Timmy Grim Fredriksson, who along with Lina and Maja, has been in the band the longest, keeps everything anchored down, he's one of those great drummers who plays along with the nuances of the music, rather than just bashing out a beat. For me though it's the virtuoso keyboard player Marcus Arborelius, who really impresses - switching effortlessly between numerous retro sounds, from Hammond, Vox, Farfisa to synth and piano, he also covers the bass in Ray Manzarek style. In fact it's The Doors that do spring to mind occasionally as the band have a real chemistry together when they lock into a groove which is more of a highly tuned Jazz outfit than an out and out Psychedelic Rock band. This style is pretty well summed up on the excellent new single "Who Deprived You Of Your Smile", which is one of the show's highlights, and the band provide a perfect backdrop for Lina and Maja to strut their stuff. Other stand out tracks include "You'll Qualify", "The Awakening" and of course the superb "When The Light Is Breaking", which was recently remixed by Ebbot Lundberg, the singer with the now sadly defunct Soundtrack of Our Lives.

Timmy Fredriksson by Steve Worrall

Marcus Arborelius by Steve Worrall

Caviare Days in action by Steve Worrall

Here's the video to the Ebbot remix of "When The Light Is Breaking".

We also play a non-album track from Caviare Days in Episode 6 of Retrosonic Podcast, which you can check out here. To keep up to date with news, info and tour dates, please check out the band's web-site. For more photos of the Beyond Retro show, head on over to the Retro Man Blog Facebook page and hit "Like" for access to the exclusive photo album. With thanks to Lina, Maja, Timmy, Marcus and Boris, it was a pleasure.