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.

Caviare Days featuring Ebbot Lundberg "When The Light Is Breaking"

Maja and Lina of Caviare Days by Johannes Helje

The excellent Stockholm based band Caviare Days, have just released a collaboration with Ebbot Lundberg, singer with, the now sadly defunct, The Soundtrack of Our Lives. It's a reinterpretation of a previously released song entitled "When The Light Is Breaking" that has been re-mixed by Ebbot, who also adds backing vocals. It's a perfect Summertime song packed full of Sixties Haight-Ashbury pastoral folk melodies, Abba style harmonies and the Psych undercurrent of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. It's a superb track, and so nice to hear Ebbot's voice again, you can check out more info here at Pre-fix Magazine or at the band's own web-site.

You can also check out more about Caviare Days here in our previous Blog feature.

Retrosonic Podcast Episode 6: "When The World Stops Turning..."

Episode 6 of Retrosonic Podcast is out and available to listen to, or download for free, at the Soundcloud  site now. Featuring Steve from Retro Man Blog, Adam from The Jetsonics and rock photographer Paul Slattery with the usual eclectic mix of tunes and chat. In this Episode we raise a glass to Wilko Johnson and pick a classic number from Dr. Feelgood, the first band that Paul ever photographed, back on the 1975 Naughty Rhythms Tour. We try to banish the cold and grey with the sunny sounds of Ansell Collins and blast each others' ears with some Sixties Psychedelia from the Texan band Homer and then some thoroughly British freak-beat courtesy of The Eyes. There's Vic Godard with his tribute to an American Punk legend and an instrumental Surf classic from Link Wray. In between there's the brand new single from The Travellers, some hotly tipped Retro Rock from Spiders, noisy guitar stuff from The Parents and some slinky Swedish Psych Pop from Caviare Days. If that's not enough we play a brace of Medway Delta Garage Rock tracks from Galileo 7 and Graham Day & The Gaolers and then to top it all off, there's an 80's Indie masterpiece from Felt.

Don't forget all previous Episodes are still available and as well as the regular shows there are various Special Editions featuring interviews with a wide range of personalities. TV Smith from The Adverts treats us to an exclusive live acoustic session, Mattias Bärjed takes us on a journey from the Nymphet Noodlers to The Soundtrack of Our Lives, his successful movie and TV soundtrack work to his brand new band Free Fall. We have some demo versions and unreleased tracks from Mattias Hellberg's forthcoming album, JC Carroll from The Members takes us on a little Punk Rock trip and there are exclusive unreleased solo songs from Ian Person from The Soundtrack of Our Lives. There are also special reports on various music related topics such as the Swedish music scene  which includes interviews with Ann-Sofie from Spiders, Bruce from MUG Music store and Wayne Lundqvist-Ford from the Gothenburg based Ice Cream Man Blog. There are looks into the contemporary Mod scene scene, Paul Slattery's adventures in Rock and Roll Photography and much more...

Caviare Days - "The Awakening" EP

Maja and Lina Westin of Caviare Days - Photo by Johannes Helje

“The Chauffeur, a Russian Czar of the period of Ivan the Terrible, was a self-appointed guide, and the resplendent names – Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo – began to glow through their torpid camouflage, whispering of old kings come here to dine or die, of rajahs tossing Buddha’s eyes to English ballerinas, of Russian princes turning the weeks into Baltic twilights in the lost caviare days”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night (1934)

Caviare Days consists of Swedish sisters Lina and Maja Westin, drummer Timmy Grim Fredriksson, guitarist Boris Grubesic and Marcus Arborelius on keyboards. The band had been recommended to me by various friends in Sweden and even by certain members of The Soundtrack of Our Lives, so I got in touch with the band. Lina Westin, kindly explained: "What connects Caviare Days to TSOOL is that we did our very first gigs ever as supporting act for them in late 2010, on their "Communion" tour. After that we have been in contact, seeing each regularly. We played at Ebbot's Club in Särö (Club Revolution No. 9), it's such an amazing setting, and then an additional gig in Varberg at his friend's Club, it was so much fun. Last, but not least, we did the support show on their "Communion" gig at the Södra Teatern in Stockholm on December 21st as well as joining the choir on their last ever gig on December 22nd."

November last year saw the release of the excellent "The Awakening" EP, a fantastic four song fix that melds the sisters' dreamy harmonies with some perfectly crafted danceable Psychedelic-tinged pop. However, there's a nice edge to their sound, and the songs, although melodic and catchy, have a depth that conjures up their pals Soundtrack of Our Lives on occasion. The EP starts with the title track which is a powerful, slightly dark number, with it's backwards phased guitar that wouldn't be out of place on the "Nuggets" Sixties garage rock compilation. Next is my favourite, "The Lucky Ones", a powerful track with some excellent drumming that brings to mind The Duke Spirit. Third song "You'll Qualify" starts off with a raw bass rumble and the sister's vocals float beautifully over the top and there's an inspired guitar break half way through. "When The Light Is Breaking" starts off with simple yet effective bass and acoustic riffs with the sister's beautiful harmonies. There are Baroque echoes of Goldfrapp's superb "Seventh Tree" album, when they went through their Pagan Psych-Folk phase. Suddenly the song shifts up a gear and builds to an urgent disco beat with strumming acoustic guitars, all pierced by a nice psychedelic guitar line. It's one of those perfect EPs, where the four songs really complement each other, yet show a depth and variety of material that promises there will much more great music to come from the band  in the future.

Although the band's debut album "Caviare Days" has been out in Sweden since last May, it's not due for a UK release until late Spring this year. The album was produced by Mats Björke of Mando Diao and Jorge Elbrecht of New York based Violens and it was mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios. We'll keep you updated as soon as a UK release date is fixed, and hopefully Caviare Days will play some shows over here to promote it. If you can't wait that long to get hold of a copy, and you've played "The Awakening" EP to death, then you can order the album now on import from Bengans in Sweden, it's available on CD or Vinyl.

2012 was a busy year for Caviare Days, it saw the band collaborating with the fashion brand GANT and the New York based designer Michael Bastian, to create the soundtrack for their mod inspired Fall 2012 collection. Continuing with the fashion theme, Caviare Days also did some modeling/playlist-making for fashion brand Monki.

Here's a great video to "The Lucky Ones" from "The Awakening" E.P. The video is the result of the friendship between Caviare Days and the prominent American menswear designer Michael Bastian, who needed a song to go with his preppy Mod collection for the GANT fall/winter 2012 collection.

Photos by Johannes Helje. With many thanks to Lina Westin.

For more information on the band and up-to-date news please check the Caviare Days web-site.

You can hear a track from "The Awakening EP" on our brand new Retrosonic Podcast Episode 6: