Lindqvist, Fredrik (Ritual) (June 2003)

Ritualistic Thoughts

With the recent release of Think Like A Mountain by InsideOut (InsideOut Music America in North America, licenced from Tempus Fugit), things are happening again for a band that last released an album in 2000 (Superb Birth). Ritual recently toured Europe with RPWL, and are on the bill for the Berg Herzberg Festival in July 2003.

We recently spoke with Fredrik Lindqvist, the band's bassist, about the new album, and about the band's history, as they celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Fredrik Lindqvist: Hello Igor! Nice to hear from you! I am Fredrik Lindqvist of Ritual and I will be answering your questions, since our lead singer Patrik [Lundström] is occupied at the moment. I hope this is fine with you.

Igor Italiani: Yes, no problem. So let's start ... this new album marks the first ten years of existence for Ritual. Can you do a short summary and trace a personal evaluation for me about the first period of your career?

FL: Yes, sure! Our singer/guitarist Patrik, our drummer Johan [Nordgren] and myself had actually been playing together since 1988 in a progressive rock band called Bröd (the Swedish word for "bread"). At the end of 1992 this band split up, but Johan, Patrik and myself, the original trio, immediately started up a new band since we still felt we had the same musical and creative ambitions. Our keyboard player Jon Gamble joined us in February 1993 and so the band Ritual was formed. During 1993/94 and the beginning of 1995 we spent a lot of time in the rehearsal studio but we didn't perform much live, mainly due to the fact that Patrik was occupied as a successful musical artist here in Sweden. [He has played the role of Buddy Holly in the Swedish version of The Buddy Holly Story ... -ed] But we continued to write new material and develop our own style. Early in 1995 we got in contact with the French record label Musea and in the summer of that same year we recorded our debut CD, which was very well received. To follow up the good response of the first album we toured quite extensively in Europe throughout 1996, playing for audiences in Italy, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Norway, England and Sweden. In the autumn of 1996 we had already started to work on new material for a second album and in 1997 we made a lot of demo-versions of new songs, but the activity of the band was quite low since all the members of the band were busy in outside projects. Our frontman/singer Patrik Lundström actually won the Swedish outtakes for the Eurovision Song Contest with the vocal pop trio Blond. This and other facts limited the touring possibilities for the band. Finally, in early 1998, we took our new material to the Rommarö recording studio to begin work on the second album, which was eventually named Superb Birth. Superb Birth was released in the spring of 2000. It had been decided that Ritual should try to release Superb Birth on our own label, in other words that we should handle the distribution ourselves. In retrospect this proved to be a bad move, since none of us really had the time needed to run a small record company. Due to this, and due to the fact that five years had passed since the release of our first album, the distribution failed and the album didn't get the attention I think it deserved. However, Superb Birth got mostly magnificent reviews in music magazines around the globe. We played just a handful of gigs in Europe following the release of Superb Birth in 2000. But the creative spirit of the band was very high and so we returned to the recording studio that very same year. Some two years after these first recording sessions, Think Like A Mountain, Ritual's third album, was released by Tempus Fugit. And that brings us up to where we are today.

II: Unfortunately, as Ritual you have made only three records in ten years ... do you think that you'll speed up your schedule in the future?

FL: Yes, I believe so. Three albums in ten years may seem a bit thin, but most of us are not full time musicians. All of us except Patrik have other preoccupations beside music, and we all have different outside projects. Patrik and Johan also became fathers a few years ago and parenthood naturally takes a lot of time. But actually, I think we are a quite productive band in the sense that we put a lot of energy, time and hard work into our music and our recordings. I think productivity should be measured qualitatively as well as quantitatively. And we actually do make a lot of music, but a large part of it is not released on albums. Ritual is a band who once in a while likes to indulge in different experimental musical projects that may inspire and develop our music. For example, in the summer of 2000 we recorded the band improvising. The music was really interesting and it is now edited, mixed and mastered. But it hasn't been released as an album yet. Such projects are good for the band, it inspires and sheds new light on the music - even if it will never be released on a CD. We have a few such projects going on simultaneously, beside the normal work of Ritual. But I don't think it will take another four years before the next real Ritual album is released!

II: A lot of bands are trying out new technologies nowadays (like DVDs or enhanced CDs). Do you think that Ritual will follow soon with something of the like?

FL: We are in fact discussing a Ritual DVD at the moment. We are talking about making a film or documentary about the history of the band, since we have some interesting live footage from the past years and some visual documentation of studio work as well. And maybe we will make a video for one of the songs on Think Like A Mountain. That would be great because Ritual is a very visually oriented band.

II: Returning to the new album, can you tell me how the songs shaped into the final versions?

FL: Ritual's music comes to life in many different ways. Some songs were quite finished ideas introduced by the separate members of the group. Our singer/guitarist Patrik tends to write most of the basic musical material, but all the other members contribute with original song ideas as well. The rest, the arrangements and the production, is usually a group effort with a lot of jamming and experimenting with sounds involved in the process. Usually the words come last, but that's absolutely not because we take the lyrics less seriously. I write most of the lyrics and my passion for words and poetry almost equals that which I feel for music. Most of the music on Think... was composed, arranged and recorded between the autumn of 2000 and the autumn of 2002. The title song, which was made quite fast, is the newest one, though it has elements in it which originates from music improvised by me and Patrik twelve years ago! We didn't record all the songs in one continuous period. Quite the opposite actually. As soon as we came up with a musical idea, an almost complete song or a more sketchy idea, we went straight to the recording studio to record it. It usually took about two days. Then we returned home to continue writing. A month or two later, when we felt we had one or two more songs ready, we went back to the studio to record them. This was how the new album was made. Think... is very much a studio album: in most cases the versions of the songs we brought to the studio were very simple and sketchy, very basic. Then, in collaboration with our soundman and co-producer Hans Fredriksson, we tried different approaches, different arrangements and sounds, giving each song time to find its specific mode. Some songs needed to be more complex production-wise while others needed to be kept simple. For some songs, like "Mother You've Been Gone...," we needed to bring in guest musicians.

II: I think that the album is simply superb, merging the "live vibe" of the seventies with some fresh new ideas and powerful production ... do you think you could do something more or are you satisfied with the results?

FL: We are very satisfied with this album. Of course there are always one or two details that you, in retrospect, feel could have been done in a different way. But that is usually because your musical references are changing. And naturally, they are always changing. But we worked really hard and for quite an extended period to realize this album and I think we are all very pleased with it.

II: Two of my favourite tracks are "Infinite Justice" and "Humble Decision" ... can you tell me something more about these songs?

FL: "Humble Decision" is basically a very simple and straight-forward song, but the production is really quite complex with a string orchestra in the refrain and many different sound layers in general. The lyrics reflect an aspect of a theme which is always present in Ritual, which is an ecological-philosophical theme. Most of the songs on this album, and on all our albums really, express the need to identify with the natural environment again. The title of the new album, Think Like A Mountain also refers to this theme. In short, it's all about reconnecting your thinking with the natural environment, because people are in fact as much [a part of] nature as fishes, trees, rocks and clouds. To me, restoring your bond with the Earth is a wonderful way to get to know who you really are and a great way of finding personal and communal wellness. "Humble Decision" certainly has this influence. "Infinite Justice" is also a quite basic song, but with a very different mood, a darker mood. To me it's a very emotional song. It deals with the feelings of confusion and grief one can get from witnessing terrifying violent events caused by humans. It is a reaction to the 11 September [attacks] and the events that followed and all the political and military aggression humans collectively seem to be capable of. It's about what you think and feel when you are exhausted with grief and when your faith in humans is hurt.

II: I'm really impressed with Patrik's original vocal style ... did he take some lessons or is he self-trained as singer and guitarist?

FL: Patrik is a completely self-taught singer, a true natural. In fact, when we first started playing together, Patrik was not the lead singer in the band, we had a separate lead singer. But he was always the one who did all the vocal melodies and the vocal arrangements, so when we formed Ritual there was no doubt in our minds about who was going to be our lead singer. He is an extremely versatile vocalist. As for his guitar playing he is, once again, pretty much self-taught, though he took some guitar lessons when he was young and he also went to a musical college. But you can't learn rock & roll academically! That is something a musician has to find out for himself.

Ritual (l to r): Jon Gamble, Johan Nordgren, Fredrik Lindqvist
and Patrik Lundstrom (© 2003 Ritual)

II: You have just returned from a European tour with RPWL ... how was the response of the audience? When do you think you'll be able to come to Italy?

FL: The tour with RPWL was really great! It was a very well organized tour and there was a really, really good relationship between us and the RPWL guys. They are really fun to be with, very friendly and we became really good friends. It was a really good thing for us to be supporting RPWL because they are well known and they have an audience. This made it possible for us to reach new listeners and hopefully we made some new fans. The response was indeed very good. People seem to like our new album. At the moment I don't know when we will be able to come to Italy. We certainly would love to come back because we had a really great time when we toured in Italy in 1996. We may do a tour this autumn but nothing is set at the moment.

II: Now can you tell me what is the band that you would like to open for in an hypothetical tour?

FL: That's a tough question to answer. What you really want as a band is not to be a support band, you want to be the headline act! But I would play support to any band as long as they are friendly and open-minded and if I know that they have an open-minded audience who enjoys music. RPWL was great in that respect. I wouldn't want to support a really famous band if I knew that the audience were only waiting for the main act to enter the stage. Hypothetically I think I would prefer to play support to an artist whose music is different from Ritual's but who has an open-minded attitude towards music. Like Björk, or maybe David Byrne. Someone like that.

II: Fredrik, is there something else you would like to say before the end of the interview?

FL: I hope that the Italian audience will love our new album Think Like A Mountain, because if they do, there may be a possibility for Ritual to come to Italy. Once again, it would be great to come to Italy to play. We have a lot of fun memories from when we played there in 1996! OK. That's it! Thank you for your interest! Best regards.

Discography:
Ritual (1995/2004)
Ritual (1996) (Japanese version)
Did I Go Wrong (ep) (1999)
Superb Birth (1999/2000)
Think Like A Mountain (2003)
Ritual Live (2006)
The Hemulic Voluntary Band (2007)