CJMT: When we last spoke in 2017 it looked like the Flower Kings might never tour again because you hadn’t played together since 2012. I bet many fans would love to know how the Flower Kings came to tour once again and how it was for you to play that music live on such a successful tour.

Fröberg: For me the TFK Revisited tour came right out of the blue. I honestly thought TFK was no more when Roine (Stolt) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roine_Stolt) all of a sudden contacted me about a year ago saying he wanted to discuss something. We had a meeting about touring as the Flower Kings Revisited without our longtime keyboard player Tomas Bodin and our drummer Felix Lehrmann. After the meeting I had mixed feelings about it. To me it felt good to come out and do a show made of TFK “classics”. Another positive thing was to come back to South America for the first time in many many years and to do a European tour together with Spock’s Beard. The not so positive side of it was that we were not going to do this tour with the line-up we had on the last couple of albums and tours. Yes, there were frictions in the band and some members maybe were not that compatible. Now when I look back at it, I didn’t realize how bad it actually was. However we managed to get two new guys on board, Zach Kamins on keyboards (https://zachkamins.com/) and MirkKo DeMaio on drums (https://www.facebook.com/mirkkodemaiofanpage/). Those two lads are way younger than the rest of us and they have really brought some new and fresh energy to the band. If you ask me, I think TFK is in a very good place at the moment.

CJMT: It is not so easy to change band members when you have a long history together, but it sounds like the change brought new life to the Flower Kings for your touring. Playing those strong classic pieces of Flower Kings music must have uplifted the band as well as the audience.

Fröberg: I know you’re right when it comes to the Flower Kings band. It’s been a smooth ride all the way since we started the rehearsals for the tour. Changing drummers is not a new thing for TFK but we haven’t changed keyboard players that often. In reality we’ve done it once when Robert Engstrand filled in for Tomas Bodin on a North and South American tour. Anyway, I’m one of the guys who’s stood in the middle of the stage every gig for every line-up since 1997 and in my ears we sound very confident and dynamic right now. When it comes to the audience, on this last tour I think they experienced a band that loves to play and that was able to breathe life into the old classics again. Yes, I believe you’re right, the crowd left the venues smiling and feeling uplifted.

CJMT: From your viewpoint in the middle of the stage, through the many changes in drummers since Jaime Salazar, is it easier to change drummers in a band than it is to change keyboard players?

Fröberg: To tell you the truth I’m not always positioned center stage (been far right on a couple of tours as well). Never mind, the way I see it is that all the drummers we’ve had in TFK brought in their own touch, their own sound to the band. There’s a big difference in the playing if you for instance compare Pat Mastelotto and Jaime Salazar with each other, or MirkKo DeMaio who’s in the band right now and doing a bloody good job I might add. Those differences will of course reflect the whole sound of the band. With the history the band has of changing drummers very often, I can tell you that personally I think TFK has in many ways developed more as a band thanks to that. I’m not a fool though, because I’m aware that some fans have their favorite drummers and they want that guy to be on all the records and playing all the shows. When it comes to the keyboard players, that’s a different story. Both Zach Kamins and Robert Engstrand have more or less tried to copy what Tomas Bodin (https://www.discogs.com/artist/489407-Tomas-Bodin) was doing because his playing and soundscapes are such a big part of the Flower Kings sound up to this point in time. Do remember that both guys have only played live with the band so they haven’t really had the chance to come up with their own thing in the studio, yet.

CJMT: Listening to The Flower Kings albums it seems that the drummers have always been great players that helped propel the music. But with the signature keyboard sound mainly coming from Tomas Bodin over the years, it means that a new member like Zach Kamins has to play pretty closely to what Tomas played until he can make his own contributions for any new Flower Kings material that may come along. It seems like TFK now has a new life and energy on stage touring with Zach Kamins and Mirko DeMaio on keyboards and drums.

Fröberg: I certainly think so. I remember the first rehearsal with this line-up, I had to pinch myself in the arm. The level of details and layers of sound that Zach was able to reproduce made it sound just like the TFK keyboards does on record. I mean he even managed to squeeze in more stuff than we’ve ever had in a live setting before. Zach’s arms and fingers were like an octopus over the synthesizers during the shows. I have to give credit to both Zach and MirkKo because they had really prepared for the rehearsals and touring last year. I’d like to go as far as to say they had everything in the pocket from day one of us playing together. It was more of us trying to adjust to each other and the arrangement of the songs. In MirkKo’s case it was little things; perhaps to not hit quite as hard as he might have wanted on a few sections, or to use the crash instead of the ride for a special part of the song or whatever. For Zach it was more about finding the right levels for the different sounds (I guess they were spot on from the beginning for about 75% of the two-hour set – which is incredible!)

CJMT: With both Mirkko and Zach working out so well on classic Flower Kings material, it must have made it easier for you as a veteran to play two hours of such complex music. Did the chemistry on that tour also bring out something new to the music and to TFK?

Fröberg: Of course it did. It would have been horrible if it was the other way around but it was like those lads really understood the music and to me they delivered in a way that was just great. I’m pretty sure the audience could both hear and see and maybe even feel the chemistry in the band. I don’t think it necessarily brought something new out of the band but definitely a more fresh and sparkling version of TFK.

CJMT: The new line up for the Flower Kings not only has a new chemistry, but I have seen announcements of new tours and gigs for the band. Starting with this summer and into next year it looks like you could be very busy with the new line-up. How does it feel to have so much work with the Flower Kings going on once again?

Fröberg: Yeah there’s lots of things happening right now. If it wasn’t for Jonas’ (Reingold) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Reingold) live tour with Steve Hackett it would probably be even more. Still we’re doing as you say some festivals this summer and later this year, in December to be precise we’re heading out on tour together with the Dutch band Kayak. That’s a band that’s been around since the seventies and they even had some chart success around that time. They’re still active and touring a lot so I think we can turn out an interesting combo. And from what I understand there’s even negotiations about bringing TFK to the US again next year, so there’s definitely stuff in the pipeline. I can also reveal a secret for you since it will be out by the time this gets published. In less than two weeks from now TFK will enter the studio to record new material for a release in November.

CJMT: Hasse, in so many ways this is great news by comparison to our last interview in 2017, because it did not look like TFK was ever going to tour again. Now you have already toured with TFK and more dates are coming along with a new TFK album. The creative juices must be flowing.

Fröberg: Well I’m just as surprised as you are Steve. The process of getting the band ready for touring was in many ways creative, but when it comes to the recording we haven’t really been able to be creative yet. So far we’ve only been listening to Roine’s demos and some ideas he has mapped out. In fact, Zach has come up with a great-sounding piano theme that we’ll use, and I’ve been over to Roine’s studio (The Cosmic Lodge) to find out who will sing what and in what key. That’s about as far as we’ve come at the moment. I’m sure the creative juices will be flowing in the studio though.

CJMT: I don’t think most people realize that the writing, the composing of the music is often the hardest, most time-consuming thing about creating an album.

Fröberg: Sometimes it’s like that but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Every now and then you come over this song that more or less writes itself. Those moments are like a natural high when the chords kind of get married to each other (directly translated from Swedish) and everything makes sense and right then, right there, it feels like it’s the most beautiful piece of music you’ve heard. It might not happen that often but when it does, you feel like the king of the world for a little while. About Zach’s contribution, yes, it’s awesome to get some new musical input in a 25-year-old prog band like TFK. The way I see it, it can only be a good thing to have a 30-something-year-old kid from another country (USA) coming up with ideas, and in this case even fresh music. I mean he understands the musical universe of TFK very well, so what he’s written blends in 100%. Still it’s a little bit different, in a good way.

CJMT: When a band like TFK has a 25-year history it’s pretty lucky that you can find young players like Zach Kamins and Mirkko Demaio that understand your musical universe, but can also find a way to provide interesting new themes and energy to add to the music. Do you think that musical energy will carry over from recording new material to bring any new feeling to older, established Flower Kings compositions when you tour?

Fröberg: I believe the songs we played on the last tour sounded very close to the original version (at least many of them). But of course some of the music is over 20 years old and we didn’t even want it to sound like it did back then for different reasons. Roine is very picky when it comes to sounds and in certain songs he wanted a completely different one compared to what’s on the record. That could give mostly Zach a hard time but he took it like a gentleman and provided the sound Roine was looking for. Once again, I don’t think we’ve been as well prepared for a tour before, but since we had two new lads onboard we mostly played it safe. Next time we hit the road we might do it different, who knows? After all it will be the second round with this line-up of TFK.

CJMT: I was struck by your comment, ‘I don’t think we’ve been as well prepared for a tour before”. That has to be a great lift for the spirits of the Flower Kings, as a band, to be better prepared than ever before; particularly because you were integrating two new and younger musicians into the band, and TFK had not played live since 2013. Do you think it was that new energy, as well as the fans’ reaction, that prompted Roine to want to record a new album of Flower Kings music with this band?

Fröberg: I’m sure that was part of it, but I also do know that Inside Out (Music Company) (https://www.insideoutmusic.com/) has been eager for us to release new music. Of course all the touring gave us a receipt, that this is working both musically and chemically between the band members. I’m pretty sure it’s a combination. I think Roine is the man for this question.

CJMT: I know fans of the Flower Kings have been thrilled to see the band touring again, and all the online responses have indicated that they loved the shows, loved the band, and were so happy to hear the Flower Kings music once again. When they hear that Roine has convened the band to record a new album for a November 2019 release, with even more touring to follow, there should be many loud cheers around the world because the Flower Kings attract fans from so many countries beyond just Europe and the USA. Does this feel like a second life for the Flower Kings?

Fröberg: To me it does. Even if we never said it was over, I had a hard time seeing us playing again. On the other hand I didn’t count on the band showing up with a new line-up so I can honestly say I’m just as surprised as many of you guys. Anyway we’re going in to the RMV studio in Stockholm (owned by Benny Andersson of ABBA) next week to cut the backing tracks for our new album, Waiting For Miracles. So yes, this means we’re about to launch a new phase in TFK’s career.

CMJT: If we go back in time to our interview in 2017, you were working on the much-delayed live DVD release of your other band, Hasse Fröberg’s Musical Companion. Can we talk a bit about how HFMC has been doing since that time? Fans of the Flower Kings will probably like the music of HFMC as well.

Fröberg: It took awhile but No Place Like Home got released in the end, to receive great reviews and our fans also seem to be happy about it. As usual I tend to focus on the things we did not do that well on the night of the show when I watch the DVD. But as time goes by, those small errors or goofs or whatever you want to call it seem to diminish. If I would look at the DVD now, I would probably see and hear a band in harmony and having a good night. I mean the sound of the live recording is good, and I think Kicki Holmgren’s editing of the visuals are nothing short of superb! All in all I’m happy about it. (https://burningshed.com/product/search&filter_tag=hfmc) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1jjas3-t7w)

CJMT: Having watched No Place Like Home twelve times, I can verify that it is one of the best-sounding, best-played and most fun live concerts I have ever seen. Kicki Holmgren really put together something that is beyond a concert; it is like a little film of friends having fun, particularly the way it ends with Kjell Harraldson having the last word. And I hope that good feeling and good music inspires the band to keep playing and creating.

Fröberg: I’m glad you like No Place Like Home. If I get you right, I also think that’s a cool and unique thing when you can follow the band to the dressing room between the set and the encore, and after the show. To tell you the truth that was nothing I/we planned. The cameras were backstage when we got there, with the result that what you see is authentic and spontaneous. Once again Kicki is the brain behind it, so all I’m saying is ‘Kicki for President’. In fact we’re playing and creating right now since we’re putting the final touches to our fourth studio album called Parallel Life, that is due to be released September 12, 2019. (Pre-orders available from the 19th of July at https://glassville.bandcamp.com/. Parallel Life will be for sale at Prog At Sea (8/31/2019).

CJMT: The last HFMC band album was released in 2015, called HFMC, and it had a tune co-written with your drummer, Ola Strandberg. Does the new album, Parallel Life, include more co-written music?

Fröberg: It has indeed. The title track, ‘Parallel Life’, is a collaboration between Ola Strandberg, Kjell Haraldsson and me. This is the first time we’ve written a song together in HFMC, all three of us in the same room at the same time. ‘Parallel Life’ is 23 minutes long and I guess I had about 8-9 minutes ready that I was very excited about. However, I wasn’t sure what to do next, since I felt the song needed something more. To me, that afternoon/evening we spent writing the music together was like a dream come true. Ola had some ideas or parts that matched perfectly, and Kjell came up with great chords and some ideas about the arrangements that we added. It was truly an inspired session that I hope can lead to a very inspired song on the album. On our new record we also have a song written by Ola Strandberg called ‘Time Waits’. He’s responsible for both the music and the lyrics, and as a matter of fact he’s also singing lead vocals on one part of the song.

CJMT: Your writing experience, with Ola Strandberg and Kjell Haraldsson, must have breathed new life into writing for the new HFMC album, Parallel Life, because composing a title track is crucial to the success of the album. And finding writing partners who are already your band mates and touring allies helps spread out the burden of composing, like Lennon and McCartney used to do. Will people be able to hear some of the new music live this summer when HFMC tours with the release of the Parallel Life album?

Fröberg: In fact the first gig we’re doing is playing a venue called Prog at Sea, a 24-hour cruise from Oslo (Norway) to Fredrikshavn (Denmark) and back on the 31st of August. To tell you the truth we rehearsed for eight hours over two sessions just last weekend. I don’t think we’ve played since our last gig in The Netherlands in December 2018, so it’s been a while. Anyway after some jamming and playing through our older material we started to focus on the new songs. After those two days of playing I believe the new tunes have potential to sound great in a live format so my answer to you is, yes we’ll include about 35-40 minutes of music from Parallel Life in the set list for the coming gigs and tours. It’s very rewarding to write together, as you get instant feedback and you’re able to use the talents of the other lads. In this case, writing with Ola and Kjell, the best thing was that we provided different aspects to the songs. Ola has a superb sense of writing great melodies (strange since he’s a drummer!) while Kjell is more into jazzy chords (or “sandwiches” as he like to call them) and some groovy beats. Well to me we felt like a great unit for composing.

CJMT: It seems like HFMC must also be filled with a new energy, from composing and recording a new album like Parallel Life to playing a Prog at Sea gig the day after the release of the album. Your experience with writing with Ola and Kjell could not have come at a better time. After ten years of being together as a band does it feel like this new three-way writing partnership will be able to create more powerful music in the future?

Fröberg: You’re right about the 10 years, and finding new ways to “make it happen”. I believe it was a smart move to write together, the three of us, and I’m sure it will happen again. It was probably something like two and a half years ago we wrote the music to the song but I still remember the session vividly, to me it felt that good. Guess it’s important to remember and think of the positive things on moments when things start to turn a little sour. To tell you the truth this recording has been a rough time for the band and at times I’ve felt all alone on this journey, completing the album. The reason for it has nothing to do with the HFMC members. It’s just that we’ve stumbled upon so many obstacles along the way, so at times we were very frustrated. After a while I could sense the guys didn’t care anymore. However, we’ve been talking about our situation and I’ve been very honest about what I think of it all and right now it feels like we’ve come through it all. It feels like we’ve ended up on the other side of these problems and we are ready to take care of the final touches for the new album. Talking about it, next week we’re going to record the background vocals.

CJMT: I remember that your DVD No Place Like Home had quite a long struggle to be edited, mixed and released too. It sounds like Parallel Life has also run into technical problems beyond your control. Will the whole band gather round for recording the background vocals? And do you feel that finishing the album will give HFMC that boost to go out and rock your upcoming live shows?

Fröberg: Recording and touring for the new Flower Kings is going to be going on just about at the same time as the mixing and the last minute fixes of Parallel Life. It has happened before (back in 2012), but HFMC managed to pull it off somehow back then. However 2019 certainly looks to be a busy year for me. In fact when it’s over I’ll be on three records, since I’ve also made a contribution to United Progressive Fraternity’s album Loss, that was released in April 2019. That’s an album that deals with climate change and the environment, which is something I care for deeply. I recorded vocals for the song ‘Stop Time’. Anyway, you asked me about No Place Like Home and yes, you’re right, the editing of the visuals took forever. After the audio was mixed and mastered we had to wait for four months for Kicki to get ready. Back then I felt it took way too long to release the DVD after the actual show. Now, that I have the result and some perspective to the whole project, I think it was worth every minute. Yes Steve, it will be the whole band in the studio for those background vocal recording sessions. I want to use as many voices as possible and I have plans for each and every one of them that they’re still unaware of. Right now my head is a bit blurry since I’ve been booking shows in the middle of everything but I do hope and believe that this album will boost the band and make us an even better band live.

CJMT: I sense your stress now because TFK’s tour and album just happens to coincide with the long-developed plans with HFMC. Plans and deadlines and music must all be taking up your time and thoughts. Even so I think it is great that you have the musical energy to show new things to the guys in HFMC for the background vocals for Parallel Life. That shows that the wheels are still turning, and making your music stronger even as you handle the stress of a really tight schedule.

Fröberg: In the best of worlds, we would do this Parallel Life adventure, album video, promotion and touring etc and finish it, before doing a TFK album and tour again. But right now those two separate albums and tours are coming so close to each other that it gets a bit confusing, at least for me. Let me make one thing clear though, I’m not blaming anyone, well maybe me if we necessarily need to find a scapegoat. Once again this recording (HFMC) has taken way longer than we planned, and Roine is following the idea he and the record label Inside Out have had since TFK Revisited started to play again. The most energy-consuming thing of all of this is to make everything happen at the right moment in time. Like how and when will we do the video, which band will tour and when. And how can HFMC promote the album in the best possible way with the budget we have, and the list of little things just goes on and on. It would have been easier if I could focus on the music only and leave the rest of coordinating the schedules to a manager. I do have Johnny Taxen’s help which is invaluable. In fact I think I wouldn’t be able to do all this alone if I didn’t have him taking care of some of the practical stuff and listening to my ideas, telling me they’re great or they suck.

CJMT: Opportunity and luck seems to be a big factor right now, Hasse. Because the HFMC Parallel Life album and tour will take your time and attention at the same time as you have the opportunity to work on the new Flower Kings album and tour. A little bad luck delayed the HFMC album while good luck has brought you the new Flower Kings tour and album. You must have a real mental and physical juggling act to fit it all in, particularly since in HFMC you have more duties to fulfill than just writing, singing and playing. You are lucky to have Johnny Taxen to assist you and give you feedback. Am I correct in thinking that you will have some days where you will be playing with both TFK and HFMC?

Fröberg: Yep that’s right Steve, on the cruise in August (Prog at Sea) I’ll perform with both HFMC and TFK. It has happened before so I think I can handle it. Even if the bands have the same line-up, the music is very different and so is my role in HFMC compared to my role in TFK. I “just” have to switch my mind set between the two gigs and I’ll be fine hehehe… Well I’m not sure it’s bad luck, the studio is really out of this world, and Kjell Sandberg (sound engineer and studio owner) is really good at his game. The problem has been to find the time to actually work, and now when I look back at it, I was a bit naive to think everything would work smoothly in this new studio called Soundfront Productions. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING is brand new, and there’s over 900 cables connected to God knows what, so it’s not that strange that things go wrong sometimes. However, now everything is up and running and we’ve been working a lot lately. Yes, Johnny is a great guy, he’s a doer, he makes things happen and he loves HFMC, in short a great combination, methinks.

CJMT: The magic moments you mentioned earlier, when we were talking about composing ‘when the chords marry each other’ and the song comes so readily to you, did you find creative moments like that while writing the Parallel Lives album for HFMC?

Fröberg: In fact I did. On the album we have this song called ‘All Those Faces’. It’s really a simple pop song, a little bit in the same tradition as ‘Song For July’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltdjOgzvFDg) from our debut album, FuturePast. Maybe it’s not exactly like the chords are “marrying each other” since they’re so basic, but the song was just there. I guess it took me half an hour to write both the music and the lyrics, still I think it’s a really nice piece of music. On the title track, ‘Parallel Life’, there’s parts where those magic moments appeared. For instance, by the ending of this monster of a song I wanted to skip the bridge between the last verse and the last chorus. I had no clue how to make it work since the change of key between the different parts is so weird. Anyway, the ending of the verse has notes that lead up to the chorus in the most perfect way and I didn’t even know about it. I was under the impression we just HAD to have the bridge (which is really cool by the way) to make it work between the sections. When we found this thing out while rehearsing, we couldn’t believe our ears. If I remember it right we were all laughing, and for me it was like those different chords, different keys got married right away. Another funny thing happened while writing for the album. The song ‘Never Alone’ wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for me playing a chord the wrong way. Sometimes you just need that little thing to ignite the spark, to get inspired. That wrong note in the chord led me to write what’s probably the most beautiful theme I’ve written so far. The rest of the song was one of the “easy ones” to write as well, except for the chorus. In fact it took three different choruses before I found the right one. The first ones weren’t bad but the song didn’t take off the way I wanted. The one I settled for has this massive and brutal riff which is not what you expect when you listen to the rest of the song. You know like lights and darkness or love and hate.

CJMT: If your new song, ‘All Those Faces’, is as strong, catchy and uplifting as ‘Song for July’, you really had a great moment of inspiration to find that combination of words, music and feeling. In your epic ‘Parallel Life’ you were also blessed by finding a way to move directly from the melody of the last verse to the melody chorus without the previously stated bridge. That is a great idea because the listener would be expecting the restatement of the bridge to lead to the chorus but instead they will be treated to a musical surprise that should be exciting and catch the ear very dramatically. It seems like your little mistake in grabbing a chord in ‘Never Alone’ was also a gift if it lead you to find the most beautiful theme you have ever written. That shows the strength of your ear to hear where that ‘wrong note’ could lead. You must have written something very special in your new song ‘Sleeping with Ghosts’ to choose that for your music video. Can you tell us more about ‘Sleeping with the Ghost’?

Fröberg; I’m not sure that ‘All Those Faces’ has all the qualities you mentioned about ‘Song For July’, but there’s some similarities like the simplicity and the directness. There’s one big difference though, since the level of production is much bigger on this one. There’s much more going on when you listen to ‘All Those Faces’ compared to ‘Song For July’. About ‘Parallel Life’, it really shouldn’t work but it does. The notes that lead to the chorus sound like they were put there on purpose, like it was arranged that way. It sounds natural and logical but it’s the opposite. I still don’t understand how it can sound as good as it actually does. Sometimes you’re lucky I guess. I don’t visit the church that often but when I do I always get emotional when I hear the church organ. The theme I mentioned in ‘Never Alone’, I told Kjell “I want you to play that with a church organ sound as the intro to the song”. Not with the grandiose and big sound, but the soft and kind of sad tone you can get out of it. Now when I listen to it, it sounds like a psalm that’s always been there, and I have to say I like it very much.

While we’re at it why not talk about all the songs on the album. We’ve recorded seven tunes, just under 70 minutes of music, and one of them is ‘Rain’. That one starts with me on my brand-new Martin acoustic guitar, and then builds and builds. To me it has this kind of ‘hippie aura’ around it, starting with this singer/songwriter part that leads to a kind of sixties-sounding section that ends up in a very symphonic and powerful part, and then back to the start again. I wrote the song just after my dad passed away. Contrary to my mom we knew it was going to happen. I sat by his bed for five days. I went home at seven o’clock in the evening and at eleven o’clock they called me and told me he was gone. I went there on my bike to say goodbye, it was warm and raining so that’s why the title. From one extreme to another, the song ‘Friday’ is 100% the opposite to ‘Rain’. ‘Friday” is a flirt with the music I was doing in the eighties with my former band Spellbound. In case you don’t have a sense of humour I know it will burn up some of the symphonic and progressive rock fans out there, but I couldn’t resist releasing it since that’s also a part of who I am. Apart from that I think it’s a nice song and it definitely adds something to the dynamics and the diversity of the album. (Well we don’t know that just yet since GlassVille hasn’t heard it yet hehehe… they might refuse to release it)? The last song to give you some information about is the one we’ll make a video of, the one you were wondering about, ‘Sleeping With the Ghost’. It’s up-tempo, uplifting, big major chords, a happy vibe all around really. The lyrics are about different people at different ages looking back at their life. The intro is very symphonic and so is the b-part of the song, but the rest is just a rocker so it makes a good song for a video.

Let’s not forget Ola’s song ‘Time Waits’. He’s written both the music and the lyrics, and it’s a very entertaining and odd tune if you ask me. Since I have nothing to do with the composing I believe I have a rather objective view of it. In my ears it’s a strange hybrid between Rush, Yes and The Black Crowes. It’s by far the most advanced piece of music on this record, with lots of twists and turns, but always with the melody in focus. I love the fact that Ola delivers music all by himself, as it widens the musical expression and it gives the band more of a group feeling. On top of that I think it’s a really cool song!

CJMT: From your description of the new HFMC album, Parallel Life, it sounds like these songs show you have reached a new level of composing. When your ears can make a good connection happen and turn a ‘mistake’ into a beautiful theme, it is not so much luck as it is your experience and your musical skill. The good fortune part is that your band mates in HFMC provide that sense of friendship and teamwork that allows you to find your way and make this music happen. Do you feel that you have made a breakthrough with Parallel Life, Hasse, to make this your best writing and the best HFMC album so far?

Fröberg: I try to keep a humble approach to the music I’m involved in. Sometimes I wish I was American because then I could say every new release is the best. And mean it! With that said I confess without a doubt I really like what we’ve recorded. On the other hand, I’m really fond of the HFMC debut album FuturePast as well. It was recorded in an old school with the former TFK in front of house engineer Petrus Königsson, who brought microphones, preamps and everything we needed for the adventure. We spent five days there recording everything except for acoustic guitars, some keys and vocals. The album has this organic, almost live kind of feeling to it which is not that strange since the backing tracks were recorded live by all five of us playing at the same time. Personally I think songs like ‘Piece of the Sky’, ‘Only My Blood’, ‘Song for July’ and ‘The Ultimate Thrill’ are really nice tunes. On the other hand, there’s some good ones on Powerplay too and from what I understand, most people seem to think our third album, HFMC, is our strongest effort so far. It’s not that strange when you consider we have songs on it like ‘Can’t Stop the Clock’, ‘Genius’, ‘Everything Can Change’, and ‘Pages’, amongst others. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrMs7NQPAhE)

When it comes to Parallel Life, we’re really pushing ourselves musically, actually to the point I worry about the coming live shows. On the previous albums the music was more or less written for the stage. Since this is our fourth release I told the guys let’s make an album that has a more detailed soundscape and bigger production. Said and done and I guess we’ll pay the price later this year when we’re bringing those songs out on tour… puh! Anyway, I have to give it to the lads that their playing on this album has reached a new level. When I listen to what we’ve recorded, I hear a very active band that’s doing their best to interpret every part of the music. When we play soft we’re more delicate than before and when we play hard and heavy, well we haven’t even been close to how we sound on this record.

CJMT: This news about Parallel Life should be a delight to HFMC fans, and your fans from the Flower Kings should also sit up take notice and dig your new work. There is just too little high-quality, intelligent, melodic and soulful music in the world to let your new album pass by and not enjoy it and support it. From everything you have said about the writing of the songs, to the attention to detail of recording and orchestration you have recorded, it seems you have reached a new level to be proud of and to bring to the people when you tour this summer. I have to thank you for taking the time to talk to me and CJMT while you are in the midst of so much work: music and schedule juggling of two tours, two albums and two different bands. Tack sa mycket, Hasse. May both tours, both bands and both albums find a wide and appreciative audience. Thank you from all who listen and all who enjoy reading about your work.

Watch the video of HFMC’s “Sleeping with the Ghost” from Parallel Life here.