Regular readers have grown accustomed to seeing the album art above. In just a few days The Bell release Make Some Quiet on February 12th. I’ll say it again, we really like this record. Leading up to the release, I got in touch with Mathias Stromberg for our continuing 5 Questions with Muzzle of Bees feature.

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Make Some Quiet? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you’ll apply towards future recording sessions?


Well, since we weren’t really sure where we were heading with the band at the time, when we started recording we didn’t really have a process in mind. It all happened quite naturally. We’d record six tracks and select two and move on to the next session. Living in different cities means we have to make the most of the time we have in the studio so we have been extremely effective.

Lessons learned … I guess now we are aware that we are actually releasing records, we will try to focus more on making an album from the start, not collecting tracks as we go along. More planning. More “we are going to make an album that sounds like this and that, full stop.”

You have two pretty great videos. Did you put those together yourselves? How did they come about?

Well, thanks. There is something to be said about being a band without a budget – it means the stuff that happens has to be based on great ideas, otherwise you have nothing at all.

The videos were cut together by Nicklas and Jan mainly from open source material- American and European advertising and educational films from post-war time.


The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

“The Long Tail”-effect is on one hand based on hyper-capitalist beliefs that all markets will self-regulate, on the other hand is a superb democratic development that means that bands with no or very little means can reach a very specific audience even if they’re experimental. Or crap.

Being Swedish, I believe in a regulated society, that we need certain tastemakers, or editors, between sender and receiver. This is where (the good) blogs and online mags/forums come in handy. There is simply too much out there to take in so we need to help each other. Something that I think will create a better world in maybe ten, twenty years time, a better climate to create and activate thousands of creative minds that never would have a voice if it wasn’t for the internet. There won’t be much I’ll like but people will be happier.


There’s a whole blog dedicated to Swedish bands, we Americans simply can’t get enough music from Sweden on our iPods. What are some other bands from Sweden that you can recommend?


Yeah, there’s quite a lot of them out there. In the UK there are clubs that single out Swedish or Scandinavian music all together. Apparently, in Glasgow there are two big clubs with regular week nights specializing in swindie. It’s fantastic. We get a lot of support from www.itsatrap.com, a San Francisco (I think?) based online mag, dedicated to Scandinavian music. It’s great.

If you like The Bell, you might like The Radio Dept. , Citizen Bird, Franke, The Embassy, Shout Out Louds or The Mary Onettes. All great bands. If you’re into dancy / electronic music you should check out The Knife, of course (if you haven’t already, which is highly unlikely), The Tough Alliance, Studio and Harlem.


Can we expect any US tour dates behind the new record in 2008?

We’ll see. My baby boy Rem is only two months old and he needs me (and I him) on a daily basis right now.

And we really want to do something special when we take it to the stage, and it all costs a hell of a lot of money.

Oh, yeah, this is where I have to recommend The Knife’s “Silent Shout” live DVD. Now that’s a performance.

Myspace: The Bell
MP3: The Bell – “I Am History”
MP3: The Bell – “On And On”
MP3: The Bell – “Do You Know How To Feel”

More MP3’s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic