Sound of Arrows interview: ‘The horse was very beautiful – but I wouldn’t want one in the house’

Sweden has a reputation for being a place to find good pop music, but brilliant newcomers Sound of Arrows couldn’t escape the country quick enough to record their debut album. They chose to bring their magical pop sound to London - the home of a million shit indie bands.

But they brought more than amazing pop music to our capital city – they also brought a fondness for dark alleys, some home-video skills and a working knowledge of Shetland Ponies. By the time we’d finished the interview, they could add a fear of bananas to that list…

Hello Sound of Arrows. Why did you choose to leave Sweden (the world capital of pop music) to record your debut album in London?
Stefan: Sweden is always made out to be this great country for pop music, and it is to a certain extent, but there isn’t really a middle ground between indie and commercial pop. It seems there’s a big scene for that in the UK and it’s nice that there aren’t as many preconceived notions about what pop should be. Although I guess in a country eight times the size of Sweden - there’s bound to be a market for everything.

What’s the worst thing about being in London?
Oskar: I think we’d say the standard of living.
Stefan: The standard of living here is like a Soviet country in disguise! No, I’m kidding. We don't have golden walls. I have a golden floor.

Have you been mugged yet?
Stefan: Coming from the town we come from, I’m so naive. We think ‘oh, this dark street looks nice – dum di dum’ and head down it. I think we’ll end up being mugged, raped or killed.

Do you miss any Swedish tinned foods?
Stefan: The thing is I’m a little bit posh and I don’t like things that come from a can. It’s difficult with food because if you’re vegan there’s hardly any specialist Swedish food that’s vegan. I guess maybe chickpeas.
Oskar: Stefan is a very good chef.
Stefan: I always try to make things complicated when it’s always better to keep things simple.
Oskar: I think everything you do tastes excellent. I made an apple pie and it was not very good. I took salt instead of sugar. I think I’m very bad at telling the difference.

So you eat each other’s food and we’ve seen photos of you twiddling with each other’s belts. Are you not worried that people will see your press shots and just think ‘Oh look, a gay band’?
Stefan: I think that would be a good thing. Our worst nightmare would be having a press shot that looked like the kids in Brick Lane leaning against a wall. You have to do something striking. If people can’t take that then they shouldn’t listen to our music. Although the post-production made things come out a little ‘closer’, but I think it’s better.

Were you stood on opposite sides of the room and they photoshopped you together?
Stefan: Yeah! We talked about this since we did the video. I wouldn’t say it’s over the top. You could take it further! It’s quite extreme in some ways and I guess once we get more recognised we could tone it down. Not that we want to change, but you know there is more to us than swords and stardust. It’s good for now and we’ll keep that imagery for the album, but maybe lose the swords. I think we’ve had it with Unicorns too. No more Unicorns.

Speaking of Unicorns and such, when was the last time you rode a horse?
Oskar: I once rode a small pony.

A Shetland?
Oskar: Maybe, it wasn’t recent. When they gallop, that was scary. He went too fast.
Stefan: I tried a horse once and it was terrifying. A scary animal. I got on and got off. It was very beautiful - but I wouldn’t want one in the house.

But you did want some in your generally incredible ‘Into The Clouds’ video. This one...

Where do you find the time and resources to make your own amazing videos?
Stefan: That’s always how we’ve been doing it. Even when no one listened to our music we had a glossy homepage on our website.
Oskar: We do it together; I do the technical side - every single frame. We recorded the green screen in March and post-production took about four months. It was a long process but we found out how we wanted it to look.
Stefan: Same with the music. Finding out about what you want to do, who you are. All the time finding out new things. It can be annoying. You’re in the middle of the process and you’re learning and you want to change everything, make it more professional. That’s why we never release anything! We had an album almost finished, but then we got a new synth and want to add that to everything ...but now we’re like we HAVE to finish this thing.

So you’ve got an entire album finished and hidden away somewhere in an old lady’s attic back in Stockholm?
Stefan: Yeah! When we started we were like one Swedish indie band. We’ve found a sound now we’re happy with. It might not be unique, but we feel strongly about it and we feel like it’s entitled to exist.

Sound of Arrows has an undeniably 80s sound to it. Have musicians run out of new ideas, and that’s why so many people pillage old music?
Stefan: For a musician it’s an important thing to be aware of but a dangerous thing to think about. When it comes to 80's revival I wouldn’t know culturally why so many people are doing it, I just know what attracts me and us. There’s been so much cold music lately but there’s a lot of warmth to the things that inspire us. That’s a warmth we want to bring out in our music.

Does it concern you that one day you might find a Tarantula in your bananas?
Stefan: Does that happen? I’ve never thought about it but I guess that would be one of the worst things that could ever happen. When we were in Australia, it’s a great country, and I was thinking ‘I could live here’ but that was before we saw the cobwebs - the size of them!

Big enough to trap a Shetland Pony?
Stefan: Yeah! I will never eat a banana again in my life.

Well make sure you sleep with your mouth closed, it’s that time of year when spiders start coming indoors. Thank you very much, Stefan and Oskar, Sound of Arrows.

Sound Of Arrows' very pretty Myspace here.


'Into The Clouds' is out now. Click here to buy it from iTunes.