Album Notes

Pineforest Crunch


Despite taking their name from a Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream, Pineforest Crunch started out very far from the nicely treated cows of Vermont. In a small, messy apartment in Solna former classmates Åsa Eklund, Olle Söderström and Mats Lundgren were all in their pre-20´s recovering from either broken relationships or serious cases of boredom. Out of this situation and a couple bottles of wine a first demo was recorded in tiled bathrooms and stuffed warderobes. Influenced by bands like American Music Club and the Sundays a personal and interesting kind of pop-music was created. Determined that they were headed for stardom and infamousy they sent their first demo to all the major labels. Very little happened, printed replies and very mute telephones.
A small mentioning in a Swedish pop-magazine refueled the high hopes and a first gig was booked. To play a gig you needed a full line-up, who to call but one other former classmate and one ski-trip acquiantance. Enter Mattias Olsson and Jonas Petterson. The dream of the record contract continued and grew stronger threw rehearsals and ambitious planning. Six demos and about 60 gigs ( including a self-booked tour of the U.K ) later the band was signed to Polar. In early 1996 the single Cup Noodle Song and the album Make Believe was released. The single climbed the charts and venues were played. The band toured Japan and played over 50 gigs all over Scandinavia that summer. At the end of the year the album had sold gold and the single had gone top-3 on the charts.

The follow-up was meticulously planned and rehearsed. Working intimately with Producer/engineer Jim Warren ( radiohead/chapterhouse ) the band went to the English countryside in Oxfordshire to record the album that became Watergarden. A dynamic, well crafted pop-album containing everything from fullfledged stringsection-assaults to organquartets all lead by a young inspired pop-quintet. Sadly enough the album fell between the cracks timing-wise and everything came to a stand-still. The band toured the U.S in the autumn of 1998 and the spring of 2000 playing among other places at sxsw and the viper room. since then the band has been working on new material that is being released in 2001 and the spring of 2002.

Line-up :

Ã…sa Eklund ; Lead vocals, acoustic guitars, flute and theremin.
Olle Söderström ; Acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals.
Mats Lundgren ; Bass and basspedals, keyboards.
Jonas Petterson ; Acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals, clarinet.
Mattias Olsson ; Drums and percussion.

Discography :
Make Believe (Polar/Polygram)
Watergarden (Polar/Polygram)
Innocent (dodgy disc)
Panamarenko(dodgy disc, shangri la/exergy music)

Singles
Cup Noodle Song (Polar/Polygram)
Teenage Alex (Polar/Polygram)
Shangri-la (Polar/Polygram)
College radio (shangri la /exergy music)