Interview with vocalist/keyboard player Hans Lundin of Kaipa by Danny on March 18, 2010Hans Lundin has released “In the Wake of Evolution” with his band Kaipa. So it’s time to ask him some questions about it and about his band.Who is Hans Lundin? I played in my first band in 1964, so I’ve been on a long musical journey. I recorded my first single in 1965. My first LP was with my second band, San Michael’s in 1971 and a second a year later. It was never released until the autumn of 2009 when a Japanese label Marquee released the first two albums of San Michael’s together with the first three Kaipa albums on a paper sleeve edition. So the second San Michael’s album “Nattåg” (Night Train) was only released 37 years after it was recorded. I really liked that. Maybe musically, it was like the seeds of Kaipa. It also includes the original Kaipa base player Tomas Eriksson. These albums are also released in a European Version (label: Transsubstans). You can buy them through Record Heaven in Sweden. Not so many people are aware of these albums.
Kaipa was formed in 1973. But wouldn’t you agree that from “Notes from the Past” on, it started a second life? It’s a totally different band. Originally I didn’t have the idea to reform Kaipa. I just wanted to start a musical project. So when I recorded “Notes from the Past”, I didn’t have the intention to release it under the name of Kaipa. It was Per Nordin, who made the artwork, who said: “This is exactly how Kaipa should sound after all these years, so why don’t you use the old name?”. When Roine agreed, it was very quickly decided.
So it’s a different band, but the roots are the same. The songwriting and the basic structure in the music is the same as what we did in the seventies. I know a lot of things about songwriting, I didn’t know in the seventies, so it should be better, but it’s all a matter of taste, because some people still prefer our earlier work.
I would even say that there’s a third life of the band when Roine left and Per came in. (without doubting the skills of Roine) No, they are both great musicians. But of course, there is a difference. When I formed Kaipa in 1973, Per wasn’t even born yet. So, he listened to other guitar players. I know that one of his heroes is Alan Holdsworth and Roine started playing Jimi Hendrix, so they have a different starting point. They both play very emotional solo’s but in a different way.
Is the new album a concept? No, not really. It consists of all different songs. But of course, an album is always a concept, because the songs belong to each other. When you heard an album several times, you know what’s going to happen. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I like the style of an LP, where you know, this is track 1 and this is track 2. Today you can go to iTunes and you buy just one song, while the songs belong together.
The little track “Folkia’s first decision” is linked with a track from “Notes from the Past”, called “Folke’s Final Decision”? In the seventies, we always called a song “Folke 1”, “Folke 2”,… We had several short folk melodies and we recorded some of them. One is on the first Kaipa album in 1975 and is called “Skogspromenad”. (A Walk in the Forest) We had several. On one of the bonus CD’s, there’s another one called “Folke 2”. So the track “Folke’s Final Decision” reminded me of a tradition in the Swedish Folk. And when I wrote the new track, I though, this must be a tiny little daughter of Folke.
The Artwork is different from your previous albums. The animation is gone and there’s a real picture now. The first artwork was made by Per Nordin, who also did the artwork for Transatlantic. On the following three albums, the artwork was made by Jan Ternald, who is also a musician. He played in a band called Algarnas Tradgard, progressive music from the seventies. I really liked his style, but he is not working with this anymore. So this time, I tried to do something myself. I didn’t believe in it, but when I showed it to the other musicians, they said it corresponded with the music.
Even if the album is not a concept, you can hear on the first and the last track of the CD, we are singing about our children. From the beginning, when I started to work on the album, I was going to call it “To Our Children, Children, Children”. So I wanted some artwork that was reflecting these words.
One track is titled “Electric Power Water Notes”. It’s such a strange combination of words? Yeah, I don’t know where I find it. ;-) Some notes get into your head for somewhere and you get some melodies. You don’t know where they are coming from, but you can’t get them out of your head. I tried to write a song about this and in the second part I describe how the notes from the electric guitar reach the water. And that’s how I came up with electric power water notes. I was joking with words.
I wrote in my review that I could only find one negative remark about your music, being the overall happiness in your music. I call it happy prog. Yes, several people mentioned that to me. I never realized that when I was working on the music, but it shouldn’t be a problem if it’s happy, because so much music is so dark and negative. But I will think about it when I start writing new music and find some darker edge.
It’s a bit due to the folk melodies. Yes, but there’s something strange with the Swedish folk tunes. They always go into minor chords and this gives some feelings that are melancholic but also merry and happy at the same time. It’s fascinating.
Is it because Patrik and Fredrik are in the band that it often sounds a lot like Ritual? I don’t think it’s because of them, but I really like the way they are sounding. Fredrik is doing a great job and he is getting the sound closer, but Kaipa used the Folk scenes already in the seventies, so that’s nothing new.
Are there any plans to perform live? We never play live. There are no plans. I just wrote back to the Swedish Rock Festival today, to say that I was honoured to be asked, but there are no intentions to play live.
It’s complicated to do and do justice to the music. If you listen to the new album, you often hear four or five electric guitars playing at the same time. I see this as a recording project.
But we actually made a video shoot you can find on youtube and on the Kaipa myspace. It’s called “short clips on the recording of the album ‘In the Wake of Evolution’”.
The jazzy parts are gone or almost gone on this album. Any particular reason? There is a portion which I call fusion, maybe not so jazzy. We listened a lot to fusion bands when we were on the road last October. I’m talking about bands like Return to Forever with Chick Corea. Morgan Ågren is also a real fan of that music.
I want to call our music progressive rock. I want it to be one unit, having all these parts. In some parts it’s a bit more folk and in others it’s a bit more fusion. I don’t want to play regular fusion but I want the feeling from fusion music where musicians are playing a lot.
Aleena Gibson is also a very important part of the band, isn’t she? Yes, of course. She is first of all a songwriter and also a singer. Nowadays she’s working more as a songwriter. I haven’t seen her for six months because she is in the USA. I really appreciate her as a singer and it’s a challenge for her to work in Kaipa.
My final question is a strange one. Which question didn’t I ask and you think I should have asked? Sometimes people are writing a review and they mention Patrik is doing a great job on the vocals, while sometimes I am singing the lead vocals. For example, I am singing the lead vocal on “Arcs of Sound” on the new album. I’m singing “Broken Chords” on “Angling Feelings”.
Sometimes people also get confused about guitar solos and keyboard solos. I often use a very distorted sound on the keyboard and when I ask someone which instrument is playing they say it must be a guitar. A reviewer mentioned a great guitar solo by Roine on one track and there was no guitar solo during that song.
Thanks for your time and I hope you change your mind about playing live. Thank you very much, nice talking to you.
www.kaipa.info www.myspace.com/kaipa www.insideout.dewww.pettingzoo.nl 
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