Don't be a Stranger

Don’t be a Stranger was formed in 2002, in a tiny village in rural Värmland, a Swedish region of dark woods and weird dialects. Liv Widell (singer/songwriter), Louise Weibull (Fidget) and her sister Christina Weibull (Honey is Cool) met by coincidence and started making music together. Liv had a god given voice and abundant musical sketches in her head and hands. Louise and Christina had flow, melodies, inspiration, instruments and a brand new portable digital recording studio.

Rehearsal weekends in Värmland always started with a detailed food and wine shopping tour in the local mall of the (fairly unknown) metropol Kristinehamn. There, three city girls could find all that Stockholm lacks in terms of records, clothes and odd groceries. Shopping accomplished, the car headed for the plains and for Louise’s lovely pink countryside house, and it’s porch. Musical gatherings were accompanied by old school mopeds, barking little Spanish dogs, Violent Femmes, David Bowie (dancing in the garden to Young Americans) and the neighboring couple’s rockabilly lifestyle of weapons, Harley Davidson’s and leopard swimwear.

About a year later, as the lack of rhythm became too painful, the girls were joined by (possibly the world’s greatest drummer) Johan Forsman (Fidget). Loads of songs were born without much of a direction or outspoken desired result. What came out was Don’t be a stranger, and that was that. We all had completely different musical backgrounds, preferences and preconceptions of what to do and how, and the outcome was surprisingly interesting to all of us!

Premier night for Don’t be a stranger as a live act was in November 2004, in the local community hall in the village in Värmland. The little wooden house almost had a religious atmosphere to it after we had decorated it with chandeliers, lamps and all beautiful things we could find in the village secondhand/antique shop. We sold coffee and cinnamon rolls and invited all the locals. Who knows how they liked the sound of our music, we only know they smiled and seemed to accept our presence.

In 2005, the band moves to Stockholm, to a “goth” -basement with neon lights and skeletons hanging from the roof. A collective depression sets in and marks the music. We feel an urging need for joy and love and anything but that dark basement! We ask Mattias Albinsson (Ebon Tale) to join us on the bass.

When summer comes at last, we decide to put our music on tape. Don’t be a Stranger enters Studio Cobra where the band’s last but not least member is found in the control room of the dark cave like studio: Konie Ehrencrona (Konie and the Club, Hipwhips) completes the setting of the group with his spirits and his guitars. Together we start recording our first album. Don’t be a Stranger hereby slips into an era of homelessness and scattered come-together days in the red velvet sofa of Studio Cobra combined with more and more frequent live shows around Stockholm.

The geographical scatteredness of the band and its different personalities have resulted in that all band members have “mini-me’s” that are used in the event of a member’s absence at a gig, interview, photo shoot etc. At a gig last summer, Louise was in Liberia (Africa), and hence gloriously replaced by her mini-me. She sat at the very front of the stage in a green lycra suit, a Don’t be a Stranger cap (for the right rock’n roll feeling) and a blinking silver belt, proudly digging the show. A similar episode took place when neither Louise, nor Johan could participate at a photo shoot for Dagens Nyheter. This time, the mini-me’s were wrapped up in cloths/towels and carried by the other band members. They looked like little babies from some time BC (before Christ). Johan -all wrapped in pink, Louise - most elegantly posing in corall blue.