Hospital

HOSPITAL

In the summer of 1996, in the backseat of a car on the way to the music festival Lollipop in Stockholm, I first heard the self titled album of the band Modern Lovers. The lyrics, the sound and Jonathan Richman’s voice totally mesmerized me. The sad love story about the girl in the hospital, the tale of Pablo Picasso and his women, and Jonathan’s plead to the girl of his dreams to leave her boyfriend Hippie Johnny – all these wonderful songs – knocked me off my feet. This album totally changed my view on music and what I thought songs should be about.

Five years later I fell ill while travelling in Asia, and had to return to Sweden to rest. A few weeks after returning to Sweden I met Maja Alderin at a party. For some time I had searched for a female singer to form a band with and when she told me about her studies to become a singer I got interested. I stole a recording Maja had made of the song Hound dog, loved her voice and persuaded her to start a band. We named the band Hospital, after my favourite song from the Modern Lovers album that I had fallen in love with back in 96. Thanks to the illness I met Maja, and thanks to Maja Hospital was born and the quest to write an equally good song as Modern Lovers Hospital begun.

In 2003 we recorded and released three demos that eventually lead to a publishing deal with EMI in the spring of 2004. The collaboration didn´t really lead to anything so in 2005, when it was time to renew the contract, Maja and I decided to go our own way. In 2006 we began recording songs in the attic of an old train station, a recording session that would become our debutalbum When I spoke of love, then I spoke of you. The studio lacked isolation so when the seasons shifted during 2006 so did the temperature in the studio. Adding guitar on some tracks in the wintertime was done at -5°C, while a few months later, recording vocals, the thermometer showed a temperature of +35°C. Looking back I would like to think that these outer conditions gave the album an extra edge. You must suffer for your art! The album took roughly a year to record and in the beginning of 2007 it was finally mixed, mastered and done.

For some time I’d had the idea of my own record label, to be able to release Hospital’s music as well as other acts. So, in January 2007, I started Bless The Press Records and, in addition to Hospital, signed a talented young singer/songwriter from Gothenburg called Winter Took His Life. June 7th the first single from Hospital – Snowflake – was released and the release date for the album is set to September 27th.

/Julius Andersson (August 19th, 2007)