Raymond & Maria

Raymond and Maria
From hiding in the basement to selling platinum in four weeks

After a year in a basement trying to figure out our complicated borrowed recording-equipement we made 30 copies of our first single "No one notices your brand new t-shirt" (in Swedish "Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja") and sent them to people we liked. Then things were never to be the same again. After two weeks it was number one in all the Swedish charts and after another two it had sold platinum. We also received a number of more or less impressive (sometimes even slightly strange) Swedish and Nordic awards including a Swedish Grammy.
A year ago James Iha – former Smashing Pumpkin guitarplayer (and a very nice person it proved) - came across a demo with our new songs and sent us an e-mail telling us ha wanted to produce an English album with us in his New York studio. A fantastic thing for us since hes one of our all time favourite guitarplayers. In December last year we recorded three new songs in his studio Stratosphere and this spring he came over to our favourite Scandinavian studio – Ocean Sound in Giske, Norway to record six more. Now – weve just returned from the final session in New York with a finished album.

“Raymond&Marias is a slightly shy band from Sweden that to their own surprise have experienced great success in Scandinavia. Their songs and sound might be described as a mix between Simon&Garfunkel, The Smiths, early Dylan, ABBA and a bit little of Blondie. Their setting is basic and simple. Two girls singing, two acoustic guitars, bass and drums. But don’t be fooled by their well crafted melodies and beautiful harmony singing They are actually quite angry. Their poetic but subversive lyrics definitely gets to you. They are - you could say - political on an individual level. And their underlying message is maybe best conjured in their anthemic hit “No”. Don’t accept the world as it is presented to you. You are constantly attacked with things that people want you to do or buy or be. Say no! You have the right to. And you should. For your own sake and for the sake of the world.”