Adrian Recordings’ years: 2002–2004 (Moved to V2)

Markus Krunegård – vocals, guitar, piano
David Nygård - Krauten, dragspel, brass, glockenspiel
Lars Skoglund – drums, percussion
Mikael Fritz – bass

First of all I can tell you that Laakso is no longer releasing records on Adrian Recordings. They were with us for two years and released one album, two EP’s and two singles. All top notch. I dare to say, all among the best music I have heard.

First time we meet Laakso was in Uppsala Sweden, when they opened for David & the Citizens. They where amazing, such melodies and such drive. In centre then, as always Markus Krunegård’s bittersweet voice. You can never escape from it. It will always hunt you. We where all astonished and they played some more shows with David & the Citizens on our behalf. Soon I understood that there was a gold mine just beneath our feet. Well, We had Adrian Recordings and they where in need of a record label. So, we just got started.

We booked some days in the Gröndahl studio in Stockholm and the band had gotten to know Jari Haapalainen, now more known producer than then. Jari was to play a very important role in the future as well. The plan was to make an EP. And so we did. The “Long Beach EP”.

Days rolled by, shows where played, songs where written. It is sweet memories. The band experienced the strange but thrilling feeling of media hype and the plans for an album was just floating on by itself. Jari had just done an album with The Concretes together with Christoffer Lundqvist and he liked Christoffer’s studio “Aerosol Grey Machine”, out on a plain field in the south of Sweden. So we decided to be there. (The fact that Christoffer just recorded a solo album with Per Gessle (Roxette) there, didn’t scare us.) The debut album “I Miss You, I’m Pregnant” was recorded. Jesus!

Laakso did one more proper release on Adrian Recordings, the EP “Aussie Girl”. Both the band and Jari really stretched the boundaries here and listening to it in retrospective, you can here the five extra tracks is powered with extra everything. The songs, the arrangements and the recordings are overwhelming. Even the artwork is something extra. I’m not saying that the EP is Laakso’s best release, that wouldn’t be fair, I’m just saying it is something special.

Laakso is one of Sweden’s most respected bands. The band members are well known musicians, doing time in other bands like: Peter, Bjorn & John, Existensminimum, Moneybrother, Hets, Vapnet, Camera Obscura, and more. But Laakso was the cradle, the birth. And even though the band has been on the verge of break up several times, God knows they are not making it easy for themselves, I believe they will be around forever. What I have heard, the world has just opened for them. They did their time on the German roads during their Adrian period and now they are doing the same in U.K. If I worked on Mojo, Rolling Stone or MNE, I would keep my eyes open. There are four Swedes/Finnish guys tumbling your way and I don’t think anything can stop them. I know Markus and if he wants anything to be done, he is mental about it.