One of the buzz bands at this years SXSW, Denmark’s The Kissaway Trail just released
their second LP Sleep Mountain in Australia. While they were in Pheonix Arizona, touring around the States with The Temper Trap, I chatted to lead singer Thomas L. Fagerlund about the tour, the new album, and going home.
Larry: I understand you’re touring the States with Australia’s own The Temper Trap! How’s the tour going?
Thomas: It’s going fine! They love our music, and we love their music, and we are getting along and having a great time. So it couldn’t be better.
What are the American crowds like? How do they compare to European and home crowds?
They are really really really good. They are more outgoing here, and their response is really really great. It’s just a great tour and they are nice people and they are buying our T-Shirts and our CDs, so we’re a happy band right now.
You can’t ask for much more than that!
No you can’t!
And part of this tour saw you at SXSW, also with The Temper Trap. How was that going back for a second time?
The first time we only played one show. This time we played about 6 shows and had a lot of interviews, and a lot of meetings. So it was a crazy week. We woke up with 9, and were back at our hotels around 1. So we were tired and happy at the same time. There was so much going on. The press wanted to talk to us, and they loved our new album. It was great, but a crazy week!
Speaking about your second album, Sleep Mountain, can you tell us a bit about making the album?
Yeah well making the first album was easy because it wasn’t meant to be an album, it was meant to be a demo so we could get some shows. And suddenly it was an album that was getting out all over the world. But Sleep Mountain was a bit hectic and a crazy thing to do, because we had a manager who was getting his nose in everything, so we started recorded the first time in October, and it took abour 2 months. And then we decided to delete all the tracks and we had a break for about a month where we didn’t know if we should start over or just quit. Because there was so much bad vibes. But after a month we went to the studio where we recorded the first album, and we stayed there for two weeks, and the album was done. It was a bit hectic, but we love that we succeeded and that we’re still a band and we’re proud of what we’re done. A happy ending!
I understand that it was recorded back in 2008?
Yeah it was.
Is it hard to sit on new material for so long, waiting for it to be released?
These days with the internet, and so many bands, you have to do a lot of work before to access people, so they know of your band – that this is the band they must here. So we just waited, and trusted our new manager, and we’re happy now that we did wait, because we just wanted the album to get out, and we wanted to play concerts.
Are you enjoying playing the new album live?
Yeah, it’s always fun to play new songs, and we’re starting to know which songs are good in our live songs, and which songs are not. It’s starting out well!
What’s it like going home to Denmark to play shows?
I actually don’t know what it’s going to be like going home. It’s been a long time since we’ve played a show in Denmark. We’re heading back for a tour next week. I don’t actually know how many people will attend our shows. But hopefully there’ll be some kind of fuss. The Danish people don’t really accept us now. They don’t really know that we exist – we’re a small band in Denmark. In some ways it will be nice to relax at home, but it would be fun to be a big band in Denmark as well. We’re just taking it one day at a time, to see what comes next.
I guess the most important question is are you having fun?
Yeah. We are smiling all the time. We didn’t go to University. Music is our life. This is what we want. I’ve always wanted to write music and play music, this is just where I want to be. So I’m a happy man.
And when are we going to see you in Australia?
I talked to Johnny from Speak and Spell at SXSW, and hopefully we’ll have some Australian festivals later this year. We’ve wanted to go there since we made the first record, so hopefully we’ll come and play some shows!
Sleep Mountain was released on April 30th in stores around Australia and on iTunes!
