kiethevez

A Tribute to Pär Wiksten, Christina Bergmark, and The Wannadies: Catalysts for an Entirely Different Musical Genre:

It was 1990. An era defined by black attire, hair dyed in the darkest of shades, and adorned with The Cure and Sisters of Mercy t-shirts, characterising our eighteen-year-old selves. In these pivotal years, we embarked on a journey to discover our identity, both individually and as a unit in the soon-to-emerge synth-pop band, “Kiethevez”. Our time was often spent in the corridors and spaces of the school library in our upper secondary school in Kungälv, just on the outskirts of Gothenburg. It was in this intellectual haven, quite unexpectedly, that we were drawn to the mesmerising cover of “The Wannadies” vinyl LP by The Wannadies.

Back in those days, public libraries were treasured sanctuaries where one could still discover vinyl records. This album stood in stark contrast to our usual influences, such as Depeche Mode, Front 242, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, and Kraftwerk. The moment the needle graced the record, sparking that initial crackle before the symphony began, is indelibly etched in our memories. The album was an eye-opener, with each track unfolding a new musical dimension, filled with melancholic violins, authentic drums, and beautiful guitars – a far cry from the synth and goth music to which we were accustomed. The melodies had the potential to be celebrated synth-pop anthems, and the lyrics mirrored the story of our lives at that time. Tracks like "Together," "My Hometown," "The Beast Cures the Lover," "Heaven," "So Many Lies" not only profoundly influenced our formative years but also significantly shaped the music we created as Kiethevez.

This album was the pivotal force that spurred our transformation into a band, committed to crafting our own music and developing a unique sound. Had it not been for that fortuitous visit to the library, the entity of Kiethevez might never have materialised. Our gratitude to Pär Wiksten and The Wannadies is immeasurable. This album became the standard against which we measured the quality and resonance of backing choirs in our music.

When we listened to tracks like "Heaven" featuring Christina Bergmark’s ethereal backing vocals we found inspiration for our early, tentative songs such as “Perfection” (notably in the choirs of "Get to understand," "Nothing gained," "Have to change anything"), aspiring to replicate the delicate harmony of those vocals. Additionally, "Black Waters" shaped our approach to the writing and production of songs like “Erina” and “M”.

With profound appreciation, we extend all our love to Pär, Christina, and The Wannadies. Without your influence, Kiethevez might not have continued, creating new music and nurturing a small yet devoted fanbase in the indie music scene.

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0JIL8pGo6fZsHT6A16kCkz?si=HRvFS0h7S6e1RTXS_Rn-hw

The Wannadies The Wannadies · Album · 1990 · 11 songs.

In July 2005, we undertook the significant task of dismantling our main studio and relocating it to a secluded house in Egernahult, nestled amidst the picturesque countryside of southern Sweden.

Despite struggling with persistent mosquitoes, sewer pipe blockages, hard drive failures, electrical short circuits, and the absence of mobile phone coverage, we recorded the main parts of the Non-Binary album during five hot summer weeks.

The top left photo is Jesper doing the vocals for “Always a Boy” – listen to it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4jMIm5fURY

Anything Higher from the Three Empty Words album (1994) was entirely produced using only two samplers, the Emu Emax for the choirs and for the bass (hurray for great filters), and then the Akai S1000 for the rest including the drums.

The main parts of the video was shot at different locations around Gothenburg, at an abandoned industry facility on Hisingen Island, at the Capri Club on Avenyn, and in Tomas apartment on Kvilletorget to name a few. If looking closely at 0.22, Jesper is holding a cat for unknown reasons (Rimpi, was it your cat?).

Next year, it’s 30 years ago – time flies…
Follow on YouTube.

Kiethevez - Anything Higher Kiethevez official video "Anything Higher" from the album "Three empty words"Video production by KTV/Coeur Noir (C) Copyright 1994. October. All rights reser...

This is a recent photo from one of our three home studios where some of the really old stuff and equipment is stored (used for the Three Empty Words and O***m albums for example): E-mu Emax, Korg MS-20, Akai S1000, Deep Bass Nine, Novation Bass Station etc. There are also some Jaz Drive disks with vocal & guitar tracks for the E-mu Darwin, some boxes with floppy disks for the samplers, and a couple of DAT tapes with old demo songs. Almost like a small museum where time has stood still. Today, everything fits into a laptop...

Visiting Mute at Short Circuit (Roundhouse) in London, Friday the 13th of May 2011. Jesper, Tomas, Jörgen (Per-Henrik is behind the camera). An anecdote is that earlier the same day we worked together in the studio and came up with the main parts for the song “No”. But it was never fully completed and recorded until some 9 years (!) later and eventually became the opening track on the “Binary” E.P. released in November 2021. See the video for "No" from here: https://youtu.be/636jcU-EylA

This is the promotion poster for our first album “Three Empty Words” released back in October 1994. We had a clear vision of four separate color portraits shot with cool shadows against a clear and strong blue background. So, without a budget for any professional photo studio, we thought we wait for a clear and sunny day and use the sky as a backdrop.

The photoshoot at the top of Ramberget on Hisingen Island in Gothenburg worked out pretty well - except for one small detail. If looking at the top right photo (Per-Henrik), there is a small branch popping up from below which was not the plan. But with no budget for a professional photo studio, there was no budget for any post-production re-touch either.

Listen to “Three Empty Words” by here:
https://www.kiethevez.com/three-empty-words/

We asked ourselves, is it possible to make a cover of “Lovesong” by The Cure that has a slightly more melancholic touch than the splendid original? At least that was our aim back in 1995 when contributing with two songs for the October Productions tribute compilation “Fictional”. If listening closely, there are some hi-hats in the background being out of sync. The reason for this is that we really wanted a “large” tom-drum-like sound for the song and found the perfect sample after days of searching - but the tempo was not right. Back then, we didn’t have the proper skills of adjusting the tempo of the sample without distorting the sound too much – so we decided that we always can claim that the out of sync hi-hats was intended, like an arty and creative ingredient in the production – but it wasn’t.

Hats off to Sonny Wadstedt behind the mixing console at in Surte (Sweden) where the song was recorded and mixed on an analogue 16 track Tascam tape recorder.

Listen to the “Lovesong” cover on the YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3HEK8iP

The first published recording with Kiethevez is the Faces & Images compilation album from Limur Records. This vinyl album was released back in 1991 in a limited edition of 800 copies and contained ten songs from ten different upcoming Swedish synth bands. participates with a demo version of the song Female Terror (which has a slower beat than the final version on the Undressed Confessions cassette) recorded in our own home studio on a Sansui MR-6 six channel tape recorder.

Anyone still having this rarity in the collection?

The song “M” from the Non-Binary album had as a demo the working title “In my mind”. Some songs are easy to write and everything quickly falls into place by itself, while other doesn’t. “M” was very difficult to complete, and was reworked numerous times before everything felt right. There is no official music video for “M”, but this fanvid captures the harmonies, the mood, and the emotions of this song just perfectly.

Kiethevez - M

Back in 1992, the company behind Release Music Magazine released the compilation cassette “Sounds from the electric café” with the bands that had performed at the synth-club “Electric Café” in Gothenburg. Kiethevez was one of the bands contributing with two tracks, “Perfection” and “Relief”. The question is if anyone still got this rarity in their collection 2022?

Follow on YouTube and listen to “Relief” and “Perfection” here: https://bit.ly/3qAQsy9

The track “One Roman Choir” from the O***m album became a popular track on the alternative dance floors - especially in the US during the late nineties. The CD maxi single was released 1998 in US only and contained 5 tracks and 2 music videos: One Roman Choir (Radio Edit), In My Eye, One Roman Choir (Holy Mix), Happy Today, One Roman Choir (Holier Mix) + Erina (video), Can’t See This (video). The promo image was shot by Jakob Hammarskjöld.

Follow on YouTube and listen to “One Roman Choir” here: https://bit.ly/3vQTRMo

This is an old promo flyer for the single Erina back in September 1998. A music video by Marcus Dimbodius was also released - mainly shot at the Panorama Hotel in Gothenburg. Erina was taken from the O***m album and also contained “Beyond and Below” and a radio edit of Erina remixed by Stefan Barkland. Erina was selected as one of the best alternative singles that same year at the Swedish Alternative Music Awards.

See the Erina video on our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3A3KmMx

Close up on Jörgen behind the plague mask during the shooting of the “No” video in September 2021. Itching plastic leather imitation, hard to breathe, and impossible to see anything. Alles für die Kunst...
Watch the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3toDdTa

Top left: At Times Square, New York, 1999. Can’t wait to return for more live performances sometime in the future.

Top right: During the recording of the “Can’t See This” video, partially shot in an old factory building on the Hisingen Island, Sweden, 1997.

Bottom left: A band meeting in a small cosy coffeehouse in the middle of Paris, 1999.

Bottom right: Live performance in Uppsala, Sweden, 1998. Tomas behind the Oberheim OB-SX and the Korg MS-20.

R.I.P 🖤 Andrew

Here Is the House Provided to YouTube by Redeye WorldwideHere Is the House · KiethevezYour World in Our Eyes - A Tribute to Depeche Mode℗ Sonet Music ABReleased on: 1997-01-01...

During July-August 1997, the O***m album was mixed at the Gothenburg Sound “Studio 1” on a Neve Electronics console using our favourite reverb, the Lexicon 224. The release party was held at the Romo Night club in Gothenburg the 26th of September.

There is an untold story about how we came up with the album title. We had no good ideas, and time was running out. So, in pure desperation we started to turn random pages in a 24-volume encyclopedia for inspiration. Suddenly, there was a white flower that caught our attention. It was a “Papaver Somniferum”, also known as the o***m poppy. O***m... we thought that was a perfect name for the 12 addictive and painkilling songs we had worked so hard to put together.

Instruments used: E-mu ESi-32, E-mu Emax, Roland JV-1080, Yamaha CS1X, Kawai K4, Akai S1000, Control Synthesis Deep Base Nine, Novation Bass Station Rack, Oberheim OB-SX, and a PC computer running the Cubase sequencer software synced with an E-mu Darwin.

Vocals and acoustic instruments recording equipment: Marenius SMF-5 pre-amp, Behringer MDX 1400 compressor/limiter, Audio-Technica AT4033 and Shure SM57 microphones.

Follow the link to read an album analysis by Luiz Athayde / Class of Sounds from 2019 (Google translated to English): https://bit.ly/3vrVpN5

Listen to O***m here: www.kiethevez.com/o***m/

The name of the band... There have been various explanations during the years, but this is how the name “Kiethevez” came about.

It all started one late evening in February 1991 when we just played around with the Emax and sampled random things. The TV-set was on in the background, and suddenly there was a trailer for the movie “Young Guns 2" announcing the actors “Emilio Estevez”, “Kiefer Sutherland” (at 1.30-1.32 in the YouTube clip). It was sampled via a cheap microphone, chopped up in pieces, pitched down, and then put back together again - but in another order. The sound we heard playing the keyboard on the Emax was something like “kih-tevez”.

In spelling it became Kiethevez (KieTheVez has also been used occasionally) and it is pronounced like “kiteves”. It not only became the name of the new band formation, but it was also the title of a song with EBM influences that never got recorded and that we only played live once.

Follow on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/Kiethevez-Official

Young Guns II - Original Theatrical Trailer

After the release of the “Replenish My Mind” CDM in May 1993, the work on the first full length album “Three Empty Words” began during the autumn the same year. At the same time the Kiethevez studio “Coeur Noir” was moved from Hisingen island (Gothenburg) to Surte and where the recordings were made during February 1994 on an analogue Tascam 16-track tape recorder with Sonny Wadstedt behind the mixing console.

One anecdote is the small production blunder on the song “Ride” which we didn’t hear until Jörgen was in Malmö for the mastering work - and then it was too late to adjust. From 3:12 and until the end of the song, the snare drum sound is changed. Very few have probably reflected on that, but the ones who did notice this perhaps thought it a was a stroke of pure creative geniality - but it wasn’t. It was a “MIDI program change” command forgotten somewhere in the sequencer song arrangement.

Instruments used:
Akai S1000, Akai S900, Emulator Emax, Korg Wavestation, Kawai K4, Alesis SR-16, Atari 1040 STFM running the Steinberg Cubeat sequencer software, and a Cort electric guitar connected to a BOSS HM2 pedal - and yes, HM stands for “HEAVY METAL” (!!?)

Listen here:
https://www.kiethevez.com/three-empty-words

BINARY now on BANDCAMP!
We may not be fast, but eventually we catch up with reality.
https://kiethevez.bandcamp.com/album/binary

Binary, by kiethevez 4 track album

This is the poster for the “Replenish My Mind” CDM released the 5th of May 1993. The interesting, and never told story about this photo, is that Jesper couldn’t make it to the photo session at the Palladium cinema main venue in Gothenburg. So, the third person from the left is a stand-in and a friend of ours. From left to right: Jörgen, Per-Henrik, Okku, Tomas.

At the release party for our first album at the CC Club (Capri Club) in Gothenburg the 20th of October 1994, the 50 (or was in 30?) first guests got this poster for free. So perhaps, this worn copy is not the only one that remains 2022? This photo by Andreas Hantoft was also used for a limited edition of a “Kiethevez picture postcard”.

Read the Kiethevez story 1986-2003 (tbc) here:
https://www.kiethevez.com/about

This is the very first version of the “Undressed Confessions” demo cassette released on our own label the 12th of December 1991 (RRMC01A). It’s a real rarity since it was only made in 20 copies... now we are talking about a very limited edition! The second version of the cassette (RRMC01B) was made in 100 copies and was released later the same year but had another cover.

“Undressed Confessions” was recorded between August to November 1991 by four dedicated teenagers having no clue about sound engineering, nor graphic design. But it was a start which eventually lead to signing with the October record label and the first CDM “Replenish My Mind” released in May 1993. Equipment used: Sansui MR-6 six channel tape recorder, Alesis Quadraverb, Emulator Emax, Korg Wavestation, Casio VZ-1, Kawai MAV-8, Akai S1000, Alesis SR-16 and an Atari 1040 STFM computer with Steinberg Cubeat sequencer software.

Listen to “Undressed Confessions” on YouTube:
https://bit.ly/3GIzCTE

Some live performance nostalgia. Maybe do it again sometime?

Great review of our last EP Binary from swedish synth.nu
”Dark, melancholic and harmonious. As an electronic film landscape combined with Jesper's singing”