After an extensive world tour recording his previous album, This is where life is, Anders ‘Moneybrother’ Wendin came to a halt when it all calmed down. He built a new home outside of Stockholm with his fiancée, but an accident temporarily put her in a wheelchair, and Anders stayed at home to take care of her. While cooking and helping her out, he started to write new music, in Swedish.
For an artist that has built up a following under an assumed name, revealing their true selves is not the easiest thing in the world – especially when they choose to change language to do so.
In 1963, a relatively unknown Quincy Jones produced a song that proved to be a lucrative investment for all involved. In the US, It’s My Party became the number one song on the pop and rhythm & blues charts. It was to be the first in a long line of glittering hits for Jones.
It wasn’t long before the song made it across the Atlantic Ocean, where in Stockholm, Stikkan Anderson translated the song and gave it to a young Lill- Babs. Their version, Leva Livet, was just as sprightly and fun-loving as the American original.
It also featured a very special line, which has just recently been brought back to life. “Dom ska få se vem dom roat sig med” (roughly translated, “They’ll know who they’ve been messing with”) is the name of Anders Wendin’s new album. Produced and recorded in his newly-built home outside of Stockholm, it marks a step away from his previous stage name of Moneybrother, as does the fact that this time, the words are in Swedish. The origin of its title is something Anders Wendin has never been reluctant in acknowledging as a loan from Lill-Babs.
In late 2011, Wendin went on a trip around the world to record music on four different continents. At the time, he said it didn’t want it to be a world record, but a record that felt like “a rock & roll album with sounds and atmospheres gathered far from home”. The album, titled This is where life is, was documented on film and the whole project was sponsored by Red Bull. He recorded vocals in Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong studio in Jamaica and laid down some guitar riffs at Chicago’s legendary Electric Audio Studio. After this extensive project and the tour that followed – Moneybrother’s biggest to date – he felt the need for a long, well-earned rest. “It was an amazing experience, and to be able to watch it all on film afterwards was really great,” says Anders Wendin while handling his newly born son in the back seat of his car.
In early February, I received a press release written by Anders himself, stating he was to release his first album in Swedish on March 26. The first single is titled Lämna lampan på (Leave The Light On). On every album released under the Moneybrother moniker, Anders Wendin has always looked for the most upbeat tune to release as a first single. It’s a classic Moneybrother move, and has always been a successful one. “I immediately knew that the first single would be Lämna lampan på. But, the rest of the album is pretty solemn and laid-back compared to the introducing single.”
Dom kommer få se vem dom roat sig med came about after his fiancée was involved in an accident involving two torn Achilles tendons. Anders was resting up from the This is where life is recording sessions and tour when his fiancée’s injury put her in a wheelchair. In the midst of the two of them building a new house in the countryside and awaiting the birth of their child, Anders decided to stay at home. He took care of his incapacitated spouse, providing her with food and company.
However, the days moved slowly, triggering Anders to start writing again. He’d always enjoyed writing new music in his own home, and this was his opportunity to create something new, fresh and close to home. “I’ve always wanted to do songs that feel close to me. On this album, there are a lot of songs that consist of only a guitar and my voice. My voice, which is pretty low, is similar to other rock’n’ roll relics, which has driven me to step away from that and create something original instead.”
So, he set up a home studio. Or perhaps ‘studio’ is glorifying it a little bit. At least according to Anders himself. “It’s not really a studio. These days recording equipment is so sophisticated you can record almost anything with very small means. It was basically just a microphone and a computer. It wasn’t like I had a sound guy climbing around the room, trying to remove any unwanted nuisance or anything.”
When your first single, “Reconsider Me”, was released in 2001, you became very popular very quickly in Sweden. Do you remember the feeling you got when you heard the news that your debut album, Blood Panic, had reached gold status?
There’s actually a song about this exact thing on the album: when all your dreams come true. For me, there weren’t any sparks on anything. No clear signs or immediate realization that “I made it!”. It’s not until a couple of years afterwards that you realize all those things you were dreaming about have actually come true. Looking back on it now, I see an incredible time. It’s like when you were drunk as a teenager, and a guy dressed as a clown walks up to you and starts talking. And you’re just standing there, amazed, looking into the endlessness of the world in a way. But if that were to happen now, you’rejust like, “Um, excuse me, I’m, talking to my girlfriend…” The reaction would be different, to say the least. I’m also very grateful to once have been one of those artists capable of behaving whatever way I wanted, and the reviews and fans would be unperturbed. But the thing that gave me most joy was the fact that there were people out there who listened to, and enjoyed, my songs. For example, I have a lot of punk rock friends who are not being taken seriously in a songwriting sense, so to be recognized for that was really exciting.
Did you feel exposed writing music in Swedish?
Every word counts in a different way. It’s unusual for me, because I’ve been writing in English for so many years. For my album Pengabrorsan, there was a starting point that I could lean against.
The album Pengabrorsan (an eloquent translation of his English moniker Moneybrother) is Anders Wendin only previous album featuring songs in Swedish. However, out of 11 tracks on the album, 10 are simply translations of English rock songs, like, Clown In Broad Daylight by Ron Sexsmith, Downtown Train by Tom Waits and Get Well Soon by Steve Forbert, to mention a few. Because they were songs written in English that I translated, the starting point was different this time. Now, I just had a blank canvas in front of me. Which was hard, but at the same time a very rewarding challenge. I felt I had to find myself, in Swedish.
And did you?
Yeah, I think so. I tried to figure out the way I tell stories in my everyday life, and then write songs in that same way. It wasn’t easy, but still came naturally.
Was it ever obvious you were writing songs as Anders Wendin and not Moneybrother?
It’s always been very important to me that I write from my own perspective. I mean, I’m not writing songs for the kids, like a voice for someone else or anything like that. This time I went all-in. The first song on the album is a seven-minute, biographical rant about my whole music career.
Did the album turn out the way you wanted it to?
This was made very differently from my other ones. It was sort of unclear, from the beginning, what I was actually doing with this. I wrote some songs and called up my producer from Pengabrorsan, Henrik Svensson, who came over to my house. I showed him some songs and then the work started. We both agreed on a set goal, and because we’re very similar in the way we work it felt good from the beginning. I guess this album turned out more the way I wanted it to than any other album before it. We had time to really perfect it.
Don’t miss Anders at Debaser Strand on April 3.
For more information and tickets visit Debaser.
Words by David Johansson
