The Real Group - Anders Jalkéus
We interviewed Anders Jalkéus, the bass-singer of The
Real Group, about the past, present and future of this Swedish
vocal-band. Their latest release All for One has just gotten
in to the stores.
The Interview has been taken the 19th March 1999 at
Stadtgarten Restaurant by Felix Lamouroux.
How did the group meet?
We met in 1984. Three boys and one of the girls
started at the royal academy of music in Stockholm. We had to have
an ensemble, any kind of ensemble. First we tried to start a band,
but we did not find a drummer. As we did not find a drummer, we ask
ourselves "What can we do instead?". We were all very
interested in singing and arranging, we decided to form a vocal
group. We contacted Katharina, since we knew her from elementary
school.
The Band exists since 1984. That’s a
long time for a band, why do you work so well together?
I think because we did not start our career as a group
to become famous or have a goal. We just started for fun. We were
good friends having a good time singing together. We did not plan to
work with this professionally.
But after 1987 when we released our first album, we worked full-time
professionally with this.
I think it comes out of that we were very good friends in the
beginning.
Who influenced your group most?
I would say, that we get our inspiration from other instrumental
bands and artists. But we get our inspiration from different kinds
of artists and bands, because we are five different people, we
listen to different kinds of music.
We don't get so much influenced as a group, because the biggest
influence on the group are the five members. We get influenced by
artists like Count Basie's Bigband, Stevie Wonder, newer Pop, Soul
artists.
You mix many styles of music. What
makes the group choose the direction?
I think we do it ourselves. Most of the time we choose music that we
like and arrange with the group. The latest two albums have been a
lot of original composition, we try to write music. That's what we
want to do. That makes the group unique. That our own jam.
What's the directions you will now turn to?
The next album will be an album with mostly original songs again in
English for the European and American market. It will be quite
similar to what we have done with the latest album One For All.
That mixture is almost all from classic to pop with some jazz
in-between. We do the music we like ourselves.
You all know to play at least one
instrument. Does this influence your way to perform as vocalists?
Yes, it does. When someone imitates a trumpet, we study how would a
trumpet-player play this, how would it sound. And then we try to do
it vocal instead. I played a lot of bass when I was young and that
sure helps me when I am going to sing the bass-part in a vocal-band.
We are rather a vocal-band than a vocal-group.
What did you want to show with your latest album All
for One?
We wanted to do an album in English, we have not recorded in English
since 1989. We also wanted to write the music and lyrics ourselves
as much as possible. Then we wanted to produce a album that we would
like to hear ourselves.
What are your projects for the future?
We are now rather busy on the European scene and the United States
and there is a need for another album in English.
We will next tour in Finland and then a small tour to Germany in
May. We will play on some festivals in Scandinavia during the
summer. We will be to the States this September or October.
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