There are some bands out there filled with starry-eyed ambitions, wanting to be the next Nirvana/Pink Floyd/Oasis and praying to their Syd Barrett door poster each night. Not so much with Envelopes. Despite winning serious acclaim for debut album Demons, their singles winning the same favour and a few listens of their second album suggesting it may well receive a similar reception, they’re skint. They’re so skint they can’t even go on tour. So as far as ambitions go, just being able to get on the road would be a pleasant start.
When I caught up with French singer/guitarist/keyboardist Audrey Pic it was after a successful gig in Paris. This is successful in spite of support band The Love Bandits having to cancel because the bouncers decided not to let them in the venue. “It was really cool. There was a queue, it was crowded and the venue was great,” she happily enthused. “We like to do lots of gigs but we’re broke. We can’t tour.”
Not that they’ve never toured. Thanks to their travels this lucky bunch have decided that LA or Barcelona would be nice places to live one day. “We have a thing for warm weather,” she explains in her melting French lilt. “Sweden is so cold. I love the vegetation and the atmosphere of places like LA.”
Originating in different parts of Europe it’s impressive this band has managed to stay together at all, being only able to snatch a few holidays in which the part French-part Swedish band could practice and get some recording done. It’s no surprise that it took five years for Audrey, Henrik Orrling, Fredrik Berglind-Dehlin, Filip Ekander and Ulf Höglund to become a proper gigging band and be approached by London-based label Brille Records.
Demons was put together using mostly their own recordings put together on their own computers. Yet despite its somewhat haphazard nature and tiny record label it got released, heard and praised by the music press and anyone lucky enough to find themselves at one of their gigs. Soon Envelopes found they had made a bit of a name for themselves on the indie music scene.
Plunging money into the band Brille sent the five to a big house in north Yorkshire to record the second album Here Comes the Wind. Over the course of nine months in the middle of nowhere cabin fever slowly set and when it was decided that they needed to begin again from scratch elsewhere their former bass player, Martin Karlsson, decided to leave them behind.
But despite this blow they relocated back to Sweden and entered a studio with known producer Per Sunding, formally of Swedish band Eggstone, twiddling the knobs. There was no messing around this time. “He was both nice and hard. He really pushed us,” says Audrey. “When we recorded Demon we sang like we wanted and we didn’t care. He really coached our music and really worked with Henrik.”
Yet the money situation puts any future studio recordings on the backburner for the time being. Not that that has put them off trying, of course. “Yesterday we tried a new song on stage and it went really well so now we want to record it,” she says. “We need to work a lot because we want to make things happen. I have computer at my place so we’ll try record new stuff over the summer. At the moment we don’t really have any money to do anything so I think we’ll go back to demo land.”
But, although a grounded level of enthusiasm and determination is all well and good, what do the band feel they have plenty to offer today’s new music scene? After all there are thousands of bands out there vying for success. Audrey is initially a bit stumped by the question. “I have no idea,” she begins, her hangover from the previous night’s post-gig party showing its head. “ I think the songs are really interesting, there are so many parts in one song it’s almost schizophrenic. People should really listen to a song, usually the people who are into us listen properly. So I think it’s for people who like to concentrate.”
Like most bands out there whose first language isn’t English, especially those who hope for success outside their own country, Envelopes perform almost exclusively in English. But considering it’s none of the members’ first language have they ever considered bucking the trend and recording or performing music in either Swedish or French? The simple answer is “no”. “In French it’s really difficult,” Audrey muses. “ In English you sing something and it doesn’t really mean anything and but it sounds good. In French if you sing it it sounds kind of stupid. You have to be really good to write in French. So we just write in English, even with our lack of vocabulary. Our lyrics are not the most impressive side of our music, I think.”
So if it’s not the lyrics which that are their strongest side why should we go and seek out this quirky European band with naught but a dream guiding their path? After a pause Audrey replies “The messiness maybe? How messy we can be on stage.” Now doesn’t that just make you curious?
Published in Clash magazine February 2008.
