Company You Keep: Labrador Records

by Caitlin Caven 

Though Johan Angergård claims he doesn’t know where Labrador Records’ name came from, it works pretty well. A charismatic breed of dog seems to be an apt mascot for a label built off of genuine passion, catchy melodies and sheer dedication.

The label was founded in Sweden in 1997 by Bengt Rahm with the modest goal of releasing new Swedish pop bands on 7” singles. He enlisted his friend Mattias Berglund, inspired by their shared love of Swedish music. The label picked up steam when Rahm met Angergård, member of the bands Club 8 and Acid House Kings. He, Niklas Angergård, and Joakim Ödlund had their own small label, Summersound Records. In 1999 Angergård joined Labrador Records, and in 2001 the two labels merged, forming the Labrador of today.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Labrador Records has released a 4-disc compilation of one hundred of their releases over the last ten years, cheekily dubbed Labrador 100, A Complete History of Popular Music. (And, yes, that period is part of the title.) Arranged chronologically, it includes all manner of Swedish pop bands, ranging from the straight-up rock of Leslies to the language barrier transcendence of [ingenting] to the wry-observations-you-can-tap-your-feet-to of Suburban Kids with Biblical Names. Some songs, like Tribeca’s “Teenage”, will replay in your memory for days. Others, like Pelle Carlberg’s sincere “Go to Hell, Miss Rydell” will leave you unsure whether to laugh or nurse your newly-broken heart. The range and breadth of songs on this compilation are noteworthy: with 100 songs to choose from, even the most scroogelike of music snobs will find something with which to bond.

Labrador is a breath of fresh air in an age where the term “pop” evokes associations of over-produced, top-40 confections. Many of the wide array of songs on the compilation are smart and thought-provoking—especially impressive, given that English is a second language for most of these bands. A thick booklet that accompanies the boxed set lays out a history of the label, as well as track-by-track commentary by Angergård, Rahm, Ödlund, Berglund, and Angergård, the men behind Labrador. After listening to a hundred tracks of Sweden’s best pop and reading the accompanying musings of a few of the people responsible for it, it’s hard not to fall a little bit in love with this label.

Labrador 100 restored some of my faith in the word “pop”; who knows, the label may charm its way into your heart, too. Below, Johan Angergård—head and co-owner of Labrador Records, and member of Acid House Kings, Club 8, and The Legends—answers a few questions for us on growing up, evolving a label, graphical analyses, and wholly believing in what he does.

SOUNDCHECK Magazine: I read that you became involved with Labrador when Bengt called you. How did you know him?

Johan Angergård: We were on the very first Labrador release with my band, Acid House Kings. It was a 7” compilation with four Swedish bands. But I think Bengt first contacted me and asked if he could release Club 8 in Sweden. The current Club 8 album back then, The Friend I Once Had, had only been released in the US and Japan + some other parts of Asia, but not in Europe at all. I had the label Summersound at the time, which released music by Happydeadmen, Edson, Chasing Dorotea and Aerospace. We weren’t as active as I wanted to be with Summersound, though, and as I got to know Bengt it turned out we had similar ideas and similar taste in music. So we reformed Labrador and I became a part of it around the 5th or 6th release. Then we merged Summersound with Labrador.

SM: Niklas mentioned in the Labrador 100 liner notes the strict veto power you all have. At this stage, how many people are involved in vetoing or choosing, and who are they?

JA: There’s never been a band I wanted to release that we haven’t released—unless the band has turned us down, that is. But it would feel a bit strange to release something if the other guys didn’t like it. Niklas, especially, is quite active when it comes to looking for new bands.

The other people are Bengt Rahm, who started the label; Niklas and Joakim from Acid House Kings and Summersound Recordings; and Mattias. It’s only me and Mattias who work with the label, though. He does mostly graphic, Internet stuff and artwork, while I deal with A & R, distribution, promotion and licensing kind of things.

SM: What were your backgrounds—what made you qualified to start and run a record label? Did you ever feel that you were in over your head?

JA: Oh, I wasn’t qualified at all! I had some good contacts with labels in the US and Asia from my “work” with my own bands, but that was it. I spent most of my teenage years listening to 7” singles that rarely sold more than 500 copies so I didn’t expect the stuff we put out to be big. I only wanted it to be great.

SM: What made you name the label Labrador?

JA: No idea why Bengt did that. I keep asking him, but I still don’t think he’s given me a satisfactory answer.

SM: Out of all one-hundred songs on Labrador 100, only five are in Swedish (and all of them are done by the same band.) Why are the vast majority in English? Do you have any particular feelings about the lack of Swedish-language music?

JA: I grew up listening to music in English and all my favourite bands sing in English, so for me it just seems like the obvious choice. Having said that, I must admit that it does add something when good pop music is sung in Swedish with good lyrics. The lyrics become more in focus and more direct and so the songs speak more directly to you. Done well, it’s wonderful. Done not so good, it’s rather stupid. My favourite song from last year was “Punkdrömmar” by [ingenting] and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have loved it quite as much if it was in English.

SM: Is there a milestone you'd like to reach that you haven't yet?

JA: We’re still waiting for one of our bands to actually break through. It feels it a bit odd to say that coming from a indie background. It’s a bit as if Mike Alway of él expected Would-Be-Goods to be top ten in the US. Well, maybe he did… but anyway. It would be a tremendously nice feeling knowing that people listened to a band I love. If I can make people buy The Mary Onettes instead of Kaiser Chiefs or Linkin Park, I feel I’ve truly improved the world.

SM: To what do you attribute Sweden's substantial pop music scene?

JA: Good pop melodies, lack of macho-attributes and a touch of melancholia.

SM: The liner notes to Labrador 100 keep making wistful offhand comments like “we always thought ______ should have been a smash hit.” How do you keep this sentiment from getting disheartening?

JA: Disheartening towards the record buyers, you mean? We love our bands and feel they deserve the world. They should all have smash hits if they want to!

SM: If you were to anthropomorphize/ create an analogy for (how you see) Labrador's role in terms of the global music scene, how would you do it? Feel free to answer in terms of a flow chart, a picture, a haiku, whatever.

JA:

SM: What do you wish Americans knew about Sweden?

JA: I wish they knew more about the desolate northern part, but that’s a total projection because I wish I did. I live in Stockholm and only 10 miles north of that the desolation makes me feel as if I’m driving towards… well, absolutely nothing, really. I get a strong sense of death there and I should get over it.

SM: If you were writing a history textbook, and you had to write a paragraph about yourself/ your cohorts/ your label, how would you do it? (Think like kings commissioning portraits or the grand statues of Napoleon on horseback. Exaggerate or outright lie—we won't know the difference.)

JA: I’d like Dan Treacy to write that for me instead. We’ll have to get to know each other a little first, but after that’s done I think it will turn out just fine.

SM: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? How much did you expect yourself to be here?

JA: In my younger days, up ’til 20 that is, I never expected myself to be here at all. Music just wasn’t an option where I came from. Sure, it was a nice hobby and all that, but doing it for a living just wasn’t something you could do. You were supposed to go to University. Get a proper job. And, actually, I did all that. But I always had my label(s) and bands going at the same time and in the end it just felt like I was missing too much fun and too much of importance. I quit my job and here I am.

SM: What makes you better than every other label?

JA: We’re consistent, stay true to our ideals, and release the best Swedish pop there is.