Kumla is a locality and the seat of Kumla Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with a population of 21,640 as of 2018. The name Kumla is renowned for its prison (“the Kumla Institution”, or Kumlaanstalten, commonly known as ‘The Bunker’), which is the largest prison in the country.
I don’t think I’ve ever written about a band of this small town in Sweden. A small town not only known for its prison but also for being an important shoe manufacturing town in the past. They even have a Shoe Industry Museum. It is in this town that there used to be a very fine shoegaze band called Swoon.
Swoon started in the mid-90s. I believe they were previously called Shallow (due to a Catherine Wheel song as well as “Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine). The band was influenced by those sounds, which is interesting for sure, I don’t know many Swedish shoegaze bands.
They were formed by John Hård on guitar, Staffan Ljunggren on drums and Ola Ljunggren on vocals and bass. The last two were brothers.
They were all originally from Kumla, but these days they all live either in Uppsala or Stockholm.
As a band they released a cassette tape titled “Goodsign” in 1997. I have very little info about it. There are four songs, “Goodsign”, “Cerebral”, “Aquanaut” and “To Break My Heart”. The same songs are on both sides of the tape.
In 2001 there is a CD EP titled “Slipstream” with the songs “Moving Out”, “Slipstream”, “Up My Sleeve”, “In Time”, “Cave Painter” and “Part of You”. Two years later, 2003, there is the “Encore EP” CD. This one had the songs “Letting it Out”, “All the Answers”, “Walk” and “Encore”.
These three releases have no label. All self-released.
In 2005 they put out another CD EP. This one is called “Jetglo” and includes mainly songs from the past, “Encore”, “Slipstream”, “All the Answers” and “Moving About”. This time we see a label in the CD, Kitty Litter Records (KLRCD001). This was the label of Darijo Berkes who would later release Mr. Suitcase. We also see some extra credits, for example the artwork was done by Bengt Wallman, and the songs were engineered by Erik Danielsson and Robin Spurrier (from South Ambulance).
Lastly in 2006 the band releases the “Everlast” CDR EP on Kitty Litter (KLR003). This one has all the same credits, same engineers and all. The songs were “Feels Like Me”, “Goodsign”, “Part of You” and “Time and Time Again”.
The last two EPs are on this Soundcloud account. There are also two other songs, “More or Less” and “Flight” which were released in 2015.
It is also worth noting that their song “To Break My Heart” was included in the compilation “Clairerecords Presents Solutions & Remedies” (FERN 2) released in 1998 by Clairerecords.
Looking at any other band involvement of the band members, it looks like Staffan played in a ban called Trummor & Orgel releasing quite a few records.
I keep searching and find a post on Blaskoteket dating from March 1997. It looks like it is around this time that the band changed their name from Shallow to Swoon. Here we learn too that Ola was studying molecular biotechnology in Uppsala, and that Steffan moved to Stockholm.
We also find out that Ola had previously been in a band called The Williams (are there any releases? recordings?). They were very young then in 1997. Very early 20s. They loved My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints and Chapterhouse. They liked The Smiths as well. Their favourite Swedish band at that time? Aquadays. Very cool.
It seems the “Cerebral” tape is their 2nd demo. Their first demo was called “Shallow. Not sure what songs were included. Also it is mentioned that in April 1996 they appeared on a compilation from a label called Rape-Cake-Records called “No.4”. The song they contributed was called “Monologue”.
“Cerebral” was originally pressed as a 100 copies edition tape and later they pressed another batch of 200. Not bad at all.
Interesting story. I’d definitely like to learn more about them. Did they play live much? Would be great to find out. Anyone remembers them?
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Listen
Swoon – Feels Like Me
