When I posted the City Lights demo it was perhaps outside of my usual genre. It and came about with that blasting warning signal that I liked. I heard it passing a building site on the way to my crib, studio Aspudden. I recorded the musical blasting signal on the synth. That signal started City Lights and I worked with that as a beginning. But the first revievs from my "panel" of trusted friends was harsh. So the blasting signal that started it all... had to go. I revisited the song and made a new intro, took out the synth and added lot´s of singing and choir. So imagine my surprise when Micke Moberg of MiMo Sound Records started production of the song. He put a synthezierser in! A short repetitive signal, not at all unlike the the blasting signal I already had taken out.... I liked Mickes suggestions and together we made City Lights a fast rough song with the sound of ..... midnight, mid town and lonlieness.
I worked really hard on the lyrics. Wanted them to be about meeting love late in life. All of you who’ve been there know what I mean. It’s hard, frustrating and filled with doubt, you know? Personally I looked around town or wherever I happened to be, for someone to share my life with. Today maybe one gets Tinder alerts on one’s phone, but the desperation and frustration is the same. I worked hard on the lyrics but just couldn’t get it right.
The summer 2017 I attended... let’s call it a symposium. At the end, this girl spoke about her life and exactly that desperation. She was honest, genuine and had a way with words that just shot right into your heart. You just couldn’t shield yourself from all those emotions. I remember, as the tears started welling up, how she said (quoting from memory here): "Just wanted him to hug me so hard that all my broken parts would become whole again…” Exactly! Sure recognized that feeling. That horrible sence of slowly dying from loneliness and the belief that someone could help me become whole again. If I could, even for just one moment, convey what those of us listening right there felt, man, my lyrics would be awesome.
I now had my last piece of the puzzle. I finished my lyrics and asked for help to record it all. Like I always do when my own efforts just aren’t enough. So on City Lights that’s Micke Moberg on Synth, Sigvard Frentzell on drums and Todde Sjöström on guitar. Also there are Todde and Åsa Pihl on backup vocals. If you’ve seen the live band RMF, you probably recognize Todde on guitar. And Åsa is sometimes our sound technician. You know, big hat, absolutely gorgeous and very good at… giving hugs.
So, City Lights!
