Studio is the fifth and final studio album by the Swedish rock band Tages, released on 4 December 1967 on Parlophone in Sweden. Following the success of their album Contrast, Tages began working on their follow-up to it. Hampered by a long summer tour, the album was largely recorded between October and November 1967 with sessions spanning back to April. It was primarily recorded at Europafilm Studios in Bromma, Stockholm with Anders Henriksson producing. The band took a break in recording the album in October for a tour of England organized by Parlophone, which allowed them access to EMI Studios in London, where two of the album's tracks were recorded. One single was released from the album, "She's Having a Baby Now" and the sessions also produced the non-album single "Treat Her Like a Lady".
Studio was largely conceived and written by bassist Göran Lagerberg and producer Henriksson, but features songwriting credits from all band members, particularly lead vocalist Tommy Blom and rhythm guitarist Danne Larsson. It was largely written at Henriksson's home in Tureberg and at his parents' summer cottage in Tällberg, Dalarna. Musically, it experiments with the psychedelia found on Tages' previous two albums Extra Extra and Contrast, but expands on it by incorporating elements of their Scandinavian roots through Nordic and Swedish folk music, creating an unprecedented fusion. Several songs on the album have controversial lyrical content. Studio techniques include backmasking on guitars and drums.
Studio was Tages' first album to be released with a gatefold cover, which depicts Tages' members during the recording process of the album. Upon original release for the Christmas rush, the album became an unexpected commercial failure as fans generally disliked the new direction the band took with the album. It was released along with a short film featuring the band, Dalamania, airing on Sveriges Television. Studio did receive positive reviews in the press, with many publications highlighting the inclusion of folk music and the production efforts of Henriksson. Largely ignored shortly after release, Studio started to receive a cult following during the 1980s and has seen retrospective critical acclaim. In 1997, it was ranked the 36th best Swedish album of all time by the Swedish Musicians' Union. It was the group's last album with Blom, and their last under the name Tages.
Background
Tages' roots in folk music can be traced to their origins in 1963, when they formed as a skiffle group. The group's three first singles, "Sleep Little Girl" (1964), "I Should Be Glad" and "Don't Turn Your Back" (both 1965) all shared a sound of soft rock along with melodic folk rock. All three of these singles were successful on the two Swedish charts, Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen. After seeing Howlin' Wolf and Lightnin' Hopkins live in Gothenburg, Tages had begun abandoning their folk roots in favour of a sound much more oriented toward rhythm and blues and hard rock, evident on their fourth single "The One for You" (1965). Their producer Anders Henriksson was key in this musical change. Henriksson had a history in producing a wide array of bands, including the Shanes whom saw hits due to his production work. The group members also wanted to leave their earlier sound due to insecurity in their songwriting along with the fact that "Sleep Little Girl" was ravaged in the Swedish press.
Tages' single releases from 1966 marked a return to folk music while also retaining their hard-edged sound established by "The One for You". Their first single release of 1966, "So Many Girls", composed by bassist Göran Lagerberg, was the first in which the band were inspired by Swedish folk music. In August of that year, the band's second studio album, Tages 2, was released. It features a songs with influences from folk along with rhythm and blues as well as "In My Dreams", which heavily features wind instruments. "In My Dreams" was released as a single and was one of the earliest examples where folk music was integrated in a song by a commercially successful pop band in Sweden.
A major reason for Tages' sound during this time was that Tages' contract with the Gothenburg-based label Platina Records had expired on New Year's Eve 1966, which allowed the band to move on to Parlophone. The sound also resulted from Tages' willingness to experiment in the studio, largely made possible by Henriksson. In addition to producing, Henriksson wrote several tracks for Tages, including "You're too Incomprehensible", which appears on the band's third studio album Contrast, a song which Tages' biographer Kjell Wiremark considers one of the first "true psychedelic works" in Sweden. Lagerberg and Henriksson worked as a songwriting duo, where Lagerberg wrote most of the lyrical content and Henriksson composed the music. Wiremark attributes the band's sound to drummer Lasse Svensson, who joined the band during the early recording sessions for Contrast.
According to Lagerberg, the recording and release of Studio, Tages' fourth studio album, were entirely dependent on whether or not accompanying singles would become hits or not. In June 1967, Parlophone released "She's Having a Baby Now" as Tages' third single on that label, with "Sister's Got a Boyfriend" from Contrast on the B-side. It was Tages' biggest commercial failure since their 1966 release "Crazy 'Bout My Baby", as it failed to chart on both Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen. Tages released the follow-up "Treat Her Like a Lady" with "Wanting" from Contrast on the B-side, on 26 September; it charted on both Swedish charts.
Recording and production
Work on Studio was sporadic across 1967, with most of it completed in the autumn. The single track "She's Having a Baby Now" was recorded at Europafilm in Stockholm, which was Tages' and Henriksson's preferred studio, during a nightly session between 17 and 18 April 1967, before Contrast was released. The technician was Björn Almstedt, a veteran engineer and a personal favourite of Henriksson. The result was satisfactory enough that Almstedt was chosen as the record's engineer during all the recording sessions in Stockholm.
Almost immediately following the recording of "She's Having a Baby Now", Tages embarked on a tour of Sweden. Tages did not enter a studio during the entire summer, which was the most hectic part of the tour. The next recording session occurred in August, and produced another song aimed for single release, "Treat Her Like a Lady", a cover of the Lesley Gore song. When the summer tour ended in August, Tages had a chance to incorporate and write new material into their repertoire. The first session aimed specifically at a new album release was held on 1 October at Europafilm, which was booked almost exclusively for Tages for a week, which was done to relieve band members from stress; no performances or tours were conducted during this week and the band members could come and go from the studio as they wished.
Their studio time at Europafilm lapsed on 8 October, with only a press conference on 7 October interrupting the recording sessions. At the press conference, Tages revealed that Parlophone had arranged work permits for the band in the United Kingdom, and the members flew to London on 9 October. They went on a three-week tour during which they attempted to have a breakthrough on the English market. After the tour, the band and Henriksson recorded at the EMI Studios (later Abbey Road Studios) in London. This was possible because Parlophone was a sublabel of EMI Records. Tages recorded two tracks, "Like a Woman" and "It's in a Dream", on 23–25 October. According to Lagerberg, the band members were stressed in EMI's studio, feeling inferior to their British peers.
Tages returned to Sweden by the end of October and entered Europafilm on 11, 12, 14, and 16 November to finish the remainder of Studio's tracks. The recording sessions featured an unprecedented amount of session musicians in Swedish pop music at the time, primarily for songs which required string quartets or brass sections, which the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Lars Samuelson's Orchestra were hired to provide. In addition to producing the sessions, Henriksson, who was a multi-instrumentalist, played most keyboard instruments on the tracks, including piano, organ and the celesta.
Songs and composition
Overview Lagerberg and Henriksson wrote and rehearsed the majority of their contributions to Studio in the late summer of 1967. Henriksson's home in Tureberg, in Sollentuna, was initially used as a base for the duo's songwriting. Lagerberg would "crash on a horrible couch" which would keep him up at night, allowing him to focus on songwriting for Studio. Henriksson had lived in the Swedish province of Dalarna during his first few years and took great inspiration from staying there. He and Lagerberg spent an increasing amount of time in Henriksson's parents' summer cottage, located in the small village of Tällberg by the lake Siljan, all of which came to influence several songs on the album.
According to vocalist Blom, tracks on Studio use instruments present in "ancient Swedish history", and generally used in genres not connected to pop music. Henriksson saw it as a tribute to the spelmän of Dalarna. Svensson ways the usage of Swedish folk music was a "gimmick which was the present trend", and that Tages refrained from using influences from India because of the Beatles doing it.
Folk instruments are present on about half of Studios tracks. The other material on the album, mostly the tracks not composed by Lagerberg and Henriksson, seek influences elsewhere which with the inclusion of brass and string instruments. As with their previous two albums, Extra Extra and Contrast, Studio showcases Tages experimenting with psychedelic sounds, including techniques such as backmasked electric guitar, a Leslie speaker used by lead guitarist Anders Töpel, reverberation and feedback. As was common in Swedish pop music at the time, Tages viewed lyrics as an afterthought to the music, because most Swedish teenagers buying the records had a limited grasp of English.
Side one
Studio opens with the song "Have You Seen Your Brother Lately". The name of the song came as an accident after Lagerberg misread the title of the Rolling Stones' song "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" (1966). Henriksson found Lagerberg's error amusing enough to compose a melody around it.The song, which opens with a fade and folk instruments before Tages' members enter with their instruments, was meant to set the tone for the rest of the album. "It's My Life", which follows, bases its sound on a hard rock riff which complements the somewhat introspective lyrics by Lagerberg. The track has prominent vocal harmonies and a chorus where the backing vocalists sing in a counter-melody to Lagerberg's lead vocals. On the track Henriksson plays an accordion in the style of French bal-musette.
"Like a Woman" was composed by Lagerberg, Henriksson and rhythm guitarist Danne Larsson. The song was allegedly written during the night before the recording session as Tages did not have any other songs ready. Wiremark states that "Like a Woman" lyrically features Lagerberg singing about how a sixteen year old moves and loves like a woman. The midpoint of side one provides a change as the focus switches from songs written and sung by Lagerberg to songs written and sung by Blom. The first of these is "People Without Faces", which is mixed low and has a melody accompanied by a string quartet from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The lyrics were personal for Blom, who was tired of his grandparents. The song makes references to an older generation with nothing better to do than "complaining on a television show".