SOURCE WEBZINE | We don’t have readers – we have believers.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Can you explain how you came up with the name Fejd?
Esko Salow (D) – We had a bunch of name ideas that we threw around, but nothing seemed to fit until Patrik came up with Fejd, It could be translated to fight, battle, argument and things like that. Something that almost everyone meets in their day to day life in some way. For the ones of you that don’t know how to pronounce Fejd just say it as the English word fade and at least it will sound right.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Can you go into details about the song writing and recording process for the band’s album “Storm”?
Esko Salow (D) – Usually when it comes to song writing Patrik or Niklas has an idea of how the music should sound. We rehearse the song and arrange them together. In Fejd every member of the band has the right to an opinion so if someone wants to change something we try it, if it sounds better than it was before we use it otherwise we throw it away. The recording was made in many steps, we paid for it ourselves and didn’t have that much money so we had to wait in order to get more money too continue the recordings. Mostly we worked at weekends cause it was cheaper, so the first weekend we used Friday night for rigging the stuff. Recorded all the drums on Saturday and bass and keyboards on Sunday. At our next visit in the studio Patrik & Niklas recorded all Bouzouki and Keyed Fiddler parts and some additional instrument and last we recorded all the vocals. I guess it was pretty much as a recording is usually done;)

SOURCEWEBZINE – What has been the biggest obstacle to over come as a band from starting out to where you are now?
Esko Salow (D) – There haven’t been any real obstacles, the biggest problem was to find the time to play together since we all work different hours. We’ve always worked in our own pace, taken the time needed for what we wanted to do. Playing for the fun of it not trying to force anything.

SOURCEWEBZINE – The album will probably ‘leak’ online fairly soon. Do you care if your fans, or potential fans, download your album before it’s released?
Esko Salow (D) – We’ve always had our songs for free download on our homepage in the past, by our own choice. I believe that if you really like the album its nice to own a real CD. I think sales is the foundation on what new albums & tours and everything is based on, no sales, no more albums and no tours, however sad it might sound.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Which is a bigger negative/evil influence on the music industry, record labels or booking agents?
Esko Salow (D) – I think that we have been very lucky this far. Everything is a part of the industry, everyone playing knows that you might end up loosing with either one, but still you need both to be able to fulfil your dreams. It might be that I have a different answer for you in ten years but for now we are happy.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What’s the biggest misconception that people have about folk as a genre?
Esko Salow (D) – Don’t really know, its probably different in every part of the world, the biggest misconception might be that they don’t like it because they never took the time to listen to it.

SOURCEWEBZINE – MySpace is a huge resource for bands in the 21st century. How has MySpace helped you get known and reach new fans?
Esko Salow (D) – Myspace is an easy way to find people with the same interest as yourself, it becomes a meeting point and you are able to listen & talk to bands all over the world. Some of those people has managed to find our Myspace and we are thankful to have an easy way to communicate with fans & friends all over the world.

SOURCEWEBZINE – What are you listening to lately, or are there any bands you think people need to know about?
Esko Salow (D) – I can only speak for my self in this question and lately I’ve been quite obsessed with the latest Opeth album ”Watershed” and a no longer existing Norwegian band called Gåte. I would lie if I didn’t say that I’m listening a lot to everything I play in myself.

SOURCEWEBZINE – Do you think mainstream music listeners will ever appreciate bands like Fejd?
Esko Salow (D) – Yes, I’m sure they can appreciate the music but I doubt that they should go trough the effort and actually buy the album. For me a mainstream listener is a person who listens to one radio station all day and gets feed with 25 songs that spins around with commercial all day long. Not a active listener but some kind of zombie.

SOURCEWEBZINE – As Fejd, what does your day to day consist of?
Esko Salow (D) – As it is now we are like a small company I handle the office and take care of interviews, bookings, making sure when everybody is free to make gigs and handle the contact from Fejd with our label Napalm, and take care of our Myspace. Patrik & Niklas are writing the music and lyrics, Thomas is the mechanic who has to deal with our Van every time it brakes down. Lennart takes care of the photos and the art. And on top of that we still have our day jobs.

SOURCEWEBZINE – So what’s the next step for you guys after releasing the new album?
Esko Salow (D) – We are aiming for festivals this coming summer and after that we have to see what we can come up with, but a tour would be nice. This is all so new with Fejd yet so we really have to take it one step by the time and do the best we can and finally see where it ends.

SOURCEWEBZINE – That’s about it, any final words for our readers?
Esko Salow (D) – I’ve had contact with lots of cool friends from Brazil trough our Myspace feel free to visit us and stop by to say hallo, I promise I’ll answer you as soon as I can.
Thank you for your interest!

Fejd
Fejd Myspace
Napalm Records