An otherwise quite ordinary small college town in southern Sweden, Växjö has a huge distinction in my book. It is my Mecca for pop music.
The reason? All three of my favorite bands were birthed from this same town.
It’s hard to believe, but The Ark, Melody Club, and The Mo (yep, that’s the holy trinity right there) all met each other, started making music and formed in and around Växjö. It’s practically like a fairytale.
Though I’ve been to Sweden and seen two out of these three bands live (the Mo broke up before I could make it over), I’ve never traveled to Växjö. From what I've read, it’s not a town most tourists would put on their map. Plain, boring…etc. etc. Yet it’s from places like these that I think the best groups are formed. Towns like Växjö aren’t big enough to have a “scene,” so there’s no allowances for copycatting. Nobody was doing what these three bands were doing when they broke onto the scene. Though all craft pop music with strong retro influences, their image and sound would be considered pretty risky in any other part of the world than Scandinavia. They would be misconceived as trying to be ironic or just plain cheesy (in a world where cheesy = bad). The fact is, these guys are consummate musicians, as skilled at writing a perfect pop song as they are at picking out a perfect leather jacket.
Maybe I’m biased, growing up in a small town myself, but a part of me thinks that this kind of creativity is fostered best by boredom. I'd love to walk through Växjö with an Ark/MelodyClub/Mo playlist on my mp3 player. A religious experience? Not quite, but darn close.
Learn more about Växjö here
No comments:
Post a Comment