It certainly did. Good to hear you have a more manageable travel situation. (Which brings up the obligatory, "are you coming to the East Coast of the U.S. soon?" question too, ) That's interesting to hear about the differing musical tastes of the band. Who do you enjoy musically/who have been your influences both as an individual as a band? Who do you enjoy listening to that are contemporaries of yours, Swedish or otherwise?
We're always trying to get to the US. If we could choose, we'd move over there
But during the off years when we've played RoSfest the year before, it's hard to make it work financially. But we're thinking of maybe doing one of those donation kinda things where fans on the east coast or wherever can give what they feel like. That might get us atleast halfway to a couple of US gigs
And where we come from musically is really really diverse. If there's one common ground, it's probably The Beatles. Everyone in the band except me has grown up listening to them. And then our tastes diverge. I've been through a punk phase, a metal phase, a prog phase and so on. Simon is really into vocal groups, of course. Pontus is a metal guitarist at heart.
Me, Johan and Petter also listen to a lot of contemporary music. Alot of both new and old soul. There are alot of young, swedish artists with a nice soul vibe that we've listened to lately.
And I enjoy alot of hiphop as well, mostly because I like the groove. So, we're really diverse but I think that's only positive.
Progwise Mike Portnoy was the guy that opened my eyes to odd-time signatures, but as I grew older I grew tired of his playing style. I would say my favourite prog bands are more NEO. Marillion and IQ, that sort of stuff.