David Sandström | de

David Sandström started out as a drummer is various punk/hardcore bands, most notably
Refused. After Refused threw in the towel in 1998, Sandström went to work on his second solo
album (the first one, The Faint Sounds Of Shovelled Earth, had been released only months prior).
He had started investigating the true cause of death of his maternal grandfather Sigvard Nilsson,
who had always been a bit of a persona non grata in the Sandström household. It turned out
Sigvard suffered from tuberculosis and catatonia in the 1940's, which led to long stays in the
hospital where he was subjected to shock treatment, which in turn led to depressions, and
eventually he committed suicide in 1968 at the age of sixty.
This (combined with compulsive readings of the works of author Sara Lidman, who wrote many
novels set in Sandström's home of Västerbotten) was just the inspiration David needed. Most of
the material was written in 1997-98. The recording started in September '99, and he wasn't done
until January 2001. The album had grown into something much, much bigger than just the story
of his grandfather; he had made an album about the history and exploitation of his own home, and
how the working class, the farmers, were the ones who had to pay.

by David Lindqvist
.