DEMO(s) OF THE MONTH
March 2008: "20 Hz Atomheart" demo + "20 Hz Crystal" demo"


This month I want to show the origin of our song 20 Hz from Skyshaper by giving you 2 demos who both played a fundamental part. Also online now is the Photo diary from last weeks show in Helsinki - thanks Finland for agreat time.

I was left alone in Stockholm and we were running out of time. Together with Jacob Hellner I was finishing the "Northern Light" recording session and we needed a B-side for our Bullet single. Joakim was already in Barcelona so I played the rough "20 Hz/Atomheart demo" for him over the phone, reaching across Europe, he got quite enthusiastic and wrote the great "Atomheart" lyrics. But by the the time I got the lyrics I just didnt get it to work and made a new song that became the "Atomheart" song which ended up as the exclusive Bullet single track. We loved the 20 Hz chorus but for the time being it was a sleeping beauty.

Skip 2 years. Me and Joakim are in our studio in Helsingborg on one of our pre-"Skyshaper" sessions (from which you have already heard one track - the December Night session demo) with the only stated goal was just to connect our hardware and see what happened. Not necessarily hits, just sounds without prejudices. So we ended up spending some time on this odd 2nd song -the"20 Hz Crystal demo" which saw the first light of the characteristic 20 Hz verse.

Skip one year to the release of Skyshaper. Somehow, after another break and several versions later, these two embryos has merged and become part of the the song that became 20Hz. Vital late additions was the bassline from the Pro-One synthesizer, Joakims signature FL loops and the Waldorf strings. We spent a lot of time tweaking and figuring out if the strange rhythm of the drum loops in 20 Hz work or not. Most people said no but in the end I felt that no other alternative could match Joakims original loops in their restless tension. Odd enough, the version on the album is also a demoversion. I continued to work on the track on and off for another month but by the time of the final decisions I felt that something had got lost on the way and that this earlier demo just felt better.

Thanks for listening,

Eskil, Helsingborg 29th of February, 2008

P.S. Yes, greetings from our studio from Joakim, Daniel and me. Covenant 2008 TBA have begun. D.S.