Symphonic

2004 has been a good year for the music of Shepherd Moons. In February, we released "Puzzled", the first album since 1983. And we are now selling on the net only, which is a great relief compared with the old record shops in the old days.
In July 2004, my family went on holiday in our new summerhouse in Finland. The travel through Sweden was a bit chaotic as our son is not exactly fond of long distance driving, but we made it. Safe in the old farmhouse, now used as a summerhouse, I began writing the songs of 2004. One of the first was - of course - a song to the old farmhouse and our family. In the evening, we had bats flying kamikaze style from the roof chamber upstairs where they sleep in the daytime, and the heavy thunderclouds gathered behind the low mountains on the other side of the local lake. In the morning, the mosquitoes and the birds kept me with company while I wrote the sketches for about half of the songs. On our way back to Copenhagen, we stayed a couple of days with my mother-in-law. I wrote most of the lyrics in our sleeping room, including the haunting "Quicksilver Boy". Back in Copenhagen, I finished the last songs and by September the song collection was ready.

Meanwhile, I had decided to do a single with "Quicksilver Boy". After some planning, the single grew and became an EP. And finally, it was to become a new album, almost entirely with new songs, which is extremely seldom for me (actually never happened before). So by the time of writing this introduction, we are preparing the new album to be recorded in the Ark Studio in Husum, our favourite studio.

The album consists of "Quicksilver Boy", "Vadstena", "Bad Soldiers", "Soul Mate", "This is my Home" and "Tiger Baby", all from the new song collection. "The Ballroom" from 1989 and "Pitbull City" from 2001 were added to the track list in November.

The songs are very political this time, from the ecological "Wood Killers" to the anti-Bush song, "Bad Soldiers". Only one love song appears ("Tiger Baby"), and that's not even a real love song.