Why

History
When I played in Änglagård and Pineforest I often felt that the music and recordings were two very separate things. The recording studio was a place where one person ( the engineer ) controlled your sonic environment with the touch of a hand. I often felt insecure and almost terrified because of the fact that I felt that I had no control whatsoever over the situation. Often Engineers would make me feel stupid which lead to the fact that I wouldn´t dare to ask about anything. It isn´t the most creative thing either to be critical without having the knowledge to know what to do about it.

Sound engineers to me seemed to know " the secret ". By moving a fader, toggling a switch or twisting a knob they could destroy or create your album. The second best to a sound engineer were my bandmates Mats ( Pineforest Crunch ) and Jonas ( Änglagård ) who had small cassette porta studios at home and had some insight to the magical and mysterious world of sound. I had never really shown any interest to the technical side of recording. I was usually to busy about worrying about what drumheads to use or what hihat to play.

But that changed and I am not quite sure when it happened but I think it was during the recording of Watergarden. We had recorded pre production demos for the album ourselves and were very excited and pleased with the outcome. We realized that the step from idea to pressing the red button didn´t have to be such a big one. We experimented with keyboards and effects and tried to make our own way over the console. The recordcompany seemed pleased as well and coupled us with Radioheads Engineer/producer Jim Warren.

During two weeks in England and two weeks at the EMI-studios in Stockholm we created Watergarden. A big sonic mess of Mellotrons , massive amounts of guitars and orchestral percussion and strings. We were very proud. This lit a bright spark with me. The session were experimentally wide open and we tried every idea that rose to the surface. Hey ! Now atleast I know why I don´t have to try recording ebows backwards again…

The album obviously flopped but the idea of a more open way of recording stuck with me and in 1999 me and Åsa decided to take the plunge and bought a Akai DPS-12. A digital recording studio. 12 physical channels and 250 virtual. Within five minutes of having it we had recorded a conceptual piece that me and Åsa like to call " buzzing quarter inch cable no.1 ". Actually a bigger hit amongst the critics than Watergarden.

For three years I recorded in my appartment doing vocals in the kitchen keeping the keyboards in the second bedroom but in 2002 I finally got my first own location to record in. It was located just outside of Stocholm in an abandoned shipyard. 30 squaremeters of fun. So I moved all of the equipment I had at home to the shipyard and slowly but steadily started building the Roth Händle Studio.

In the spring of 2003 I moved to a new location in the same area which makes some of the photos a bit confusing I guess as they are from two different locations.