The Radio Dept. Wrote More Than 100 Songs for 'Clinging to a Scheme'

For anyone who's been following Sweden's the Radio Dept., you're probably wondering what took them so long to follow up 2006's 'Pet Grief.' The band's new album 'Clinging to a Scheme' recently debuted to glowing reviews after a four-year wait, but if we were to believe their label's news updates or even the band's MySpace page, we should have expected the album two years ago.

Frontman/founder Johan Duncanson admits the band's work ethic is a little uncharacteristic. "I think about the band all the time - from when I wake up until I fall asleep," he tells Spinner. "But at the same time, [Martin Larsson and I are] extremely lazy and then we have these really intense periods where we work and work and work, and record and record and record. In between, if I should be really honest, we smoke a lot of weed and collect inspiration. I'm not saying this to try and sound cool, but that's what we do."

Aware of how long his growing fan base has been waiting to hear more of the Swedish band's pensive, lo-fi dream pop, Duncanson says 'Clinging to a Scheme' is the product of erratic workmanship.

"This time we just kept recording new songs," he says. "We got tired of the songs too quickly I guess, and kept writing and recording new ones. I think in all of this we came up with 120 to 130 unfinished songs. Then we decided that we had to finish this, to put an end to it all. We often finish the 10 to 15 songs we're most satisfied with. Although it's been four years, most of the songs on this album were recorded really fast in a couple of days."

Duncanson says most of the songs that were scrapped were because the songs became too polished. "A lot of the songs we left off the album because we worked on them for too long. We kept polishing them and we didn't want the album to sound like that," he adds. "We wanted it to sound very DIY and indie in a way. That's the kind of music we listen to and like. You can spend days and weeks on one track and destroy it in the end. It sounds weird because it took three years from the start to the release, but that's how we want to make music, to do it fast."

A bio on the band claims they formed back in 1995, which would mean the Radio Dept. are averaging just one album every five years. Mention this slackness, however, and Duncanson immediately makes a correction.

"Maybe I should say that our bio isn't really correct as to how long we've been around," he says. "We started the band for real in 2001. We should probably change that because it kind of gives people the wrong impression. The first single came in 2002 and then there have been three albums in eight years, which isn't that bad. But we should be more productive."

Radio Dept.'s 'I Don't Like it Like This' from the 2006 Film 'Marie Antoinette'