Museum of Bellas Artes
Sometimes songs appear out of nowhere in this magical age of the internet. Quite often these songs have no back story and often even when followed up up on, these songs, usually by very young and newly formed bands, still remain a bit of a mystery, since there really isn’t all that much to say. This is the double edged sword of the hype machine and we still have a long way to go before we learn how to tame such a beast. We digress…When we interviewed Air France a week or so ago, our attention was drawn to a track called “Who Do You Love” by a band we hadn’t heard of called “Museum of Bellas Artes” that has since become what is undoubtedly our jam of the month. Following up on this beautiful mystery track, we were lead to their Myspace and then to Pitchfork Media (who picked up on them via our Air France interview!!) and immediately wanted to know more about this trio from Stockholm Sweden. They generously granted us an interview and helped to shed a little bit of light on their still mysterious existence. Though their staying power as a band is yet to be determined, we here at minorprogression are very hopeful that this attention the web has given them (ours included) doesn’t make things sour for them and helps to push their creativity along in helpful and exciting ways.
Interview Key:
Museum of Bellas Artes = Leo, Alice and Joanna
The first letter of each of their names is featured at the begining of each response.
MP: So this past week has been kind of insane for us at minorprogression. This month we are celebrating our one year anniversary and we were lucky enough to get an interview with one of our favorite bands, Air France. In the interview Air France told us about your band and we checked it out and agreed that the one single that graces your myspace page is gorgeous. Do you have a relationship with Air France or was that totally unexpected?
A: We know they stole the mp3 from somewhere even before it was released, to play it at some club. So sweet!
L: We have some sort of connection I guess. But it was unexpected. They have no reason to be nice to us, really.
MP: After the interview was up a few days I all of a sudden realized Pitchfork was linking to you via us and I nearly lost my shit since Pitchfork Media is so huge. It was hard to believe that we were being linked in with them. How did you find out Pitchfork had posted your track?
L: They asked for our permission to post our song via myspace.
MP: What did it feel like for you all to know Pitchfork took a liking to your music?
A: Obviously it was big! We’re happy!
L: It felt cool, I was excited.
MP: Have you noticed an influx of fans hitting up your myspace page?
L: Yeah, a lot more hits than usual it seems.
MP: How long have you been together as a band?
J: Last fall, one year ago we all turned out to be bored in Stockholm. Friends had gone and we all felt like this was a time to “do something”. All of us had been doing music, and now we thought it was time to get together and create something from our three quite different ideals, ideas and visions of music. And we wanted to have some fun to kill the Stockholm-fall-anxiety.
A: Are we really a band? I don’t know.
MP: Who exactly is in your band? What are you made up of?
L: We’re three people, two girls and one guy.
A: Our friends moved and traveled to crazy countries last fall. And we became the sad leftovers. So we decided to make a few songs to while away the time and to prove we were not bored as hell with the Swedish winter cold and our crazy, temporary, full time jobs.
J: We have known each other for a couple of years now…Common friends, crazy Tokyo travels and Stockholm.
L: I remember us walking from my place. I had an hangover and the idea came up. We walked in a park in Kungsholmen, called Kronis, and that’s when everything started. 
MP: Why do you only have one track up on your myspace page?
L: It’s the only song we released so far. It was recorded late in the summer of 2008. We have other songs but we’ve only played them live so far.
A: Because one of us thinks everything we’ve done sound like crap…
MP: Do you have more tracks coming soon?
All: Yes!
MP: What musicians and bands have inspired you?
J: The three of us actually have quite different influences and listen to different types of music…Which sometimes makes it hard to create music together, but I believe it’s a power. Because of this you discover new stuff, and made us do “Who Do You Love”
L: Our influences all together is a very wild combination and that’s really what makes it all interesting. For the moment I’m quite into The Madchester thing and a cd called ‘African Tribal Drums’. And there’s this guy called Paul Brian and a guy called Gerald that I like to. Per Eggers, one of the most talented actors Sweden has to offer, released a cd in the 80′s. It’s wicked.
A: A few years ago I was really into the 60s girl group thing, including mostly French, American and English girl groups. I have a lot inspiration from there, even if the sound is very far from what we aim to do. But I guess that’s the reason for recording ‘Who Do You Love’.
MP: Do you play live shows? Have you toured at all?
J: Yes, we play but haven’t been on a tour, its too early. But if things turn out as we wish…
A: “Touring” would definitely be an exaggeration…but we played at some hipster club this summer. It wasn’t that much of a success though, because some guy fucked up the sound and thought going to the hairdresser was more important than our sound check.
MP: It’s really exciting to see the power of the internet! Do you have any words of wisdom for bands that have been out for awhile, have tons of tracks up and have never been on Pitchfork? A part of me thinks they are cringing watching your one track go viral. HaHa!
L: Send them to Air France maybe?
MP: Congrats on the success! We hope to hear lots more from you in the time that’s to come!
All: Thanks! Best wishes to you too!
If you still haven’t gotten a hold of this lovely new song, we here at minorprogression have, as usual, left you with an mp3 format for your downloading pleasures:
Museum of Bellas Artes – Who Do You Love
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thanks for the interview — great song. I just wrote about it as well: http://blog.jeffreygeoffrey.com/
Nice interview! I’m loving the song right now. I wish them great success!