When Beardfish called it a day in 2016, no one – least of all the band themselves – expected a reunion. Within less than a decade, though, they’re back with their long-awaited ninth album, Songs For Beating Hearts.
The seeds for the great Beardfish reunion were sown in 2020. One of Sweden’s best-loved prog bands, they stumbled to an unsatisfying halt in 2016, less than a year after the release of acclaimed eighth album +4626-Comfortzone. Internal arguments had put paid to the chemistry that had propelled the quartet for 15 years, and the only conceivable option was to call it a day.
But music has a habit of hijacking the emotions. Four years after going their separate ways, temperatures had cooled and friendships had been rekindled. It wasn’t long before the urge to make music again overwhelmed them. In 2021, Beardfish were back in a rehearsal space, checking if the old magic was still there.
“We’d been hanging out a little bit. Not all four of us in the same room, but we’d been meeting up, listening to records or having a beer,” says frontman Rikard Sjöblom. “But this was the first time all of us were in a room, wanting to make music together. That was really cool. We started by playing an old song – Without Saying Anything from Mammoth – and it was basically a case of all the hairs standing up on your arm, that kind of feeling. I felt straight away that we were back; it felt like no time had passed.”
Beardfish formed in Gävle, Sweden, in 2001. Over the next 15 years they released a series of dazzling, inventive and wildly melodic prog records. The line-up of Sjöblom on vocals and keys, guitarist David Zackrisson, bassist Robert Hansen and drummer Magnus Östgren was solid and creatively virile through that time, which made their abrupt cessation seem more shocking than the average band break-up.
“It felt really weird, actually,” Sjöblom says with a nod. “I had a lot of other stuff going on, but it was almost like a part of me was missing. When you’re together for that long it’s almost like a relationship, or a family. We kind of grew up together and we know each other really well. There’s a chemistry, even when talking together, that’s very different with those guys than it is with anyone else.
“We understand each other very well, all the great things about each other, and all the faults! But yeah, it became impossible to continue with all four of us in the band, and we didn’t want to sack anyone. So we just said, ‘OK, if it’s not the four of us, it’s not going to work.’”
In the aftermath, the ex-members each embarked on their own fresh musical journeys. Not unreasonably, Sjöblom’s post-split efforts were the most high profile, as he revived Gungfly to become the new vehicle for his songwriting. Three excellent albums followed, with an invitation to become a full-time member of Brit prog heroes Big Big Train thrown in as a cheeky bonus.
A lot of new stuff started coming to me, and it felt very Beardfishy… there’s a special sound to us just hitting the instruments
“The main outlet for my writing became Gungfly and I wrote some new stuff for Big Big Train, too,” he says. “The other guys were in a couple of different projects. Magnus played drums with a couple of local bands. David played with a kind of indie/hardcore outfit for a while. Robert played in all kinds of different blues bands, and he and I did a tribute thing to this Dutch guy called Cornelis Vreeswijk. He was like a Swedish troubadour and he was pretty funky in the 70s! We did a tribute to him that we played for a while. So there was a lot of different stuff.”
Scuttling back to happier times, Beardfish have officially and unequivocally returned. Their brand-new album, Songs For Beating Hearts, is a wholehearted and vital comeback, with some of the most gorgeous and ingenious songs Sjöblom has ever penned. Composed and arranged in secret, as the world remained unaware that the reunion was happening, the new material amounts to a celebration of friendship and the unifying power of music.
“We wanted to see how it went first; we kept this little precious bird safe in our grasp,” Sjöblom says. “We kept writing stuff, working on songs and having a nice time. After a certain point it became quite evident that we wanted to record a new album, and we decided to break the news once we had the album finished.”
Did he have any preconceived ideas of what a new Beardfish album would sound like? “No, I didn’t. I had a couple of little things that I liked, but nothing was set in stone, like, ‘These are the new songs!’ But once we played together a couple of times, a lot of new stuff started coming to me, and it felt very Beardfishy, all of it! It always does when we play together. There’s a special sound to us just hitting the instruments, you know?”
A straightforward case of unfinished business, Beardfish’s return seems to have gone swimmingly. Songs For Beating Hearts is full of all the eclectic trademarks and songwriting brilliance that made their previous records so enjoyable. But it’s also a showcase for a more relaxed, thoughtful and liberated version of the band.
Songs like the effervescent and folk-fuelled In The Autumn – featuring a duet between Sjöblom and his partner, singer Amanda Örtenhag – and hazily melancholic opener Ecotone are as gorgeous as anything he’s written, while towering 20-minute epic Out In The Open is a multipart, prog-to-the-bone joy.
We’ve grown up together, and part of you disappears when a band ends, so it was really nice starting up again
“Out In The Open was one of those tracks that just kept evolving,” he explains. “We never really set out to record a really long song, but if the song needs it, it gets to that point eventually. I started out with just that opening piano figure in the beginning. I was teaching piano at that point. Some of the students turned up, and some of the students didn’t, so when I had a 40-minute break, I’d play that thing over and over. I recorded it, sent it to the guys and they thought it was really cool, and it kept evolving.
“It’s almost an ode to Magnus, David and Robert. It’s not outspoken in the lyrics, but we’ve grown up together, and part of you disappears when a band ends, so it was really nice starting up again. Another part of it I wrote for my children. I have three now. It’s about them being your hopes and dreams, basically. It’s a song of love, in a way.”
Another piece with love as its theme, not-quite-title-track Beating Hearts is one of the most inventive songs to bear the Beardfish name. Significantly, this 11-minute colossus marks the first time the Swedes have used real strings in the studio – something that once seemed financially implausible.
“We used the Stockholm Strings. They’re great players,” says Sjöblom. “I did some stuff for +4626-Comfortzone where I programmed strings, or played them on a keyboard, like at the beginning of The One Inside, but it wasn’t real players. We always wanted it but we could never afford it! We were aiming for a 60s psychedelic thing, like The Beatles or The Pretty Things’ SF Sorrow. I think it turned out pretty cool.”
While Songs For Beating Hearts is an album that exudes warmth and gentle positivity, and most of its music playfully mirrors that hopeful atmosphere, its final track takes a darker turn. Torrential Downpour is a gorgeously crestfallen finale, and an almost accidental tribute to Sjöblom’s late father.
“I didn’t know at the time of writing it, but a year later, when I recorded it, I realised it’s about losing my dad. It’s about what we as parents do, and what your parents did for you, and the whole thing we go through in life. The whole album explores the theme of love – not only boy meets girl or boy meets boy – but on a fundamental level of love between people.
Lyrics can be therapeutic and cathartic, and sometimes you feel like a weight is lifted from you
“It’s about my dad and losing him, and the hopelessness you can feel; but it’s also about life continuing, and the heritage we leave to each other. Lyrics can be weird that way. They can be therapeutic and cathartic, and sometimes you feel like a weight is lifted from you.”
Downbeat denouements notwithstanding, Songs From Beating Hearts is buoyed by the joy that Sjöblom and his lifelong friends experienced while making it. Perhaps even more important is how much fun the foursome are having when playing live. Their first official reunion show was at Gasklockorna in Gävle on May 4, 2024, and Sjöblom recalls how thrilling it was to be onstage with his friends again.
“Yeah, it feels really good. I know some people missed the band – none more than us, I guess! We know each other so well as musicians after all this time, and playing together feels natural; it’s what we should be doing.”
In the nine years that have melted away since Beardfish last released an album, the world has become a slightly darker and more demented place. But hidden within the grooves of Songs For Beating Hearts is the beautifully upbeat message that music, friendship and good times are still the most reliable antidotes to life’s gnarly, challenging moments.
It’s a message, and a record, that Sjöblom hopes will be received with enthusiasm by fans and critics – if only to ensure that Beardfish can keep creating in the manner to which they have become accustomed. But if it turns out that nobody cares and the reunion is a damp squib, the plan remains the same: make music, be happy, love conquers all.
“We love it if people like it, but that’s not the reason we do it,” Sjöblom says. “We want to be able to travel and tour and things like that; we’re really enjoying playing live right now, but we’re equally happy in the rehearsal space. If success can help us to be able to keep making music, then that’s fantastic. But I really don’t care if people like us or not. I make music because I need to. We all do.”
