FREEDOM’s Magnus Berglund about the new album, the meaning of freedom and much more…

Swedish rock band Freedom have completed work on their second album, “Stay Free!” Their self-titled debut album shook up the underground rock’n’roll scene and the first pressing of the vinyl format sold out rather quickly. Markus’ Heavy Music Blog reached out to Freedom’s Magnus Berglund to get more insider information about the new album, but also about the time between records.

It seems that it was more of a surprise for Freedom that the debut album caused such a furor. “It was quite the surprise. We thought maybe we got lucky with the singles and had no idea people would like the whole album so much. We still get messages from people discovering it and telling us how much it means to them. There’s even a couple of tattoos out there! Crazy.” says Magnus.

The debut was followed by a contribution to the ‘Rock Down the Lockdown’ compilation from Hamburg’s Plattenkiste. Freedom covered “Kids in America”, one of Kim Wilde’s greatest hits. It is an outstanding interpretation and it’s an unusual choice that the frontman explains like this: “Springsteen rocks pretty hard. As it is so there’s not much for us to add there really… But “Kids in America” felt like it kind of deserved a rock version, you know? It already has all the elements so we really didn’t do much except swap the synth for Mangels hard picked bass and add some distorted guitar over it. I’m surprised there’s not a hundred rock versions out there already!”

The second album will be out in a few days. Stay Free!” is the title, and it sticks to the overarching message of ‘freedom’. Freedom obviously means a lot to the band. “It has a lot of imagery connected to it! Some people think of wild horses and others will think of politics. And I prefer you having your version of it rather than me telling you mine. Maybe that’s the point? Like the title ”Stay Free!”. It could be something deeply profound or something you read on a bathroom wall at McDonalds. And if it doesn’t mean anything it would still look great on a t-shirt haha!“

Photo: Emil Klinta

This is also reflected in a song called “Freedom Song”, which is placed in the middle of the track listing and is a quite meaningful track for the band. “I wanted it to be the albums closing track but Matte changed my mind. He thought it would go a bit unnoticed back there. Like hanging your nicest paintings in the cellar, you know? The song was actually around for the first album but I couldn’t come up with the lyrics and it didn’t feel right before Matte and Ola joined. Those guys really brought it to life and gave it a swing.“

As mentioned above, the band has two new permanent members in Matte Gustafsson and Ola Göransson. Freedom has become a four-piece powerhouse, which might open up some new possibilities. “On the first album I felt more like a singing guitar player but with Matte in the band I can focus more on being the lead singer. We have very good chemistry and our styles complement each other well I think. It really comes out in ”Eye of the Storm” where I do the middle solo and he does the other two while I do my best Paul Stanley-imitation, haha! He also sings really good backing vocals on that song. Then there’s Ola whom I feel very connected to musically. We have a lot of favorite bands in common so it’s easy to communicate what we hear in a song. He sent me some recordings of ”This is Gonna Hurt” which didn’t feel quite right. I said ”more Bonham!” and he just nailed it after that. But most of the time I don’t have to say anything, he just gets it. “

So, how was the new album create? Also here Magnus Berglund provides some insights. “I don’t think I approached the writing any different but we worked a lot on the arrangements together this time. I would bring in songs and the guys would point out things that could be better and we’d try different ideas. Usually something was too long and needed to be more to-the-point. Sometimes the opposite. As for the lyrics I spend a lot of time on writing them. Probably way more than I do on the music. So yeah they’re important to me.” And he also describes how he works on lyrics for songs. “I’ve learned that trying to write about a specific thing rarely works for me. Instead I’ll just write whatever until I find something to say. Sometimes it’s personal, like ”I’m Going To Leave You” or ”Generation” but it can also just be a great hooky lyric like ”Johnny, You’re Electric!”. It took me four years to figure out what I wanted to say with ”Freedom Song” but once I knew what it was the words all fell into place in no time.”

“Stay Free!” has that ease that the band established on the debut. It’s this lighthearted vibe that runs through every song, and the success of the debut didn’t seem to create any extra pressure for the sophomore release. “Stay Free!” is more of a natural development which Magnus describes like “We wanted this album to sound like the big brother of the first album. Similar faces just an inch taller and with newer clothes.“

The debut album was self-released, while the new album will be released via Wild Kingdom Records, and Magnus explains why the band made this decision. “The first album definitely has some cool underground swag to it but I can’t help but think it went under the radar a bit. We want to grow as a band so to us this is the logical next step. Hopefully we can reach a lot more people this time.

The important question that remains is whether we will be able to see and enjoy Freedom live on stage, and the band would love to do this. “Oh man we want to so bad. We’re looking for booking agencies at the moment and hopefully we can start touring Germany asap.“

I guess there must be some booking agencies and venues that give Freedom a fair chance to perform their songs live on stage. But for now, the best thing to do is to listen to the stellar debut and the upcoming new album “Stay Free!”, which will be released on May 17th, 2024. Stay tuned for more and thanks to Magnus Berglund for sharing so much with us.