Interview with Hans Lundin, Kaipa (May 17, 2005)

First off I want to congratulate you on your new album "Mindrevolutions", a good follow up to “Keyholder” and the 3rd overall since you brought Kaipa back to life – who came up with the idea to bring Kaipa back?
Hans - In 2000 I decided to record an album. At that moment I didn’t know any details for the recording process, I just came to this decision. I asked Roine Stolt and Morgan Ågren to play on the album, and Roine introduced me to Jonas Reingold. I played some songs for Per Nordin who made the artwork for the album cover. He thought the music sounded like Kaipa and advised me to use the old name again. I talked to Roine about it; he said o.k. and suddenly Kaipa were brought to life again.

How has the return of Kaipa been received in Sweden ?
Hans - Our old fans and young people who like progressive rock are celebrating our comeback, but people in general don’t know anything about us because this type of music is never played on the Swedish radio and most newspapers ignores it completely. The main market for our music is outside Sweden , a completely inverted situation comparing when we worked in the 70’s.

You are often described as progressive rock, not far from The Flower Kings (obvious) – but how would you describe your music to an alien from another galaxy?
Hans - Well as I don’t know if this alien knows what music is and can understand the feelings hiding inside of it, I suppose it’s just a waste of time to try to describe it. But otherwise I should say it’s like a long journey where you pass through a lot of different landscapes filled with impressions, joy, beauty and pain.

If the music of Kaipa was an emotion, which one would it be?
Hans - It can never be one single emotion. I think you can find seeds of most emotions inside the music.

I really like the “Last Free Indian”, both musically and lyrically, but which song is your favorite on the album?
Hans - Of course I like all the songs on the album, otherwise I shouldn’t have recorded them. The song “Mindrevolutions” is going in many different and unexpected directions while a song like “Shadows Of Time” maybe is more predictable. They are just different parts of the landscapes I mentioned earlier and I like them all.

How has “Mindrevolutions” been received by the media?
Hans - So far the reactions have been very positive.

Will you take your new album out on the road?
Hans - Kaipa is so far strictly a recording project, so there are no plans.
 

I really like the artwork – who has done it and is there a deeper idea behind the concept?
Hans - The artwork for both “Keyholder” and “Mindrevolutions” are made by Jan Ternald. He’s a fantastic, surrealistic and very imaginative artist. I really like his artwork and I think there’s a link between the music and the artwork. There are lots of small details you can discover both in the music and in the artwork. In the 70’s Jan was also a musician playing in the Swedish bands “Älgarnas Trädgård” and “Fläsket Brinner”.

The “R2-D2”-characters on the back cover – do they refer to something?
Hans - That’s up to your own imagination.

You have produced the album yourselves – isn’t it sometimes hard to keep the distance necessary to remain objective to the songs?
Hans - Yes it is, but I think it’s important to remember the initial feelings for the song I had the moment I wrote it. After working with a song for months even the most strange and complex parts are flowing very smooth. As a matter of fact half of the songs are produced together with Roine Stolt and sometimes it’s important to have four ears instead of two.

Any chance you might make an album all-time top 5?
Hans - I don’t think so. This could possibly have happened in the 70’s. Today we have access to a lot of radio and TV channels and internet, but it seems the market rules even more today, mostly it’s a question of money not music.

Any famous last words?
Hans - I want you to remember that we’re all together the key to the hidden tomorrow and we are many, we’re proud, we’re as one.     

Take care and thanks for your support.

Kaipa - Mindrevolutions

Album out on InsideOut Music.

Click on the album cover to see more info on Kaipa.