Sivert Hoyem and Frode Jacobsen, the two surviving original members of Madrugada after the death of Robert Buraas last summer, have chosen to name their sixth album simply Madrugada. A title the band had decided to keep for what they would consider their definitive album. The fact that Madrugada also is an album where Robert Buraas plays from beginning to end is also very important to Hoyem and Jacobsen.
Madrugada is known for recording a lot more material than what ends up on their released albums. At some sessions, the band has recorded something akin to “shadow records” while they have been working on their critically acclaimed and commercially successful records. The blockbuster 2005 hit “ Lift Me” is a song of such origin.
Madrugada comes through careful editing and the result has become an album without one superfluous note. The material on the record was being developed among the band members for the more than three years since their last studio album, The Deep End (2005), recorded in Los Angeles in the fall of 2004.
Madrugada started work on this album in New York at the end of May 2007 with American producer/engineer John Agnello. He mixed Madrugadas debut album Industrial Silence (1999)and was also involved as producer on the follow-up, The Nightly Disease (2001), and most recently, as mixer of Robert Buraas My Midnight Creeps second album, Histamin (2007). Agnello is, in other words, a most important creative influence on Madrugada`s artistic development.
Early last fall Agnello spent time in Svenska Grammofon Studion (run by Kalle Gustavson bass player with top Swedish band Soundtrack Of Our Lives) in Gothenburg Sweden when later Madrugada and Agnello met up to finish recording and mixing in the two American studios, The Magic Shop (Manhattan) and Water Music (Hoboken, New Jersey)
“We were very happy with the first sessions the four of us did (including long time drummer Erland Dahlen) in New York in May. There was one day that we all consider magic where we recorded five songs in one creative burst,” Jacobsen explains, “Usually we are lucky to nail one song in a day. Most of the time it takes two to three days to get one song down.”
An impressive list of friends add their considerable talent to the new album, all musicians that the band planned to bring in from the start; the American guitarist Kid Congo Powers (The Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Gun Club) who also played on the multi-platinum selling concert album Live at Trafalmadore (2005), the Norwegian guitarists Emil Nicolaisen (Serena Manesh) and Alex Kloster-Jensen (Richochets, My Midnight Creeps) and the American pedal steel guitar player David Mansfield (Bob Dylan, Alpha Band).
The Norwegian singers Ane Brun and Ingrid Olava add their vocal magic to two songs. The keyboard player Michael Megaton Lindquist and sax player Dag Stiberg, from Sivert´s solo band, The Volunteers, and My Midnight Creeps respectively, are also vital to the making of Madrugada.
A first on this record is a song where Robert sings lead,“ Our Time Won’t Live That Long”. Even though Robert was the singer in My Midnight Creeps, he dreaded singing with Madrugada.
“I am really glad we managed to convince him,” says Frode.
Madrugada was formed in 1995 in Stokmarknes, Norway, and released their first EP ten years ago on Virgin Records. Madrugada immediately grabbed the top position in Norwegian rock and held tight throughout the decade. When their debut album was released in the fall of 1999, it went straight into the top spot of Norway’s official sales charts.
The band’s success does not limit itself to Norway as Madrugada has built solid fan bases all over Europe, especially in Benelux, Greece, Germany and Switzerland.
Three years ago Madrugada did “The Double” by releasing two successful albums within one calendar year. Both the studio album, The Deep End and the concert album Live at Trafalmadore reached more than double platinum sales and secured the band three Norwegian Grammies in 2006; “Best Rock Album”, “Best Song” and also the coveted “Spellemannprisen of the Year” (Artist Of The Year)
