The Cardigans
Long Gone Before Daylight (Stockholm)
Hamburg art-house pop duo IVY FLINDT told us about their shared love for a Cardigans gem...
Micha Holland: I've loved The Cardigans ever since "Lovefool" came out. I followed everything they released, but Long Gone Before Daylight was something different. Before we recorded our debut album, Cate and I were driving to one of our early shows in my old, barely surviving Opel Astra. I put the record on, and somewhere on that drive it quietly became "our" album. More than fifteen years later, it still is.
As a musician, I keep coming back to the details. The arrangements never feel busy, yet every instrument matters. The guitars, the organs, the strings, all the little production choices… nothing is there to show off. Everything serves the song. That record probably shaped my taste as an arranger more than any other album.
Cate Martin: When we were looking for a producer for our first album, we felt completely lost. Then a friend said something wonderfully simple: "Just take a look at the back cover of your favorite album and see who produced it.“ We did. The name on the back was Per Sunding. We sent him a short email with a few demos, not necessarily expecting to hear back but hoping for the best anyway.
MH: To our surprise, Per replied and invited us to his studio in Malmö, Sweden. Together we made our debut album, “In Every Move". Looking back, that one email changed our lives!
Now, while releasing our new EP "SPHINX", it feels like another chapter of the same story. This time we worked with Danton Supple, another producer whose records have inspired us for years. Working with both Per and Danton taught us something similar: great production isn't about making a record sound bigger - it’s about helping the songs turn into themselves.
So even today, whenever we want to reconnect with why we started making music together, we put on "Long Gone Before Daylight". It still feels like home.
Ivy Flindt's "Welcome to L.A" single is out now. The Sphinx EP is due later in the year.
Photo credit: Peter Honnemann
