We caught up with Streamline’s guitarist Olle Lindahl recently and talked about the band’s new vocalist and their future plans. Read below for more...
Hey guys what’s the latest news from the band’s camp?
O: Hello! Pleasure to talk to Grande Rock! It’s probably best to do this as if the one reading doesn’t know at all what's been happening, so here we go. A couple of months back when we were still called Diamond Dawn, we went separate ways with Alex who was our singer at the time. We then spent some time figuring out how we wanted to be and look as a band. The result of that was partly that we changed the name of the band to Streamline in early 2014! That’s not all that has changed about the band but more things will most likely become clearer when we release our new album. In April it was official that we had found a singer for Streamline in Gabriel Lindmark. Now that Streamline is up and running we’re writing lots of material for our upcoming album as well as looking into interesting opportunities regarding the release! Recordings will start this year and we’re going to work hard to make an awesome album and also keep everyone updated about the progress!
Do tell us a bit about the new singer’s background and why your original singer left.
O: Well, first of all, that our previous singer left the band is kind of a misperception. It became a problem in the band to work together viewing us as 2 entities, and we needed to resolve the situation. The result of that is that 5 out out of 6 original members of DD are now Streamline. We don’t think it is good for anyone to talk too much about details, of course we get that the fans are wondering though. Sometimes a group of people connect positively and work great together, and sometimes that is not the case. In our case this did not become obvious until after a while, and that’s when we took measures. However, now we’re a happy bunch of guys and we’re very glad to have Gabriel in Streamline! Gabriel comes from the northern parts of Sweden but lives in Stockholm. If someone’s interested in a preview of his voice they can check out the Stockholm-based project Wildness where he’s done some vocals. We came across him on a website for finding band members where he had put up an ad. We instantly heard that he had the kind of voice that we were after! Out of a handful of alternatives that we had he was the most interesting guy, so we had him come down to Gothenburg for rehearsing and socializing. It all worked out splendid and here we are today! We can’t wait to hit the studio and record some material with Gabriel’s voice soon, so that you all can hear what we’ve heard in the rehearsal room!
Which were the criteria to choose Gabriel as your new singer?
O: Regarding the voice we were looking for a powerful and steady voice, preferably with the potential of bluesy tone. We definitely feel that we found just that in Gabriel. When hearing a singer you can’t always put a finger on exactly what you like or dislike with the voice. We probably used our gut-feeling as compass when we listened to singers, and Gabriel we liked. That is how simple it is. After that of course there’s the personality to look to. As we said he came down to Gothenburg, we hung out and rehearsed and well, we just clicked as they say! Gabriel is a down to earth kind of person who goes really well with this band’s philosophy of reasoning about stuff together rather than being dramatic about it. That and his great voice along with his fine way of handling an audience which we got to experience before he joined the band, made us see that he was the right guy for the spot!
Did that singer change lead you to change the name as well and start things all over?
O: No it did not, Gabriel came into the band after we became Streamline. Of course one of the small reasons for changing the name was for the benefit of the new constellation that was going to be. No one necessarily has to compare now, all this group has ever been is Streamline and that’s it.
Does the vocalist change mean any music style changes as well?
O: The best answer here is both yes and no. When becoming Streamline we knew that there were some steps in new directions we wanted to take musically. We still have the melodic core intact but we dare to try more stuff now than a year or two back. When Gabriel came along it was clear that he went very well together with the music we had going on, so that made us see a bit more which path to follow. Gabriel embraced the “new” sound and it embraced him, kind of a great symbiosis.
Why did you name the band Streamline? Who came up with that name?
O: We’d been thinking about a new band name for a while and we already had a couple of names that we liked. Streamline just came out of the blue, I (Olle) was the one who came up with it. We figured it made a lot of sense, since we definitely feel like we’ve streamlined the band! There were a couple of reasons why we wanted to change the band name. One is that since we quite recently released a debut album we didn’t feel like being compared to ourselves in a boring way forever. We want to be Streamline and with this band we’ve made some changes to the better the way we see it. Streamline is a new product that will be a little bit different from DD, therefore it is better to embrace the new than to sit and wonder why we don’t do things exactly the same way as before. We’re a bit older and more experienced now than we were when we started DD, so now with Streamline we feel like we’ve become what we we’re meant to be.
How were things during your Diamond Dawn days? How was the cooperation with Frontiers and the support towards the band in general?
O: We were of course very happy that such a prominent label wanted to release our debut album. It’s an indication that someone really believes in you and that probably made us work even harder. We thank them for that! Given the circumstance; us being a band in Sweden and Frontiers being situated in Italy, it quite surprisingly worked out very good when working with the release of the album. However you choose to look at it when it comes to promoting a band, the fact is that nothing will come if you don’t do anything yourself. The harder you work with your product and your contacts the more will come to you. The point here is that you have to be your biggest support yourself, especially in the early stage of your career. First of all you need to believe in what you do, be able to tell someone that @this is what I do and I think it’s f***ing great@. Frontiers did great on their part, but people shouldn’t mistake a label for a devoted manager. We’re very happy with what we got to experience during our time with DD because it gave us perspective on how we should work to make the most of this band!
Are you still in Frontiers Records or looking out for a new label?
O: What label will release the upcoming Streamline album is not decided yet. We will soon be moving into some interesting discussions about that but nothing is certain yet. It’s not that things with DD ended badly with Frontiers, but we have some options that we would like to investigate.
When will the fans have the chance to hear some new music from Streamline? Are you recording anything these days?
O: We are always recording demos of new songs and working with them in the rehearsal room! So activity is quite intense actually even though it might not always look that way. We will start recording on a little project in something like 2 months, some of what comes out of that will most likely show up on our upcoming release. So yeah, we’re aiming to get the music out to the people as soon as possible! We’re doing a few gigs in Sweden this year where we will start testing some new songs. We already started playing two awesome songs called “Pay the Price” and “Black Cat Walking”! Hopefully people will be able to find some videos from those gigs if interested.
Do you also plan to record a (debut) full-length album in a little while? Any hints?
O: Well, you’ll get more than a hint, here’s a yes for you! We have so many great songs that we’re working on and we’re confident that Streamline’s debut will be something special! This autumn we will do a session in a studio in our hometown Gothenburg and lay down some tracks that will be the foundation of our new album. As soon as we have the material ready and all the bureaucracy is handled we will release new material. We absolutely don’t want it to take longer than spring 2015, but we won’t promise anything at the moment. What we can say is that if you keep yourself updated about us in social media, you never know what might pop up. We’re planning lots of fun stuff!
You do play several gigs around the country (Sweden) when you have the chance right? When will your next appearances be?
O: That is entirely correct! We play gigs whenever we get the chance; it’s what it all comes down to. As we stated with DD, we don’t want to be a studio project. This is a working band with high ambitions, we enjoy being on the road! Until the album is released we will only do gigs in Sweden and after that we’re planning a European tour! We’re did gigs in the area of our hometown Gothenburg on the 25th and 26th of July! It went great and we had a good time meeting some really nice people who seemed to enjoy being streamlined! The next step is that we will enter the studio to start tracking the foundation of our upcoming album!
Since Streamline is the “official band” now – I guess that you’re gonna delete the FB Diamond Dawn page anytime soon right? So, every fan is advised to “Like” the new page to learn your news and stuff huh?
O: That is a good question, especially for those of our fans who might have happened to miss the big news release regarding the name-change. We actually do have a new FB site at: www.facebook.com/officialstreamline! That is the page we’re using mostly now and that is the page we’re going to use only in the future. However we’re still in kind of a transitional period, so some news we post on both the Streamline site and the Diamond Dawn site. We will continue to tell the fans to like the new page because eventually we will stop using the DD-page entirely. So, if you’re reading this and you interested in what’s happening with Streamline; go like our brand new fantastic page here! We will be very thorough when reporting from the recording of Streamlines debut, so stay tuned for that and other cool news!
What shall we wait from Streamline in the future?
O: First of all you shall wait many many exciting updates from the recording sessions of our new material! There will probably only be gigs in Sweden until the album is released or around that time. But, as soon as we're there we’re coming to streamline Europe for sure so look out! Now that we’re rolling we’re gonna keep on doing it, so count on Streamline to keep releasing rocking albums and touring! The album that we will deliver is going to be great; we have a fantastic feeling about the material and the way it sounds! Stay excited about that and follow us at: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!
Thx for talking to Grande Rock guys … we will talk further closer to the release date of your new (debut) album… rock on! Take care!
O: Thanks to you too, we’re looking forward to that! Also thanks to you people who are reading this and believe in us! You guys rock, see you soon!
O: Hello! Pleasure to talk to Grande Rock! It’s probably best to do this as if the one reading doesn’t know at all what's been happening, so here we go. A couple of months back when we were still called Diamond Dawn, we went separate ways with Alex who was our singer at the time. We then spent some time figuring out how we wanted to be and look as a band. The result of that was partly that we changed the name of the band to Streamline in early 2014! That’s not all that has changed about the band but more things will most likely become clearer when we release our new album. In April it was official that we had found a singer for Streamline in Gabriel Lindmark. Now that Streamline is up and running we’re writing lots of material for our upcoming album as well as looking into interesting opportunities regarding the release! Recordings will start this year and we’re going to work hard to make an awesome album and also keep everyone updated about the progress!
Do tell us a bit about the new singer’s background and why your original singer left.
O: Well, first of all, that our previous singer left the band is kind of a misperception. It became a problem in the band to work together viewing us as 2 entities, and we needed to resolve the situation. The result of that is that 5 out out of 6 original members of DD are now Streamline. We don’t think it is good for anyone to talk too much about details, of course we get that the fans are wondering though. Sometimes a group of people connect positively and work great together, and sometimes that is not the case. In our case this did not become obvious until after a while, and that’s when we took measures. However, now we’re a happy bunch of guys and we’re very glad to have Gabriel in Streamline! Gabriel comes from the northern parts of Sweden but lives in Stockholm. If someone’s interested in a preview of his voice they can check out the Stockholm-based project Wildness where he’s done some vocals. We came across him on a website for finding band members where he had put up an ad. We instantly heard that he had the kind of voice that we were after! Out of a handful of alternatives that we had he was the most interesting guy, so we had him come down to Gothenburg for rehearsing and socializing. It all worked out splendid and here we are today! We can’t wait to hit the studio and record some material with Gabriel’s voice soon, so that you all can hear what we’ve heard in the rehearsal room!
Which were the criteria to choose Gabriel as your new singer?
O: Regarding the voice we were looking for a powerful and steady voice, preferably with the potential of bluesy tone. We definitely feel that we found just that in Gabriel. When hearing a singer you can’t always put a finger on exactly what you like or dislike with the voice. We probably used our gut-feeling as compass when we listened to singers, and Gabriel we liked. That is how simple it is. After that of course there’s the personality to look to. As we said he came down to Gothenburg, we hung out and rehearsed and well, we just clicked as they say! Gabriel is a down to earth kind of person who goes really well with this band’s philosophy of reasoning about stuff together rather than being dramatic about it. That and his great voice along with his fine way of handling an audience which we got to experience before he joined the band, made us see that he was the right guy for the spot!
Did that singer change lead you to change the name as well and start things all over?
O: No it did not, Gabriel came into the band after we became Streamline. Of course one of the small reasons for changing the name was for the benefit of the new constellation that was going to be. No one necessarily has to compare now, all this group has ever been is Streamline and that’s it.
Does the vocalist change mean any music style changes as well?
O: The best answer here is both yes and no. When becoming Streamline we knew that there were some steps in new directions we wanted to take musically. We still have the melodic core intact but we dare to try more stuff now than a year or two back. When Gabriel came along it was clear that he went very well together with the music we had going on, so that made us see a bit more which path to follow. Gabriel embraced the “new” sound and it embraced him, kind of a great symbiosis.
Why did you name the band Streamline? Who came up with that name?
O: We’d been thinking about a new band name for a while and we already had a couple of names that we liked. Streamline just came out of the blue, I (Olle) was the one who came up with it. We figured it made a lot of sense, since we definitely feel like we’ve streamlined the band! There were a couple of reasons why we wanted to change the band name. One is that since we quite recently released a debut album we didn’t feel like being compared to ourselves in a boring way forever. We want to be Streamline and with this band we’ve made some changes to the better the way we see it. Streamline is a new product that will be a little bit different from DD, therefore it is better to embrace the new than to sit and wonder why we don’t do things exactly the same way as before. We’re a bit older and more experienced now than we were when we started DD, so now with Streamline we feel like we’ve become what we we’re meant to be.
How were things during your Diamond Dawn days? How was the cooperation with Frontiers and the support towards the band in general?
O: We were of course very happy that such a prominent label wanted to release our debut album. It’s an indication that someone really believes in you and that probably made us work even harder. We thank them for that! Given the circumstance; us being a band in Sweden and Frontiers being situated in Italy, it quite surprisingly worked out very good when working with the release of the album. However you choose to look at it when it comes to promoting a band, the fact is that nothing will come if you don’t do anything yourself. The harder you work with your product and your contacts the more will come to you. The point here is that you have to be your biggest support yourself, especially in the early stage of your career. First of all you need to believe in what you do, be able to tell someone that @this is what I do and I think it’s f***ing great@. Frontiers did great on their part, but people shouldn’t mistake a label for a devoted manager. We’re very happy with what we got to experience during our time with DD because it gave us perspective on how we should work to make the most of this band!
Are you still in Frontiers Records or looking out for a new label?
O: What label will release the upcoming Streamline album is not decided yet. We will soon be moving into some interesting discussions about that but nothing is certain yet. It’s not that things with DD ended badly with Frontiers, but we have some options that we would like to investigate.
When will the fans have the chance to hear some new music from Streamline? Are you recording anything these days?
O: We are always recording demos of new songs and working with them in the rehearsal room! So activity is quite intense actually even though it might not always look that way. We will start recording on a little project in something like 2 months, some of what comes out of that will most likely show up on our upcoming release. So yeah, we’re aiming to get the music out to the people as soon as possible! We’re doing a few gigs in Sweden this year where we will start testing some new songs. We already started playing two awesome songs called “Pay the Price” and “Black Cat Walking”! Hopefully people will be able to find some videos from those gigs if interested.
Do you also plan to record a (debut) full-length album in a little while? Any hints?
O: Well, you’ll get more than a hint, here’s a yes for you! We have so many great songs that we’re working on and we’re confident that Streamline’s debut will be something special! This autumn we will do a session in a studio in our hometown Gothenburg and lay down some tracks that will be the foundation of our new album. As soon as we have the material ready and all the bureaucracy is handled we will release new material. We absolutely don’t want it to take longer than spring 2015, but we won’t promise anything at the moment. What we can say is that if you keep yourself updated about us in social media, you never know what might pop up. We’re planning lots of fun stuff!
You do play several gigs around the country (Sweden) when you have the chance right? When will your next appearances be?
O: That is entirely correct! We play gigs whenever we get the chance; it’s what it all comes down to. As we stated with DD, we don’t want to be a studio project. This is a working band with high ambitions, we enjoy being on the road! Until the album is released we will only do gigs in Sweden and after that we’re planning a European tour! We’re did gigs in the area of our hometown Gothenburg on the 25th and 26th of July! It went great and we had a good time meeting some really nice people who seemed to enjoy being streamlined! The next step is that we will enter the studio to start tracking the foundation of our upcoming album!
Since Streamline is the “official band” now – I guess that you’re gonna delete the FB Diamond Dawn page anytime soon right? So, every fan is advised to “Like” the new page to learn your news and stuff huh?
O: That is a good question, especially for those of our fans who might have happened to miss the big news release regarding the name-change. We actually do have a new FB site at: www.facebook.com/officialstreamline! That is the page we’re using mostly now and that is the page we’re going to use only in the future. However we’re still in kind of a transitional period, so some news we post on both the Streamline site and the Diamond Dawn site. We will continue to tell the fans to like the new page because eventually we will stop using the DD-page entirely. So, if you’re reading this and you interested in what’s happening with Streamline; go like our brand new fantastic page here! We will be very thorough when reporting from the recording of Streamlines debut, so stay tuned for that and other cool news!
What shall we wait from Streamline in the future?
O: First of all you shall wait many many exciting updates from the recording sessions of our new material! There will probably only be gigs in Sweden until the album is released or around that time. But, as soon as we're there we’re coming to streamline Europe for sure so look out! Now that we’re rolling we’re gonna keep on doing it, so count on Streamline to keep releasing rocking albums and touring! The album that we will deliver is going to be great; we have a fantastic feeling about the material and the way it sounds! Stay excited about that and follow us at: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!
Thx for talking to Grande Rock guys … we will talk further closer to the release date of your new (debut) album… rock on! Take care!
O: Thanks to you too, we’re looking forward to that! Also thanks to you people who are reading this and believe in us! You guys rock, see you soon!