Scrooge (Swe) - South Side Songs (2023)

AOR / Hard Rock / Melodic Hard Rock / Melodic Rock

CD compilation with Scrooge's material recorded between 1987-1993. Released by Steelheart Memories / AOR Underground (The "Lost Melodic Jewels" Collectors Series Vol. 5). Remastered and limited to 500 copies.

Thanklist: Janne Stark and Joachim Smith for their big help on this project! It took some years... but we did it!

The southern Sweish town of Lund saw three teenagerss develop a passion for Hard-Rock that would escalatee as the eighties progressed. Fully forming in the autumn of '85, Scrooge would acquire a hunger for North American AOR, with bands like Journey and Toto firmly in their sights. As Scrooge progressed via a few well received demos, their singer, Bax Fehling, and drummer, Jaime Salazar, would join Malmö based band Bad Habit, running both bands in tandem. As it camte to be, Bad Habit had the record deadl with CBS and Scrooge had to languish in that band's shadow. Who knows how things would have progressed if Bad Habit had never existed, maybe Scrooge would have achieved the same level of international success that was afforded their Malmö neightbours? One thing for certain, they certainly had the songs at their disposal. They were a heady brew of Europe and, not surprisingly, Bad Habit but with a softer lilt as witnessed by the soft rock strains of "Somebody's Calling". Whilst they may be considered also-rans in the annals of Swedish melodic history, the story of Scrooge is a rich one, steeped in melodic rock bliss and the usual musical accoutrements we've come to love about this country. Purveyors of pink and fluffiness: Rob Evans and Primo Bonali.

1. The Fire
A song about our love for music and how we as teenagers lived for playing. Written around 1987 and pre- produced with the first sequencer software for Commodore Vic 64, Pro 16. Both Bax and Örjan got their first guitars with Floyd Rose whammy bars which made it possible to play the intro riff. Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Örjan. The lineup is the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan.

2. Somebody's Calling
The first original song written in 1986. It's a story about young love and broken hearts. The song is drums and keyboard driven and very much inspired by contemporary American Westcoast Rock. Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Örjan. The lineup is the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan.

3. My Town
The song was inspired by a roadtrip in California and written on a friend's piano in San Francisco. It's about all the emotions you may get during a great journey far away and how you still may miss the people and places at home. The phrase "towers in the sky” refers to both the San Francisco skyline and the twin towers of the cathedral in Lund, Sweden. Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Örjan. The lineup is the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan.

4. Blue Skies And Pain
On one of the tours in Chile, we found ourselves in a beautiful bay in the north. Suddenly a big whale shows up and flaps his enormous fins in the water. Later that night we came up with a song that was originally called "The Whale Song". Bax later finalized the lyrics and it became another broken heart song. Recorded in the rehearsal studio with a basic 8 track reel tape recorder. The lineup is the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan.

5. Santiago
It's about the hardships we experienced in South America when trying to organize our tours and to get our career going. It's recorded in our rehearsal studio. Sven Cirnski (Bad Habit) participates as guest soloist and plays the lead guitar. There's also a horn section here and it's played by Torbjörn Righard and Håkan Jonasson. The lineup consists of Bax, Jens and Jaime.

6. End Of The Road
One of the first songs recorded with the mark 2 lineup and includes Magnus Edsberger on guitar. The song is about a break up but with a hope of reconciliation. Magnus gets an opportunity to shine with his jazz knowledge over the chord progressions in the solo section. Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Berno Paulsson. The lineup is the Mark 2 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Magnus.

7. Pieces Of A Dream
A masterpiece written by Peter Nyrell. It became a favorite to play live because of the strong melody and "airy" feeling. Fun fact is that we on a few occasions in Chile had to perform the song without Peter and keyboards and instead with Örjan on lead vocals and Bax on acoustic 12 string guitar. It worked out great that way as well! Most of the recording is done in Peters home closet except for the drums that are recorded in Bernos studio. The lineup is almost the Mark 2 with Jens, Jaime, Peter and Magnus.

8. My Friend
A tribute to our girlfriends and with a touch of Sci-Fi. We are all children of the Star Wars era and it just has to show somewhere. The song is great to play live with it ending in a drum crescendo inspired by groups like The Who and Led Zeppelin. Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Örjan. The lineup is the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan.

9. Crying's Much Too Late
The song was written the night before "Operation Desert Storm” was unleashed. It's basically just a reflection of the media reporting from the war. It's recorded in our rehearsal studio on a 8 track and the lineup is the Mark 2 with Bax, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Magnus.

10. Right Or Wrong
A tribute to Jimi Hendrix and his contribution to music history. The song is kind of a mix between "Voodoo Chile" and "Little Wing". There is also a Spanish version recorded for the South American tours called "Esta Bien o Esta Mal". Recorded and mixed at Bernos studio by Berno Paulsson. The lineup is almost the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime and Peter.

11. Dance Dance Dance
Self explanatory with the call for bodily motions to the groove. Inspired by James Brown 60's soul. Recorded in Berno's studio with some pre-production made in the rehearsal studio. The lineup is almost the original Mark 1 with Bax, Jens, Jaime and Peter.

The story behind SCROOGE (from booklet)
The origins of SCROOGE can be traced back to an elementary school in Lund, in the South of Sweden, where three long haired rockers, Jens Lundahl, Bax Fehling and Jaime Salazar, formed a bond over a love of Rock music as they listened to artists like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath. In the eighties, Lund's Olympen concert hall was a major stop on the itinerary of most touring bands with artists like Motley Crue, Toto, Europe and Metallica having graced its stage; in fact Metallica played the Olympen two days before their terrible bus crash in 1986. It was here that the trio got their education in Rock, always trying to sneak into any concert at the Olympen that they could.

Originally a power-trio, going under a different name, they had a habit of going to local shows and asking if they could get up and do a few songs. "We used to call it 'doing a coup' and soon we earned a reputation of stealing the show," laughs Bax Fehling at the memory. As they developed as musicians, they grew out of the power-trio concept and felt that they needed to expand their sound and in the Autumn of '84 they recruited Örjan 'Cozy' Wallen as a vocalist. "The chemistry in the band was like magic and we grew as musicians really fast," recounts Fehling. Six months into '85, Örjan Wallen moved over to guitar, leaving Fehling as their singer. By now they were being inspired by bands like Toto and Journey and needed a keyboard player to bolster their sound. When Peter 'Pyrre' Nyrell became available, they not only had three great voices but Nyrell's excellent keyboard handling as well.

By this time, they were trading under the name of SCROOGE when they entered a professional studio for the first time to record 'Somebody's Calling". "This was the first proper recording we did. We were quite amazed how well it came out," exclaims Fehling. "Our previous attempts at recording were basic two channel or extended channels by 'ping-pong technique which added a lot of tape noise. Recording on two channels was a great method to become good musicians though since it all had to be played live. We realized very early that we had an absolute genius with Jaime as our drummer, right from the start he was great without schooling or anything, and that just triggered the rest of us to improve." Having had the taste of studio life, SCROOGE wasted no time in returning to Berno Paulsson's Berno studio in Bunkeflostrand, near Malmo as Fehling takes up the story. "Örjan had finalized his recording engineer studies and got to work on some productions in Berno's studio.

One long weekend in '87 when Berno was going away, Örjan was allowed to borrow the studio. The band got together and the five songs we recorded were 'The Fire', 'My Friend', 'Woman of Another Kind', 'My Town' and a re-recording of 'Somebody's Calling"". It's at this juncture in the story that local Malmo band, Bad Habit, enters the world of SCROOGE. Put together by Hal Marabel (former Johnston), Pat Shannon and Steve Rose, they also had Jaime Salazar and Bax Fehling in their ranks, with the drummer and singer doing double duties alongside SCROOGE. With Bad Habit signed to CBS, they were recording their debut mini album, 'Young & Innocent', in Berno studio. At the time, Fehling was just the guitarist in Bad Habit, with Hal the singer, but that soon changed as Fehling reveals. "During the recording sessions for their 'Young and Innocent' mini album, Hal asked me to come along to the studio to help with some lead parts as he had a sore throat and that was it! We just swapped roles, with him playing guitar and me singing."

When Bad Habit signed a worldwide deal, however, it all became more difficult, and SCROOGE found themselves working in the shadow created by Bad Habit's initial success. Whilst SCROOGE recorded and played live, they never made any serious attempts to get signed as both Fehling and Salazar were bound to the Bad Habit contract. "As long as there was no money involved there was no problem playing in multiple bands," avers Fehling as he continues. "W all played in multiple bands as we just loved to play, and our highest dream was t become professional. Me and Jaime were happy playing with Bad Habit and Örjan played shows at holiday resorts. SCROOG continued but at a slower pace and with whoever was available." There's no denying, certainly on the band's part, that Bad Habit's existence hampered SCROOGE, diverting their energy and intentions as that band sought to promote their debut album, 'After Hours'. But it didn't stop SCROOGE from playing live and recording sporadically in tandem with Bad Habit's workload. However, as their reputation grew as musicians, they found themselves quite sought after, especially Salazar. "Jaime has always been the wonder kid," extols Fehling. "His drumming was just amazing and even better today. He has played with the likes of Allen-Lande, The Flower Kings, Jonas Hellborg Group and Timeless Miracle amongst many others."

With Bad Habit coming to an end in '90, SCROOGE carried on as normal with Magnus Edsberger replacing Örjan Wallen for a brief period before Wallen re-joined in '92 for tours of Finland with Great King Rat and, of all places, Chile. The tour of Chile saw a renaissance in the SCROOGE story as thanks to Salazar's Chilean heritage some promoters wanted to bring them over to South America. With former Bad Habit bass player Patrik 'Steve Rose' Södergren replacing Jens Lundahl, their touring experience in Chile saw them sign a letter of intent with Sony Music in Chile, but nothing ever came of it and the CD was never released. "We have a lot of great experiences from South America and also some hardships dealing with a country trying to open up after many years of dictatorship," recounts Fehling at the memory. "One fun story in the last tour was when Peter had to come to Chile later than the rest of us. So, we had to do some gigs completely rearranged without keyboards. Finally, he was scheduled to arrive for a gig in the Andes and we setup all his gear but no Peter to be seen. We started to play without him for about an hour then he suddenly showed up, jet lagged and drowsy from the drinks on the plane and with a newly shaved mohawk hairstyle he had made himself in the toilet at Copenhagen airport. We all had a great laugh and the show just kept on going."

By '94 and after the few years of fame and rock'n'roll, which was great, they all had other goals as well. Whilst Scrooge never actually broke up, they're still the best of friends and are looking forward to supporting this release in whatever way they can. These days Jaime is a music teacher in higher elementary school, whilst Örjan is running his own business in TV production. With Peter having his own business in digital graphic design and Jens a science teacher for higher elementary school, as well as being a Jaguar mechanical specialist, and Bax works as an airline captain for one of Scandinavia's major airlines. Of the later members, unfortunately Magnus Edsberger is no longer with us, having passed away in 2013, whilst Patrik Södergren has been a successful entrepreneur and mostly spends his days as a self-sponsored retiree.

It would also seem that the SCROOGE story is far from over as Fehling concludes. "We'd like to thank Janne Stark and Joachim Smith for kicking our butts and since then, we've got back together a few times, playing both covers and some of our original songs. These occasions it has been the original setup of myself, Jens, Jaime, Peter and Örjan. Nowadays we live within thirty minutes from each other so it's a lot easier to get together when we get the feeling."

Rob Evans, Powerplay And Fireworks Magazines, October 2023