Interview: A.C.T.
Interview A.C.T.: A.C.T. was formed in 1994 in Fairyland... Jerry Sahlin interview March 2004
An early Act

Act 1, scene 1 : Once upon a time back in '94 three persons together in a small room somewhere in Fairyland... 

Engaged in a discussion about symphonic rock music, friends and musicians Ola Andersson (guitar), Tomas Erlandsson (drums) and Jens Appelgren (vocals) decided to put a band together.

Having worked with Jerry Sahlin before and well aware of his writing skills, Appelgren suggested they ask if he would like to join the band on keyboards. Tomas and Ola needed no persuasion once they had heard SOME of his previous work., and so Fairyland were born.

The band started rehearsing although they were still without a bass player, and so a friend of theirs, Simon Niklasson, had to be brought in to fill the gap at their first show. Quickly Fairyland established a sound of their own, characterised by Sahlin's dynamic writing and Appelgren's lyrics, which proved a winning concept, entertaining a growing number of dedicated fans.

Although the band did well, Appelgren decided to quit in 1995. He felt the urge to dedicate more time to writing songs of his own and later formed the band Morgondag.

Act 1, scene 2 : Another year in Fairyland, when Herman a singer suddenly appears..

1995 proved an exciting and eventful year in the band's career. Fairylaynd, now looking for both a bass player and a singer continued rehearsing and writing songs. They were offered THE CHANCE to record a demo and badly needed to fill the vacant spots. Luckily, they made Herman Saming's acquaintance and decided to offer him a trial. There were no regrets as Herman made a big impression on everyone with his majestic, yet crystal clear voice, soon to be featured on the scheduled demo recordings.

Act 1, scene 3 : A bass, a bass, my drumkit for a bass

Only a couple of weeks later Ola's talented childhood friend Peter Asp completed the line-up, having decided to sell his drum kit and pick up the bass guitar instead.

     

Act 2, scene 1: Act of Vision..while driving his car Jerry suddenly..

..had a revelation and the name A.C.T appeared in his mind. At least that's how the story goes…The band decided to adopt the name to mark the start of a new era and celebrate the completion of the line-up.

Act 2, scene 2: To Reach for the Stars

In April the same year A.C.T entered the competition "Musik Direkt" for the first time and made it to the local finals. The celebration continued of course when they learned that two of their songs, recorded live during the contest, were to be included on a compilation cd.Towards the end of the year another demo was recorded live in the old fire-station in Svedala, close to Malmö. However, the treasure was not elaborated on any further but ended up in a drawer somewhere, covered by layers of thick dust…

Act 2, scene 3: License to Sell

A.C.T. gathered to record demo number 3. This time with a view to make a top notch recording and have it professionally duplicated. 200 cassette copies were made and they sold quickly to verify the growing interest in the band's music.

Act 2, scene 3: The rock 'n' roll swindle

For the second consecutive year A.C.T entered the "Musik Direkt" contest, and this time made it all the way to the finals in Stockholm. Firm favourites with both the audience and press, they did still not manage to win the contest in the end as the jury thought otherwise. The controversial decision was met by bold, SCATHING headlines in the papers the following day proclaiming who the true winners really were!

Later this year the band opened for the Swedish guitar virtuoso, Yngwie Malmsteen at KB in Malmö.

This is only the beginning of a Story in Progress, to read more you must proceed to the ACTWorld at : http://www.actworld.nu/actworld.asp




 
Discography
 
1999 Today's Report

The band released their first album 'Today's Report' in October 1999.

TrackList:

01. Abandoned World[04.04]
02. The Wandering [05.37]
03. Waltz With Mother Nature [06.38]
04. Why Bother[04.52]
05. Today's Report[04.44]
06. Welcome [05.50]
07. Cat Eyes[04.26]
08. The Chase[05.14]
09. Personalities - The Long One[12.23]

- In general what do you think about the album?
'I think it´s a good debut-album with lots of surprises. Some of the songs survived all the way from 1995 so it´s like a history book of who we were when we just met.'
- Favourite Song(and why)? 
' I like “Cateyes” because it was the last song I wrote for the album and it was a leap forward in the A.C.T style. “The Long one” came out great. It was a real experiment. I worked on the different parts the whole summer of 1998 and it was really cool to put the parts together in the studio.'
- Any anecdotes /special memories from the recording sessions? 
'We recorded the album in the cellar of an old slaughterhouse so it was a pretty interesting atmosphere hehe.. Everything was so new to us with all these Gizmos and stuff..We tried all of them..'

2001 Imaginary Friends

A.C.T.s second album, 'Imaginary Friends', was released 26th of March 2001.

TrackList:
01. Take It Easy [04.27]
02. Hippest Flop[04.49]
03. A Supposed Tour[04.41]
04. Biggest Mistake[07.50]
05. Imaginary Friends[05.51]
06. She/Male[04.47]
07. Relationships[26.16]

- and what about your second album , 'Imaginary Friends' ?
'There are some really great songs on it but I´m not very happy with the sound of the album. Too much Guitar and distortion in the mix. We mixed it like that to please the record company. They wanted the heavy-A.C.T-style for the second album. Too bad because it was composed as a pop-opera album rather than HeavyMetal album.'
- Favourite Song(and why)? 
' "Hippest Flop". because it was so poppy, "Imaginary friends" another leap forward in the style.'
- Any anecdotes /special memories from the recording sessions? 
'It was the last album with our former drummer Thomas Erlandsson and we could feel it in the air that this would probably be his last. This time we recorded the album on “the ground”, first floor in the slaughter house, hehe.. Not so scary atmosphere this time hehe'

2003 Last Epic

'Last Epic'was released in February 2003

TrackList:
01. Intro (Instr.) [00.48]
02. Wailings From A Building [04.21]
03. Mr. Landlord [04.41]
04. Torn By A Phrase [05.36]
05. Ted's Ballad [03.46]
06. Dance Of Mr. Gumble (Instr.) [02.10]
07. Wake Up [04.28]
08. Manipulator [06.13]
09. A Loaded Situation (Instr.) [03.20]
10. The Observer [03.07]
11. The Cause [03.27]
12. The Effect [04.39]
13. Summary [05.04]
14. Outro [01.15]

- and what do you think about your, uptodate, latest album 'Last Epic'?
'This is a great album, My favourite so far I think. We have sharpened the song structures on this one and moved a lot forward in the arrangements.'
- Favourite Song(and why)? 
'I think I like all of them actually.'
- Any anecdotes/special memories from the shows? 
'We worked individually this time. I was by myself in one part of the studio, working at the computer and Ola and Peter in the other part working with their things. Me and Herman had more time with the vocals this time because of this'
- Any new 'ongoing' recordings with A.C.T.?
'Sure.. we´ll be heading in to the studio as soon as we have rehearsed the new stuff.'

 
A.C.T. Live 2003 'The Progress Club' at Mondo, Sweden
 
A.C.T. Links 
 

A.C.T. Official Site