ABSENT FRIENDS: The Genuine Fakes

In 2010 Real Gone gave coverage to a debut album by Swedish power pop sensations, The Genuine Fakes.   Like most sites, we found the album – although not perfect – had lots of lovable material and the band’s commercial potential was pretty big.

We heard little from them after that.  Kool Kat Records issued a hard copy of ‘The Striped Album‘ (previously only a download) and included a bonus disc.  Real Gone included a non-album track on our first full length sampler in December 2011.  …And then nothing.

What became of the band who gave 2010 it’s best cover tune?  [The Genuine Fakes’ version of Beyonce’s ‘Irreplaceable’ remains one of our favourite tunes ever and can be heard below.]   At the end of November 2014, Real Gone caught up with band member Joey Fake to find out where they’ve been.

“It’s been almost 4 years since the release of our self-titled debut album”, he told us.  “With that album, we wanted to make a statement:  we thought “We’ve done our homework, put in the hard work and you can bet that we can keep these coming…”

Many reviews pointed out the debut album’s trademark sound and its many potential hit singles. Approximately six months before the album’s release, I started demoing songs for the follow-up without really telling anyone… I figured it’d be good to get a head start since it took about three years to complete the first one!”

So how are things going with regards to the long-awaited second release?  Pretty well, it seems.

“Tracking began in May, 2011 and the band has now reached the end of the recording process of the new album. Mixing will begin early next year together with ex-Merrymakers man Anders Hellgren. The new material arguably strives towards a more minimalistic, straight forward and varied approach compared to the incredibly focused debut. It’s pretty different in many ways, but it’s more of a refinement of our concept than a major step in a different direction. It’s still a Genuine Fakes album and we think fans will enjoy it just as much, if not more…  An important contributor to the album has been Jon Auer from The Posies, who’s been tacking guitars, synthesizers, vocals and weirdness from locations in both the US and France. It started with a guitar solo on one song and developed into involvement in over half of the new songs. Since The Posies’ music has been a huge influence, it’s obviously been a real priviledge and honor to work with him.

We’re also featured on a couple of compilation albums. “A Kool Kat Kristmas, vol.2 [Kool Kat Records] is out now and it contains the song “You Always Come Back Home (For Christmas)”.  That was a B-side contender from the band’s past that we never finished but thought deserved a proper release. At the end of January we’re going to have another new song on a compilation that will be announced soon.  Also in January we will play our first show in years, staged in Stockholm, Sweden.

“We’re looking forward to the release of our new album and more shows, both in Sweden and elsewhere, in 2015!”

Four years in the making, we’re certainly looking forward to it and know there are other power pop fans who are too.  Until The Genuine Fakes’ full-scale return, let’s all enjoy that Beyonce cover one more time!