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The Swede spot
The world's greatest source of new Swedish pop…is in Oak Park?
The image of the caribou pops up on flags, cheese packaging and coats of arms all over Sweden: Three silhouettes of reindeer heads adorn the logo of Umeå University, while the northern providence of Västerbotten sports a little horned furry one on its state symbol. As 41-year-old Craig Bonnell flips open his white Mac laptop to load up some fresh music videos of peppy Swedish pop acts to his blog, swedesplease.net, he sits beneath a caricature of the antlered beast. However, in this case, it’s just corporate artwork for a cookie-cutter café franchise tucked into a strip mall, between an Old Navy and the terminus of the Green Line, on the outskirts of Chicago.
Since 2005, the married father of two boys has been spelunking the music of the Scandinavian land; 3,000 loyal readers gobble up his MP3s of blue-eyed folk, rock and dance-pop daily. Yet, as can happen only in our Internet world, the Oak Park resident has no link to Sweden. No Swedish blood pumps through his veins; the Boston-born blogger neither learned the Swedish tongue nor studied abroad while enrolled at New Jersey’s Drew University. He can’t speak the language. Hell, he owns only a couple of bookcases and “a vase or two” from IKEA.
“Natives e-mail me from Gothenburg or Lund and say, ‘I live here, and I’ve never heard of this band. How have you?!’?” Bonnell says with a laugh. The answer is rather mundane—MySpace. “For most of my life, like the bulk of the population, I had no idea about Swedish pop beyond Abba,” Bonnell says. Yet while seeking new tunes for his other blog, Songs:Illinois (he still maintains both), he found himself frequently discovering unheralded Swedish acts. Realizing that few bloggers carved out a specific niche—despite the sudden deluge of self-made music critics online—Bonnell birthed Swedesplease.
“There are loads of other people more knowledgeable, but perhaps I am more persistent. And I like to think I have exquisite taste,” Bonnell says of his success.
Sweden is taking notice. Last year, the Swedish Music Information Centre—a government-funded organization that promotes and subsidizes domestic songwriters—flew Bonnell over to cover the Lollapalooza-like Hultsfred Festival. For the first time, the ex–Lincoln Park High history teacher and stay-at-home dad alighted on Swedish soil.
Maneuvering in the foreign land was a breeze. “Convenience-store workers over there speak the Queen’s English,” Bonnell says. Which goes some way toward explaining how a country with the population of metropolitan Chicago cranks out an unending supply of delectable, precocious, unaccented melodic music. A pinch of socialism doesn’t hurt, either. “There is money available to bands that might cross over to the States,” Bonnell says. “They support arts in the schools and provide money and even places to rehearse to fledgling indie bands. Norway and Finland are catching on and now have music export ministries, too.”
But Bonnell is sticking to his not-so-deep roots. Besides, he anticipates a future surge in sing-along choruses. “The most interesting thing I noted over there was Stockholm’s baby boom. It was unbelievable how many young Swedes were out pushing prams,” says the busy father. He’s also considering flying over some acts for a Swedish showcase in town. For several years, he’s hosted a house concert series for artists featured on Songs:Illinois. “I have as many Swedesplease readers in Prague as I do in Chicago, so it’s tough to get a whole bunch of people out.”
Bonnell snaps shut the iBook; it’s time to head home. When we ask if his wife shares his Swedophilia, Bonnell answers, “No, not so much.” Well, there are worse extramarital hobbies a husband could have.
What are Bonnell’s top five Swedish bands of all time? You’ll be surprised. Visit timeoutchicago.com/blog to sample Swedesplease’s picks.
