I´m not saying this as a formalism, this is just evidence of how the death of a person whom one knows by his music alone can really affect you.  My most heartfelt and sincere condolences for Esbjörn´s passing.

Oh, thank you very much.

One of the great things about this band is that it had earned a place in the heart of many fans. It wasn´t just another band but it was a part of the emotional life of many people. That is a difficult thing to do.

Ahh, you mean to reach the depths of people? I don´t know, what can you say, we can just be happy and thankful that people like what we did and it seems that we kind of reached out to many people and became a big part of many people´s lifes and we just reckon that after what happened now with Esbjörn and with all the condolences from all over the World and we were really stunned actually, how big it was, we couldn´t really understand that so what can you say, we can just be thankful that people liked what we did.

One of your listeners who goes by the name Nae, asks the following question: It is said that for years E.S.T. has had amongst other virtues that of connecting with the younger audience. How many more E.S.Ts are needed to help young people discover jazz which often remains confined inside the turf of commercial music?

(Laughter) What can you say. I think... it´s a very hard question to answer. We were really happy we could kind of bring in some new people into the jazz scene that we kind of opened up for many, but what can you say how many bands... you can´t really answer that. We could just be really happy that a lot of people after our concerts came forward and they said “we don´t  like jazz but this was fantastic” and hopefully they dove into the rest of the jazz scene. We could just be happy that we were one of those bands that did that and hopefully there will be many  after us that will do that.

In September the posthumous CD of the trio, Leucocyte, has been published and the fact that it is a jam session has caused surprise . There are bands out there who do free improvised music but that was not the case with yours. What value did those jam sessions have for you?

Oh, it has a huge amount of value, in a way the most important thing to do because for us these sessions were kind of a catharsis, a cleansing of your system to bring out new ideas, to bring out yourself in a whole because if you don´t have any compositions to support you, you can just play what you feel, just play from your heart and soul and that´s the most important thing you can do, to express the whole you so it was very important to all of us.

Were they fully improvised?

Yeah, we just went into the studio and someone started to play something and the other guys would try and follow that and then we just continued, we´d play for, you know, two days and I think we´d have eight or nine hours of recordings. We´d just pushed the red button and play, and then we played and then we went for lunch and then we played again and you know there were no free structures to follow, no talking before to kind of see what kind of concept we should have, we didn´t say anything, we just played so it´s really from our heart, the depths of us.

Did you initially mean for those jam sessions which took place in Sydney to be material for a CD?

Yeah, you can say that, we had an idea, we had it for ,in a way, some years because we did this kind of recordings a few  years ago and during our tours we would extend the improvised parts, these parts between songs. And after a while we thought, we really like those parts, to just improvise in between the compositions and we thought maybe we should go in and try to record this and also try to record during a tour, that was also a very big thing for us to try to conserve the energy from the stage and bring it with us into the studio. So we thought we´d do this and see what comes out, and we didn´t know anything, then we heard the results and we thought, yeah, this could be something for a record, to show people this side of us.

How much would you say production affects the nature of a jam session?

You mean the production, how it affects the jam session? The only thing we did after postproduction is editing, so what you hear is what we played. There is no overdubbs, nothing actually added. It´s just mixed. We were actually about to just release the raw mix that we did on the spot but we thought maybe we need to clean it up a little bit cuts and scratches and whatever that you hear on the original but the only thing that was done is the editing, so we could have done it on two tracks really but we did it on one track so we could mix it the right way.

When did you pick the titles of the songs that are part of these improvised sessions?

I did it during the winter time when we started to put together the order because you have to have the music first then you put the titles. So I really need to stress that point that the record as you see it as it was released with titles and everything was delivered to the record company one month before the accident with Esbjörn, so the titles were put long before the accident, but afterwards of course you can see when you see the titles and... it´s kind of scary because you can connect with what happened but it was put long before.

We have had a discussion with some of our listeners about the ability that music has to affect to the point that it sometimes can hurt. I admit that at times the suite ¨Leucocyte¨ causes a strong emotional reaction in me. Is this a product of my imagination or is there really an emotional implication in this music even superior to that caused by pieces that have been worked on more?

It´s hard to say how... Music is its own universe and people connect to their universe in general in a way from how they are brought up, what their experiences are of life so what can you say, the music is full of our emotions of course, and maybe somehow it affects people a lot when you´re putting yourself very much in the music. It´s a very hard question but if you are honest when you play music, in whatever you do, is easier for people to connect with it.

With the years the band has defined and affirmed a very recognizable style. I don´t know how much this generates expectations that can affect your development as a trio. Have you ever felt a slave to what the public expects from you? Like you couldn´t do anything else other than what´s expected of you.

No, I don´t think so, we always are our hardest critics.  I think most musicians are and, what can you say, we kind of defined our sound together and dug deaper and deaper into that and we didn´t think about how people might react to it because then we might never have released this album; because if we were thinking about the other albums, which were well received, maybe we would have done another one like that, that´s a very dangerous path to walk so, this was what we wanted to do now so you have to kind of follow the music and what you want to do with your music. If you start trying to convince people and doing what people want you are lost, it´s a dangerous thing to do.

It is not common for jazz bands to stay together for so many years. Were there times when you felt that ideas as a trio could run out?

Not really, we still had a lot of ideas, still a lot of possibilities, often too many possibilities because, you see,  our releases used to be every one and a half years and I think we could have released the double amount of records if we wanted to, but you also have to give it time in between to just get some new inputs and stuff, but the possibilities were endless you can say, we still felt we were on our way, that we didn´t stand still, because if we would have felt that way we would have quit, I think.

Fans of Jazz used to wonder this about John Coltrane, now we wonder about E.S.T., do you have a sense of what your path would have been like?

It´s  also a hard question. I don´t know, it felt that with this record we kind of... We didn´t jump on a second track or something, we kind of discovered a new way, maybe, to access the music of ourselves and also maybe redefine certain things and then for the moment while we were in it, if we would had continued we could have brought this to the stage, of course, and try to really improvise maybe a whole concert on the stage and that was the path for the moment and then you can never say what would have been after but there were still a lot of ideas and... what can you say, that´s the only thing I can say actually.

Do you remember the first day of the band? That first time in which the basis for the trio were established?

With this trio with Dan I remember, definitely,  because we kind of set up kind of an audition gig for him, but he didn´t know. We just played at a small bar in Stockholm. From the first note we played together it just felt this is the right guy , that Dan just fit in perfectly with his energy and initiative and all the things about Dan, we were just a perfect match, you can say, so I definitely remember that gig, absolutely.

Some have the romantic notion that with music one gets to know the World, others however admit that wherever they travel to, they don´t see anything and they don´t meet anyone. What have you personally gained from all these years of recordings, concerts, trips, interviews… of being together the three of you?

Wow, I think it´s hard to sometimes see exactly what it is but in a way the music and what we have done kind of have defined my life, you can say, it goes really way back, Esbjörn and I go really way back since we were 3 or 4 years old and we learn how to play together and the whole process has defined my life. Of course then the success... it brought many more things... you have seen the World, that´s fantastic, to see how fantastic all the different countries are and also how fantastic my hometown is because everytime you come home you see something new, because you travel so much  and you also start to appreciate what you have a lot but, what can you say, I´m just so thankful and humble about all these years we have traveled the world, all the experiences together on and off stage.

So when you go abroad you appreciate what you have home more.

Yeah, in a way, because when you live at one place you can think a lot of different things about it but you don´t really see it before you go away. I think that´s the case with whatever you do, when you are in the middle of it you don´t really see the whole part of it but when you go away, when you can see it from outside a little bit, then you can see the whole thing and it´s easier to appreciate what you have but, of course, it´s not in that sense that I think Stockholm is better than somewhere else, not in that way, because I can say from my heart that I appreciate and love all the places I´ve been to, because we have met such fantastic people all over the world and have kind of a taste of all the countries, and that´s amazing, to have had that opportunity.

Sometimes it happens that when a band works out copycats start showing up. Are you aware of any attempt to copy you? Do you think this might happen now?

(Laughter) I don´t know, of course we heard people that told us that they have heard trios and it seems they have listened to our trio, and that´s fantastic if you have inspired someone to play music or whatever. That´s a fantastic thing. Everyone has their influences and we listened to all the guys that were before us. You´re always standing on the shoulders of the giants before you and, that´s very important, to be aware of when you also start getting the success it´s important to remember where you come from. It´s just fantastic if people are inspired by what you´re doing, that´s the best thing that can happen.

Are you aware that the trio generated its own sound?

Yeah, I think so. After a while you can hear that this is our sound and also when you have the opportunity to stay together for that long you hopefully create your own sound and I think we definitely did that. Of course I was a part of that but in some ways it´s not always the case with groups that they get that but usually the problem is time, because as a jazz musician you have to survive and play with a lot of different groups and that side of being a musician but, I think, we kind of created our own sound, definitely... long answer (laughter).

Everything is still very recent, Esbjörn´s passing, the publication of your CD… it might be too early to ask but, now what? What´s in the works for the professional life of Magnus Oström and Dan Berglund? Some of our listeners are even wondering if there might be a chance you will form another trio.

As you say, it´s too early to say anything about it, we are still in the position to try to redefine our lives. It´s a totally new situation, it´s been four months now but it´s a really short time when you´re in it. Time flies so it´s really hard to tell anything, say anything about it. A trio with a piano player with Dan and me it feels like it won´t happen and we don´t even know if we´ll play together, we talk to each other but we can´t really figure out what to do right now. The future will tell. And we just try to kind of see a reason for playing again and it´s really hard to find that reason.

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