Soundtrack of Our Lives Open "Vol. 1"

During the studio sessions for Origin Vol. 1, the Soundtrack of Our Lives amassed nearly fifty songs. The Swedish rockers -- now billed in the U.S. as "The Soundtrack of Our Lives (T.S.O.O.L)," per the request of Dick Clark Productions, which once owned the trademark to the phrase "Dick Clark presents the soundtrack to your life" -- have enough material for Volumes 2 and 3.

"They're all really good songs," says singer Ebbot Lundberg. "We realized that we have to split this up, because it didn't really make sense -- there's too much diversity in the material."

Vol. 1 -- the follow-up to 2002's Behind the Music -- is an epic psychedelic journey, ranging from the thunderous single "Big Time" to the piano ballad "Songs for the Others."

"It's like editing a movie," Lundberg says. "You find certain songs that fit together as a whole. We're pretty much an album band, even if eight of the tracks could be singles [laughs]. We put together an album and it becomes a trip."

The Who-like "Transcendental Suicide" plays like a rock & roll war parable. "It's like science fiction," Lundberg says. "A dying planet where people are getting suicidal and somebody becomes a martyr, and people follow."

An anomaly of a rock star, the hefty, bearded Lundberg has inadvertently made a fashion statement by sporting caftans. "I'm not trying to have a costume or anything, but I'm a lazy son of a bitch and I want comfort," he says. "I don't like running around in a T-shirt and jeans. I prefer to be naked."

The band will launch a North American tour Thursday night at Austin's South by Southwest Music Conference.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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