Now most Americans at this point are scratching their heads. ë80s hits?

NASA actually started back in 1983 when they had their first Swedish top ten "Paula." (Actually they started several years before that, to be precise!). Although the band had little success outside of Sweden (a planned US album was recorded, but then shelved by Columbia Records), they continued to have numerous hit singles in the country.
Which brings us to the best-of. The label asked if that band wanted to do a new song for the album. By this time, what had been the main core of the band, Patrik Henzel and Martin Thors, were busy in their second careers. Patrik had become a respected composer of music for commercials. So the idea of just doing one song didnít appeal that much to the two. Why not an album? they asked.

Both the label and the bandís management thought that would be a great idea. The best-of came out about a year later; the brand new album, Remembering the Future, followed. It was the pairís first new release in 11 years.
"We knew it wasnít going to be a big hit, we canít compete with boy-bands. But I had always wanted to do the best synthpop album ever. And now, years later, I had the know how and the technology to do it," Patrik told me one day via phone from his studio in Sweden. "We donít have a proper musical education between the two of us, but I have learned a lot from all these years of doing music for commercials. My songwriting has gotten much better. I wanted to make a synthpop album, with a capital "S."

The result is the pop masterpiece, Remembering the Future. And that is Pop with a capital P.

"Every time I sat down to write  a song, the pop side of Patrik just kicked in, so it was easy to just let it run wild. I think, this could be a single, so I write as if it is."

Once the album was finished they called in favors from their commercial work and got a video made for the first single. "Back To Square One."  The result is as slick as anything on MTV, and much more inventive.

"We did the whole thing for very little money. Really it is a simple idea, but it was inventive how Mats Sternberg, the director, got everything to move at once."

Since finishing the album the band has been hard at work on other projects. Henzel and Thors were behind last years Scandinavian success of one DJ Mendez, whose Latin-flavored hit they produced, as well as most of the follow-up album. The two have also been working on Thorsí solo album.

"We want to do an adult pop record, there is a real void in that kind of music in Sweden right now. It will be in Swedish, just for this country. Right now we are recycling "The Road to Newtopia" from the NASA album for this project. We slowed the tempo down and wrote all new lyrics. It works very well."

So, it seems that the two have little time to remember the future, as they are too busy creating it.
 

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Visit a fan web site
(the only NASA website out there!)
http://w3.informatik.gu.se/~s97glenn/nasa/
 

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