Kristoffer Ragnstam 'Wrong Side of the Room' album

It’s difficult to put Kristoffer Ragnstam simply. He is a Swedish rock musician who is at home in most parts of the world and within any musical genre, a drummer who was a born frontman. He’s a singer-songwriter in the most literal sense of the designation: he writes the songs he sings, but the similarities between guitar strumming self-absorption and Ragnstam’s extroverted observations that bound over the confines of genre end there.

It’s difficult to put Kristoffer Ragnstam simply. He is a Swedish rock musician who is at home in most parts of the world and within any musical genre, a drummer who was a born frontman. He’s a singer-songwriter in the most literal sense of the designation: he writes the songs he sings, but the similarities between guitar strumming self-absorption and Ragnstam’s extroverted observations that bound over the confines of genre end there.

Labeled the Swedish Beck, the comparison is helpful in both musical eclecticism as well as the studio alchemy both musicians perform. Ragnstam specializes in an exuberant type of rock, with strains of everything he’s ever heard – musical and otherwise -- found like footnotes in his songs.

Wrong Side of the Room is the product of ideas intoned into a cell phone, of months spent traveling the world, of emotional stamps left indelibly in an experiential passport. It is the latest and most brilliant step on a path that began with Kristoffer Ragnstam singing and playing his one-string guitar, caught on a Dictaphone, and sent out into the ether.

As an athletically-inclined youth in Gothenburg, Ragnstam quickly realized that the sporting life was simply less fun than playing music. A prescient music teacher realized the 15-year-old Ragnstam’s rhythmic talents, and encouraged him to play the drums. "I promised my mom not to eat candy for a year, and she got me my first kit." When his technical proficiency quickly outgrew his starter drumkit, Ragnstam built his own, a pastime he describes as “good therapy” that today is a business, and extends into the self-built analog echo guitar effect he uses onstage today.

On the strength of those solo-stringed demos, Ragnstam became the subject of a bidding war that culminated in his 2003 debut Panic Ride (Anderson Records). Recorded with the technically adept musicians who would become his backing band Electric 4, Ragnstam’s blend of ‘70s jangle-rock and ‘60s harmonies quickly earned him accolades. In 2006 Ragnstam and collaborator Joel Lundberg opened Studio Scola (Swedish for “school”), a recording studio that is both temple and testament to the desire the two have to continue learning. It was there that Ragnstam recorded Sweet Bills, which proved fateful for the collaboration it allowed: a brief meeting with Chris Brown (Blur, Radiohead, Supergrass) led to the renowned engineer mixing the entirety of Sweet Bills, as well as Wrong Side of the Room. “Every record that I have in my collection, he’s been a part of,” says Ragnstam. The confluence of talent on Sweet Bills proved fateful for another reason – on the strength of it, Ragnstam earned the opening slot for new wave goddess Debbie Harry’s 2007 tour.

It was on that tour that Ragnstam wrote much of Wrong Side of the Room with Lundberg – a near-constant musical companion in the fifteen years since the two met at Sweden’s answer to Battle of the Bands. “We had the same vision then that we do now,” says Ragnstam of the symbiotic nature of their relationship. “We try to do something with not that much brain, with more heart.” Constantly recording wisps of songs into his cell phone (“A line or a memory, ‘bring in trumpets,’ ideas I came up with drunk”) during that tour, Ragnstam and the Electric 4 returned home and quickly adjourned to Studio Scola to record an album filled with the momentum and spontaneity they had thrived on on tour.

With Wrong Side of the Room, Ragnstam is further exploring what he’s been lauded for on his previous albums. “Heard About My Own Death On the Radio” is a surreal lyric exercise, comforting and anchored in the harmony-filled vocals. Ragnstam’s hilarious self-examination moves at a break-neck pace through the new wave “2008,” while the tense “Sorry For Being the Man of 1000 Questions” comes off as less an apology than a statement of intent, thudding like a worried heart. “Wrong Side of the Room,” the swaggering title track showcases Ragnstam’s slick coo amongst reverb laden guitars and popping drums, assuredly explaining there is comfort in discomfort.

“I believe that that’s my strength, as a musician. To not be as anyone, to not sound like anyone else or look like anyone else. And that’s a good thing for me, I think” explains Ragnstam. “That gave me a lot of confidence to make this album with no filters, straight from my heart. I just hope people like it!”

press quotes
“Surprising and innovative, Kristoffer (who is compared to Beck), creates catchy rock using a fresh sounding synth over carefully crafted vocals.” Gen Art Pulse

“Like a diamond in a sea of charcoal, pop songwriter Kristoffer Ragnstam emerges with the grooves of Beck and the energetic sweet hooks of indie pop artists like The Hush Sound.” Spotlight By Chris Castro

“...Wrong Side is comprised of twelve songs that search for the comfort in discomfort, no matter what. Lead single, "Swing That Tambourine" is an energetic blend of heavy drums, charming guitar rhythms and cute lyrics. When the handclaps kick in, its a non stop Swedish party! So do as Mr. Ragnstam advices and swing that tambourine - with caution of course.” Filter.com

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Kristoffer Ragnstam - Wrong Side of the Room