On Tuesday night I went to see Peter Sandberg play the Jazz Café in London. If you've heard our conversation, you'll know Peter as the Swedish pianist whose music found its way into the Stranger Things season 3 finale, and as one of the least showbiz people I've ever interviewed. Would the man I'd met on a video call be the same one on stage? Turns out, yes.
Let me say this first, before I wander off into Bakelite phones and tape decks: the gig was brilliant. I was there with my wife and friends, and from the opening notes the whole room was in his hands. It was one of those nights you find yourself telling people about the next morning. (Hello.)
There was no big entrance and no rehearsed patter. When Peter wanted to talk to us, he picked up an old Bakelite phone from the little table beside him and spoke down the receiver. It sounds like a gimmick. It isn't. (Well, maybe a little.) Somehow it made a full room feel like a phone call between two people. Next to the phone sat a stereo cassette player, running tapes that put a bit of hiss and grit under the keys, while an old telly flickered away on top of the piano like something out of a 1980s living room.
The show is built around his album Temporary Coexistence of Humans, and the title fits. For an hour or so, a room full of strangers sat closer to one man and a piano than most of us sit to our own families at Christmas.
When we spoke on the podcast, Peter was open about ADHD and about building songs like Lego. Watching him with the phone, the tapes and the switches, I wondered whether all that analogue kit does more than set a mood. Things to hold, click and run. Somewhere to put the energy. I may be wrong, and he'd be the first to tell me. Dunno.
I caught him after the set. He was lovely, signed my record, and told me, "I'm short of words, I'm tired." Then he chatted away anyway. That's the part the audience never sees. We get an evening that feels effortless, and he pays for it afterwards. I suspect a lot of us know that trade, on stage or off. The work that looks easiest usually costs the most.
If he plays anywhere near you, go. You'll kick yourself if you don't go. He's at Les Trois Baudets in Paris tonight, and better still, he's agreed to come back on the show once the tour's done, so a catch-up is coming. Until then, our first conversation is here: https://www.thethirdhalf.uk/p/tth-blueprint-episode-18-peter-sandberg
Next stop for me, Glasgow, to see The Wedding Present with our musician of the month, Rachael Wood, on guitar. Two musician-of-the-month guests, live, in one week, at opposite ends of the country. I may need a lie down.
#lifepivots