Lars Winnerbäck

Lars Winnerbäck - words on paper

I had never worked with Lars Winnerbäck before, but his name and history preceded him, so I did a little research to prepare. The session was booked on a cold morning in December, but a nice cup of coffee helped break the ice. The plan was to record him singing and playing guitar; no problem. We get it all rigged, his voice sounds amazing and we’re rolling. I’m not THAT familiar with his material but I recognized during the first takes, as I’m making notes on my lyric sheet, that these songs are SO WELL WRITTEN! Sometimes forgetting to make my notes as I’m getting lost in the imagery of the lyrics, and Lars’ performance is playing out of the speakers like the soundtrack to a mini-movie. One man, one guitar. Jeez… Occasionally, Lars would stop a take if he wasn’t satisfied, even apologizing once, saying, “sorry, I just don’t know this song that well.” Hmmm, I thought that was a little strange because I was sure he wrote all his own songs. Anyways, by lunch the first song was done and we had a chance to small talk about music and me growing up in LA. Curiously, I asked him if he wrote all his own songs, and he said politely, “yes.” A little embarrassed, I told him that I thought he did, but I was unsure since he mentioned that he didn’t know the songs that well, to which he replied, “yeah, I just wrote it this morning.”