Concretes' Lisa Milberg Reveals the Hardship of Being a Replacement Singer

In April 2007, less than a year after the departure of lead singer Victoria Bergsman, the Concretes returned with a new album. They called it 'Hey Trouble,' and not for nothing. Although Lisa Milberg, formerly the band's drummer, had the pipes to take over as frontwoman, the Swedish indie-pop group was suffering an identity crisis it wasn't yet willing or able to address.

"Everyone was obviously very upset, but I think we just needed to know we could do it without her, so we rushed into that a little bit," Milberg tells Spinner. "After that, we started touring, and we didn't have time to think. I came back home and sat down and thought about things for the first time, and it didn't feel so good. Then we got together and tried to do things with the band, and it just felt wrong."

That explains the three-year gap between 2007's 'Hey Trouble,' which was never released in America,' and the Concretes' November-released 'WYWH.' The new album is frontloaded with suave, after-hours dance tunes, and while the band hasn't completely abandoned the delicate guitar-pop that has long brought comparisons to Camera Obscura, the Concretes, contrary to their name, have proved a rather malleable outfit.

"Everything changed when Victoria left," Milberg says. "The moment you take anyone out of the group, the dynamic is going to shift. It leaves room for other things. It's very much like musical chairs. People can find a new way of doing things. In a way, it's very different the way we write songs. I can see things [Bergsman] would do or say I didn't understand at the time, and now I do and say those things."

"Also, with me moving to London, we've changed for that reason, because we used to all meet up and rehearse, and now we work more independently on the songs, over the Internet, and then we meet up," she adds. "We used to write songs more in one way, and now we write songs in all possible ways. We could start with the lyrics, or everyone jamming, or it could start with a sample."

With respect to the group's older material, Milberg says she's wary of revisiting Bergsman's more personal songs.

"Most of the songs she wrote I wouldn't ever sing -- it would feel very weird," Milberg says. "It really depends, since I know where all the songs came from, and I know what they're about, and in most cases, I know how she felt when she wrote them. Some of them were written together [with other band members], and others were 100 percent her. And the ones that were 100 percent her, I would never touch. It wouldn't feel right and wouldn't sound right. There are other songs everyone in the band considers more a group effort, and some that reflect everyone in the band other than just her, and those I would sing if I have to."