KLANG delivers Eagle Eye Cherry’s best ever in-ear mix

Swedish singer Eagle Eye Cherry launched his career in 1997 with debut album Desireless which sold over four million copies worldwide. More than two decades later he is back on the road with his latest album, Streets of You. Never having been one to shy away from new technology, Cherry is now enjoying the considerable benefits of a KLANG:fabrik immersive in-ear monitor system.

Brollan Söderström, owner of Swedish audio company Electrosound AB, has been Cherry’s live sound engineer from day one. “We started when everything was completely analogue,” he recalls. “Big heavy consoles that sounded great but were too heavy for us to travel round the globe with, which meant we were limited to carrying just backline and some mics. Soundcheck was always a haze with new and different gear every day. We hated festivals because there was never a soundcheck and the first few songs in the set were always a struggle, both on stage and at front of house.”

All that changed when Söderström was introduced to digital mixing consoles in 1999.  “This was the super early days for the digital mixing console industry, but it worked really well and we purchased a complete Innovason system that was small enough to fly around along with the backline. Now we were plug and play ready, even without soundchecks, every day.”

At the same time, the majority of the band and Cherry himself started using in-ear monitors, always carrying their own system. This was how it continued until around 2005, when Cherry’s touring life came to a natural hiatus. Now Cherry, over a decade later, the band are back for a new campaign, and things have moved on even further.

“The Eagle-Eye Cherry production has always been used to being involved ground-breaking technology,” says Söderström. “Both myself and the artist have higher goals than are achievable if we were to tour without our own system. So, just like in the early days, we wanted a complete system that is compact and lightweight – we are doing a lot of flying between shows and to freight large heavy items is very expensive – and this time, we decided to use a KLANG:fabrik system for in-ear monitoring.”

“For me personally, KLANG is a fantastic solution when it comes to IEM mixing. It has enough power to cover our needs and we get a super advanced mixer in a 2U rack. That really is a compact solution.”

Before Söderström suggested it, the band did not know about KLANG or immersive technology, but they were happy to try it out once he had explained it to them. He says the key to this successful conversion with the band was to explain what happens when one is isolated with earplugs. 

“I showed them how KLANG does a great job by bringing back the natural environment, as if there are no in-ears involved,” he says. “Once they understood what was going on, the next step was a natural transition. It’s also interesting that we almost never had to change the mixes between the shows. It’s more or less static every day, even when we jump between indoor clubs, theatres and large outdoor festival stages. The user’s brain accommodates everything and takes over the mixing adjustments needed, without having to physically change the mix, apart from maybe some ambient mic changes…

“Now everyone is completely hooked and wouldn’t think about using anything else. And, after a few days with KLANG, Eagle-Eye said that he never heard a better IEM sound!”