I listened to your album yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I'm not just saying that. It's the type of music that I like. When Popzine asked me to interview you, I thought, well, this is going to be fun.
Yes, thank you. That makes me really happy. I'm a bit nervous for tomorrow.
What’s something you're looking forward to for your launch?
I'm looking forward to, you know, you've been talking about something for a pretty long time. Like, the music and the vibe and how I wrote it and the inspiration, it’s a nice feeling to be able to just give it to people and then they can just dream away with their imagination or have a moment to fade out from reality a bit.
Oh, I like that. What’s the main takeaway you hope your listeners get from your album?
I think sometimes we all need to pause. I mean, things can get hectic, and there are so many bad things happening in the world. I think we need to remember that it can also be about small things. It doesn't have to be something political or something big. It can just be, “I'm stressed today,” or “I feel like I don't have enough money today,” or “I feel like I need to rest,” whatever it is. It can even be, “I just want to move all by myself.” So I want people to feel a sense of freedom, and to feel like they can just have three minutes to fade away.
How much do you feel that you changed as a person, as an artist when you were writing the album?
Quite a lot. We’ve been working on writing this for like two years, maybe. It was never like “Okay, we want to write an album”. It was just, okay, we have these five songs. We started with five songs and realized that maybe this could be a start to an album. I think that I changed because we’ve been doing more music than before, me and Daniel. When we were in the studio, We’d really just go in there and what happens, happens. We never really have a plan. That’s definitely changed for me.
When you're writing your music, what usually comes first? Is it the lyrics or the melody?
The melody. All the time. It can be that I have the feeling and then I maybe have a few words, or I know what I want to write about. It can be what happened in my life. It can be, whatever. Then I know like when I enter the studio, “Okay, I want to write something that feels like this”. Then we start with the melody, and then I just start to sing. It’s usually like one word that comes up. I keep on working with that word or the feeling that the melody gives me.
Is there something that you've been able to say through your music that you would never have had the courage to say directly to another person?
100%. Oh my god. And that's nice. I mean, you're free to write about whoever, whatever. It's my feelings so definitely.
This is about the song Stranger. You've described it as your most honest and vulnerable song on the album. Was it different to open up that much? Or did writing it actually help you process what you were going through in your life?
Yeah, it definitely helped me process. I think that's the best way for me to, or if I'm sad or if I’ve ever been through a heartbreak or I'm disappointed. From this song, it's like a relationship like love relationship perspective. Then music for me is the medicine. To write music, but also to listen to music. It was definitely also a bit scary to have that, because the person knows that the song is very much “I, I think exactly what happened”. So, of course, it can be a bit scary, and people also know that I do music.
That’s true, because as a listener, it also reminded me of someone from my past, but I'm listening to it. I won’t go telling him telling him “Oh, hey, this song is about you from me or my interpretation”. It isn’t the same as sending a song to someone. You actually wrote it. When you're performing your music live, does the way you’re feeling in the moment influence the song?
That was a good question. I never thought about that. When I sing it live, it's always more powerful. It's more like power to the lyrics, I think. It’s easier to show with emotions, you can be angry, you can be sad, you can be vulnerable. I think that my music is better live since I can explain the emotions much more than just on the recordings.
I want to see you live one day.
Yeah! I actually have a gig that next Friday, if you want to come.
Sure, I’m not busy that night.
It’s in Södermalm.
I love that area!
I think it will be nice, it’s just me and my friend who plays guitar, so it’s really calm and intimate.
I like those kinds of shows, I find sometimes in stadiums, it takes away the intimacy of it and the songs are just not the same.
Yeah, that would be so much fun if you if you can come.
I would love to. This next question circles back to the previous one. Have you ever written a song that surprised you emotionally once it was finished?
Angeline, 100%. And Lover's Mind. Maybe Lover's Mind more.
Do you find it easier to write music when you're happy or going through something difficult?
Oh, difficult. I mean, I think there has to be something. You need to have something. For me, it's easier and I think it's easier for a lot of songwriters or artists to. When you're happy, it’s not as fun to write music, like when you're sad or if you think about something. It's much easier to write if something bad happened in life...
I heard a quote once it was, “When you're sad, you listen to the lyrics, when you're happy, you listen to the music”.
Yeah. There's something about that.
You just mentioned Angeline. We previously featured Angeline on Popzine, and there's something about it that connects beautifully with Stranger. How do you see the relationship between these two songs musically and emotionally?
Emotionally, for me, they’re two separate songs since Angeline more self-reflecting. Stranger is more like you knew a person for many years and now they’re just a stranger. How weird it is to just be like, from one day to another. Bye bye. And you never talk again.
And melody? For me, it's not super similar, but maybe because I have another feeling for these two songs. For me, Angeline is softer and more vulnerable, and a little more filmisk? You know what that is? It’s like a movie, and Stranger is more forward, like a good song to listen to in the car.
Filmisk, like cinematic! You've mentioned that you can still feel the anger and sadness when listening to Stranger. Has your relationship with the song changed since you first wrote it?
No. Actually not. I like to listen to it, even though I don't do it often. But when I listen to it, I can be like “Oh”.
I think I think the answer is maybe obvious from what you just said… When you listen to Strangers, do you think about the person that you wrote it about all the time?
Yeah. I do. What makes emotions? I mean, this is just taken out of one situation. Yes, I do.
Do you ever think about how a listener perceives that song, like what it could mean to a listener?
I really do think just like you said, that makes me really happy. When you listen to it, you thought about your person. Maybe a person who made you feel like that could have been from ten years ago.
So I really hope that people can I mean, it's not fun if everyone has that type of person that they can think of. When I listen to a song that I can relate to in a way that makes me feel “Oh, this is exactly what I felt back then”, or “This is exactly what I’ve been through”, I can feel a connection that I’m less lonely. I think that people can find better understanding for themselves when they listen to the song.
That's good. If you can go back and talk to your younger self who has just starting to dream about making music, what would you tell her?
Be patient. If you have an idea that you really like, stick to it, go with your gut feeling. It can be a melody, a song, a text, whatever. Keep it to your first idea. Even though maybe people around you disagree.
That's a that's a good piece of advice for anything. Actually, when I was in school, my mom would tell me that when you're doing a multiple choice test, always stick to your first answer.
It’s always the best. I still do that. I remind myself that I’m doing this because it’s fun. When it starts to feel stressful, or I feel anxious about having to be 100% or be good all the time, I remind myself that it needs to be fun. I need to stay true to the core reason I started making music: because I just like to sing.
In today's music industry, there's so much focus on singles, streaming, numbers, and constantly releasing new material. What made you want to tell your story through a full album instead? Or how do you tackle that sort of structure?
Honestly, I don't think about it that often. Well, you just hear stuff like, “oh, it's better with singles”. I'm not against it. I've been releasing singles. This is my first album; it’s something that I've dreamed of. It's something that feels bigger than one single, of course, because it's like a whole package, like a whole production that you've been doing. But honestly, I don't think about it that often. If you have an idea, do it, if the industry is in like one way or saying you should do this right now, it might be good to think about. It’s nothing that I think about too often.
It’s good not to be thinking too much about it. As you said, going with your first feeling. Personally, when I hear a new song or album, I like to listen to it in the entirety. Did you put a lot of thought into the order of your songs?
Yes, I did. That’s also nice to hear because people don’t do that so often. They put on a song and have a good vibe or, they don't listen to albums completely, maybe like from start to end. When you do music, you think people will really sit and listen and feel it. Not everyone does it, but it makes me really happy when someone feels something.
Whenever I listen to an album for the first time, I always listen to it to see how it feels, how it sounds to me. Then I sit down to listen to it attentively for a second time and listen to the lyrics. It takes me a good two listen to actually like grasp it. Many people will just listen to a song here and there, but I think if I'm like really excited about it, and I also find when you change the order of the songs, it could also give a different meaning to them.
Yeah, definitely.
Do you see any of your songs as a continuation of another one?
No. They're in the same world, but no.
How do you see yourself evolving as a musical artist? What do you think your musical journey will look like? Do you think you would want to experiment with different genres?
Definitely. I’m inspired by music from the 60s, 70s. I wanted to be like filmisk. I wanted to be pretty big, but also that I'm always dreaming away to something. After this album, maybe the new music could be a little bit different. I mean, it will be boring if it’s too much of exactly the same thing. It’s just learning by doing, and you change then your music will also change. It’s how it goes.
I like when a band has a new sound. Sometimes people are annoyed by it, but I think it's important to evolve as an artist. I'm a visual artist. I do different medias. Sometimes I sketch, sometimes I paint. It’s boring when you do the same thing all the time and I'm sure it is as a musical artist.
For me, the voice will always be the main. You can hear that it's me, but then the melody or the genre or the vibe, that can change through time.
Is there a song on the album that means something extra special to you?
That will always be Angeline. That's for me is my little baby.
It's a really nice one.
Yeah, I like that a lot.
I think after interviewing you, I'll listen to it again and then have even more thoughts about it and it's pretty interesting.
It’s beautiful to write and it was just beautiful how it ended up how it did.
It’s very natural. You must be really proud of yourself with the recording and everything.
Yeah, me and Daniel, we had a good day in the studio. It just happened.
How long did it take you to record it?
That one didn’t take very much time. I remember the first session that we very much of it. We had two or three sessions and it was done. But then a little bit after we produced live drums on it, however the whole form and the lyrics and the song were done in two sessions.
That’s about everything. Half the questions I kind of prepared and the rest flowed naturally. You’re really nice to talk to.
Yeah, questions always come up as you talk, talk about the music. They were really nice questions. It’s nice now when you have different interviews with different people, they were good questions. I will post about the gig. That would be fun, you’re more than welcome.
Yeah, on Friday that would be cool. So have a good evening!
Thank you so much Amanda!