Sweden - Stim

Hit facts from The Swedish Music Information Centre | 2008
hit facts
Sweden

Jan Gradvall was born in
1963 and lives in Stockholm.
He is recognised as one of
Sweden´s leading rock and
pop journalists for the last
20 years. In 2001, he was
named Journalist of the
Year by Sveriges Tidskrifter,
a trade organization for the
country´s magazine press.
And in 2002, he was voted
Sweden´s top music journalist
in an industry poll run by
the trade journal Musikindustrin.
Gradvall currently
covers media and music for
Sweden´s leading financial
paper, Dagens Industri, and
also writes for several style
magazine such as Elle.
Photo: Jonas Linell
Bittersweetness
and Bombasticity
Every time you think that it’s finally possible to write about Swedish pop music without mentioning ABBA, someone comes
along and proves you wrong. The most recent culprit is an anthology on the Licking Fingers label, The Concretes’ own recording
company. This collection of 21 of the most important contemporary Swedish artists has been given an all-too familiar title:
“Thank you for the music”.
The CD has been applauded by England’s
Rough Trade as “the best and
most cohesive compilation we’ve
heard in years”.
In an introduction on the inside of
the digipack, Lisa Milberg at Licking
Fingers writes that she – along with
everyone else who works with Swedish
music – is constantly asked how
a country with a population of only
nine million can continually churn
out a disproportionate number of new
pop artists.
“We get asked this all the time.
What’s the secret? How come Sweden
sports so many incredible musical
talents? Is it the long, dark winters?
The suicide rates (we all know that
true artists must suffer)? The government
funding? Is it the boredom
we all juggle with, living as we do in
such a remote and tiny country? Is it
the early indoctrination of ABBA and
their unique blend of bittersweetness
and bombasticity?” I guess the answer
is “all of the above”. Musically
speaking, though, we can’t avoid the
fact that, yes, ABBA and their tunes
are the main, if not only common denominator
among all the 21 artists on
the disk.
In a review of Lykke Li in the English
magazine The Word, James Medd
attempts to tie up the Swedish sack,
from Max Martins international hits
(Kelly Clarkson, Pink) to The Knife
and El Perro Del Mar and, of course,
Lykke Li.
Medd concludes: “But one thing
hasn’t changed since ABBA. However
they dress it up, they just can’t
help writing tunes – and tunes that
are not just cracking, but also slightly
strange, mournful and twisted, the
kind that stay with you”.
Listening again to ABBA, we find that
their catchiest songs – SOS, Fernando,
and The winner takes it all – were
always their most mournful too.
For 21st century Swedish artists from
the “do it yourself” generation, AB-
BA’s perfect studio productions seem
rather remote. But then again, almost
all of them gain purchase on the sadness,
the bittersweetness of ABBA,
with tunes in minor keys and lyrics
expressing some kind of yearning. A
nostalgia for times past, perhaps.
There are parallels here between
Swedish pop and Swedish film. All
21 artists on “Thank you for the music”
– and the many, many more who
didn’t make it onto the CD – evoke a
mood reminiscent of classic Swedish
films like Wild strawberries, My life
as a dog and Together.
Mr DeMille, Swedish pop is ready for
its close-up.
Jan Gradvall
Cover photos:
2 Sofia | Hit Karlsson Facts - Photo Sweden by Magnus Selander. Adam Tensta - Photo by Erik Svensson. Pacific! - Press Image
Familjen – Photo by Emma Svensson. Those Dancing Days – Press Image. First Floor Power – Photo by S. Wilson.

Photo: Press Image
Photo: Press Image
School’s Out for
Those Dancing Days
Young & promising. Words that are forever appearing in articles on pop music, regardless of how relevant they actually are.
However, no other description would better suit Those Dancing Days, a band from Nacka, an island suburb of Stockholm. The
band members are so young that two of them, singer Linnea Jönsson and bassist Mimmi Evrell, have just left school.
“Leaving school was a big thing for us
for a number of reasons. Now we can
at last put as much time into our music
as we want,” says Jönsson.
Previously they had to take time off
school when recording on weekdays.
Those Dancing Days are also so
promising that they have already secured
a recording contract with the
British Wichita Recordings. And
British magazine NME included one
of their songs on its Best of 2007 list.
The five members of Those Dancing
Days have different musical backgrounds
and influences, and the first
group they could agree on was Shout
Out Louds, another Stockholm band.
“Shout Out Louds were our great
inspiration,” says Jönsson. “Their
hit 100 degrees was the first tune we
learnt to play in the studio. We went
to listen to Shout Out Louds whenever
they played. We also all liked
Laakso and went to their gigs too.”
Since then, Those Dancing Days have
developed a personal pop style, with
an energy, joy and drive that calls
to mind 60s soul. If the Tams’ song
Be young, be foolish, be happy was
a band, it would be Those Dancing
Days.
“I suppose it’s mainly Mimmi, our
bassist, who comes with the inspiration,”
says Jönsson. “She’s listened to
a lot of Northern Soul and stuff.”
“My personal favourites? Well, I suppose
my favourite singer is Lauryn
Hill. I love her independence and
charisma. I don’t try to sound like her,
but I really like the way she’s herself
and does her own thing.”
Those Dancing Days were formed in
2005 and launched themselves onto
the Swedish scene with a five-track
EP. They are currently in the studio
completing their first album, which is
due for release this October.
“The album will probably be a little
more mature than what we’ve been
doing so far. After that, we’ll go on
tour. We’ll be playing in Europe and
it seems we’ve got the go-ahead for
Japan too.”
Hit Facts Sweden | 3

Photo: Jenny Källman
Familjen
Photo: Press Image
Detektivbyrån
Photo: Erik Svensson
Photo: Johan Bergmark
Photo: Live Nation
Kleerup
Markus Krunegård
Adam Tensta
4 | Hit Facts Sweden

“Appearing on his
debut album from
2008 are Sweden’s
crème de la crème”
Adam Tensta
myspace.com/adamtensta
The biggest stars in Swedish hiphop
have consistently been those who rap
in Swedish. Hiphop has become the
culture that brings together immigrants
from all corners of the world.
But Adam Tensta raps in English and
does so so well that his music is starting
gain international popularity. Tensta
has been praised by gossip blogger
Perez Hilton and has supported Jay-Z.
Views of his big hit, My cool, on You-
Tube are approaching the two million
mark. Tensta took his name from one
of Stockholm’s best known immigrant
suburbs, as did his debut album It’s a
Tensta thing. His real name is Adam
Momodou Taal Eriksson.
Familjen
myspace.com/familjen
When Robyn was asked by The New
Yorker’s music critic Sasha Frere-
Jones what music she listened to, she
answered: “Familjen”. The name is
Swedish for “The Family” but is an
electronic solo project led by Johan T
Karlsson from Skåne in southern Sweden.
Dance music with Swedish lyrics is
unusual in Sweden; even more so when
performed with such a broad southern
dialect. The position and role of Skåne
in Sweden is not unlike that of Texas
in the USA. Musically, Familjen finds
its inspiration in Kraftwerk, but it takes
the synths further, to the fusion of rave
culture and pop tunes that so marked
the Stone Roses and Primal Scream’s
album Screamadelica.
Kleerup
myspace.com/kleerup
When the song With every heartbeat
went to no. 1 in England in early
2007, Robyn’s name was on the label.
But when the single was an equally big
hit in Sweden the year before, the artist
was Kleerup. (The song was not on
the original release of Robyn but was
added afterwards.) The young musician
and producer Andreas Kleerup
engages guest female singers for his
music. Appearing on his debut album
from 2008 are Sweden’s crème de la
crème: Titityo, Neneh Cherry (yeah,
she’s Swedish), Marit Bergman, Lykke
Li and Lisa Milberg from The Concretes.
The Vangelis-influenced album
is like a Blade Runner soundtrack to
rainy Stockholm nights of the future.
Markus Krunegård
myspace.com/markuskrunegrd
Laakso has become one of the most
influential noughties bands in Sweden,
despite having had no broad commercial
breakthrough. The name Laakso is
Finnish for ‘ valley’ and is a reference to
Tornedalen, the area between Sweden
and Finland featured in Mikael Niemi’s
international bestseller Popular
music from Vittula. The band’s singer,
Markus Krunegård, has attracted similar
attention for his different sideline
projects. Besides having cut an album
with Swedish punk supergroup Hets,
he has released a critically acclaimed
solo album, substituting a more open,
electronic sound for the guitar rifts
from Laakso – although without compromising
the all-or-nothing feel.
Detektivbyrån
myspace.com/detektivbyran
The trio Detektivbyrån convey two
moods in their music familiar to all
Swedes. The one is of the midsummer
eve dance stage, wreathed in leafy
birch twigs, on which someone has just
settled down with their accordion; the
other is of childhood Christmas Eves,
when the presents have been opened
and the new toy instruments are being
tried out. And when the trio starts to
play, these two memories merge into
one. Detektivbyrån’s music is as exotically
Swedish as Nino Rota’s is Italian.
Perhaps this is why it’s also starting to
make headway overseas. In June and
July, the band made a tour of Germany.
Hit Facts Sweden | 5

Photo: Mats Bergkvist
Photo: Magnus Selander
Sofia Karlsson
Tape
Photo: S. Wilson
Pacific
Photo: Press Image
First Floor Power
6 | Hit Facts Sweden

“Women of course,
and bitterness combined
with a little
bit of hope.”
Sofia Karlsson
myspace.com/sofiakarlsson
Early Swedish folk music, ballads especially,
often percolates through into
contemporary pop, so much so that
some artists have these minor-keyed
tunes as their sole source of inspiration.
Others, like Sofia Karlsson, dig down
into history and perform the ballads in
the same non-electric way as they did
100 years ago. At the same time, Karlsson
vitalises the genre and breathes
new life into the songs by introducing
influences from other international folk
styles. She is just at home with the bouzouki
as she is with the acoustic guitar,
and was formerly a member of the folk
combo Groupa. She is also the winner
of two Swedish Grammis awards.
Tape
myspace.com/tapesthlm
Johan Berthling is a central figure
on the contemporary music scene in
Sweden. From 1996 to 1998 he was a
student of the Royal Conservatory of
Music in Stockholm, and since then
he has explored improvisational music,
jazz and pop and blurred the lines between
them. He runs the Häpna label,
which apart from Swedish artists like
Sagor & Swing also has on its books
performers from Japan and Italy. Along
with his brother Andreas and Tomas
Hallonsten, Johan Berthling is also a
member of Tape, a trio which, thanks
to three instrumental albums, has created
a name for itself from Glasgow to
Tokyo.
First Floor Power
myspace.com/firstfloorpower
In the song Take my breath away with
The Knife, Karin Dreijer sings, “I’m in
the first row on your show/In the first
row of the First Floor Power show”.
The song is a duet with Jenny Wilson,
one of the singers in the band. First
Floor Power was formed in Malmö in
1997, and their eclecticism has made
a great impression on the alternative
scene in Sweden. The band’s music
carries traces of everything from Yoko
Ono and Laurie Anderson to Jonathan
Richman. Jenny Wilson recently left
the band to embark on a solo career,
but her sister Sara is still with them.
Band member Karl-Jonas Winqvist is
also in charge of a separate and much
talked-about project, Blood Music.
Friska Viljor
myspace.com/friskaviljor
A duo from Stockholm that has a
Swedish name but sings in English and
makes pop music that is as euphorically
optimistic as it is heart-searingly
tragic. Daniel Johansson and Joakim
Svenningsson both broke up with their
girlfriends to be able to focus 100 per
cent on their music. On their MySpace
page, they describe how their debut
album Tour de hearts came about:
“Alcohol has clearly been a really big
inspiration. Women of course, and
bitterness combined with a little bit of
hope.” Friska Viljor has been touring
pretty much non-stop in Europe this
year (2008).
Pacific!
myspace.com/musicpacific
Stockholm might be the capital of Sweden,
but it is the second largest city,
Göteborg, that has produced the best
pop artists in the past few decades.
That Göteborg is a salt-splattered,
sailing-crazed port comes out clearly
in the artists’ music and attitudes. And
seldom has it been so obvious as in the
duo Pacific!, whose music takes them
from Sweden’s west coast to the USA’s,
at times sounding like a more modern
and more electronic Beach Boys. It’s
fitting that their biggest hit is called
“Sunset Boulevard”. The French illustrator
Stephane Manel designed the
cover to their debut album.
Hit Facts Sweden | 7

Swedish Music Information Centre
Box 27327 • Sandhamnsgatan 79 • SE-102 54 Stockholm
Tel: +46-8-783 88 00 • Fax: +46-8-783 95 10
E-mail: swedmic@stim.se • Internet: www.mic.stim.se
STIM
Box 27327 • Sandhamnsgatan 79 • SE-102 54 Stockholm
Tel +46-8-783 88 00 • Fax: +46-8-662 62 75
E-mail: info@stim.se • Internet: www.stim.se
Export Music Sweden
Box 27327 • Sandhamnsgatan 79 • SE-102 54 Stockholm
Tel +46-8 783 88 00 • Fax:+46-8-783 95 10
E-mail: info@exms.com • Internet: www.exms.com
Concerts Sweden
Nybrokajen 11 • SE-111 48 Stockholm
Useful addresses & LINKS:
Tel +46-8-407 16 00 • Fax: +46-8-407 16 50
E-mal: info@rikskonserter.se • Internet: www.rikskonserter.se
Royal Swedish Academy of Music
Blasieholmstorg 8 • SE-111 48 Stockholm
Tel +46-8-407 18 00 • Fax: +46-8-611 87 18
E-mail: adm@musakad.se • Internet: www.musakad.se
SAMI
Döbelnsgatan 3 • SE-111 40 Stockholm
Tel +46-8-453 34 00 • Fax: +46-8-453 34 40
E-mail: info@sami.se • Internet: www.sami.se
Swedish Broadcasting Corporation
SE-105 10 Stockholm
Tel: +46-8-784 50 00 • Fax: +46-8-663 19 40
Internet: www.sr.se
Music from Sweden on MySpace
www.myspace.com/MusicFromSweden
Sweden.se: music
www.sweden.se/music
Swedesplease
www.swedesplease.net
It’s a Trap
www.itsatrap.com
Absolut Noise
absolutnoise.blogspot.com
Hello! Surprise!
www.hellosurprise.com/
Swedish Music Information Centre
Box 27327 • Sandhamnsgatan 79 • SE-102 54 Stockholm
Tel: +46-8-783 88 00 • Fax: +46-8-783 95 10
E-mail: swedmic@mic.se • Internet: www.mic.se
Swedish Music Information Centre is concerned with the documentation and the spreading
of information of contemporary Swedish music, and is financed by STIM and the Swedish government.
Editorial staff: Kristofer Kebbon, Jan Gradvall. Translation by Neil Betteridge.