Totally Stockholm 1
This spring we finally had signs of life from Sei
nabo Sey again. After an all too long hiatus, she has – through mighty new singles and videos recorded in Gambia – proclaimed that her second album is on the way. It’s been five years since your debut with Younger. Has the time flown? I got my record deal when I was 19 or 20 something so I have been working professionally with music for a long time. It’s almost ten years. It feels like half that in my head, but at the same time there’s so much I have learned that takes a long time. Like what? Well, everything! I knew nothing when I first started out, apart from being able to sing a little. Apart from that I have learned everything I know now, and there’s still an infinite amount of things to learn. One of the most fun things with what I do is that I never really understand everything and it’s so exciting and fun to grasp more and more about what I, myself, can control. On your single I Owe You Nothing you state ”I don’t have to smile for you, I don’t have to move for you, I don’t have to dance, monkey dance for you”. Who are you directing that towards? Everyone I think, haha. Our shameful society. It’s a general problem with all creativity. People always think you need to do more than you do. At the Grammis Awards show a couple of years ago they were asking all the time “Won’t you do anything more, shouldn’t you move around a bit?” I had to say no about 17 times. There was even a manager worried about what didn’t happen on stage. “No, I want to stand here. You don’t understand how much power there lies in just standing still and looking at people”. That was probably the first time I had to be someone else to make sure I got what I wanted. I felt physically ill but it made me understand that if I wanted to do exactly as I wanted I had to stop worrying about people thinking I was unpleasant and people not liking me. I get really uncomfortable when I feel I am directing someone but I have to like myself enough to cope with that pressure. Your debut was the clear winner in many best of 2015-lists and you won several awards. Was there a point where that became blasé, when all the praise no longer affected you? No. It’s like I don’t even remember all of that anymore. Like some sort of post-traumatic stress. No, oh my god. I work 24 hours a day to achieve what I want. But really, the more prizes and awards you win, the more you realise that life has to be about other things. They don’t make you happy. But if I become blasé, I have to quit doing this. So you will read the new album reviews with the same eyes as last time? I have thought about this a lot. I want to be like my friend Oskar Linnros, he doesn’t read reviews at all. I wish my internet fingers would be able to resist that. Life is all about balancing and it seems impossible that this album will be as wellreceived as the last one. Do you feel pressure now because of the success of your debut album? From people around you, people who get their salary from you? Or pressure from your fans or yourself? Of course I feel pressure. I don’t want people to suffer at work, that someone will get an earful because I haven’t made a hit single. I want the people who work with my music to be proud of it. It’s great that people have ambition for my career. That must mean that they see potential, and I would be sorry if people didn’t believe it could work out well. If you cannot work with this in case it doesn’t go as well, perhaps you are in the wrong place. If I’m being honest with myself, work for the long term, and believe in myself a bit. To think that I want to continue to be an artist when I’m old, then it has to be room for it not being incredible all the time. I have been around the biggest artists in Sweden and international stars and understand by now that you could always call something a failure compared to before. I still think it’s a miracle that I can support myself from my music, and that’s something I remind myself about sometimes when I’m at home moaning. That my only working duty is to take something from my imagination to express something to inspire others. There are worse walks of life. Musically and sonically there’s a clear line in between Seinabo Sey’s debut and the upcoming album. Strong melodies and a sparse sound with heavy beats. But at the same time there is an evident development in several directions. I Love You has a deep groove with an almost dub-like feeling and the distinct disco rhythm in Never Get Used To is uptempo in a way we’re not used to with Seinabo Sey. I get so happy I almost cry when you describe it like that. It’s like the only thing I think about – how to develop without breaking with everything I am. Otherwise I’d believe the myth about myself, if I tried to do the exact same thing again I would throw up on myself. To find the middle ground in between doing the exact same as before and make a clean break from your old self, something I’d like to do sometimes when I’m just so bored by myself, to colour my hair blue or something. To find the point where I’m perfectly insecure that’s what I’m constantly striving for, and that’s so extremely hard. You have said that 75 percent of the work in the studio is like head-butting the wall and that you only like what you do in the remaining 25 percent. Does that make you want to rush things and be more spontaneous or can you cope with a slow and nit-picking way of working? It’s still the same way. Perhaps worse. It’s of course supposed to be fun but there are periods that are the exact opposite. Making this album has changed my life. I have never been this worried about anything, ever. But I still think that now, it’s so worth it. I think it will make me a better person. In October you are playing live again, at Globen, a gig that was announced a full year ago. And we have spoken about it for two years, since it was supposed to have been last year before we moved it. I feel very isolated. I never thought it would be two years since I stood on a stage. That’s where I get a sense of reality and a lot of joy. That’s where the music becomes real and alive. For the new album you have worked together with the same people as last time – Magnus Lidehäll, Salem Al Fakir, Vincent Pontare, Oskar Linnros and Isak Alverus. They are my safety net. They have been my big brothers. Vincent Pontare gave me money for coffee when I didn’t have any. For several years they believed in me and looked after me when I couldn’t look after myself. I have learned so much by being around those people. 13