Totally Stockholm 1
If we go back to the idea of the character, and I
remember you saying earlier on when you were talking about your role as a public presence, it was about doing what you think is good and right yourself, and not caring about what other people’s opinions of you are, and not being motivated by that. It sounds like you’re doing that on those opening tracks. Exactly. I’m always planning the next move, always. The album is finished and so I’m already doing something else now. You cannot let what people think of you affect you, whether it’s victories or whatever. I’ve won all the prizes you can win, but I’m not going to be so affected when people say congratulations, apart from saying thank you. Because then, when you don’t win, when they don’t like a song, you’ll be heartbroken. So I’m not overly excited when I win, and I’m not sad when people say a song is bad. I was almost going to say ‘when I don’t win’ there, but of course I’ve never lost [laughs]. You mean it’s all external opinions. Regardless of whether they’re positive or negative, you shouldn’t pay attention to them? Yeah, and that’s the advice I give to everyone, not just artists or whatever. Don’t dwell on feedback, whether negative or positive, because then you will get lost. Don’t do that, be stable. I think that’s hard for a lot of people, because we live in this fucking crazy social media world. So please don’t get caught up in that, because I’ve seen people do desperate things… it’s just not good. tive thing, like ‘oh I don’t want to do this’. I just felt the pressure before, and I felt that I couldn’t handle it. But it’s different now, I can handle it. It’s a part of me, I am a story-teller, I am this person, I want to save people, I want to make people feel good. And to do that, I can’t think about people all the time, I have to think about what I want to do. When did you start to think about your role and associate it with, first of all this title, Helig Moder, which has a lot of associations in history and culture and myth, when did you start to think about it under that name? This is my core. I believe we are all gods. I’m not a religious person, in that sense. But I believe we are all gods of our own destiny, we are all limitless creators, we created this earth. And this is what I want people to feel, that they are empowered and in control, because I’ve also felt helpless, like when growing up, ‘un-powered’. So I want to give the power to the people. I’m not talking about political power here, but more about your actions, and the way you treat other people, everything is in you. The planet consists of 80-95 percent water, the body consists of the exact same amount. We are the universe, we all have it in us. So this is my core, these ‘laws of nature’ as I call them, this is my core. So it’s always been very close to me. Yes, I’m talking about myself to an extent, Helig Moder is my album title, but I’m also talking about Mother Earth, it has a bigger meaning. There’s other ideas and meanings, rather than it just being about you as a person? Yeah, it’s not about me, it’s about the power of words, wisdom, people. You also said ‘we all struggle. We struggle so hard every day’. Yeah! We really do, everyone does. No matter where you’re from. That’s what I wanted to say with that song, I’m also struggling. And if I’m struggling, you’re struggling. And that it’s a beautiful thing to cry, and to talk about those dark emotions. Because I’ve kind of been afraid of talking about them, but now when I am talking about them, I feel better. So it’s about helping people get through their everyday shit? Yeah, and that there is a light, that is life. Just follow the light. Again, not in a religious sense. It’s the light within you, we all have this super strong light. I believe all human beings have it. But depending on where you come from, or where you’re raised in society, you will act differently. 14 Like flowers needing water and light or whatever. So let’s go through a few quotes from the album now. First track Para Dis, you go ‘Jag behöver inga nya vänner, och inga gamla falska heller’. Then we go to Helig Moder, and it’s ’Vill du va Silvana… Jag vet inte längre’ and ‘Vissa väljer att sitta och jag står’ and ’Gav mig superhjälterollen, hade inget val’. There’s those opening songs on the album, that sound like you’re taking on the world a bit in rap superhero mode, firing out these lines. But there’s also a lot of playing about with this character ‘Silvana’, and this feeds into a question we spoke about earlier. It kind of sounds on those opening lines that you’re sick of being a symbol for others’ ideas, and that this character has been a tool for other people, and here you’re trying to reclaim it, bring it back for yourself. The first thing you said about the character, I’m talking about the character, the way people view her. It’s not about me reclaiming that character, it’s just that I’m talking about that character. So like you [other people] gave me that role, and you wanted all the answers, so I gave you a fucking film, I gave you a movie, I gave you a book. There isn’t an attempt to shorten the distance between the character and the actual person? I mean, of course there is. But what you see in the movie is a part of me, you don’t see the whole story. You will never see the whole story, because I am actually a very private person. I give you, mostly, what I want you to see. To a certain extent, because I’m also a very emotional person, so if I feel something is wrong I tend to flip and say it’s wrong. I thought that I was a controlled person, but I’m really not. But with the movie, I didn’t direct it, so that’s their story of me. There are 25 other people who have their own story about me. I think it’s interesting to play with a character, especially when it’s so near yourself. You can get lost in it. It’s really weird to be a public figure like this, and to become a person everybody has an opinion or idea about. Because every person that approaches me feels a connection to me, and that can disconnect you from people. It’s like ‘so what do you think about me?’. I understand that they see it that way, through my words, music and political beliefs, this is what they connect to. But then there is a person that they don’t see. And it’s good that they don’t see that, because then I would be opened up for everyone. And I’m just not like that. I think you mention that in a later song, with a line about journalists hating you one day and loving you the next, it also touches on that. Yeah, if we talk about journalists. Of course journalists are going to have opinions about me and write bad shit and good shit. Of course. I’m a public figure. I see other people get upset, y’know ‘that person wrote this about me’, or ‘this podcast’. In America they have all these, The Daily Struggle, The Breakfast Club, they just talk and talk and talk, and artists get like ‘you spoke about me like this?’ Chill out man, it’s not personal! You rap, people are going to have opinions, chill the fuck out. There’s a trend on this record I think, if you compare it to Naturkraft. It’s a little bit less aggressive and not as hard as that album is. It’s not trying to be the musical sound of a storm as much. And that’s especially clear on songs like Magi Som Orlando. My favourite song. With songs like Magi Som Orlando and Jag Ser Ljuset, we tried to create a new world for me. I’m still a very political person, a political rapper, even though I got a bit tired of people saying that, because that’s all they said. But I am that. But I’m also more. And on this album we want to give you that. Something that is also me. I’m political, but I’m also emotional, and everything in between. It does feel like a more personal record, especially with that run of relationship songs from Magi Som Orlando down to Stanna Tiden, there’s four songs in a row that are like relationship songs. It’s seemed more personal. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I do agree. On Naturkraft, I was telling you my story, like on the first song, Hon Va. Part of my life story, and that’s personal. But now I get more into the emotional side of it, of me, what I feel. Which I didn’t do on Naturkraft, because I didn’t feel I wanted to. Now I feel I wanted to, on this album. Finally, the album ends with Jag Ser Ljuset, which you’ve said was ‘simultaneously the happiest and saddest song you’ve ever written’, so did that range of feelings in the song make it a suitable one to end the album on? Well, it’s more that I wanted to end the album with The Light. We’re all in this shit together, in this world that is good and bad and everything. We’re in this together, and there’s something within you that can conquer everything. Helig Moder is out in February.