She just wants to have fun

A few months ago, we had the opportunity of hearing the first single off Astrid Swan’s new album. It was an invigorating pop tune that anticipated some fun times for the singer and indeed, that is the case of Better Than Wages, her new album, which you can already find at your favourite record store and at the regular digital outlets. After a dramatic and emotionally charged second album (Spartan Picnic, 2008), Better Than Wages is a fun collection of pop songs that tell everyday life stories.

Right before rehearsing with her new band, The Drunk Lovers, we met the singer who told us about these new songs and how stubbornly she has always pursued to play all around the world.

New album, new band… is this a new beginning for your?

Yeah, it feels like that every time there is a new record, all the process starts over and this time even more.

Why did you decide to start a new band and be more guitar pop oriented?

After the previous album, I wanted to start playing with a band, sharing and being together on stage, instead of playing alone as I have done many times before. I felt more sociable. At the same time, I knew what kind of songs work better in the live set and I wanted to have an album with that type of songs, something that it would much funnier for the audience. Better Than Wages is much more spontaneous. Ideas are really simple whereas the previous album had a very strong theme and a hard emotion.

With this new approach, how did your songwriting change?

I took the decision of dropping the piano while composing, because it is such a dominant instrument. If the piano is put aside, the song can have more space for other things. In the end, about half of the songs in the album were written with the guitar.

How did you feel writing with a new instrument?

My guitar playing is limited and basic, so I was forced to be simple and concentrate more on the vocal notes. I could not write very complicated songs with the guitar because I just couldn’t play it. It helped achieving the idea of having a simple and fun album. Another reason I switched to the guitar was that my neighbour started complaining about the piano sound and I got scared that I would need to find another home so I changed to guitar.

Lyrically, how different is this album?

In a way, the lyrics also support the idea of simple songs. There are some light topics because there can be a good song without tearing your heart apart. I also wrote very personal lyrics, even though that was not my aim.

Indeed the album feels quite autobiographical. The song Finland in November give a melancholic view on Finland, is it also an autobiographical song?

I have been struggling with Finland since I was a teenager. When I was 17, I went to study to the United States and there I got a new perspective. Now I travel a lot with my music and when I am away I love Finland, but after being here for six months it gets really boring and I need to go somewhere else, especially during November and winter. I am sure I am not the only one who feels like that so I just wanted to write a song about Finland, because that was something I had never done before and people are always asking about Finland. Recently I have been to a bunch of cities and I thought it would be funny to compare all those cities with Finland in a song.

So if you could move out of Finland, that country would be…

For a long time, I wanted to move to New York, but I might have grown up and I am might not be so keen to completely leave Finland any more.

Playing in many different countries.

The scene here is pretty active and there are many things around, but there are so limits, first geographically and it is a small countries. If you go to some part of the States or even in Europe, many people don’t know Finland as a music country. There are either interested because it is exotic or there are completely indifference in the sense that they might have such a great market of their own that why there would be a reason to pay attention to music of Finland in English with a strange accent.

Compared to other Nordic countries, it seems difficult to create pop stars in Finland, why do you think there are no huge pop starts from Finland?

I don’t think we are lacking anything. There is great talent here so the problem might be with the network to promote Finnish music. People in Finland are not very good creating relations and working together, not even within Finland. In the creative aspect, Finland is not the greatest country in networking. Also when we go outside we are too shy and apologizing, but at the same time too proud to even try. Nowways, things might be changing with younger people working who are proud of their bands and try to sell them outside well.

What about your own experience, did your face difficulties to find people support your music, given the fact that you write your own songs and you do it in English?

I did my first demo by myself when I was 17 in English. Then I went to States and while I was there I was in contact with some major labels that were interested but prefer me to sing in Finnish. They thought I would never sell in English and they could not understand that I wanted to sing in English.

How did you convince the labels that you would sing in English?

I guess they realized that I could really use the language. I was in the States and in the University my major was English. Also, the people I did my first album with were English so they did not care about Finnish so much.

Why are you so keen to sing and write in English?

My passion for English started when I was very young in my teen. I studied at school and read books in English and the artists I admired were using English. I love its sound, how melodic it is. I think Finnish was very difficult to sing.

Have you ever written in Finnish?

I did as a child, but later when writing pop songs I could not think about other language but English.

Do you think you would sell more singing in Finnish?

Yes, probably.