EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD+INTERVIEW: Frida Hyvönen - Birds
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It was just a minute (week) ago we introduced an exclusive track from Swedish piano vixen Frida Hyvönen. This morning we're revisiting the pop wilds of "Birds" and taking a trip with Hyvönen to the Swedish countryside. If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing "Birds" yet, just look below. Interview's after the jump.
Sounds Like: Jenny Lewis, El Perro Del Mar, Patti Smith
Exclusive Download: Frida Hyvönen - Birds
How has touring the States been going?
Well, I wish I could bring my band. The next time I hope I can bring them.
Do you not prefer singing alone?
I’ve been doing that for four years non-stop and I thought I wanted to do something new so I decided I would make a record with a band. I think I am at heart a solo artist. I’m not so good at collaborating and if you’re playing alone you can improvise more. But it’s been great to start playing with a drummer. There’s all the power to lean on.
Yeah, the presence of your band makes a huge difference record to record.
I put the band together just to record. We met for the first time two days before we starting recording. We rehearsed for two days and then we recorded for two days. It was all done live.
But you had obviously been working them out all on your own.
Exactly. I had been working with the songs for a little over half a year. Then I went to Stockholm to record and I knew what everyone needed to do.
Tell me a little bit about where you live now.
I live in the countryside. It’s a small village with 400 people and one shop in the center. It’s a hardware store. There’s also a little chapel and then my house. I bought that house one and a half years ago and I moved there last summer to have a good place to work. I have a grand piano and lot of instruments. I lived in Stockholm for twelve years and after a long tour I didn’t feel like going back. Touring has become so much better now that I have the house. Because i know it's there. It's the only security I have.
What does the house look like?
It's made of wood. It was built in the early 30s. Creamy yellow, maybe a vanilla yellow. It's a nice, soft yellow. The corners of the house are white and I have a large garden with roses and at the edge of the garden is the white chapel. I have a small red shed with my lawnmowers in it. It's a two-and-half-story house so there's a lot of space. I have my grand piano room downstairs and my guest room and office. Upstairs is my bedroom and yoga room and a large room I haven't done anything with yet. It still needs to be insulated. I want it to be a library and rehearsal space. But I'm not handy or anything, so I'll have to force someone to help me. It's really nice. I fell in love with it.
Were most of these new songs written in the countryside? Were those that made up the first record written in Stockholm?
Most of the songs from the previous record were actually written in the countryside as well because I find it hard to write when I’m in the city. So I found a space where I can be really alone, where it’s quiet. No one is going to come in and disturb me. So I guess most of my songs are written in the country. Like when I’ve gone to my parents’ house and brought ideas and sat down for a few days.
Do you feel like that comes through lyrically?
When I write lyrics I’m not noticing what’s going around me. Well, I guess I am but that’s why I want it to be silent. It has less to do with the countryside and more to do with opening up in a way, not risking being disturbed. I have to let go of inhibitions.
Is there where the album’s title came from?
A little bit. I was thinking about a lot of things like wilderness as the opposite of constructed language. And I think a lot of the album is about the wild and the civilized and what goes on in the silence—the wild things that go on in silence because we can’t put words on because they won’t be wild anymore. Like fertility. A little bit of everything….hidden in the silence.
Do you remember the day you wrote “Birds”?
I get a picture in my head, yes.
What do you see?
It looks like me sitting in my office writing lyrics. I see my hands and I’m looking out on the field. There are a lot of birds in the field. Actually, that song… we went to a funeral. My mother and her husband and I went to a funeral. His dad had died and we went to his funeral. My mom was complaining about the birds not leaving on time. She loves watching birds and she was upset with the birds. That was the initial spark for writing that song.
That song in particular is definitely more pop-oriented. When did you decide you wanted to fill those spaces you had previously?
It was never a decision. It was just quite organic, thinking about what would sound good where. I wanted to do more harmonies and when I recorded the first sketches at home, I just do all the sounds with my voice and the piano. So the arrangements in the beginning where written for a vocal ensemble. I didn’t want to make a folk record, you know? I wanted the songs to have more power. Like drums.
To me, somehow, it’s sounds very Swedish.
Yeah, some people think it sounds like ABBA. I don’t know what they’re thinking. Maybe it’s my name.
Do you like ABBA?
Not at all. I don’t dislike them, but it just doesn’t go to my heart.
Do you ever sing in Swedish?
No. I mean, I can sing in Swedish but I don’t write in Swedish. I write poetry in Swedish but I don’t speak it. Swedish, I think, is better when you read it than when you speak it. The same is with singing. I am thinking of making a Swedish record, but I’m not sure when. For now, I sing at funerals and weddings. People ask me to sing specific songs like Swedish hymnals or folk songs.
How long have you been singing at funerals?
The first funeral I sang at was my grandfather’s funeral ten years ago. Mostly it’s people that I know or people whose relatives I know.
It seems like it would be a very difficult thing to do.
Yes, it is. But it’s nice to give something to that special occasion. The first time when I sang in my grandfather’s funeral, I was crying at the same time. That was very hard because I loved him so much. This year my grandmother died so I sang at her funeral. But I like it. It’s real. You can do something with what you have that is real for people. You can make something beautiful and do something for the rest of the people. You can help the men cry.
