I have met so many people recently who didn't know me before blues; they're surprised that I ever did anything else. I have so many old friends who are surprised that singing the blues has become the most important thing for me now - that has been a rather fast change, an immediate infatuation. While no one saw it coming, least of all me, it has felt like coming home; when I just open my mouth to sing, and don't make an effort, blues is what's going to come out.
For me, it aligns perfectly with what I've always felt: That the genres are all mine. All the music is mine. All the different things I love, will inspire each other, not starve each other.
So I've gathered some stuff - some old stuff, and some even older stuff; what I could find of recordings - to keep a track of all my voices. I have so many voices, you know?
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Men bara om min älskade väntar - 2016
We were rehearsing with the Sky is Crying, it was getting late, I remembered a song: Tomorrow is a long time by Bob Dylan, translated to Swedish by Nationalteatern. Very quickly, we rehearsed it, and at our next rehearsal, we recorded it. Here it is.
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Överraskningsballaden - 2016
This is a song that I wrote for my then boyfriend Jens in early 2015 when we had been dating for about six months. It's recorded in late 2016, and I'm so glad I recorded it while I was still so very much in love with him. And I've never been one to understand people trying to erase there exes. It was important to me; it changed me; I cherish the memories. Also, it's a cute song. :)
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Why Don't You Do Right - 2015
In 2015, we put stuff on Spotify! That's fun! I like many of the songs still, but the title track is one that people repeatedly tell me they like. Listen here.
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Wonderwall - 2015
I love that this is live; this is what I truly sound like these days, because I'm always more true with an audience than in a recording studio. Also, singing pop songs like these with a certain amount of jazz in my voice is simply delightful. I also love that it is an actual Oasis cover and we're completely serious. Listen here.
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Actually, why don't you go ahead and listen to the whole record? It's good. Do that here.
(Scavenger hunt: I sing a whole phrase of lyrics wrong in one of the songs (like obviously wrong lyrics, not a word that I chose to change here and there, but literally a whole phrase), but we liked the vibe of that recording, so we kept it anyway. Hugs and chocolate to whoever finds it first! :))
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I Idolize You - 2014
So. The recording is not great. My singing is not what it became since. But this - at about two in the morning at our very first Blues Garden - is how it all started. It's how my blues singing started and it's how the Gentle Sorrows started. So I wanted to put it here.
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Just Around the Riverbend - 2013
In May 2013, my final recital happened. Obviously I performed what I think of as the theme song of my life (yes, seriously) - Just Around the Riverbend from Pocahontas. It's the song from my concert that the most people afterwards told me was their favorite. I love that.
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Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante; Micaëla's aria ur Carmen - 2013
How I love opera. Romantic era opera more than anything. This is Micaëla's aria from Carmen by Georges Bizet. Such a joy to be in this music. There are plenty of things I would do differently, but that last word! The last word is perfection!
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Credo - 2013
I had composed a Credo several years before my final recital - that was when I was still, in parts of me, a Christian, although that was fading quicky at that point - and it needed to be performed; musically it is the most lovely thing I've ever composed. 19 of my friends showed up for rehearsals and spent time and energy to learn this piece of music, simply because I asked them. I'll be forever grateful.
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Not Enough Sun and Yet - 2013
I can sing jazz too! Who would have thought! This is a song I wrote in 2011; lyrics from a poem by Maya Stein (with permission). The recording is from 2013 I think? Such much jazz. :)
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Summertime - 2012
Further back, more jazz. Sometimes I still feel that this arrangement I made of Summertime is the best, or most musical thing, I've ever written. This 8 minute live version is my most desperate version of it, having been left by my boyfriend of almost three years, who was also my musical partner and drummer, a few weeks prior to this concert, I decided I still had to do the concert (it was important for my grades and for my sanity). It's so raw I almost don't dare to put it here, put if I could do it live, in front of a full audience, in 2012, surely I can put it on the internet in 2017. In short: This is what heartbreak sounded like.
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Det är en ros utsprungen - 2012
Yay Christmas music! Recorded live with my Zoom, so the sound quality is shitty, but isn't this arrangement nice? It was one of those bursts of inspiration that happened really quickly. I'm happy with it. And Det är en ros utsprungen is my favorite Christmas song ever, I love it in every version. Recorded 2012.
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Rusalka's Song to the Moon - 2011
From my recital that semester. It's not in any way great, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? And they didn't fail me, so that was good? :) Also, pardon my Czech. :)
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Aimie Rain - 2011
My friend Johan needed to do a recording project for school and asked me to do the vocals for this song by a band we both loved growing up, Jettie. Sure! And I actually love what we did. Fun fact: Johan plays percussion, vibraphone and flugelhorn on this recording!
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the Christmas Song - 2010
I had just started to find some kind of jazz in me. It's nice. I like it.
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A Case Of You - 2009
2009! I was so young! I don't need to say anything about this except how incredibly young I was! :) Obviously this is one of the best songs ever written; it's impossible to do it justice, but also impossible not to try.
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Done! My friend Sebastian just sent me the recordings of songs we wrote when we were 17. That is some really cute stuff. But I'm going to save those for another time. :)
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