LÉON
Information technology's hard to properly articulate the sheer force that is Swedish vocaliser/songwriter LÉON.
Since releasing her critically acclaimed self-titled album in 2019, fans of LÉON (aka Lotta Lindgren) have been waiting with aside breath to see what direction the singer would take in the next chapter of her career. Later on using her fourth dimension on the road every bit a band-aid to avoid dealing with an intense break-upward she approached her sophomore anthology with the same passion and heart as the start, only used the time at abode to take a pace back, slow downwards, and begin to grieve the loss of a relationship without whatever outside distractions.
Understanding the universal feeling of being apart and alone was what inspired LÉON and ended upward being the goad to the vulnerable & emotive 'Apart.' The tape is a tender, personal snapshot of a period of time where the 27-yr-former singer sifted through the wreckage of a broken partnership to reconnect with who she is. The album is equal parts moving and mournful as it explores the journey of a pause-up; the moments LÉON finds herself looking back in a nostalgia-induced haze, the times she didn't know if she would be able to motility on, and finding herself coming out the other side…. Even if she herself claims the album is 'depressing as hell.'
With a knack for captivating audiences with her natural storytelling and her ability to craft catchy hooks, it can sometimes experience like LÉON is singing just for you—a ability the singer doesn't take lightly. She knows the importance music has on united states of america; how we turn to it for comfort in our hardest moments, how it acts as a backdrop to help fill up in everything that was left unsaid, and how nosotros all have those specific artists nosotros accomplish for who just go u.s.a. in a way no ane else does.
The confessional Swedish vocaliser had a long chat with 1883 virtually her sophomore anthology 'Apart', why it was so hard for her to process her breakdown, and what it means to her to have people turn to her songs when they are struggling.
Apart is your second full length album afterwards your 2022 cocky-titled debut. What has the difference been betwixt approaching writing and recording your debut album and your second album?
What a question to start with! I remember there was definitely more pressure on myself. With my start anthology, I really planned on releasing something way earlier than when I did, but y'all realize how nerve-wracking the process is and I went a scrap nuts. I started looking into every tiny piffling item, similar whatsoever artist would practise. I had such a hard fourth dimension letting go of that album; I kept wanting to discover something that was wrong with every song and I wanted to go back and change my heed. With this album, I feel like I definitely relaxed and gave myself the opportunity to enjoy the process. I didn't desire to have that [pressure] take over me again. I wanted to feel more relaxed and become with whatsoever instinct I was feeling, what felt right, and non overthinking sure things. I didn't want to overthink my vocals and try to fix things, especially if the emotion and feeling is there. That's the near important matter to me — going with my gut instinct. I ever want to keep the feeling of every song similar how it feels when I've just written information technology.
I feel like this twelvemonth has given anybody a risk to stride back, reverberate, and take a breath, too. Information technology gave usa the chance to properly sit down with things rather than rush them out or stress out nearly it.
Yeah, we didn't have a lockdown in Stockholm merely information technology was definitely very restricted and places were closed. When we made the album before this year yous weren't supposed to get places, then I was kind of in a moment in fourth dimension where I couldn't practice much or run into friends and family, so I got down to work. I mainly work with i producer and that worked out because of the situation.
A debut album is the first big taste of who you are as an artist, only this sophomore record really showcases your strengths even more than the first record. How would you say you've grown and inverse as a vocalizer and songwriter between your first tape and Apart ?
For this album I went back to how I used to write my songs, like back when I was a teenager and in my earlier 20s. I would write everything from scratch myself and work with i producer, and I went dorsum to that with this album. I am always honest and personal when it comes to my music… and with this album, I didn't hold back on that office of me at all. I retrieve I even went personal in an fifty-fifty bigger way, specially on some songs! [Laughs] Information technology's a catchy question. I don't know how to describe how I've grown, but I've definitely been more into my gut feelings. Like I said earlier, I've been embracing the process and non thinking about whether every single item is perfect. I would say that's a big part of me growing.
Overthinking is something that and then many people struggle with, so learning to get out of that mindset is an amazing thing.
Exactly. You always tin can overthink things and I completely tuckered myself terminal yr when nosotros were making the first anthology. With this one, I wanted information technology to exist me taking it easier and not being then hard on myself.
The vocal 'Falling Autonomously' is a really stunning track that I feel really represents the anthology perfectly. Can you tell me a flake about the story backside that song in particular?
'Falling Apart' is actually one of the oldest songs on the record. The majority of the songs on the album were written this year or late final year. 'Falling Autonomously' is a song I really love, I always wanted to put information technology out. Information technology resonated with me because it represented what I was going through before this yr and at the end of last year. I went dorsum to that song over and over; I started writing information technology back in 2022 and it was this year that I finished it. It just felt like the right fourth dimension to put it out. Information technology's one of the nigh honest songs on the album. Sometimes it's hard to explain where a song comes from—I e'er know where it comes from of grade, but explaining information technology to other people is hard! I would describe information technology as a turning point. Before I wrote that song, I always wrote from the perspective of beingness some kind of victim. This one was more than nearly my own doubts considering I was in a place last year where I was questioning all kinds of things in my human relationship. Information technology withal is a love song that focuses on a relationship, but it's a lot about my own cocky, my feelings, and trying to figure myself out at that time. Information technology'due south hard to explicate but I promise y'all understand!
I go information technology — information technology's like learning to figure out who you are and trying to figure out whether who you are in the relationship is who you actually are.
Yeah, exactly.
Something that'due south always touched me with your songs is how confessional they are; someone can e'er find a lyric to relate to. In 'Falling Autonomously' you sing "I'm so afraid to live incorrect and end upwardly being on my own" and "What practice y'all do when y'all love someone/but you feel like you can't let go." I experience like those are 2 things so many people tin can relate to when you lot're questioning yourself and your human relationship. Exercise y'all ever detect it difficult to release songs that are so confessional and specific to an event or person?
I didn't earlier. I used to not care and simply never really stress virtually it. Now, every time we put something out from this album, I'm kind of nervous. I've been starting to wonder what my friends and the people that actually know me will think, and how the people who know what I'g singing about volition react. There are some very intense and existent songs on this album, and then I've been starting to become nervous for some reason. I'thousand not scared almost what the people I don't know will call up, I simply hope they can relate to it. It's more often than not me feeling nervous about those who know me and the person I'm singing near. That'south scary now for me.
It's one of those times where you might experience similar you have to let get of the songs and hope that by letting them go, you are closing a chapter and it tin be not as nerve wracking.
Yeah! I also think in the moment it feels SO right and yous can't wait to put it out [laughs] and then you get to really releasing it and you're like " Oh, god wait a second! I'm non prepare! What did I do!" I promise if I feel this manner that means it feels real and I hope people can relate to the songs in some fashion.
The biggest overarching theme of this album is the word 'apart' — whether that'southward breaking apart, beingness apart, or falling apart, which I experience are all different meanings of the word 'apart'. When you think of the word autonomously, what do you imagine or visualize?
Information technology just happened to exist the word for the album because the entire album is nearly a breakup from a very long term relationship. Final yr I had a crunch where I never felt connected with myself. It sounds corny just this year gave me the time to reconnect with myself, learn to exist apart from the person that I'm singing nearly on this anthology, and effigy out how to cope on my own for the starting time time in years. I've never had to confront the fears that I faced both this year and terminal. It's definitely well-nigh existence apart from someone and just feeling a bit all over the place in your own emotions. Does that make sense?
Yep, I can totally chronicle to that! [Laughs]
I hope yous know what I'yard trying to say! Information technology felt like the right word to put on the album.
All of the songs come back to information technology, so it makes sense. You lot're feeling both apart from the person you loved while also feeling distant from who you are.
Yeah, that's exactly information technology.
You touched on it briefly but I know you were touring and then consistently and you lot were so busy, y'all didn't actually give yourself the chance to grieve the relationship.
I'thousand good at avoiding things when I want to! [Laughs]
That must've been really abrupt; going from existence on phase and touring effectually the globe to being alone.
It was rough.. and so rough. I accept always done this thing where I don't necessarily take the time to process things. I've always been the way. My mother has ever been worried considering I never slowed down when I was a teenager, I always went really hard. I was on bout, I came home, the break-upwardly happened, and four days later I was dorsum on tour. I didn't requite myself any time to think almost information technology. I was with my bout family and friends, I was living on a bus, and I was never really lonely.
Looking dorsum, do you call back you really demand that?
Definitely. I came home around Christmas, I moved into my first apartment, and it hit me so difficult; everything came crashing downwards on me. But I needed it—information technology was good for me. It was healthy for me to go through it and exist forced to face it without the comfort of someone else getting me through it.
Ane of my favourite songs on the album is 'Crazy/Stupid,' 2 words many people can feel while in a relationship that isn't perfect. In the bridge, you sound like you're breathlessly reciting and summarizing the end of a relationship and voicing your inner monologue while it is happening. 'In all my stupid ways I desire to keep you to myself/cause I don't want nobody else to have y'all' and 'can't go back to being strangers'. Are these types of confessions things y'all feel you can only brand tangible by singing in songs rather than actually telling the person?
Oh yeah, no way. I would never say that to someone'south face! [Laughs] I've never talked virtually this vocal, but that part was fun to write considering, again, I'm and so used to singing songs nearly existence left, merely that song is more about me being flaky and selfish in many means. I'm on the other side and being the one who is playing with someone's emotions. When I wrote that song I thought " Oh my god, people are going to think this is a musical moment where I'm singing this monologue to myself!" I t was a really fun song to write, but I'd take a hard time proverb all of that to someone. That's why I'm nervous for people to hear them.
I know you lot're nervous, but I think those are the words so many people tin chronicle to. I know with myself and break-ups I cannot fathom the idea of simply going back to beingness strangers with someone. I feel similar people will relate to that the most.
I hope so. I like to listen to songs where you feel like a story is being told. I recollect I did that on this anthology. Information technology'south very specific and I know the exact moment and I can see the scene in my head when I sing a certain vocal.
On the same theme, in 'Dice For You' you lot sing about how difficult it is when y'all're breaking up with someone because yous lose a friend in the process and in 'Tell Me' you sing 'A role of you lives on in me forever'. I love how you can write nigh the aforementioned state of affairs even so the songs audio entirely unlike. Does that deviation in sound or feeling depend on how you lot're feeling at the moment?
For me, in my caput, why those 2 songs are side by side to each other is because I envision a music video for 'Tell Me' that would exist the morning time when you wake up after a night out and confront the person you're thinking about, and 'Die For You' is more in the moment when you don't want to go habitation and and so yous have to kind of confront your own fears of being lonely. It's funny considering 'Tell Me' came after and 'Die For You' came commencement!
Some other two songs that feel similar ii sides of the same coin is the first track 'Head and Heart On Fire' and the final track 'Apart.' I like the divergence in feeling and sound between the two; it really feels similar bookends to both an anthology and a human relationship. Were those placements on the track listing intentional?
'Autonomously' doesn't even take the give-and-take in information technology, information technology was the concluding 1 I wrote, and it wasn't supposed to make it on the album because we actually didn't have left. I rushed to the studio and I played it on the guitar for my producer Martin [Stilling], and we just thought we had to have it on the anthology. It felt like a true catastrophe to this entire process for me. Information technology'due south non really a very uplifting song. 'Head And Middle On Fire' is much more than hopeful; it feels like yous're looking back at something and you feel very nostalgic and feel a bit of hope. With 'Autonomously' I'thousand singing near a certain person, simply it'southward a lot about my own emotions and how I'm looking at myself. It was exactly what I was feeling and thinking when we finished the anthology. I idea nosotros should accept a song that ends the album that represents what I was going through at that verbal moment. I was tempted to finish the anthology with a vocal that brings hope because information technology is a really heavy album, but I decided to go with my gut feeling like I said before. We recorded the song two days earlier the album was due and it feels like it's a conclusion to that affiliate.
Information technology's okay, ending on a sorry annotation is therapeutic sometimes.
Yeah, people are NOT going to be hopeful when they mind to this album [laughs]. When y'all come to the end, yous only think "Oh shit, it doesn't go better!" I just decided to phone call it 'Autonomously' because it represented the theme of the album best. I wrote it when I was away from this person for a twelvemonth, and that was the final decision I had at the fourth dimension.
To stop a really lovely chat, I wanted to inquire you how it feels to know your ain heartbreak and songs volition assistance other people? Your self-titled really touched so many people, me included, and I always wonder how artists experience about their work healing others.
That means and then much to me, cheers. That actually is the best office of it. You know when you're in the middle of a breakup and you feel so lone yous can't imagine that other people experience the same way every bit you?
Pause-ups feel like your ain petty globe where only you exist! Information technology's like no one could understand you lot.
Exactly, but you realize anybody goes through it. Especially reading comments and talking to people over Instagram and connecting with people through my music is hard to take in sometimes, but information technology's absolutely amazing. It actually ways the globe to me and it'south rewarding in a way—knowing someone can accept something from what I've been through and feel less alone because of it. I have my ain artists that I go to when I'm feeling similar that and then if I can be that artist for someone else, that means the world to me.
LÉON's new album 'Apart' is out at present.
Interview by Kelsey Barnes
Photography by Sandra Thorsson
Source: https://1883magazine.com/leon/
0 Response to "LÉON"
Postar um comentário