Armed with a captivating new single and video in the lead up to the release of the album The Carousel, songwriter and artist Backstrom kindly stopped by to talk about the project, the single Animal, and the journey that led to this point. Here’s how it went.
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Hey – thanks so much for the interview, and congratulations for the superb new project. For those new to your work, where are you based, and what first inspired you to create original music?
I’m from a small town an hour away from Stockholm. Got a mandolin at young age that I felt embarrassed to perform with. At around age 10 I got a crappy drumkit without cymbals for free and that’s when I got into playing in bands. But to be honest I always were a better songwriter than musician.
What’s your primary instrument, and do you plan to bring the songs of the upcoming album The Carousel to life with a full band?
I play a little of a lot but nothing really well – I’m probably best at the drums. This album will probably stay as a songwriting project only.
What does The Carousel represent, and what’s your biggest ambition in terms of where you hope to hear the music or where you imagine performing it?
The Carousel is a metaphor for earth and all the crazy things going on here at the moment. As I mentioned earlier, this album is mostly a songwriting project and I release it just for streaming. It´s also kind of hard to play live with a vocalist from U.S, a guitar player from Italy, and drummer from Argentina.
Animal is brilliant – fascinating, a captivating listen with a storytelling core and organic clarity and groove that’s refreshing. Tell me about the creative process – what came first, and what inspired you to explore this concept?
I usually write the songs after somebody else lyrics. And so was the case here aswell. Originally in Swedish. But when I changed to English I had to redo it and I got helped by guy named Tommy Jones to do it.
Is this kind of poetic, observational songwriting typical of your style as an artist?
Yes, I like to write songs from more poetic lyrics. I don´t like to much rhymes and stuff, it gets to “cheesy”. And I also think the songs gets abit more visualized when putting the music in after the lyrics is done, almost like making a soundtrack to a movie.
How important is collaboration and networking for you as a songwriter, and how do you choose the right artists to work with?
It´s very important to find the right musicians. For this one I hired almost every musician and engineer from fiverr.com and send files back an forth online.
Will there be any videos or live performance videos to accompany this release?
Probably not if its not going really well, then I may consider it!
Is there anything else we should know?
I release another single Train Wreck Coming January 7.th and the album The Carousel January 16th. Thanks for the interview!
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Find Backstrom on YouTube & Instagram.
