A special treat for all of you: Sonic interview

[daniel]

Here you go! Stina's interview in Sonic magazine, with pictures and everything.
But uh-uh-uh wait a minute! Not all of it at once . I thought I would be more fun to present it as a serial of four parts.
Today I give you part one, with the rest of the article added as we go along. When is entirely up to you.
This way we can discuss every single little aspect of it with nothing getting lost.

http://nordenstam.marvelhill.vze.com/sonic.html

In my opinions it's the most revealing interview I've read with Stina.
I don't know how many of you have read it already.

[sound world]

Nice one Daniel.haven't already read it,since it was never posted on CQD.Looking forward to the next three...
It's completely inconceivable that the UK Parliament could ever be opened by a song like 'One for my baby' [king]

[daniel]

Thanks. Yeah I guess we're a bit more relaxed here in Sweden. We even call the PM by his name ... I can't imagine a reporter calling <i>Mr Blair</i> "Tony" (do they?)

Oh, and i forgot to say that the words in blue are links that might explain some Swedish stuff.

Oh again! If anyone notices a grammatical error, a typo or just a formulation that seems strange - don't hesitate to tell me, OK? It's all for thre better.

[puce]

Thanks. Looking forward to the pics.

[paul-pgss]

Thank you Dani?l. Nice that this interview finally is translated.

[kuhn]

I never got that magazine - I thought it would eventually end up on Seekyoudanger.

Now - bring it on!

[daniel]

Gather 'round everybody.
It's time for part two.


http://nordenstam.marvelhill.vze.com/sonic.html

I guess there wasn't much to discuss in part one.
Well hold on 'cause now Stina starts revealing. I'm expecting interesting discussions on the content.

(Oh and a little mishap happened last time. On part one I accidentally cut the second paragraph in half ... so start reading from there... sorry.)

[paul-pgss]

To be real honest: no new information about the music yet.

That she is kickboxing was to be expected since she made some interesting moves on the photographs for some interview mainly on politics (forgot for what magazine it was).

Her height is a new thing for me. I expected her to be small, but so tiny?

Again she states that she is takes distance from her music as soon it is finished. I still find it hard to imagine how anyone can be left so cold by something they produced. I'm always proud of the things I'm doing. It seems to me that Stina feels no pride regarding her music. It's more of a neccesarity.

Then she tells about the This Is project.
I'm not surprised by the fact that she didn't make money from that project. Most recordcompanies make costs for recording, promoting etc. The artist won't make a penny until all costs have been paid. We all know that Stina has told herself that This Is was quite an expensive project. I suppose she's still in debt with Independiente.

What I am surprised about is that she didn't have a solid income these last years. She must have made a few bucks with succesful albums as Memories of a Colour and And She Closed Her Eyes. And what about the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack? That soundtrack sold half a million copies.

This also scares me for the future. We all know that TWIS has been getting nice reviews in the press. But I don't have the feeling that Stina is gaining some new listeners with this. She needs to get off that lazy ass and start performing if you ask me.

I seriously doubt wether TWIS will pay back the bankloan, provide her an income for the coming years and will earn her enough money to record another record.
Maybe that is why CQD has been taken offline? Just a case of not willing to make those costs?

Well so far my opinion.

[puce]

Her height is a new thing for me. I expected her to be small, but so tiny?

What's wrong with it? I'm even tinier. She's still taller than Kylie.
More comments later.

[daniel]

pgss: Maybe it's my translation but in the interview Stina says: "I haven?t had a solid income in almost four years." I think that by "solid income" she means the kind you can rely on, when you know that you get a check at the end of the month and you know how much you're gonna get paid. Royalty checks and such tend to be more sporadic ... you get payed according to how much your back-catalogue sells and according to how much your songs get broadcasted. And besides, her past record companies still take a part of the moolah I presume. When an artist is on a record label they get a "salary"... they have a solid income while they're recording albums and when they are inbetween albums. Now that Stina is independent she doesn't get that.

But I wouldn't worry. Stina is a national treasure and she's very well guarded here in Sweden. There are tons of people who wouldn't let her music die.

__________

The thing I like the most about the interview (so far) is that she dresses like people usually do, she works out, she has a boyfriend. I like the fact that the myth of "Stina Nordenstam - the icon of Swedish gloom and despair" is dispelled. She's not any weirder that I am. And that's cool. I like the fact that a lot of Stina N fans all over will be a bit ... angry maybe, over the comparison with Avril Lavigne ... hehehe.

Oh and I think it's completely touching that she has moments where she "needs" her music but that she also feels like her own music isn't the kind of music she preferably listens to. I completely understands what she means. Like: I paint, I like my paintings and those that commission paintings from me like them too. But given the choice my own paintings would absolutely not be the ones I'd like to have hanging on my walls.

And it's really interesting to read about how she regards her voice. It made me listen to her music in a new way.

I read the interview before hearing TWIS so when I got it I instantly tapped in to the Swedish feeling. It's hard to describe, you'd have to know a lot about Swedish history and tradition, but it does totally sound Swedish.

Reading it carefully I see a lot of points that really interest me.[/b]

[sound world]

I wasn't at all surprised to hear that she's been struggling financially.The vast majority of self-employed musicians (I am one!) don't exactly rake in the shekels,an public illusion fed by the very prominent tiny minority of,for want of a better word,'rock' musicians who do.For every Madonna and Eminem there are literally thousands of us who scrape by-or don't.
Another reason to buy an artists work rather than indulging in what is, in effect,pinching someone's pay packet.
And in any case,the reliability of a 'solid' income is something that anyone who has been self-employed will know only too well as a cosy and somewhat distant dream.I speak with feeling! [:xx]

[Franck]

but concerts can be a significant source of income... well, they could be for Stina.

well, it's not always easy to find a decently paid gig for 'little artists' like us...

[whatis]

Her height is a new thing for me. I expected her to be small, but so tiny?

What's wrong with it? I'm even tinier. She's still taller than Kylie.
More comments later.

well, she's taller than me too... heh. you got a companion here for height.

[whatis]

Quote: But there are moments, I?ve noticed, and it?s a little bit painful, but there are moments when I can be despaired and the only thing that helps is listening to my own music. Nothing else will calm me down.


This is exactly how i felt about Dynamite, once upon a time.....

[paul-pgss]

pgss: Maybe it's my translation but in the interview Stina says: "I haven?t had a solid income in almost four years." I think that by "solid income" she means the kind you can rely on, when you know that you get a check at the end of the month and you know how much you're gonna get paid. Royalty checks and such tend to be more sporadic ... you get payed according to how much your back-catalogue sells and according to how much your songs get broadcasted.

I realise that I misread the sentence. But still I'm surprised that she's has earned too little in the last few years, so she has no money saved for daily living.

And besides, her past record companies still take a part of the moolah I presume. When an artist is on a record label they get a "salary"... they have a solid income while they're recording albums and when they are inbetween albums. Now that Stina is independent she doesn't get that.

Actually, i did not know that recordcompanies pay a salary. I expected that artists would get paid as soon as the costs of recording the album, artwork and marketing were earned back. That's the way it works for authors, a world I'm slightly more familiar with.

As each Stina Nordenstam album (at least until People Are Strange) sold circa 70.000 copies, I expected that the recordingcosts were earned back by Warner Music.

It's clear that Stina now has to pay for the recordings, and it takes months, if not years, before the recorded material eventually gets released. So it'll take a longer time before she will be earning back some of her investments.

I'm really curious how many copies have been sold of the last few albums. I might ask Ian (Stina's manager) about that.

But I wouldn't worry. Stina is a national treasure and she's very well guarded here in Sweden. There are tons of people who wouldn't let her music die.

Still... popularity can vanish you know.