This is my first post here. I've been a fan since 1995 when I heard "Memories of a Colour". Then I bought "Dynamite" in 1996 and was floored. I was in my teens and also severely depressed at the time and I suppose this album helped and comforted me. Anyway, someone requested an English transcript of this radio interview from 1994, so here it is. It's not in perfect English by any means, and sometimes Stina is pretty vague with several unfinished sentences, but I did my best.
Birgitta Tollan: Stina Nordenstam released her first CD, "Memories of a Colour", in 1991, and the second one, "And She Closed Her Eyes", appeared last year. Apart from success in Sweden and the UK, her minimalistic and eccentric music with literary lyrics in English is now also a success in Japan.
["Little Star"]
Stina Nordenstam: I expose myself very much through my music, but after the album is released I turn in the opposite direction. It's like taking a step forward, but when someone's trying to shake my hand I take a step back. So I fully understand if journalists get annoyed, you know? You listen to the album at home, but there's no way to just pick up the phone and discuss it like you often can with others. This inaccessibility is annoying.
BT: But that's not possible with every artist. Just call them up and discuss their art...
SN: I'm referring to the pop business, Birgitta.
BT: But I don't understand how you ended up in it?
SN: That's a good question. There must be something in my music that's commercial, in a backwards kind of way, I guess. Some kind of commercial appeal in me as a person, or my music, or both. It might even be because of this duality and everything, that I'm not as forthcoming... Maybe journalists would find me less interesting if I was chitchatting with them, and then they wouldn't publish such kind or angry write-ups about me. I don't know...
["Little Star" continued]
BT: "For you, little star", Stina Nordenstam sings on her latest CD, "And She Closed Her Eyes".
SN: Sometimes I feel that I've been almost devastated by the fact that I'm in this business, and the media... Not so much because of my position or suffering from it, but somewhere I've had this huge need to formulate this. A terrorist organisation against the media. Bomb them! It's like a way, or a patent, on how to describe and express the world... Formulate the world, and stick me in a corner of it, sort of. Apply your own view of the world, all of the time, blah blah blah, on every channel, 24 hours a day. Dry. Masculine.
BT: No, Stina Nordenstam hasn't put out a new album or anything, and she's not planning on doing a huge world tour at the moment. Klingan has an interest in her anyway. We've found and read some rather odd things about Stina Nordenstam in our press archives. We wonder how she copes with the kind of malicious insults she's been subject to.
Stina Nordenstam was only in her 20's when she began appearing in public. She was awarded with jazz club Fasching's special prize in 1989. Two years later she was given the Swedish Jazz award and released a CD filled with intriguing, unique compositions, arrangements and lyrics. Material that came straight out of Stina Nordenstam's heart and soul.
["Alone Tonight"]
BT: "Alone Tonight", written and performed by Stina Nordenstam. She attracted tremendous attention in the media after her first CD. Eventually it became too much and she fled on a vacation to Turkey and refused to appear on Stina Dabrowki's TV show, among other things. Despite the fact that Stina Nordenstam did the type of music you hear in the background ["Alone Tonight"], she was wrongfully typecast as a pop singer and was subjected to a plethora of strange articles and stories. Male chauvinist music journalists and spotty pop writers drooled over her and put her in a corner of their own confined world. These journalists judged Stina Nordenstam's personal characteristics and attributes in an evil and patronizing way. Just listen to this:
Going on..."This little girl has, on her own accord, put herself down. Her entire artistic personality is founded on martyrdom. It's pitiful. I hope this little girl will grow up and become a strong woman."
But there are those who understand how talented, multifaceted and unique Stina Nordenstam is, and who also are capable of assessing her music. The following has also been said about her:"If Stina Nordenstam had a normal upbringing complete with pubescence and so on, this falls under the rubric "affectation". This is pure "lolita pop". Old men who think an age of 15 is way too old will find this enjoyable."
Also..."The intimate tone hides an inner noise, an emotional uproar that, despite never exploding, creates an unnerving atmosphere. Her muttering creates a longing for a different language - a language no one has ever heard or don't know how to use."
From a Danish magazine:"These songs are quiet whispers in a noisy world, attracting curious listeners."
["I See You Again"]"Stina Nordenstam is one of Scandinavia's most fascinating acquaintances. Her universe is deeply personal, and being invited is an absolute joy. This isn't easily digestible music, it's slowly unfolding and the patient listener will be greatly rewarded."
SN: I believe I've come up with a strategy on how to deal with that... With reviews and such... All the malice. The only thing that helps is knowing the journalist in question, I think. It's that intellectual, kind of... If you know how that particular journalist sees music, and are aware of his or hers musical background and what he or she thinks of other artists. Then I can understand, in a way. Otherwise I'll see it as an attack on me as a person. It's like being a kid, someone's being mean. Being treated unfairly and attacked.
BT: I've read several articles by different journalists, and it seems like it isn't about the music but they're attacking you as a person. How THEY feel like you should express yourself, what THEY feel you should give us, and what kind of female role YOU should have.
SN: That's true, much of it is about my role as a female. I also thought about that, because recently there was this big article in Dagens Nyheter about "the kind-hearted pop girls" or something of that ilk, perhaps you've seen it? It featured Lisa Ekdahl and Cajsa-Stina Åkesson [sic]... and me. They bundled us all together like some kind of new trend. The article was written in reference to a new thesis published by a Norwegian woman, Sissel Kyrkjebø or whatever her name is. Why did the public take her to their hearts and why this girlish persona was seen as a new ideal. Naturally they didn't waste any time in doing a Swedish comparison, publishing pictures of us, the "girl team". Then I thought about... If you compare it with how it used to be... First of all, I think "girlishness" and "kindness" are two completely different things. Girlishness is about women... well, a type of female... femininity, some kind of femininity, whilst kindess has nothing to do with gender. I suppose it's possible to interpret it like that, too... I don't think... I don't agree with the sentiment that I come across as kind.
BT: It's interesting that the Swedish press decided to focus on that part of the thesis. In the newspaper Politiken, in Copenhagen where I live, they focused on the fact that Paul McCartney is much more subversive than the Sex Pistols, much more radical than the Sex Pistols. But here in Sweden, they went for the female singers. It's a classic approach, there are several female writers being bundled together like a small bouquet being reviewed. While the young, male writers often get half a page each.
SN: I just thought about that... If you look at the male side of popular music in Sweden, we have Orup, Anders Glenmark, Niklas Strömstedt, just to name a few. They're close to 40 years old, and still seen as young guys, right? And they're kind. They're kinder than their female counterparts. And no one mention this. The average pop star, or the idea of the pop star, is all about not growing up. Some kind of "rascalness". This type of role... Hang out with the in-crowd, be hip, sing about love, the eternal youth. The classic pop star role belong to men. And then when women try to be a part of this, it's often a bit more personal. Then the public critize that in a way... They don't see...
["He Watches Her From Behind"]
BT: After your first album, which was released in... When was it?
SN: [Laughs] You're the journalist. You're the one supposed to have done the research. I have no idea.
BT: Well, it was released a few years ago. What happened then?
SN: After that... I felt really bad. Partly because I had been really creative and felt exhausted. At the same time it was the first time in my life that I realized that people could be annoyed by my voice and me. I remember the exact moment I realized this. I felt that I had presented people with the absolute best of me. And this was supposed to be played on national radio and people would go "Oh, no... not that girl again!". It was a shock... In combination with a few reviews. And also hearing myself on the radio, hearing me in that context. I've made this, this is my world. But then... you know, when the album was out it was no longer my world. It was supposed to be rewritten, thrashed out, be played alongside other songs. I had no idea it was going to be like this... It was like revealing a personal secret against my own will and I still don't think I've gotten over it. It was a pretty hard blow.
["Murder In Mairyland Park"]
BT: You were 21 years old when you released your first album, right?
SN: We still haven't reached a conclusion about this... [laughs]
BT: I believe this is about right.
SN: Yeah.
BT: You opened up yourself, and shared a secret only to be shocked by how the wolves of the media attacked and consumed you, only to spit you out and project all of their shit on you.
SN: Mmm... I don't know. It was a strange situation, and a strange time. It can't go on like this, it has to end somehow, because it couldn't get any worse. An unbelievable fixation on personality, a simplification...
BT: A vulgarization and a confused blend of the art and the artist behind the art. The boundary between the private and the public...
SN: But it's also a lot about, being an artist... A lot... There's this constant communication between the artists and the media. Either they're on TV every week... Communication, literally, as they go to the same pubs and restaurants. Earlier, when you wrote a piece or made something, and people reacted in a way you didn't... You read the newspaper a couple of months later, or something. You got the reaction afterwards. Nowadays, things happen simultaneously. You perform live on TV, you're interviewed, you know... It's like artistry is placed in this live... You present some kind of image, perhaps also confirm an image given to you by the interviewer, or by the context you appear in. The art is rather in the image, and not in what you actually do. You talk about the mix-up between the art and the artist, it's quite natural, really. The work is no longer... It's not just the work itself being art, but also the person behind it.
["When Debbie's Back From Texas"]
SN: Moving on is all very exciting. It feels like I... Something that's very unique for me... Despite all of the reviews, the reactions, the faxes, the telephone interviews and that crap. Despite all of this, it feels like I'm all by myself, moving on now. The ball is in my court now, you see?
["When Debbie's Back From Texas" continued]