Frida Hyvönen

(March 2007)

Interview by Adam McKibbin

Only several months after the Stateside release of her fine and lively album Until Death Comes, songwriter/pianist Frida Hyvönen returned in the beginning of 2007 with her first release in her “Frida Hyvönen Gives You” series—dedicated to essentially whatever Ms. Hyvönen is finding interesting at a given time.  The first release stemmed from her collaboration with dance choreographer Dorte Olesens for a performance entitled Pudel.  What’s next…who knows?  Well, Hyvönen knows – but she’s not telling.

She recently returned for a trek across the States with Danish octet Under Byen.  Just as the tour kicked off, she fielded some questions from The Red Alert about her songwriting, her stage show, and Swedish fairy tales.

The “Frida Hyvönen Gives You” series sounds like the sort of thing that every artist would like to have as an outlet.  Do you have anything already in the works for future installments?

Yes, I felt a need for such a platform.  There are plans for the next two parts at the moment.  I’m kept from talking about it yet, though.

I was surprised by Pudel because we’re kind of conditioned in the music press to expect something a little more indulgent when we hear the word “experimental.”  But I think most fans of Until Death Comes would find it easy to get hooked with Pudel, too.  What’s the difference between the versions that made it onto the recorded soundtrack and the versions that accompanied the actual dance performance?

The series is mostly a way for me to organize things. Certain aspects of how the CD came about makes me label it experimental. Collaborating with a choreographer, for example. And the way I wrote the lyrics.

All artistic work is of course experimental in one way or the other—that’s the point, I suppose.

In the dance piece, I perform the songs live on stage with a piano, and an electric organ. The organ pieces are not on the CD, and they are more like program music, more instrumental and partly improvised. On the CD, I made arrangements for the piano songs for a small orchestra together with arranger Jon Bergström.

On your tour here in the States, what’s your focus on your setlists – are you mixing it up between Until Death Comes, Pudel, and new material, or is there a focus on one over the other?

I play the Until Death Comes songs, and some new songs. Sometimes I do play a couple of the Pudel songs, although they don’t really belong there. My idea was not to perform them live outside the Pudel performance, but sometimes it’s hard to resist.

Tying into that, is it hard to keep songs fresh?  Until Death Comes was released in 2005 in Sweden, but is still a relatively new album for U.S. audiences.

I’ve found that they grow. But you do have to work at your relations with the songs to keep them alive, yes. Hopefully the next album will be released worldwide at the same time.

You’re on the road with Under Byen, which seems like a great fit for a bill.  Have you found yourself on mismatched bills, or are you usually pretty comfortable fitting in alongside whoever else may be playing before or after?

Usually pretty comfortable. On the other hand, I’ve said no to the tours that I found unsuiting…

I’ve never really understood the concept of many bands playing the same night, though. I think one is usually enough.

Do you stay fairly faithful to the songs in a live setting, or are they always going through transformations?  I assume they are at least a little more stripped-down, as I don’t imagine you have a horn section trekking across the States with you, for instance.

I feel more like the record is not completely faithful to the songs. I think they have matured a bit, and although there are fewer instruments on stage (one), they might be more intense expression-wise.

With your songs that do have more instrumental embellishments – the flugelhorns and glockenspiels and so forth – is that how you envision them from the outset, or do you add those layers later, once you already have the song sort of formed?

The melodies are there in the songwriting process.  Which instruments to use was a later question. No earthly instruments really live up to the sound in ones head, though. But it’s a närmevärde.

Many of your songs are written from the first-person perspective.  I don’t want to ask about any specific line or song in particular, but, in general, are you writing mostly autobiographically or are these first-person fictions that you’re composing?

It is a mix. I like both to write, and not least to sing in first person, of course, because of the drama.

Are you writing constantly, or do your songs tend to stem from more concentrated periods of focused songwriting?

When I’m on the road, I don’t write songs a lot. Mainly because you’re not allowed to take a piano as handluggage on most planes. I like to work very focused, scheduled, without other people around.

I read one piece of American press that championed you as someone who is able to subvert the traditional gender expectations of the music industry, at least in part because Sweden doesn’t play host to the same gender pigeonholing as America.  I was wondering whether you felt, from your experience and observation, that there is indeed a difference in that regard between the two countries.  On a somewhat related sidenote… in my own opinion, it seems that the American music press can sometimes be a bit condescending in their portrayals of Scandinavian countries [Iceland, too, for that matter], almost like they’re places out of fairy tales.

There are a lot of differences. I’m discovering right now what they are about. I think Swedish people might in theory be more advanced when it comes to equality, but not even there are things close to good. Sweden is also a more homogenous country. I think America perhaps sees thing more from a race perspective, whereas Sweden historically has worked on the same mechanisms but through a gender perspective. I am just guessing here, though. This question is huge…And yes, I’ve noticed the fairy tale thing, too. I think in Sweden people do it to Iceland, too, haha.

There’s a sentiment a lot of times among indie music fans—I even noticed a recent guestbook entry on your website that went along these lines—that they want to tell people about the artists they enjoy, but they don’t want those artists to get too big.  Can you sympathize with that, as a music fan, or does that seem selfish?

When you don’t allow the ones you love to grow, love goes bad. Or at least so I’ve heard.

We’re putting up a glowing review of Ellekari Larsson’s band The Tiny on our site this week.  Do any of your other collaborators have projects that we should be checking out?

Great. Jenny Wilson, Santa Maria, Marit Bergman, David Sandström, El Perro del Mar, Jens Lekman, Profondo J (Jon Bergström).