Formerly part of the Umeå rock cosmos in the bands Vaken and My Sound Of Silence, Therese Lithner made the move down south to Stockholm and embarked on a solo project. Her debut single Drown, a piece of slow-burning, gloomy art rock, was released last week, and she’s got an EP on the way. She makes her live solo debut this weekend at Melodybox in Hägersten, sharing a bill with America’s Colleen Green and the UK’s Luxury Death.
You used to be in Vaken and My Sound of Silence, how and when did you end up starting a solo project?
The solo project wasn’t really a plan, it happened kind of more as an accident. I had a feeling one night in the rehearsal space, turned up the reverb on everything and wrote several songs from nothing and recorded them on my phone. I sang into the mike and a song came. Played a chord, another song came. I had never written songs in that way before. After I had the thought that the 90’s were channelled through me that night, my childhood idols had free rein and brought about new ideas. The songs from that evening felt different, like a new project. Then I moved away from all my bands, from Umeå to Stockholm. It was natural to put my focus on getting these songs together.
Tell us a little about Drown.
Drown is a journey in a relationship, a feeling of wanting to squeeze out everything that’s beautiful about it, before later seeing it fall apart. I wrote it on synth and drum-machine, and made a number of different electronic versions. Then I recorded it in the rehearsal space with Andreas Sandberg (of Magic Potion) on real drums, and replaced the synth with electric guitar. So in the end it became a guitar song (with a little touch of electronica). Linus Johansson made it sound great. I’m super happy with the end result. The song was released on Lazy Octopus as the first single from the upcoming EP.
What do you think is different about your music as a solo artist stylistically, from the work you produced in bands?
Most of the songs in this solo project are fundamentally based on one-take recordings. Which are then recorded again, polished and tided up with a little extra instrumentation. I think it’s audible that the songs are more intuitively recorded than the ones I have done with earlier projects. They don’t follow such clear structures, with chorus and verse and so on, but are more written from what happens in the moment. The 90’s influence is also more audible in these songs than in my earlier bands. More grunge-y.
What should we expect from the show on Saturday?
A sneak-peek/ live version of the upcoming EP. It’s an emotional moment. There’ll be nerves. New band, and we have never played live together before. With new songs, new arrangements, you never know how it will go, but it will be supercool. Everyone there will get to see a transformation. Because the songs are now moving on to phase three, from phase one (writing) to phase two (recording) and now phase three (playing them live). It feels big.
Photo: Selma Grönlund
