"My Music and My Work Are an Extension of My Life. And I Intend to Live All of It," – Interview With Molly Nilsson Ahead of Nov 11 DDC Gig
Of all the enthused reviews that Molly Nilsson has prompted in her promising, decade-long career thus far, the most attention-grabbing may be one recent write-up that declares the Swedish singer and producer to be a “one-woman would-be pop hit factory.”
It’s an accurate assessment: Her commanding stage presence and a backing track of the lush instrumentals she has crafted for LP’s like Imaginations, which she released this past may, are enough to help her hold an audience rapt, all on her own. Beijing fans will now have a chance to witness her songwriting prowess firsthand during her Nov 11 performance at DDC, where she’s sharing the bill with fellow synth-pop up-and-comers like Sean Nicholas Savage and Better Person.
And while the tracks on Imaginations are soothing and catchy, a closer listen not only reveals a dark sonic undercurrent but also lyrics that are biting in their social commentary. This is especially true of standout “Let’s Talk About Privileges.” Although its title is pretty on the nose, the song’s grooving, elegant synths, and overall tone would have easily hoisted atop the pop charts had it been released 30 years ago, even as she sings lines like:
“It’s never being afraid of the police/ It’s expecting every thank you, every please ... It’s never fearing that walk home through the night/ It’s knowing ‘Everything will be alright.'”
“That particular song brought out more reactions for its lyrics than any other I had written before,” Nilsson tells the Beijinger ahead of her DDC gig. “The feedback was mixed – some people liked it, others found it to be very provocative. But, to me, it was inspiring to know how lyrics and poetry can bring about such strong feelings, of both love and hate.”
Aside from heartening fans with such powerful lyrics, Nilsson also personifies such sentiments simply in the way she’s gone about her career – from running her own label and producing her own music over the course of five albums, to directing her own music videos. However, those aren’t bold feminist feats in the eyes of Nilsson. Instead, she puts it this way: “My music and my work are an extension of my life, and I intend to live all of it.”
She concedes that “it can be lonely at times” to shoulder so much of that workload on her own and “not have the support or help of a label or such things.” But she’s quick to add: “It also gives one strength. And, most importantly, freedom.”
Of all the roles that she’s taken on in her DIY career, directing her music videos is certainly one of her favorites.
“I love music videos. I grew up in the MTV age,” she says, adding that she sometimes thinks of those clips while writing the songs. However, those ideas would require such an enormous budget that “Most of those videos never get made, though I try to as often as I can. If there was more time, I would like to work more on videos to make them more elaborate and true to my original ideas. But making them more simple, and cheap, is the kind of creative challenge I love.”
Perhaps Nilsson’s first tour China will inspire her next evocatively captivating music video (à la the dreamy, abstract “Not Today Satan,”; the sprawling skylines of Beijing or Shanghai would certainly make for an all the more impressive backdrop than the sleepy city horizon she shoots in the beginning of that clip). Indeed, Nilsson already sounds quite taken with China, saying during our interview: “I just woke up, it’s my first morning in Shanghai, and from afar I could hear school children chanting and singing, and maybe doing some kind of morning gymnastics, to some magic world music. A great introduction to the day!”
Molly Nilsson will perform with Sean Nicholas Savage and Better Person on Nov 11 at 8.30pm at DDC. Tickets are RMB 120, RMB 100 (advance). For more information, click here.
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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
Photos: Loud and Quiet, Crack Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan
