Perennial is the album debut of the Swedish singer Elin Rehn, eight tracks that move seamlessly in-between different sounds and emotions. Every passage plays its own natural part on the album. music is her passion society e.V. talked with Elin about her new work, the importance and connection of nature with her music, and of course, equality in music.
Elin grew up in Bjursås. A small village in Dalarna, Sweden, there with just 10 years old, she wrote her first song, she found music, and the way to creating music very early, in parts through her mother's piano."I think I started to realise around that age that this was something I wanted to do in my life. I used to say that I wanted to be a tape recorder growing up. I had a red cassette recorder I was carrying around."
Ane Brun, Radiohead, Tallest man on earth, David Bowie, Susanne Sundfør, Agnes Obel, are part of Elin's influence, and inspiration, they are part of the path that led her to find her sound. She found a sound when she started recording strings to her music and was playing around with synth melodies to blend with the strings. Then everything started to fall into place for Elin. "I like the combination of acoustic sounds and processed sounds. I like it when you don’t know what sound you are listening to; it blends in a texture."
"All the musicians that I mentioned before inspire me. I also like to be inspired of what the song is about and to try to translate that into the sound of the song."
Since she was a child, Elin found in nature not only a source of inspiration but also a faithful ally for writing and creating sounds. The lyrics in her songs often describe nature or a place to set the mood or give a metaphor to a feeling. She grew up in the country, very close to nature and spent a lot of time in the forest with her family (something she is still doing). She defines that place as a safe space for her, to be surrounded by trees, which give her a lot of calm and inspiration, this is one of the thousand reasons because the environment and sustainability are very important to her. "Nature and this earth is everything we’ve got," she said.
"It’s a milestone to have done my first album. Musically it’s hopefully the beginning of something, and hopefully there will be another album very soon."
And of course, nature is a great protagonist in PERENNIAL, her debut album, a goal that Elin has been dreaming about for a very long time, a work that blossomed her self-confidence, an album where she wants to express what is difficult in life, but also what’s beautiful, and that these opposite poles must often be present at the same time. Good and bad. Hope and despair. Sunshine and rain, expressions, and feelings were also present during the production of the album. "I felt very anxious a lot of the time, afraid to make decisions I would regret. But I also felt a lot of freedom creating something that was my creation. I was my own boss and I could do whatever I wanted. The closer I got to finishing, the easier it became to circle my own ideas. I now believe I can make records, and it’s a lovely feeling."
"I don’t want to live in a place where you don’t have equal rights."
For her equality empowerment is about finding inner strength and voice to do what you want to do. To create a safe environment with people that you trust and challenge you in a good way. An environment where you can create and be yourself. It also argues that equal rights are big important to stand up for constantly, she knows that she doesn’t want to live in a place where you don’t have equal rights, and although, she thinks that art always has an opportunity to provoke and create debate on all topics in society, she doesn’t think that the artists have the responsibility to defend it.
Although she has just released her album, Elin is already prepared by starting to write new songs. Her next step is to create a new album as soon as she can and hopefully she will be having some concerts as well. In the meantime we invite you to listen to PERENNIAL:
