Straight Outta Sweden

Ears Ringing – Isle of You courtesy of Youtube

If you’ve never heard of the website, Corite, this is place where you can actually help an artist fund their music by starting campaigns for the artist/band. Then if that song becomes a hit, you feel like you were a part of something special.. this is where I discovered the band, Isle of You.. I really like them and I hope you will too..

Q: The band consists of besties Ida & Elina Danielsson & you’re straight outta Sweden. So how long have you actually been friends? And how did you guys meet?

A: Short answer: We’ve been best friends since we were 10 years old and Elina lured me into eating a handful of chili flakes! But I survived and decided that I liked her anyway!

A: Long answer: We both grew up on a very small island in Sweden, called Oland. So we went to the same school and the same culture school but we didn’t know each other for many years. Then, when we were about 10 years old, I asked Elina to take these guitar classes together with me, and then we became best friends almost immediately…but still after the chili incident. That happened the first time ever when I went to Elina’s parents’ house. We’re supposed to kill some time before guitar class at Elina’s home, load up with noodles and Oboy ( a chocolate drink mix powder). I’d never seen chili flakes before but after that I learned that if a stranger ever gives you a handful of them and tells you to eat them, it’s pure best friend material.

Q: I love the stories when I interview artists of how people come together, realize they can sing, sound amazing together and form a band. it’s sort of like a cosmic energy flowing… Do you believe in those types of things? When you met, did you realize you were destined for greater things? Positive energies connecting?

A: Agree! It’s almost like an unreal experience! We’ll never forget the first time we sang in harmonies, at our first singing class. Our vocal coach showed us that she got goosebumps and we, who were 10 years old and had never sung together before, we’re completely blown away. We’ll never forget that sight of that arm haha…And I think, looking back, that we started Isle of You right then and there. I mean we never stopped after that! And it feels kind of destined that we are doing this?

A: I think we believe in that sort of thing a little! Cause it feels like there is some kind of magic happening when we’re singing together, like we’re creating something more that can’t come from just the two of us…like a third band member haha. And writing music is also something that makes us believe…in something. Because it feels like those ideas are not always coming from ourselves…it’s from somewhere else and our job is to capture the melodies and words.

Q: So Sia took notice of your single, “Bodyguard”, and added it to one of her playlists on Spotify in 2018….that must’ve freaked you out, what was that like for both of you to be acknowledged by a highly successful music artist?

A: Yeah we definitely freaked out. I remember hiding in the bathroom at the coffee shop where I was working at the time so I could stare at myself in the mirror and just try to take it. And then I told every customer what had happened!!

A: We owe Sia and her team a lot! First of all, Swedish national radio started to play our music almost immediately after that. I don’t know if they would have found our music without her. And it has given us a lot of inspiration, self esteem as songwriters and artists!

Q: Let’s talk about recent releases… you’ve released 2 singles so far… Fallback in April & Ears Ringing this month…. Fallback kind of makes me think of a person who doesn’t want to be left behind in a relationship, wants to move forward to the future….and Ears Ringing… connecting with someone on a deeper level.. Am I close?? Tell me about these 2 songs.

A: That’s true! You’re right! We love to write about love and relationships because there’s so many different angles to take on themes. Nothing is as complex and emotional like these things.

A: We wrote these songs when we were in totally different places in life. Fallback is our most recent song.. it’s about being in love and all the doubts that come with that, when everything just feels a little too good.

A: Ears Ringing, on the other side, is a song that we wrote when we weren’t in a good place in life. We had both had a rough time finding out what we wanted to do in life and how we wanted to live relationship-wise. So that is a song that came out of anxiety and doubts. That’s probably why they are totally different.

Q: What are the last 3 songs that each of you played on your Spotify? (Or whatever streaming music service you have)

Elina: Tove Lo – Hey, you got drugs?; MGMT – Kids and Lykke Li – Little Bit

Ida: Alba August – Lights; Dua Lipa – Levitating and Emerson Leif – Hesitate

Q: Growing up in Sweden, there are some major music idols to look up to like ABBA, Roxette, The Cardigans, Robyn and Lykke Li… did you look up to any artists in particular? Who would you say is your biggest influencer in the world of music?

A: First of all: yes, I think the music dream doesn’t feel so far away thanks to these amazing acts. We are super inspired by many artists, especially cool girls that have come out of Sweden and entered the international music scene.

A: We love Tove Lo and have listened to her music music for many years. I’m quite sure that you could hear that when listening to our songs. Other than that, we listen and get inspired by Robyn, Lykke Li, Icona Pop, ABBA, Say Lou Lou, Tove Styrke, yeah just to mention some of them.

Q: How would you best describe your sound? It says on your webpage, “Swedish pop duet” but I’m hearing bands that don’t fit into that one niche, very versatile in their sound.

A: It’s always tricky to categorize music, just as you say. The easy answer is that we’re making pop music, but we love the sounds of synthesizers, so often our music ends up more electronic than the generic pop music sound, we would say.

A: Also, we love to mix different styles. To have some songs that are more electronic and others that are niches into acoustic sounds like guitars. We love guitars and everything about them. I guess you could say that guitar was the instrument that put us together. We wanted to play all Taylor Swift songs on our acoustic guitars or actually we wanted to be Taylor Swift, both of us.

Q: Do you think you will release an album or EP this year?

A: That is the plan, yes. We are constantly creating music, but we have got a lot more time for that this year when we haven’t had the opportunity to go out on tour.

A: But we are also very spontaneous. You never know how everything turns out to be, even though we would like to be more planned and organized. But we have many songs that we want to share, so absolutely, more music will come very soon.

Q: Where can fans find your music?

A: Everywhere, we would say! We release our music on all platforms but most people listen to Spotify here in the North!

Thank you Ida and Elina for the interview. I feel great things for you are coming up on the horizon.. in case you want to check out their music, look for them on Instagram at isle_of_you.

Summer is very busy for me but I will have some interviews coming up with Great Good Fine Ok, Jack Downey, Roanoke and many more..

Until next time, I’m Your Music Stylist.