Messed!Up
Anna Öberg arrived in the punk scene as the keyboarder of 80s punk band Ladomir, but after a few singles, and after one of those singles ended up as number one on Swedish radio show “Bommen”, the dream of a music career and living off music was put on a hold. Life happened and families were started.
However, her adventures in music didn’t stop in the 80s. The dream of releasing music on her own has stayed with her ever since she left the music scene and after twenty years and a bit in the shadows, she released her banger debut solo album “Härsknar” 2017. The record drew accolades from the music press and Anna was nominated for a Manifest Award.
Three years and three albums later we met up Anna in her home on the countryside at the Swedish west coast close to Gothenburg. And we hit it off with a walk down history lane and a chat about the Ladomir years, her work relationship with super producer Charlie Storm [The Ark, Mando Diao, Roxette and At the Gates to mention a few], and the pressure that comes from being nominated for an award. And today she got her nomination letter from the Manifest Award 2021. Bíg year!
The Legacy of Anna Öberg
Very few artists have such an interesting career in the music scene as you. With 30 years of experience you must have quite a perspective on how the music scene has changed.
I should have, shouldn’t I (laugh).
The biggest change for me is how to perform live. With Ladomir we played everything live; every sound you would hear at our live shows was played by someone on stage, there were no backing tracks in the 80s. Sometimes we used a drum machine, especially after our drummer left, but that was it. I loved that part of the 80s, to actually play what you put in sequencer software today. Musicians had to play their instruments and when you played a lot you also learned to play your gear really well.
I remember a review in a magazine of one of our singles saying “They would never be able to play it live”, but we did (laugh). Today it’s a lot of backing tracks, especially in the electronic scene, save for some bands who’ve made it their brand to play it all live.
While I was working on my first record I thought a lot about how to play my music live. I really wanted to recreate the feeling I had on stage with Ladomir, and I didn’t want it to look like many electronic bands do on stage today. You know, two guys with laptops aren’t really my idea of a live performance. It’s beyond boring to watch (laugh). 
That’s the reason you brought in band members to form your backing band Härsk?
Yeah, but it more or less happened in panic. I was almost done with my debut album in the fall of 2016 and found out that Truckstop Alaska [former venue in Gothenburg] had lots of free slots in their gig schedule and thought “What?! Don’t they have a full program yet?”. I sent a mail and told them something like “Here’s my new band and some songs from my upcoming debut record, I would love to play”. They got back to me later and asked “Can you play in ten days?”. But I didn’t have a band yet!
Fortunately Linnea at my workplace could play and sing, but I wanted someone who also could play Simmons drums [electronic drums] on stage, and when I asked Linnea I put it on the table for her as well and she said “Yeeey! Of course I can”. Apparently she’s a drummer, I didn’t know that! (laugh)
I also had a friend who I knew could play guitar, he’s even an educated guitarist, and I asked him “Please, listen to my songs and join my band”. Adam joined the band on the spot and we rehearsed for a week at Musikens Hus and then played the show. And they’re both still with me, I didn’t scare them off (laugh). Today, [Karl] Gasleben is with us on stage as well, he joined the band when Linnea was pregnant.
But it’s not all live. I combine backing tracks and musicians on stage. You cannot recreate the big sound on record without backing tracks, but since I don’t have any guitar on my records it will sound quite different live anyway. Like I said, creating that live feeling is important to me.
But you’re relation to music must have changed since the 80s. Ladomir were a band with a punk attitude and you were “just” a band member. Today it’s a one-man project, you control it all, and it’s electronic music, not punk/new wave.
Yeah, but I have more of a punk attitude today (laugh). But sure, it’s quite different being a solo artist.
I wanted it to be a solo project because I want to be in control of things, like doing all the vocals and the music without being dependent on other people. Live is different; I can tell Adam “Do whatever you want to” and he will make whatever noise he wants to (laugh). The only time I ever stopped was when we rehearsed the new songs and he came up with a guitar part that sounded like Tomas Ledin [Swedish artist] and that doesn’t work out at all for me (laugh). But that’s the only time.
I’m also sure that you are far more realistic on how far it’s possible to reach with your music career today. When you’re young you’re at the top of the world and can afford yourself to dream of a life as a full-time musician, when you’re older and have been doing it for 30 years you’re often more realistic.
Right! When I was young and played with Ladomir I still had the dream to live off music, and of course it never happened. Today I know it’s not really possible to do it.
When I released my solo debut the only thing I really wanted was for one person to like the record. That would have been enough for me, but there were actually a few more who liked it (laugh). The problem is when you release your second album because you want the same response as on the first, and if it doesn’t happen it’s kind of discouraging. You tend to raise the bar a bit on how you want people to receive your music. That’s pressure!
When I’m in the studio with Charlie working on the music, I don’t care at all what people would say, it’s just me and the music. But somewhere in your head you have this nagging thought “What if no one would like it?”. For me it’s a lot more like that today.
I guess you felt a lot of pressure to repeat the success of your debut album after it was nominated for a Manifest Award?
Yeah, it’s just stupid, isn’t it (laugh). I would never have expected to get a nomination for my debut. Every time you read a great review you get a boost, but that feeling doesn’t stay as long anymore. It’s like getting a raise; when you’ve got it a few times you will be satisfied but only for two weeks, then you need another boost. It’s like a drug in the end.
But music is also important to me for another reason: I want to leave a legacy for my children, something for them to have when I’m not around anymore. When dad died I phoned his answering machine just to hear his voice again, but then the cassette with his recorded message disappeared and I can’t hear his voice anymore. It was the same with my mother, I don’t have her voice recorded and can’t hear her voice ever again. My children can at least hear my voice on record. That’s why I made the first record. But it turned out much better than I would have thought and I had to release more records. It may be too much of me on record now (laugh).
The Peanut Butter and Jelly Duo
For the third time Anna Öberg worked together with producer Charlie Storm, and Anna and Charlie go together like peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich. Storm’s knob-twiddling expertise and feeling for sonic details combined with Anna’s melodic sense in song-writing makes up for a great production duo that has created three albums in four years.
With such an output rate you would think she would slow down, and although Anna won’t promise new music in 2021, she won’t promise to stay out of the studio either, at least Storm doesn’t seems to believe in it. One thing is for sure though: whenever she starts writing new music she wants more bass chorus.
Your latest record is quite diverse and mixes everything from synthpop to EBM and folk music.
And I like that! When I did my first record and was in the studio with Charlie to work on it, I asked him “What kind of music is this?”, and he answered me “It’s synth music”. That was great to hear for me because it meant I wasn’t pigeonholed and just wrote synthpop or EBM or something else, it was a mash-up of electronic music. If he would have told me something else it may have affected me to continue doing a certain type of music.
You and Charlie seem to get along quite well.
Yeah, we have a really good workflow together. I usually have drafts of all my songs when I go into his studio, but they need a knob-twiddler to get the right sounds. If I would have done it all by myself it would have taken me hours to just find one sound I like, but for Charlie it’s a simple ten-minute process before I’ll shout “Yes! That’s the sound I want!” (laugh). I don’t even think I’m good enough to be the judge of what sounds good or not because I’m mostly interested in the melodies, not the sounds that make it a melody, and I would probably have used the same sound patches if Charlie wouldn’t have been around (laugh).
At home I work on my own in my studio or stay in bed and work with GarageBand [music software] on my iPad. I can record vocals directly in GarageBand, add some basslines and send a draft to Charlie, and then we’ll add sounds from his awesome analog synthesizers in the studio later.
He’s just great to work with. We have worked together since we recorded Ladomir’s album in 2008, and I know that he loves to do this type of productions because it’s quite different from the bands he usually works with. But Charlie can also add stuff to my ideas. He’s such an experienced producer and can say “This melody won’t work out, let’s do it like this”.
What’s unique with how he works is that we play the whole melody when we record it, it’s not a copy and paste procedure. I was quite surprised the first time we did it, but it’s more fun to do it that way. It’s the same with the vocals, just sing it all through and make every verse and chorus unique in a song. Charlie just says “Now, sing it all. We don’t copy and paste things in my studio” (laugh).
He’s doing the final mix on his own though, I’m not part of that process and since I’m not there he can put in some changes just to see if I would notice anything (laugh). But in the end you’ll get great songs even if it takes a bit more time to do it like that.
Your lyrics are kind of poetic. You even worked with Bob Hansson, one of Sweden’s most popular poets, on “Dags att gråta” on your second album. Are you interested in poetry?
Not really, I’m not a super fan of poetry, note at the level where I read a lot of poetry. Bob Hansson didn’t write the lyrics specifically to my song, it’s something he already had written. But even if I don’t read a lot of poetry I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it poetic.
What you really should know is that I didn’t start writing lyrics until I made my first record because I didn’t think I could write lyrics. It was just a lot of pressure. Taking that step was really important for me and when I’d done it was super easy to continue.
Much of the pressure comes from my parents and their expectations. For example, I was never allowed to listen to ABBA because their lyrics were all about love. My parents thought lyrics should have a purpose, something that would change the world and it’s not easy to write lyrics like that. That’s why I didn’t have the confidence to write lyrics for years.
You’ve released three albums in four years. Will you continue at the same pace or slow it down a bit now?
Charlie and I had a chat when I gave him a copy of the new record and he asked me “I’ll see you next week then?” (laugh).
What would be fun to do with the next record is to go into the studio and don’t have anything prepared, just to work on the music in a different way. And have a minimal setup, maybe just a keyboard and a drum machine. That would be exciting and inspiring. On the other hand, I may have said that the latest album would be a minimalistic record, but it turned out completely different (laugh). When Charlie and I are in the studio it’s always like “Maybe we should add this sound as well? Do you want to have more synths on it? Let’s go!”. For me being in a studio with lots of electronic gear is like leaving a kid in the candy store (laugh).
But you’re not playing with the idea to start doing more guitar-based music, like a natural step after three electronic records? You do have a punk background.
No, no, no, not at all! But I would love to use more bass chorus to get that goth feeling like The Cure and The Sisters of Mercy have. Every time I’ve been to a show with bands like that I’m always like “I just have to have more bass chorus”. That would be a natural step for me in the future.
What’s the goal in the near future? Live shows if it’s possible or recording something new?
There’s no ambition to release something new at all at the moment, it’s too soon after the album. It’s probably a lie because I usually restart quite soon (laugh). It would be great to play live but I understand why it’s not possible, but ever since I played with Ladomir in the 80s I’ve loved to be on stage and perform.
I would also love to play outside Sweden but don’t know how to do it because I book everything myself and don’t have a huge network in Europe. I was booked for a show at a German festival once but had to pay for travel arrangements and hotel for all four of us myself and I didn’t do it. It has nothing to do with money, it’s a golden rule to not play for free. You should at least get paid for the trip and the hotel, that’s where I draw the line. And if I’ll play in Europe I need more than one show. It’s not fun to drive for 15 hours, play and head back home again. But I would love to play abroad.
Photographer: Krichan Wihlborg
Anna Öberg pages
Messed!Up Recommends
