We Chat To SVEA About Her New EP, Self-Love, And Her Biggest Inspirations
Her infectious EP, Pity Party, was released on November 6th.
If SVEA isn’t on your radar yet, she will be soon.
At only 20 years old, SVEA is taking the world by storm. Her early 2020 single Need To Know with Alexander Oscar is a viral hit; reaching number 20 on the Nordic Tiktok charts and the top 10 radio airplay chart in Denmark. She’s accumulated 60 million streams in 80 countries with one million monthly listeners, opened for the likes of Jess Glynne and Picture This on their national tours, and is certified Platinum in Denmark and Gold in Norway. If that wasn’t impressive enough, her accolades from The Independent, Official Charts, and Hunger TV speak for themselves.
Fresh off the release of her new EP, Pity Party, SVEA has just dropped the music video for the titular track.
We sat down with SVEA to talk her favorite tracks, her creative process, and her plans for 2021.
Hi Svea! How are you? How has your year been, considering [gestures vaguely] the state of the world?
I’m good! I mean, 2020 has been pretty hectic and different for everyone. I guess right now, I could really use a vacation- I’ve been a little stressed lately. Some days are really good, some days are a little bit more difficult. But I’m really happy, I just released my second EP, Pity Party.
I’ve had it on repeat! Do you have a favorite track?
It’s really hard to just pick one. Every track is really different from each other, both sound wise and lyric wise. I’ll Get Better is a song that’s very personal, it means a lot to me. Otherwise, I love Aftermath because it was one of the first songs I wrote when I first started creating music. It’s two years old, and it sounds the exactly the same as when I first wrote it. We just kept everything as it was. It’s a song that I personally love a lot. I come a lot from R&B and Soul, so it’s fun to do a track that comes from that sound. I’m actually really proud of all the tracks- I love them all in different ways.
Each song on Pity Party takes the listener through the emotions that can come with a breakup. Why was it important for you to channel these feelings into music? Does it help you through the process?
Music has always helped me go through different stages in my life, and that’s something that I really want with my music- to help other people in the same way. Breakups are things that everyone goes through at some point in their lives. I wanted to show the other side of the story. My first single and the first EP I released were about confidence and that self-love vibe. It’s sassier. I can be sassy, but I also have another side. I can also cry for hours about stupid shit. That’s what I wanted to show with this EP: the rollercoaster of a breakup.
In the MV for the EP’s title track, we follow you through a night out at a club. I have to say, this made me feel nostalgic for going out with my friends! How was the experience shooting the music video?
We filmed it two months ago, and we rented this nightclub in Sweden. I’ve been there before so it was also really nostalgic to be there and shoot the video. We only had one and a half hours to shoot it because we’d had a photoshoot in the nightclub and outside all day. The makeup artists roughed everything up to make me look like I had been out for hours, and the photographer followed me around. It was so much fun because I could just let go. I also called my tattooist and actually had Pity Party tattooed- that’s also featured in the video.
So, you’ve opened for some of the biggest names in music and toured in some of the world’s most incredible venues. What’s been a personal career highlight for you so far?
The biggest highlights for me are when it comes to performing, because that’s when I realise that my music actually affects people. I can see their reactions when I play live, and you don’t really get that when you release a song. I’ve played live quite a lot, but one of my favorites is one show I played last summer on a little island in Demark. I’d never been there before. I travelled with my band in a car for ten hours, it was crazy! We were so tired when we got there. Before we got on stage, there were no people in the crowd. In that moment, we decided to go out there and just have fun. We also had a really good spot. So I started performing, and halfway through the song, the crowd was completely full. People started singing to all my songs- every lyric! My band and I were almost crying, it was so emotional. It was a real highlight to have this crowd from a little island know my music.
Who are your favorite artists? Do you draw inspiration from their style?
My biggest inspiration is Rihanna. I love her style, and her music- everything about her is just great. I also love Kehlani and Ariana Grande. I just love pop, soul, and R&B. Females with big voices and sassiness.
How has the pandemic affected your music process?
My plan wasn’t to be in the studio much this year. I guess at the beginning of the pandemic, I felt pressure to be creative. I felt like I had to force creating music when I didn’t have much inspiration. I was actually very depressed at the beginning of this year. I finished some songs, but I cancelled some sessions and decided to do other things. But this summer I was away with my family, and I spent time with friends. When I got back, I felt the energy and inspiration. So this whole Fall I’ve been in the studio every day creating new things. I guess I needed to take some time off and find new inspiration. Imagine being in the studio every day, trying to write songs about your life, but nothing is really happening in your life. I just took a little time to breathe.
Have you any new music in the works? What themes do you think you’ll cover next?
I think I’m going to dig deeper in my feelings. I just started opening up about my childhood and what’s happened in my life. I guess I’m going to keep opening those doors and keep writing about those things. But I still love that sassy, self-love theme and I think that will keep being a part of my music in some way. I think it’ll be a mix between the Pity Party vibe and my old stuff, and also trying out new things.
You can watch the video for SVEA’s new single, Pity Party, here.
You can listen to the Pity Party EP here.
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