Name: Linnea Hjertén
Nationality: Swedish  
Current release: Linnea Hjertén's Nio systrar is slated for release on January 12th 2024 via Nordvis.
Recommendations: Erik Enocksson - "The state the sea left me in"; Jan Johansson - "Visa från Utanmyra"

If you enjoyed this Linnea Hjertén interview and would like to keep up to date with her music, visit her on Instagram.  



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

It depends on the purpose of listening to the particular song. I often listen to music to change my mindset or to digest events or transform in some way.

A lot of times it's emotional in a physical way for me. I can feel the change happening in my skin and senses.

Sometimes when my eyes are open I can see my perspective change or I notice new things or new solutions to a problem.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

My first steps were just expressing myself trough singing, and it’s still what I do the most. Experience and knowing technique can give more freedom to express what’s needed.

I think most people can learn everything with willpower and discipline, but there is some just innate talent.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

A lot of listening to/creating music for me then was about exploring myself / everything around me or to drown in my emotions.

Now it’s a lot about processing, transforming and turn emotions to power and creating beauty.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The impulse to create can come from anything that makes me feel anything.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment – is it an extension of your self/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?

The compositions I'm releasing next had initially served a wide range of purposes: as grounding forces, as enhancements of energies, and as manifestations of intent to release that which no longer served me.

But sometimes music is just a way to express my feelings or to vent. Sometimes it’s just entertainment.

Are you acting out certain roles or parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? If not, what, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

Not roles, but I feel there are emotions and actions that gets expressed in music that I can’t do in other ways.

On the album I'm releasing next, the story is in the melody and there are no lyrics, which I think I something that can’t be said any other way than through music.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

Nothing is for everyone and the difficulties to deal with that lies within ourselves and our own insecurities and issues.

I look until I find the right key to unlock the situation for me to let it go and move on.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness as things become more professionalised and how do you still draw surprises from equipment, instruments, approaches and formats you may be very familiar with?

So far I try to not think about this at all. I feel that can obstruct me in the creative flow.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Sometimes I stand outside at night when there is silence and the wind blows through the trees and make that calming sound and I sing with it.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in numbers, from waveforms via recommendation algorithms up to deciphering the code of hit songs. What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

I really know nothing about recommendation algorithms or deciphering the code of hit songs. But what can be captured through numbers is a much bigger question and I think the answers are endless depending on how you interpret it.

Numbers can be an expression for anything.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I think the lessons we can learn from music don’t have any boundaries - maybe not just from the music itself but as a key to evolve and transform every situation we find ourself in or to create a situation or mindset we need to be in.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold? What role do headphones play for you in this regard?

Sound can be a gateway to silence.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

The biggest difference is the importance the task has for yourself and the intent you put in it.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values which don't appear to have any emotional connotation. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a seemingly counterintuitive way – and what, do you think, is happening here?

Many, and I think it can be both the intent the creator of the piece / performer put into it, or some parallel the listener makes to a moving or traumatic moment we get taken back to.

Sometimes it’s just beauty or the sense of connecting.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

For the mass to value the importance of music and to see that reflected in society.