RIVER
Interview Conducted on Feb. 14, 2022
by Dan Locke
Swedish artist RIVER, just released her new single “We’ll Be Together” ft. Lute on Friday, January 21st via EMI Sweden / Universal Music AB. It’s a sultry mixture of pop, soul, and hip-hop that nestle us into a fervent romance where passion and destruction coexist in intimate symbiosis.
Bringing the classic swagger of 50s pin-up, RIVER is building her own oeuvre sprayed with a refreshing shade of soulful pop while experimenting with a diverse palette of genres. Her upcoming song channels the chemistry between two people who drive each other to the verge of madness – yet they belong together. “Oh you know that I love you / And that bitch can’t do it like I do” chants RIVER.
When it comes to her creativity and lifestyle, the Stockholm native is never one to settle for the conventional. Driven by wanderlust at a young age, she has lived a nomadic lifestyle around the globe including Germany, Asia, Australia, San Francisco, and New York before settling in Guanajuato, Mexico. Along the way, she embraced her voice, busking and performing standards from Etta James and Aretha Franklin in jazz clubs around Mexico for almost two years. Upon her return to Europe, she had cemented a fully conceptualized vision for the RIVER project.
You are from Stockholm. What is your upbringing?
I grew up in Gothenburg as the middle child of two siblings. Music was always around as my father was a bassist and had what I would call a good taste for music. I loved going through his old records of Elvis, Billie Holiday, The Beatles, among others. My mother is very musical as well and no one would get surprised if she started singing opera out of the blue, so loudly and crystal clear the whole neighborhood could hear. Haha. Anyways, I started playing cello as a young kid and later on I took piano lessons. But I was quite shy in that way so I’d mostly kept my music to myself. Music was never something I ever thought I would do, it wasn’t anything anyone expected me to get serious with. Most of my friends and family were actually surprised I even had it in me when I was diving deep in music years later as a fulltime performer in Mexico.
How did you discover music?
My first memory of really getting into music must have been as a five-year-old when I discovered Elvis among my parents’ collection of music and I probably thought I died and gone to heaven. I was obsessed.
How did you start to write music?
I discovered my passion for writing and expressing myself through music when my dad passed away at 17. Shortly afterwards, I started traveling around the world. In Australia I played in the streets at nights to explore my sound in public and to earn extra money. I found that music has its own language and carries a universe that I can enter whenever I want to express myself in a way that I might not be comfortable doing in real life. The feeling I get from expressing myself through music is better than any drug, any sex, anything.
You have lived all around the world. How do you feel that traveling around the world has helped your music?
For me, deciding to leave home to travel was a crucial decision for me to ever get into music. I always had a dream to make music and sing, but I never believed in myself like that. I used to be so caught up in making other people happy, doing what they wanted me to do and shit like that because I always had that role of taking care of others. When I left everything that I had come to know behind, it took about a minute until I had a guitar in my hand. I started playing in the streets and later I got gigs in bars and at festivals. In Mexico, I had a jazz band and mentors that helped me develop as a performer and singer.
How did you come up with your name?
I thought of my alter ego running free like a river.
Describe your music.
A lot of my influences are from 50s-70s soul combined with current hip-hop. It’s bold, sexy, playful and sad.
What was your first performance like?
The first performance I can think of was in high school. I sang “Locomotion” by Little Eva and “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry. I was so nervous I could die and at the end of the last song, I remember I wished I could stay up there forever.
What makes a good songwriter?
Hard to say. I can be a good songwriter and I can also really suck when I’m not in the right place to create. For me personally, it’s about being innovative, daring to play around with new ideas, stepping outside the zone of comfort, and always looking to improve.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
“Golden Fire Rain.” I wrote it for my dad after he passed and I recorded it years after I wrote it.
What is the process of writing your music?
Writing has always been a very private process for me and I never write as well as when I’m in my bedroom just feeling myself. Usually I write from personal experiences while a few are written from stuff I’ve heard, seen, or read. Lately I’ve been doing more collabs with other writers and that has been great.
Tell me about the creation of your “MISS ME” video?
I had such a great time making it and together with my team David Nordström and Sofie Kivimäe it became everything I wanted it to be. I wanted the video to reflect the desperation of reaching perfection for someone that keeps looking past you. This was illustrated by a ballerina spinning in a music box. And as the show goes on, she turns into this savage trying to break free from the naive fragile girl inside, doing everything to get revenge on her lover who broke her heart.
Tell me about your newest release “We’ll Be Together “, which will be released Feb 11th?
Me and my producer were going through old records and found this great sample from “Sunshine and Promises” by The Finishing Touch. It just felt so straight on point on what I wanted my first EP to sound like. I wanted the track to tap into the world of hip hop and rap and had recently heard Lute’s part on J Cole’s “Under The Sun” so I reached out to him and asked if he wanted to put down a verse and shortly after I got the version with his verse on which I loved. The song is a personal love-threat-letter, a statement to someone I care for to give me what I deserve.
How was it to work with Lute?
I love what he did on this track. It was such an easy process to collaborate with him and he made the song everything I wanted it to be.
Digital vs. vinyl?
I’m such a Spotify addict. I love scouting unheard music, old and new. I never listen to radio, Billboard 100 or whatever, I like to be free to decide what I consume and to find it myself. And vinyls are cool though, I got a collection of the best classics from my dad. I’m gonna have a few copies of vinyls made of my own music a little later on.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
“Would You Mind” by Janet Jacksson. It’s so sexy. I remember I thought it was so freeing hearing a song so straightforward and real, to hear a woman saying what she likes out loud. Now, luckely, it’s not that of a big deal for a woman to talk about pleasure and sex.
I see you do a bit of your music in your bedroom. Do you do much recording in your bedroom?
Yes, I’m always my greatest in bed.
What is your happy place?
My bed.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
America let me back in
