Anette Olzon talks about the new album Shine, artwork, music videos and more.
Anette Olzon Interview
– What’s new in the world of Anette Olzon?
At the moment I am quite a busy bee rehearsing for my first show this year, February 20th in Helsinki, as well as rehearsing and preparing for the TV-show TÄHDET TÄHDET where I am one of the participants, starting off march 1st in Finland.
– How was it recording the album Shine?
It was really nice and easy since I worked with such great professionals as Johan Glössner and Stefan Örn. They made everything run so smoothly so it was a great ride to make the album.
– How did you go about for ideas in making the artwork?
I really wanted the album cover to be something with nature. I started off with sending the record label photos I had taken myself from the forest where the sun shines through the trees. That’s how I think of SHINE and we started from there and then when I did the photo session with Patric Ulleus we took lots of these kinda photos and it was so hard to choose, but the one we ended up with feels so SHINE to me and I love it. I just filmed my second video and this time its the song SHINE we filmed and I have this pose in this one too and Raimo, the video maker calls it my SHINE pose=) So maybe that’s just my signature pose.
– What is the strangest inspiration you’ve ever had for a song?
Haha, now I need to tell a very old memory from my times in Alyson Avenue, where I wrote the lyrics back then. We were so tired after a long writing session in the rehearsal room and we played in a house where many bands also rehearsed, some punk bands, dance bands and even very angry death metallers, so we always had fun listening to the different music styles that came through the house walls. This afternoon in the tired state we were in, we started just making silly songs pretending we were a dance band and then a death metal band who were really angry. And well, my lyrics were also kinda strange=) The dance band song were really happy melody but I sang sad lyrics in Swedish, translated they were: So I´m picking a flower to your grave, have a feeling you´re feeling just like me=) And then the angry song I just growled: DIE!!! over and over…haha! Oh my, so that’s the strangest inspiration I’ve gotten.
– How important are music videos in the industry today? How do they compare to videos from 20 years ago?
Well, since MTV doesn’t play so much music anymore as they did back then, its not so easy to get your video to be played on TV as then, but at the same time a video is so much more important today, since many people won’t listen to a song without a video. YouTube is so big among the kids and teenagers today and they watch videos all the time in there. So even if we don’t have to make such expensive videos as before, we do need to make more videos for the albums to show our music in the internet. Lyric videos are also big today and an easy way for the record labels to make a cheap and fast video to a new band.
– What’s your take on the sex appeal in the music industry? Is it as important for men and women?
I believe there’s a higher demand on women and girls in music to look sexy and slim and so on than for a man. Especially in the metal scene I can’t say men have any demands to look sexy, quite the opposite. In pop I think the guys need to think more of their looks and sex appeal though, but still there’s a higher demand on women in every field in the world still.
– Could you describe what goes on in a day in your life as a musician on tour?
Its normally a lot of just waiting around and trying to keep yourself occupied while waiting for the sound check and the gig. Sometimes there are interviews and meet and greets to do. I also exercise on tour so that’s something I try to do almost every day. I read books, watch movies and then I do vocal warm ups and my make up and hair starting appr 2 hours before the gig.
– What would we be surprised to find in your music collection at home?
I have some nice old vinyls from my teenage years and there´s some fun stuff like the album from the movie “The never-ending story” with Limahl and yeah, I also have one of those albums with the blue smurfs=)
– What goals as a musician have you yet to achieve?
So many! But some is that I would love to go on tour to USA, Japan, South America and so on with my solo. I want to have my songs to be played in the radio in Sweden and I would love to win a Grammy one day=)
Check out Anette Olzon online http://www.anette-olzon.com/