“I’m a control freak,” seemingly (but more likely surreptitiously) demure music wunderkind Alicia Lindberg freely admitted to The Bad Penny in a video conversation last week. “A part of me likes doing everything myself, because I like to get it the way I want it.”
Indeed, Lindberg – who leads the experimental jazz/pop group Linda 917 – is as clear-eyed and determined an artist as you’ll encounter. Lindberg doesn’t leave her new album, ONLINE, which comes out Friday, open to interpretation. To the contrary, she openly states that the record is intended to combat male domination in the jazz world, and that she draws on feminist music icons like Kate Bush and Björk for inspiration. She fearlessly addresses topics that, blasphemously, are still not more openly discussed in contemporary society: mental health, eating disorders and body image issues among them.
Lindberg also keeps a tight leash on her music output, even though six additional musicians contributed to ONLINE. She handled all the vocals, synths, arrangements, recording, engineer, production and mixing. And, as Lindberg explained to us, she wouldn’t have it any other way. She relocated from Sweden to the U.S. in part so she could realize her goal to pursue her music-career ambitions to the fullest, which includes having complete control over her artistic work.
When asked how she reconciles her desire for artistic control with her hunger for learning, Lindberg replied: “That’s a good question. I think I really love playing with unpredictability. I really like to write music that takes a different direction than you would expect it to. I do have a curiosity or a desire to twist and turn things, and be like, ‘What happened if I never returned to the chorus?’ Or, ‘What if the chorus just happens half the time, the second time?’ I do enjoy playing around with rules. Not that I’m doing anything revolutionary or inventing the wheel. But as a listener, I enjoy when I hear an artist [make an unexpected decision,] and I’m like, ‘Oh, shit, they went there.’
“I would never want my music to feel predictable,” she concluded. “I don’t want the listener to know exactly what’s going to happen next. I want the total opposite of that.”
---- Kurt Orzeck for "The Bad Penny"
(For full interview, click the image above)
