I made my bed, cleared the desk, put away things from the floor in my room.
Some things need space. A clutter-free environment. A physical respect and stillness. Quiet and undivided attention.
One of those things is listening to a new Hello Saferide album for the first time. And this is how it starts, with a soft drum machine:
To hear a song like that, to have it spoon your sad little heart. It didn’t give me a better outlook on life but it told me: ”I’ve been there too and I turned it into art”. That made all the difference to me.
That made all the difference to me.
And I forgot about songs, I forgot about what they are to me. I forgot how they hold me, how they sooth me and carry me. I forgot about violins, I forgot how they see me. Try me and taunt me, and how they finally breathe me. I forgot about chord changes where the base tone stays intact. I forgot about drums and voices with a tendency to crack. Well, they make all the difference to me.
They make all the difference to me.
/…/
And you’re so young, you’re so young and you come up to me. And you tell me it helped you through something bad, you say, and you hang your head, but the song helped you through.
I get home and kick my books: Fuck you Knowledge. I was never on your team, never one of your fighters. I was born a romantic for a reason, not to be learned, but to be a song writer.
And I could keep on going, with the next song, and the next. I won’t be able to do her justice, so I’ll skip trying to explain her greatness.
But I remember seeing her live at a festival in 2006, and falling like a ripe apple from a tree. She had me, with her sincerity, humor, intelligence, honesty. And she has me now.
I bought the actual CD, because I like collecting and I have all her other albums. It came in the post, signed. Annika Norlin has touched this CD. It amazes me. I’ll build an altar around it, one of these days.
* *
But just one more thing. About her kicking Knowledge and being a song writer. I remember reading somewhere that she took a break from music several years ago to go to university and become a psychologist. I interpret those last lines in the song as something coming from that. From all her lyrics and interviews, I get the feeling that she wants to be a person who makes the world a better place. Happier.
But. There are so many different ways to achieve that. I’ve thought about that a lot. What should I do, with my particular talents and abilities, do to make as good an impact on the world as possible. It is not the same for everyone. I would not be a good doctor or primary school teacher. Is what I’m doing right now the best thing that I could do? I don’t know.
Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide) has definitely made at least my world better with her songs. That doesn’t mean that she wouldn’t be a great phsychologist either, I know nothing abou that. But in her music, she’s definitely found a truly good contribution that she can make to the world. I envy her, and am so thankful that she decided to learn to play the guitar all those years ago.
Katja Malmborg 