19 Jul 2007

HJ's spreading summer light (VI): Musical Influences

Helena Josefsson has some musical influences. I have searched her words about it.

Mario Sleepyhead
Mario (aka Sleepyhead) - LJdM


The music my mom played at home was a mix of Kate Bush, the '80s David Bowie, The Temptations, Enya, all the soul queens, Bruce [Springsteen] and a record that was on heavy rotation for 15 years was Jane Fonda's aerobics vinyl with everything from The Jacksons' 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' in a disco-soul version and Jane cheering on. It never gets old! I've always sung, if I am to describe my music it sounds like my maternal grandparents were Kate Bush and Michael Jackson, and my paternal grandparents were Madonna and Nick Drake!

If I were making a mix for our readers, I would select Meadow and Sleepyhead from "Dynamo" and Spiderweb Suit from Sandy Mouche´s latest album. And if it was other music, I could choose True Colors with Cyndi Lauper, Hello Earth with Kate Bush and Samson with Regina Spektor.

Sandy Mouche's music is pop. Our music is a bit softer than standard rock and it's not all based on loud guitars. We have many influences: The French singer Joe Dassin, France Gall, Cindy Lauper, The Twin Peaks music, Beatles, Michael Jackson, Type o Negative.

I have a lot of different influences even though I´ve understood it can be hard to hear them in the music! The Cure (fell in love with Robert Smith when I was a kid and I saw him in the "Close to me" video!) Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Marie Fredriksson, Monica Zetterlund, Björk, Kate Bush, Cranberries, Michael Jackson (fell in love with him too!), Mary J Blige, Otis Redding, Terence Trent D´arby, Nick Drake, Prince. The soundtracks of Astrid Lindgrens stories, and Peter and The Wolf by Prokofjev mean a great deal to me!

Currently I like Joanna Newsom, Jay Jay Johanson, Regina Spektor, Laleh. Prince´s and Kate Bush´s latest albums are fantastic!! I think that my music could match Coldplay or U2 tours, I like to make long mantras at the end of my songs live, and that way of forcing the athmosphere is in their music too!

I would like to produce an album with Prince. I would like to bring my band and Christoffer Lundquist, producer of Dynamo. I believe it could be a fantastic match!
I love the way Prince uses clustres in the vocals and I think his pop-songs (not the funky ones) have something in them that I am trying to do too!
Helena Josefsson (Sandy Mouche)

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