Lizzi | en

The text below was retired from http://magnatune.com/artists/lizzi

There's both longing and loneliness in Lizzi's dark, sensual voice. Love and chill -- like the icy winter winds sweeping across her native island of Gotland in Sweden. "To be in love is a kind of isolation," she says. "It's not all happiness and joy: there's a lot of pain and emptiness too. But longing is also an incredible feeling, much under-valued today."

Growing up in a poor music-loving family of six children, Lizzi knows all about longing. "I was lucky," Lizzi says. "I was on friendly terms with the preacher. He let me use the village church to sing whenever I wanted." The mental image of a little girl singing her heart out -- alone in a vast, empty church in the dark of night -- still resonates through one's mind when listening to Lizzi's music today. Lizzi started singing professionally in the synth band Houses & Gardens. "One of the band members heard me singing in the shower and thought I should have a go. Some of the other guys in the band thought I was too cheerful. I was prohibited to laugh during performances." She says synth-rock really wasn't her style but she did it because she loved to sing. "And I've always been a chameleon. It's taken me a long time to find my own voice." In 1994, she released her first solo album, "Lizzie," for which she wrote most of the songs. "But that wasn't really me either, even though I believed so at the time. It didn't take very long to find out..."

Later, she spent two years singing with the Swedish avant-garde group, The Flesh Quartet. Working in The Flesh Quartet brought her together with producer Jacob Hellner. After having turned down one record company who wanted to morph her into a Swedish Kylie Minogue(!), Lizzi and Jacob decided to make her new album on their own. "I can't sell my soul. If I did I'd really be poor forever. I'd rather work petty day jobs as long as I can sing. Besides, I can only sing about things I've experienced - that's when it gets good."

The new album, "Love and you and I," is about uniting opposites -- staying and walking away, sadness and happiness -- and musically uniting the coldness of loops and computers with the warmth of real instruments. "The album is the story of a love affair -- from the beginning, through all the conflicting emotions to the not necessarily bitter end... Simplicity is the keyword, both musically and lyrically," Lizzi says.

Though she left Gotland long ago, the magic island is still in her blood. "When I sing my lyrics, it's as if I'm back there somehow. It's the same feeling I had when I lived there as a child -- the sunlight flooding sideways at dusk, like a flash of lightning racing through the landscape." Somehow, that feeling flows through her songs, too.


Lizzi is WONDERFUL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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