Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanängen aka Loney Dear, will play Bristol in February as part of a UK and Ireland tour.
In the early 2000s, in his Stockholm apartment studio, Svanängen made a name for himself by creating homemade CDrs with a minidisk microphone and a home computer, self-releasing albums which by 2007 had pricked Sub Pop’s ears and they released Loney Noir. Two more albums – Dear John and Hall Music – followed, as did glowing reviews in The Guardian, BBC, Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork and last year the Line of Best Fit went as far as calling him a “brilliant genius”.
In September 2017 Loney Dear released his eponymous seventh album while finding himself at something of a crossroads. His career, in many ways, has been as unique as his music.
“I’ve been taking some strange roads.” says Svanängen , “Basically, I have a really strange career and I have no idea where it’s going. Everything is always random because my career is so small and slow. I have had to learn to enjoy all the randomness of what I’m doing.”
After all these years in the music industry, Svanängen has reached a stage in which he is not striving to be loved, to be big, to be recognised or feels that he is deserving of more than he has. Above all, he feels emboldened and powerful simply by the new music he is making, as featured on his latest album.
“I’m moving into a more bold state, I’m confident, powerful, I became a singer, I learned my darkness and discovered my magnetism”.
- Catch Loney Dear at Bristol’s Louisiana on February 15. Visit http://www.facebook.com/loneydearmusic for further tour details.