Planetary Group took some time to get to know Tingsek, a Swedish artist with a warm, soulful sound.
Planetary Group: Tell us about your latest release. How did you come to create it?
Tingsek: My latest album is called Home, and it’s about just that – home. To find a place, an actual physical spot that I can call home, but mostly to find a place within that I can call home – somewhere I don’t feel restless, a place where I feel at ease with most things.
I found a reconciliation with my dad that passed away. I found a place where I’m not stressed about where my career has taken me, my music has taken me; I just feel at ease. And I think that made this album what it is, sound-wise and not just the lyrics. There’s a calm essence within the production and the songs.
So it’s an album that I’m very proud of. And I managed to produce it between changing diapers and between no sleep at all. So I think it’s my best album yet.
PG: Share a bit about your musical journey, from when you first started making music until now.
Tingsek: I started playing music when I was 13. Well, my granddad tried to teach me the violin when I was eight, but I was too busy playing soccer and skateboarding. But I think when I was 13, my big brother started to play and I wanted to do everything that he did. So, uh, I started to play as well.
I started with the drums, which I’m very happy that I did because I got the rhythm set in my blood before I started with piano and guitar and vocals. It took me a while to actually find my voice – [it] took almost 10 years of touring as a drummer or as a pedal steel guitarist, which I did as well with the country band my brother played in.
So after many, many years of touring, I sat down and realized that I have to do this by myself. I have to create this within my own world for it to be the way I want. And all of the people that I played with, they stopped playing or they didn’t have the interest enough to pursue it for real.
So I started my solo project. I think I recorded demos for five years and probably a hundred songs before I got signed in 2004 with a company called V2. They released my first album, which is basically a demo. And then I did my second album World Of Its Own by myself with just like one crappy mic and a crappy computer.
And then it’s evolved through the years. My fourth album Restless Soul was my first album with my own label and I’ve released three more since. So yeah, I’m 42 years old and I will hopefully release and produce albums another 42 years. I hope.
PG: Let’s talk about the music that you love. Pick one album for each category below & tell us a bit about it!
- An album you grew up listening to:
Tingsek: Well, there were many. My parents had lots of albums that were on repeat. And that’s formed my way of making music as well because my music is all over the place. That’s all because of the variety of albums that were on repeat in my home.
I would say Abbey Road by The Beatles is one of them, Black Night by Deep Purple – well, that’s not an album, obviously. But yeah, anything like any ELO album, any of The Beatles’ solar-related albums, All Things Must Pass by George Harrison, we had on repeat a lot.
- The album that influences you the most as an artist:
Tingsek: It is hard to pick one because I have so many. I would say again the White Album by The Beatles or Abbey Road, anything with D’Angelo… Hotter Than July by Stevie Wonder was an album that I listened to a lot. Any Depeche Mode album as well, and then Led Zeppelin’s 1 2 3 4. So, uh, yeah, I think that’s really why my music is kind of all over the place… The [Last] Waltz by The Band, Neil Young’s Harvest [Moon]. But yeah, I can’t, I can’t choose one. If I have to choose one, it will be Abbey Road by the Beatles.
- The album you currently have on repeat:
Tingsek: Right now I’m not listening to a lot of music. Uh it’s. Some periods I’m just not listening to music. And sometimes it’s music every day, every minute of the day. But one I’ve been listening to a lot lately- like the most lately – is a Swedish guy called Oscars Tapes. Him and his friends are like college students. They made an album or an EP with five songs and five different singers that is amazing. It’s recorded on an old portable tape recorder, a four track tape recorder. It’s actually been an idea that I had for a long time and he beat me to it! It sounds really good and the songs are amazing and those kids are killing it. So I’m listening to that a lot.
PG: What do you want people to take away from your music?
Tingsek: It’s what I want to take away from music: pure bliss. When I hear a chord change that just makes me get goosebumps or when a melody pierces my soul, when I cry because of music… if I can make that happen for anyone, my job is done.
The power of music is enormous. And if I can be part of that, um, yeah, that’d be fantastic.
PG: What’s next up for you?
Tingsek: I’m preparing a small tour in Sweden and Denmark this fall 2021. Whatever happens with the restrictions and COVID… we’ll see what happens, but yeah, that’s the plan. And then hopefully I have a project for this symphony orchestra as well that I’m planning to release soon, which is pretty amazing.
Hopefully I’ll get to come to the states next year, 2022, and do some shows. We’ll see – everything is upside down!
