Beyond basic pop

Astrid Swan sings and plays the piano, but no one would dream of describing her as a lyrical balladeer. Her new disc is an essay in rhythmic rock with passion and edge.

Born in Helsinki, singer and songwriter Astrid Swan, 26, was the talk of the town in Finland when she released her début album Poverina three years ago, and now she is again, only more so. This is thanks to her strong and ambitious second album, Spartan Picnic, where she has taken up new challenges.

Her purpose was to make a diverse rock disc which would not fit the conventional image of a lady artist soulfully sighing at the keyboard. She herself views this stereotype with irritation. Besides, there is an entire band playing on the disc.

The disc is bolder than its predecessor, to the point of being intimidating; and this is exactly what the stereotype-shunning Swan was looking for. The unconventional approach begins with the cover art, where she appears startlingly with a rifle on her shoulder.

A fresh breeze of a rhythmfest with a mix-and-match of styles, Spartan Picnic has been much acclaimed by the critics.

Who needs formal qualifications?

Astrid Swan could celebrate the 20th anniversary of her artistic career this year. It was 20 years ago that the then 6-year-old Astrid Joutseno was given a piano by her grandparents. She took piano lessons until the age of 11, until it was noted when she applied for admission to the local music institute that the piano was not really her instrument.

Musical as she was, she easily switched to the clarinet, taking lessons at the music institute until the age of 19. She also learned basic guitar but eventually drifted back to the piano.

“The guitar gave me the feeling that in pop music you can be self-taught. My idol at the time was Susanne Vega, who had never studied music at all. That was a big thing for me.”

Her musical career budding, she adopted the stage name of Swan [the Finnish word joutsen means ‘swan’] because she sang in English. She freely admits that the example of Vega and other unschooled pop musicians was an important support in the early days of her career. Today, it is almost impossible to do anything unless you have a formal qualification from a legitimate institution. It is sometimes stressful to live in today’s achievement-oriented society.

“Sometimes you feel that whatever you do, you have to have a piece of paper that says that you are allowed to do it. It took some courage to begin writing songs,” Swan recalls.

Still, she is not without academic merit, albeit her field of study is not music. She is currently writing her master’s thesis for the Christina Institute of Women’s Studies at the University of Helsinki on the diaries of author and poet Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide at the age of 31.

As it happens, Swan’s latest disc contains a nod to Sylvia Plath: the title track refers directly to a line from Plath’s poem Daddy.

What is it about Plath that is so fascinating?

“Her diaries reveal an interesting conflict. She wanted to be an acknowledged poet and author and thereby gain entry to artistic circles. On the other hand, in the USA of the 1950s her role would have been that of a housewife — she would have been expected to be content with the fact that her husband was a poet.”

Swan has found herself irritated by her reception as a woman musician and woman songwriter. She is peeved that she is almost always compared to other women and that everything is “women’s this and women’s that”.

Sometimes being a woman can be a clear advantage in the field of pop, but Swan feels that the expectations levelled at women in the business can be quite exhausting.

“There is this feeling that if a woman wants to do something independently beyond being the figurehead for a pop group, she has to do it way better than normal. But there has been improvement. Today, it is a realistic proposition for women to enter the business in the first place.”

Looking abroad

From the very first, Swan has had a hankering for international markets. She now has a two-album licence deal with Minty Fresh, an indie label in the US. There are developments in Europe too. Swan recently visited Midem in Cannes, France, known as the largest event in the music industry.

Swan says that her gig at Midem went excellently, but there is no news as yet of what that gig might generate. However, she already has a clear idea of what she wants her international career to be.

“If I could only sell enough discs, songs and gigs to be able to make more and to get better. I would like to be able to make a living on music. So far, I have been living on study grants and the occasional income from music.”

Her cash flow is now steadily improving with the radio play and sales of Spartan Picnic and, of course, with an increasing number of gigs.

Text: Tomi Nordlund
Photos: Maarit Kytöharju