Singer-songwriter Albin Lee Meldau is an incredibly gifted musician from Gothenburg, Sweden. Having first sprung onto the music scene with his 2016 debut “Lou Lou”, the rising artist has since gone onto sell-out tours in both Europe and the US, release two acclaimed albums plus a couple of EPs, and he’s just been nominated for a Swedish Grammy. Meldau is a multifaceted artist, he traverses various genres such as blues, soul, reggae, pop and makes music that you feel you can relate to. Whether it’s in Swedish or English (he releases music in both languages), his sound is poetic and honest.
Albin Lee Meldau is now back with his first English release in three years. Entitled “Forget About Us”, it’s the first taste from the artist’s forthcoming new album which is out at some point this year. To celebrate the release of his new single, House Of Solo spoke with Meldau over zoom call about “Forget About Us”, the new album,
Hi Albin, Can you please tell us about your latest single “Forget About Us”? It’s your first English release in three years, so were you nervous about releasing it?
No not really, It’s been a long time coming. So I’m just happy that it’s finally out. It’s been a weird few years but we’re finally here. We can start moving again in English and it’s just great fun.
The track is a taster of your forthcoming second English-language album which will be dropping sometime this year. You’ve been working with renowned producer Eg White (James Blunt, Florence and the Machine) on it. Is there anything you can share about it, what should fans expect?
Well, this particular song “forget About Us” was smitten with Jonathan Quarmby and produced by him. It’s the only song on the record that wasn’t done by Eg White. It’s a very simple pop song, it’s easygoing, I just love the simplicity of it. But the tracks coming that I made with Eg might be a bit more different. It was just fantastic to work with both of them. They’re very good songwriters and producers. Both of them are very successful, so it’s an honour to work with them. On this album, I’ve chosen to work differently compared to what I did last time on a LP. I’ve chosen to work with just the two of them, so it doesn’t go the musicality doesn’t go everywhere, the songs are more similar and I think they tie together nicely.
What should people expect? Well, It’s a simple love some kind of album about heartbreak, as usual. I listened to a lot of music that I listened to as a Boy like the Chilli Peppers, Radiohead and Nirvana. Even a lot of Jeff Buckley and stuff like that. The last record I made was in America and it was much more of soul album. It was more influenced by America. This one is basically an English album as it was made in Europe. It’s just got more elements of the things I used to play as a boy, such as blues and reggae and soul. So I’ve gone back to what I used to like. Eg’s favourite band is probably REM and I’m a massive Metallica fan. So i’ve tried to play to my strengths on this record. So that is what they can expect. I’m just trying to make something which is more System of A Down, things like that.
It sounds like you’ve got a good variety of influences on it. So that sounds very exciting.
It’s very different from last time anyway.
You mentioned it was recorded in Europe – were you actually able to spend time in the studio or was it all remote? I know some people have had to previously do things all remotely because of the pandemic…
I’ve tried working remotely before but didn’t work out for me. I like to be in the room, and I was fortunate to go when you could work in the studio. This album has been written over three years. So this record has been more or less ready for over a year but you know when the second and the third wave came of the pandemic, we just had to chill out and relax. But the record has taken its time, we didn’t rush it. And I’ve gone over to work with Eg and Jonathan numerous times. So yeah, we did it in the studio and then we added extra stuff in different locations. For the last album, I wrote all the songs in America and London, and I then took all that music back home to Gothenburg and I went into a studio again and recorded with a strings, brass and my band. It was a massive project.
This time I’ve done it over the course of three years and I’ve done it bits and pieces, but it was made in London. But yeah, it’s been a long time coming, it’s taken its time and I think that might have been a good thing. I mean, the pandemic was boring as hell for everybody and it was terrible in every way but also in retrospect, it was also quite good for me. It allowed me to take a step back and not rush things. It made me realise that I am thankful, and I feel very fortunate and i think that’s the key to a nice life, I think. As a musician, you look on Instagram and you look at the TV and award shows and streams and you just compare yourself to others.
Comparison is just a thief of joy and the pandemic has made me really take a step back, not rush things, but also be thankful for what I actually have in my life. When the pandemic hit, it became very apparent what you have and family is really important all of a sudden to me haha. I never cared before, but now I love spending more time with family, I even moved back home. So that’s what happened. Anyway, I made a record with the people that I really love and I’m very pleased with it. It’s totally different from anything I’ve ever made before.
As an artist that is selling out arena shows and has gone multi-platinum in your home country of Sweden, why did you want to branch out and start writing songs in English?
Well, it all started off in English in 2016 with my track “Lulu” and then we got to travel the world and make records in America. We got to play support shows and see the world. I never imagined myself making Swedish records, it’s just something we did and it started to do well in Sweden and then the pandemic hit. I would say my Swedish and English music are essentially two different acts, they aren’t the same thing. The music I put out in Swedish is basically folky jazz. I received a big honour the other day, they invited me to play with a guy called Georg Riedel and he helped make one of the most famous Swedish jazz records of all time which is called “Jazz på svenska”. But the music I make in Swedish is a totally different ballgame to what I’ve been doing elsewhere.
I guess in Sweden I play music for the seniors haha. I don’t play pop music for youngsters and when I say youngsters, I mean anyone below 60-years-old haha. So my music in Swedish is the English equivalent of line dance music haha. So it’s not the same music at all. But when I make music in English, it’s the sort of music I’ve always wanted to make. Sweden is a tiny place, there’s only 10 million people in the country. There’s more than 10 million people in London alone. Sweden is a very nice country and it is so nice to be from Sweden, but it’s not big enough for what I do.
Following on from that question, what would you say have been the biggest challenges for yourself when breaking into new countries?
I’m not a business kind of guy. I don’t know shit about the music business and I don’t try to either. I don’t even watch the music charts, Instagram or keep up with the new trends or anything like that. So basically my thing is just to make music that I like and hopefully, someone else is gonna like as well. I’ve been fortunate and I’m very thankful because if I didn’t have my manager, who fixed all the labels and made me visible for other people to find, I wouldn’t be anywhere. Right now, I’m in New Orleans, which is bloody amazing. And there’s music everywhere and the musicians here are much better than I am but they barely make a living. So what I’m trying to do is to write songs, I mean there are musicians all over the world that are fucking amazing but if you want to make a living from it and you want to break out, I believe the only way to do it is to write songs that resonate with people.
I mean, that’s the only way, a good song is a good song, if you write good songs that people like sooner or later you’re going to make it. But it’s hard writing good songs and you need to work hard to do that. So in order to be able to make good songs, I can’t be focusing on anything else. I’m just really fortunate to have a great team of people that believe me and love me. I love them too and trust them that’s the key. I’m not a businessman, manager, PR or anything like that. But what I am trying to be is a live act and most of all, a songwriter. That’s what I focus on and everything that stands in the way of that, I just get rid of it.
Before your music career took off, you used to busk, which I think is a really important exercise, as you play to the general public and it must surely help your confidence when performing. What else did you do to help yourself get noticed when you started out?
Well, I started making records and playing in a band when I was about 20-years-old. I played in a band called Magnolia and we’re actually making a record right now as well. But originally we did the first record and we played for years. So I did that and it resulted in me getting my manager that I have today because he was a big fan of the band. We just started making music and we did it all ourselves and played shows wherever we could get them. In the end, like I said Sweden is a very good country because it’s so small, and it’s very influential in the music business. If you play the right jazz clubs, there’s maybe 20 jazz clubs in the whole Sweden, If you play them all, sooner or later, someone’s going to notice. So that’s basically what we did. The only tip I have for anyone who wants to start playing music is that you better get started now. There’s no other way and it takes years.
This is my 13th or 14th year of making music and playing on stage regularly like on a weekly basis. I’ve done this since I was four-years-old. It takes time. Of course some people make one song and they blow up but usually not, It takes time. Like no matter how good you are, how fortunate you are, what team you have, It will all take time. So just keep ongoing. I wish I knew when I was starting out that the only thing that really fucking matters is the song. Like that’s the only thing that matters. It doesn’t matter what clothes you have, It’s the song. You have to write songs that people love and if you write one song that people love, I haven’t done it yet on that level, but for example I mean a song like Bon Jovi’s “Better Roses” is quite a good song. Everyone knows that. And he has like 50 amazing songs. You have to write good songs. It’s all about the songs and playing live of course, but if you don’t want to play live, then you might do something else with your life, as playing live is the thing where you where you actually get to practice properly. I mean one hour on stage is like 40,000 hours of rehearsal time.
I’ve never been to New Orleans before, imagine how hard it would be to break out in New Orleans. There are thousands of good musicians and bands, Sweden was really good for me and I’m really thankful for that, it would have been way harder if I was from London.
As both your parents are musical as well, did they ever give you any solid advice when you started out as a musical artist?
Yeah of course. My mother is a great player, she can play any instrument and she’s a wonderful singer, and she gave me the ability. I had to play the trumpet and all the instruments, I had to sing in the choir and my father plays the guitar and he writes poetry in books. He’s English so my mother normally says if it wasn’t for my dad, I wouldn’t be cool. I don’t know if I’m cool but England is. He is form Lewisham and he grew up playing every kind of style that was hip at the time. He bought a synth in 1979. He knows about songs, writing poetry, Shakespeare and that sort of thing. So I got a lot from both of them. My mum is more like ‘here’s a drum, play with these 14 musicians that are my friends that are coming to the house tomorrow’ and my dad is more like ‘do you know this musician? Here’s a record’. So I’ve gotten a lot of stuff from both of them of course. But being forced to play was all from my mother. You had to play an hour a day. I’m very fortunate, everything I have is because of my parents, right. They set me up for a musical career.
Could you recommend our readers your favourite Swedish and UK artists/bands at the moment? Is there anyone you really love that you think more people need to discover?
People need to know and acknowledge the greatest band in English history which are called Steel Pulse. They are my favourite band. They’re very famous if you like reggae, they are amazing, they have the best backing vocals in the history of the world. They were Bob Marley’s favourite band and they aren’t acknowledged enough. And then I also like Leon Bridges, I played a support show with him once. I think what he’s doing is amazing, it’s just cool music. But when it comes to new music that’s about it.
We need to congratulate you as your 2021 EP “Epistlar” has been nominated for a Swedish Grammy Award. Were you shocked at all when you found out? Or does this sort of thing not phase you anymore?
It’s weird, I’ve been nominated before as a newcomer, but I’ve never had a Grammy in Sweden. It’s kind of hard to get one because it’s impossible to get it anywhere. But Sweden is a lovely place but it’s kind of boring. Sweden is very narrow minded musically, In my opinion, anyway. What I like isn’t available here, I’d like to go down the Southbank in London and watch something more experimental, that kind of thing. And that’s not what’s portrayed in the Swedish music business. It’s more or less mostly, really mainstream things that Grammy nominated.
“Epistlar” is probably the least mainstream thing I’ve ever made. It was the most classically artsy thing I could possibly have made and somehow I never thought it was going to get any attention, and I just did it for a laugh basically. I wasn’t thinking that anyone was going to listen to it, but it turned out everyone liked the song “Josefin” on it. The song blew up. People loved it and now it’s been played a lot. And I’m proud of the whole “Epistlar” but the fact that it’s Grammy nominated is just surreal. It shouldn’t have happened but it’s because the radio liked it and people love it. I’ve sold out tours just because of that song. So it’s mind blowing.
Finally, what is one goal you would really like to achieve with your art?
When it comes to goals, of course, you want to play all over the world and release great music and all the usual stuff. I used to think about music the same way I used to think about Football, like ‘I want to play all the big matches and win all the big leagues’. But basically what I want to do now is keep playing and hopefully visit England and sell shows in the US, Germany and the around the world but if you are not thankful, you then you don’t have anything. So right now, I am happy where I am but I just want to keep going. I don’t think of goals really, you can wish for things but you shouldn’t have expectations as that’s just going to ruin everything thing. It’s just setting yourself up for disappointment and failure basically.
But for now… I was walking down the road earlier and had eaten a lot of weird sounding food, so I’m going to make a New Orleans tribute song where every lyric is a recipe, that’s my goal for the week haha.
Sounds like a good idea haha…
I’m just thankful for everything, I am the most blessed man, I play music and shows, I have a life that I could have never of dreamt of.
