INTERVIEW: Nea releases debut EP 'Some Say': "It feels like this is an amazing adventure that I want to take as far as possible"

Image: Jasmin Storch. Interview: Jett Tattersall
Swedish singer & songwriter Nea (full name Anna Linnea Södahl) may have just released her debut EP Some Say but she is far from a newcomer to the music scene. Born in South Africa, her parents relocated to Sweden when she was a child. Surrounded by music in her new home, she was writing her own songs before she had turned ten and later worked as a jazz singer in a local restaurant. Dedicating herself to learning everything she possibly could about music and the industry, she began collaborating with other artists and soon became one of Sweden’s most acclaimed songwriters, writing songs for artists such as Zara Larsson, Tove Styrke and Tinie Tempah, her work with Larsson alone racking up over one billion global streams.

Last year, Nea made the decision to launch her own singing career and released the gentle, acoustic pop track ‘Some Say’ which brilliantly interpolated the 1998 Eiffel 65 hit ‘Blue (Da Ba Dee)’, with a Felix Jaehn remix of the track arriving earlier this year. Both versions of the track have to date accumulated over 140 million streams.

Last Friday, Nea released her debut EP Some Say which showcases just why she has become one of the most successful artists on the Swedish music scene over the past few years. New single ‘Drunk Enough To’ slinks along with an infectious groove and while it has the classic Scandipop sound it is left-of-centre enough to stand head and shoulders above the pack. ‘Some Say’, with it’s tale of unrequited love, is as warm and embracing as ever, while second single ‘Dedicated’ follows a similar sonic path with a stripped back, mellow sound which allows Nea’s lush, emotive vocals to pull all attention. ‘Used To’ is a gorgeous ballad full of multi-layered vocals, detailing the experience of letting new love into a previously fiercely independent life and Nea rounds off the EP with a live cover of ‘TG4M’, a track she co-wrote for Zara Larsson’s international hit album So Good.

Nea started 2020 with a nomination for composer of the year at the Swedish Grammis and with her success continuing to grow throughout the year it can only be a matter of time before she becomes the next Swedish global superstar. To celebrate the release of the Some Say EP we recently spoke to Nea to find out all about her music and career.

Hello Nea! How are things for you in your world?
As for everyone it's been a crazy time with corona and everything. And in Sweden it hasn't been as crazy because we don't have the complete lockdown but we can’t travel and a lot of things. I was supposed to be on a European promo tour and that hasn't happened. I'm working from home and to be honest, at the beginning I was frustrated and all of that. I felt very lost not being able to follow through with my plans and everything but now I'm getting into being at home more. I think that's great for me. Besides everything bad that corona's come with I think that's been really good. Not great because I've been working like crazy but just being able to work from home a little bit because normally I travel a lot. 

That's the thing, I guess particularly with touring artists as much as you're missing touring at the same time you can just be at home re-energising and getting creative and taking time. 
Yeah, I've been writing a lot on my own, which was how I started writing music. But lately I've just been doing sessions because I've gotten into that flow and it's been a great opportunity to just get back to the roots basically. So, yeah, it's been good. 

Thank you for ‘Some Say’. The release, the latest remix and then the stripped back acoustic versions, they're all just so equally beautiful. It's such a striking debut. It's just so delicately explorative with those sort of youthful human desires, you know? An unrequited love. But I just wanted to know from your own words can you break down the inspiration behind the track?
I was in Berlin where I work a lot with a team called Hitimpulse. We do a lot of work and normally when I write with them I go there for a few days and then we just live in the studio literally and we don't leave. So the idea of doing something with the ‘Blue’ melody started off as a joke actually. One of the guys started humming the ‘Blue’ melody and we were laughing at it because that version of it is easy to laugh at because it's the 90s and it's just having fun. But when we started thinking about it, it was like this melody is outstandingly good. It's so strong. I hadn't realised how good it is until I started stripping it down and singing it with the guitar and all of that. I freestyled a lot of the verses and it was one of those songs that kind of wrote itself. Obviously we had a chorus melody, but the rest of the parts just happened and from my experience those are normally the best songs where you don't have to struggle so hard with it. It's just there, somehow. I’ve been a song writer for 5 years and when we wrote ‘Some Say’ I had no plans for being an artist. But then I was at a meeting to show it to this label person that I'd been working with a lot as a writer and then I gave him something just like out of nowhere and he was like ‘yeah you should sing this song. Can I sign you?’ So, that's how that whole thing came about. 

That's so beautiful. You’re so right about ‘Blue’, it was one of the most irritating songs but now that you've got it I can see how beautiful the melody is, it really is. I'm now going to start breaking down loads of terrible 90s songs to see if I can get the same thing.
Go for it! You put new words with that melody and suddenly it has a whole new meaning. Yeah, the melody is amazing.

As you mentioned you've been a songwriter for a long time, you’re no means a newcomer to pop. You're a prolific songwriter with credits on tracks for artists such as Zara Larsson, Anne Marie, Tove Styrke, Tinie Tempah. Your catalogue is just billions of streams. But I want to know was song writing always your initial dream, or did you always set out to release your own music? 
I'm from a small town in Sweden and I grew up with no connection at all to the music industry. So when I started to write songs - which I have done all my life basically - I just assumed you had to be an artist to be able to release something. I didn't know you could be a song writer. To begin with, because I wrote all these songs and I was not even thinking there was an opportunity of someone else singing them. So, I was like ‘okay yeah I’ll sing the songs’. I had my band and I released some songs but nobody cared. It got no attention at all. When I eventually moved to Stockholm and I signed as a writer I understood something, like this is my spot. This is where I should be, I should write the songs. I felt like I had found my spot in the world basically. I've really been super happy in that role. I feel like it fits me very well. This time around when I've been approaching the artistry, it just feels very different because I have the knowledge of being a writer. I don't doubt myself so much in the songs, I just go with my instincts. But I feel like if my writing doesn't go well or whatever I would drop down dead because it's so much me. The artistry doesn't really feel the same. It feels like this is an amazing adventure that I want to take as far as possible, but I won't buy it if it's a one hit wonder.

As you're now writing for yourself as opposed to drafting songs for other people, do you always have that in your mind to leave enough room in a song for multiple interpretations and perspectives?
Mmmm, interesting. I think I try to. Lyrics are important to me. You can't just go in and say something that you don’t feel. There needs to be feeling behind the lyrics and I think that's where you can connect with people when you get that realness. ‘Some say you will love me one day’ is the most easy lyric but it comes from a real story and a real feeling and I think that's why it works. As long as you base your lyrics on a real feeling, us humans are quite alike. And many times, more people than yourself can connect with the lyrics. 

I also want to know, when you were writing for other people did you ever write a song for someone else and then just immediately want to take it back or sing it yourself or are you just always excited to hear what another artist does with your song?
I'm kind of new to being an artist and having to make that choice because normally as a writer I would always be happy to hear the new artist’s vocal on a song, that's one of the very exciting parts. But now I think if I write with another artist and it becomes an amazing song I will still be super happy for that artist to sing it but if I write something alone I will think twice before I give it away.

If I can shoot back to the video for ‘Some Say’, shot by visionary director Leo Adef it's stunning. I know you've got real couples in there, what was your initial desire for the video?
The one thing we wanted it to be was we wanted it to feel very real. Actually, the very first idea was based on doing a new way of music videos. More interviews with the real couples and their take on love. But then eventually we thought it needs to be the song in full and everything. But we still stuck to the idea of having real couples and it just felt very important to get the realness and rawness and love across. No one had to fake it in front of the camera. It's actual passion that's there. I'm super happy with that.

I want to talk to you about your background. You were born in South Africa where your parents had moved to go and combat the apartheid system of the time which is just an incredible start to life. I want to know how that freedom fighting start shaped who you are both as an artist and as the woman you are today?
I was born there and then we moved from South Africa to Sweden when I was three years old. So I don't have actual memories of that time. Sometimes I feel like I get a small flashback but it's hard to know if it's because I heard someone tell a story about something or I saw it in a photo. But South Africa has always been very present in my family. I’ve been back a few times and I've been doing voluntary work at a children’s home and stuff like that. I feel very connected to South Africa and it's a part of me. Even though it was only those three years it's something that I bring up quite a lot because it's because I'm proud of my parents for what they did. They were in the middle of building a family and they chose to go to the other side of the world to go in there and supporting anti-apartheid groups. They were not the people standing on the barriers, they were more supporting the groups and the activists that were there. They were hiding people in their home and the police were listening to all their phone calls. I'm proud of my parents and it's become an important part of who I am. Actually, I have this birth mark on my leg and one of the nurses when I was born said ‘this is for you to remember that you were born in a black country’. So that's my little memory birth mark that I have.

I know that that has stayed with you as well. You have worked with global non-profit Nvak which provides music education for young women in developing countries. I’m guessing that comes from the important part music has played in your own childhood. What has music done for you and what are your thoughts on its power to unite and empower people? 
I mean, I think it's huge. The power of music is huge because everybody can connect with music. If you can connect with a song and this other person can too then you suddenly have something in common. It's such a powerful tool to deliver a message and also to set a big group of people in the same mood and in the same thoughts. You can see it in a lot of revolutions that took place in the ‘70s. A lot of my lyrics are about love now for the EP I released on Friday. There's so many topics in life that I could write about and I easily come back to love lyrics. I could use my lyrics to say something more. It's something that I’d like to explore more.

Lastly, it is no secret that you Swedes are the rulers of pop music. But I want to know, who were your musical heroines? Who were those pop goddesses for you growing up?
My first important one is Ella Fitzgerald. I had a period of listening a lot to jazz music and I tried to sing exactly like her. I was copying her every single phrasing and notes. She has been a big role model for me with her voice and singing. I absolutely love it. And then there's a lot of artists from the 90s era that I get inspired from like Gwen Stefani, Ace of Base and Alanis Morrissette and her song writing. Also Dolly Parton, she's obviously an amazing song writer. And then these days, Camila Cabello and Rihanna are heroes for me at the moment. 

Now, your new EP Some Say is out now but I also want to know what else is on the horizon for you Nea? More music?
Yeah, definitely. I have a lot of collaborations coming up and also I will just continue to release singles. We were actually talking about this recently, next year maybe I will start working on an album because that'll be really fun to do a bigger body of work. But for now it's more focused on singles - the EP and then more singles. I'm writing a lot of songs all the time and it's really fun. 

Some Say by Nea is out now via Sony Music. You can download and listen here.

To keep up with all things Nea you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.