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Swedish
Rocker Nina Söderquist Releases New Album |
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Swedish
singer, songwriter and actress Nina Söderquist grew up in a small town in
central Sweden, which she describes as a part of the country “with farms and
there is not that much there really. It was a nice place to grow up and it was
calm. Everybody knew everyone. There was my mom, my step-father, my sister and
me.” A few things immediately become apparent about Nina
Söderquist, one she is an immensely talented singer, who can belt out a tune
like she did with
her 2009 performance of the song “Tick Tock,” at Sweden’s
Melodifestivalen or you hear her soulful Rock vocals when she sang
Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis,”
on the television show Så Ska Det Låta (English
translation: That’s’ The Spirit) or you watch and listen to her perform
a scintillating duet, “Straight Back To You,” (written by
Tamara Champlin, Bill Champlin, Björn Skifs, Douglas Carr) in December of 2013
on Swedish television with Björn Skifs. Nina Söderquist’s vocal talents were
also on display during the fall of 2008 and early 2009 on the televised music
competition West End Star, broadcast on Swedish television with the winner, in
this case Söderquist being cast as “Lady Of The Lake,” at the Palace Theatre’s
production of Spamalot in London’s
West End. The second thing that immediately becomes apparent about
Nina Söderquist is she lives her life with a perfect blend of gratitude and the
belief that she can accomplish anything she sets her mind to doing.
She is grateful for her partner and for
her four year old daughter. She is grateful for being able to just live life,
because several years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and told she did not
have long to live and yet the cancer disappeared. When she talks about her
career Nina Söderquist never comes across as someone who feels entitled to the
success that comes her way, but instead she is grateful for the opportunities
and recognizes that her own competiveness and hard work have contributed to that
success.
Söderquist reflects on her childhood, “I liked music
(growing up). I had my microphone and I stood in my room singing in front of the
mirror and stuff, but I was more of a sports girl and I was really good at
sports, especially handball. It was taking up all of my time from the time I was
seven years old until I was sixteen. I was really good and I had an offer when I
was sixteen from a handball club, with a contract (to
compete professionally). I came to a crossroad there and I thought should I
do this? When I was sixteen, music was my world, so I decided not to do the
handball pro thing and I just did music. When
I was much younger, I sang a little bit in the school choir and stuff, but not
really that much. My uncle was a guitar player, so I followed him on a few
gigs and I think I was ten or something when I first started to think that music
was a cool thing. When I was eleven I entered my first talent show (she
laughs). My parents had never heard me sing like that before, so they were
like wow, she can sing! I was so nervous and that was my first competition. The
thing with me is I am very competitive and when I do something, I don’t just go
in and go ahh, I am just doing this. I do everything one hundred and ten
percent. I am doing it for the winning. My first competition when I was eleven I
cried all the way home, because I didn’t win (she
laughs a bit louder). (She
jokes) It took me two years to get the title. That’s just me, when I go into
something I am going in to be the best that I can be, so it was natural for me
to win the competition and to take the next step and stuff. I was thirteen when
I won my first competition and I was hooked.” After making the choice to pursue music rather than a professional career in handball, Söderquist says, “I started to tour when I was sixteen, so I have always done this. It has been natural for me and a lot of people and friends said what do you want to do after this? For me there has never been anything after this, this is what I am going to do until I die. There is no other thing, music is my life. I was touring with a band. In Sweden we had a thing called Dansband and it (the type of music) was a band that played at places and people danced. It was a really big thing, like your Country music I think. I learned by going about it the hard way I guess. I was touring up in the north of Sweden, in Finland and in Norway. You get all the gear setup and then put some makeup on in five minutes and then I would sing for four hours. Then all the gear would go down into the tour bus, and we would jump into the cold bus and move on. It was learning the hard way, but I am so grateful for
that today, because I know to appreciate what I have now.
I know how it can be. (In response
to our saying it is not always as glamorous as people think, Nina then says)
It still isn’t (and she giggles). I toured with the Dansbands for a few years and I had
school as well. When I graduated I went to Gran Canaria (in
the Canary Islands) to work in a showplace there and then at Majorca. They
were more like Las Vegas shows. It was
with hotels that put up big shows. That was a different world with different
music from what I had done before.
I didn’t have to tour as much and I was at the same place. I could enjoy being
at one place and having a life. I was singing different music and I was working
with different people doing dance choreography and stuff. When we toured
(before) we just sang and played, but now it was more of a show and I really
loved that as well, so I really thought this is what I was going to do. I was
not going to be in a band, I was going to be doing shows. I was hooked. I was in
my twenties when I did that.” Nina Söderquist then returned home, started her own
company and started producing shows and touring for a few years. She also
performed at a lot of major events in Sweden. Even
though Nina has performed several different styles of music Rock has always been
her passion. “I always loved Rock ‘n’ Roll. There were bands that I
sometimes played with which, played Rock, but the main thing was shows,
everything from Frank Sinatra Jazz to Pop to Michael Jackson and also Rock like
AC / DC. We did shows with great big choreography. They were big productions. I
listened to Rock, but I didn’t do Rock at that time. My voice was Rock though
and I always heard that. There weren’t any gigs with the Rock thing. Everyone
wanted everything else, so I did it. For me the roots of Rock are in Soul. It is
the groovy stuff with the heart and the soul in it, but maybe with a little bit
of edge,” she says. Söderquist then decided, on a dare from a friend to
enter a televised competition called West End Star, broadcast on Swedish
television. The winner would become the female lead in the London West End
production of Spamalot.
She says, “Before the West End Star I had been working
as a singer for a lot of years and touring. I thought I knew what I was doing
and that I knew my music and by this time I think I had done everything except
musicals. It was something that I didn’t know and that was not my thing. It was
not my voice and I had no education (in music), no training. No teachers taught
me how to do it. I thought, (musicals) that’s not for me, that’s too hard. I
can’t do that, but a producer that I had worked with in a lot of shows rang me
and she said, I’ve been to London and I saw this fantastic show called
Spamalot. It is Monty Python, it is
really hilarious, and my God the leading lady should be you. I was like, okay (she
says it in a tone of, yes and tell me another fairytale). That’s nice, but
move on. That was that and then a few weeks later she rang me up again and she
said, my God they are doing a show on Swedish television and the winner is going
to get the part. I was like, ya’ that’s nice. She said, you should do it and I
said you’re crazy, my gosh. Then she dared me and she said, you are afraid. That
was a trigger for me and I said (she
starts to laugh) I’m not afraid. I
thought I will enter this competition and maybe I will get a few hours on the
television and that could be good for me. I was unknown and I was in a place in
my life where I needed to take a step forward to let everyone know who Nina is
or maybe I couldn’t do this for much longer. I thought maybe I will do this and
I entered the competition. Every week it was good and they didn’t vote me out. I don’t know the word for that. Every week I was what, they are going to keep me. Gosh okay. We kept on and the weeks were hard, because we went down to London on Sundays and we were in London from Sunday until Thursday. It was a long filming, because I think the competition went on for half of a year. We were there just filming and doing bits for the TV show, seeing the theater, meeting the people who worked in the theater and then on Thursdays we went home. On Fridays we had the rehearsals and Saturdays we had the show. It was live on television and then if you got through that you went down to London again on Sundays and blah blah blah. Every Saturday I thought they are going to kick me out now, but they didn’t. It was on TV 3 (in Sweden). It was amazing and I didn’t think that I could win,
because I didn’t have the technique and all of the other girls had been working
with musicals for years. They had this big training with their voices. When they
talked about the technique I didn’t know what they were talking about.
It was Greek to me. Every week we got
new songs that we were going to do and I didn’t know them, so I had to practice,
practice, but the others were, oh, I know this one, I’ve done this. I was a step
behind all of the time. I had to work hard and I learned so much. That was the
greatest thing with the competition that I learned so much. I thought that I
knew it all, but I didn’t. It was this big adventure that kept going on and on. There was a final and it was the first time that I
thought, my gosh I can win this. I can do this. I had been struggling with my
self esteem all of the time. I was a strong girl, but it was a tough time with
my self esteem knowing that I had not done that before. With the final I
thought, I can win this, I can really win this and then I just closed my eyes
and jumped into it. This can go any way, but I am going to do my best and I did
(win the competition). I did my best, but I had a lot of problems with the
technique on the show. One of the songs that I was doing was “With One Look,”
and I had a hard time with that one, because I wasn’t used to singing in
that way. I was really nervous about that song and before I went on stage to do
that, I had this really tight dress and looking stunning I thought (she
laughs lightly). To calm my nerves I took this deep breath (she
inhales) and I heard this (imitates
the sound of a dress ripping) and the zipper just broke. From my bum up to
everything in my back, the dress was open wide. I heard the producer say, okay,
it is thirty seconds before you get on Nina and I was okay. I turned to the
costume girl and I said, do you have any tape or some stickers or whatever to
help me here? She panicked and she was like, AHHH (she
recalls the girl’s shriek). I said, do you have anything, wrap it up, I am
going on stage. It is live TV for God’s sake. She really panicked and I thought
okay, I hope the producer has seen this and is not filming me from behind. Help
me God and I just went in and I did the song. When I see it on Youtube, I look
so angry. I was thinking, why did this happen now?
I was singing “With One Look,” with this rage (she
laughs). Thank God they didn’t film me from my behind. It was good. This was
in 2008 in January (she won the
competition). I also found out
that I was going to be on stage in the West End in nine days doing my part, so I
was panicking a little bit. I freaked out, because I had so little time to do
this and honestly the first month I didn’t understand what was happening.
I just did it and I really understood that oh my gosh I am standing at
(London’s) West End doing a leading part in this musical. It’s so crazy, but it
is brilliant, it’s fantastic. It was a strange experience, but it was the best
ever. I was there for one year until the show closed and then I went home in
2009.” About three and one-half months after her daughter was
born, Nina Soderquist reprised her role and she appeared in the Swedish
production of Spamalot in Sweden’s
largest city Stockholm. Following her return from London, Nina Soderquist
competed in Sweden’s major annual music event Melodifestivalen, in February of
2009. The winner of the televised competition goes on to represent Sweden in
Europe’s largest annual music event Eurovision. Söderquist performed the Rock
song “Tick Tock.” “Then I did a lot of big tours like
Rhapsody In Rock, with a famous
Swedish pianist called Robert Wells. It was a great tour and I had the
opportunity to work with John Lord from Deep Purple and Glenn Hughes (also of
Deep Purple). We also recorded a TV show. I did a lot of productions at the time
with my friend Peter Johansson and we did this Queen (tribute) concert tour,
which I am also going to do next year (2015) in February and March. It was
really good and it was with Neil Murray the bass player from Whitesnake. I got
to meet my Rock idols,” she says. Now a veteran of live theater with more than 500
performances of Spamalot to her
credit, Nina Soderquist returned to the stage in 2013, this time in a dramatic
role, as Cecilia in the Swedish production of
Light and Darkness. “Oh, that was something else. She was the dark. There
was so much evil in that character. There was no good at all in her. It was a
big challenge to do that. It was going into the dark and it was amazing. She was
so evil. She is so different from me. I think my strength is and I thought the
same with Spamalot, is I don’t need
to prepare myself when I am going on stage and I don’t need to have an hour
before going hmmm and getting into character. I can stand talking to you like
this blah, blah blah and then I go and do it.
I think that was a good thing, because she (Cecilia) was so evil. I
couldn’t really get into the part with my heart and soul, because then it was
like I would jump from a bridge or something (she
says, using hyperbole). I
noticed when I played Cecilia I was more straight ahead and maybe not so polite
sometimes (in her personal life).
When I noticed that I was like oh my gosh, she is…(coming into my life). It was
great fun (to play her). It is more fun to play an evil character than a nice
character, because you have so many different things to work with when she is
evil. When you are happy, you are just happy, but when you are evil, you can do
it in so many ways. That was quite interesting. It was about the light and the dark and it was a mishmash from the (time) when they burned witches and (today) when you can write something on Facebook that is really mean and you don’t have to take responsibility for it, because you are just writing it and you are not saying it to someone’s face. It is about the good and the bad. It was quite a big and heavy thing. I think it is good that they do (shows) like that, because it wasn’t really that nice. People went from the show crying sometimes. It was horrible. It was about death and about when people are bad to you and they call you (bad things),” says Söderquist. In the fall of 2014 Nina Soderquist has been in the
studio in Stockholm recording a new, yet to be named Rock album. She talks
enthusiastically about her new project. “We were recording it in English and then my manager
said to me I think we should do this in Swedish and I was like, yes we should.
We recorded it in Swedish and in English. We have an English version if we are
going to sell it abroad, but my first single, if I translate it from Swedish it
is called “Sky Fall Down.” That is
one of the few songs that I haven’t written.
The first time I heard it I really liked it, because the lyrics are a
little bit crazy. I am not really fond of the cute, I love you. You are like my
sugarpie and the moon and the sunset. I am not really fond of that type of
lyrics (she laughs). This song is
about, the sky falls down and a plane crashes in my living room. There is crazy
stuff in it. I thought, oh that is really interesting. It has a great melody and
we worked out a good Swedish translation of it. I really love the song. It has a
mid-tempo kind of deep lyric as well. It is about life and love, but I don’t
want to do things easy. One of the songs (that I wrote) is “Goodbye,” and it is
about a breakup. I have discovered that I really like to sing the sad songs. I
have no idea (why that is). My friends ask me, are you sad Nina and I go no, I
am happy. They ask, why do you sing such sad lyrics? I say, I have no idea, but
I think my voice sounds better when I sing in this way. Also, as with Cecilia,
there are so many colors that you can work with when you are working with a sad
or an angry feeling. When you have a happy feeling it is just that. “Sky Fall
Down,” will be the first single released,” she says. The album was recorded at Riksmixningsverket Studio
located in Stockholm and owned by Benny Andersson formerly of ABBA. When asked what she likes the best about this album,
without hesitation, Nina Söderquist says, “That it is mine, finally and it is
Rock. I have been trying to do this for so many years, but labels (in past
years) have always been, oh it’s so cool that you want to do Rock, but then when
I would start to record they would say, you should do more Pop and I would say,
we said Rock and then they would go ohhh, try Pop. Then I would say no, let’s
not do this. I’m just going to wait
until I can do my Rock thing. It feels like it is finally my turn to do this and
I am so grateful that I can do this, so the greatest thing with the album is
that it is finally coming.” A few years ago, Expressen, one of Sweden’s largest
newspapers referred to Nina Soderquist, as Sweden’s biggest musical export since
ABBA and Roxette. We do not claim to be experts on the Swedish music scene, but
we are certainly plugged in well and Riveting Riffs Magazine would say that Nina
Söderquist is one of the most passionate and dynamic singers on the music scene
today, regardless of her country of origin. On the day that we published this
interview, Nina Söderquist landed in Miami, Florida, in America to begin
collaborating with Heavy Metal Hair band, Motörhead.
Make sure that you take time to check the embedded links
in this interview, so you can listen and watch some of Nina Söderquist’s
performances and please
visit her website.
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While Sweden does have a reputation for producing some
excellent singers, songwriters and musicians (ABBA,
Roxette, songwriter Max Martin, Lill Babs), especially for a country of of
9.5 million people, not all of them grew up taking music lessons.
