Hello Saferide

In 2006, everything was happening at the same time. In two years, I'd gone from being a journalist with a guitar my father bought at an auction for 50 quid, to having a Japanese record deal, an English manager and interest from several big labels. All of this happened with my debut album, Introducing: Hello Saferide. Hello Saferide is a shit name but I just picked something in 2004 when I was putting a song up on the Internet and now the name lingers with me, dear to me as a mole on the neck.

During the years that passed, I once again changed my taste in music. What once was a passion for indie pop and twee turned into passion for...well, still indie pop I guess, but the edgier kind, and I had started to accept that the electric guitar is better than the acoustic one.

Finding the right producer for the next HS album was hard. I asked everyone I met who they thought I should work with. I got suggestions on hip producers from all over the world, but no one felt more right to work with than Andreas Mattsson, who not only is the genius behind Sweden's best 90's indie pop band Popsicle, but who also plays guitar more beautiful than anyone I ever met and who is a genuinely nice guy. Andreas found all the right sounds, and he also came up with the most amazing instrumental parts for these songs whose lyrics always have too many words at the same time.

As usual, it's all about me making up stories and singing them to simple chords. This time around, the songs are about losing your virginity (X telling me about the loss of a dear friend, at age 16), about two parents arguing about whose fault it is their son grew up to be a Nazi (Overall), and about how every person is like a song, and you should stick with the God only knows-people (I wonder who is like this one). (And yes, speaking of God only knows, my love for the Beach Boys also came up when I answered to another song of theirs and wrote I was definitely made for these times! which is not on the album, but you might have heard it in a Volvo ad for their new environmentally friendly cars.)