Last year’s big breakthrough success story at Melodifestivalen. David Lindgren didn’t just win his heat and earn a spot in the final, he also ended up scoring a genuine and enduring hit single after the contest. And he surprised EVERYONE in doing so too.
In 2012 he entered the contest a complete unknown, totally unfancied, and with nobody really keeping an eye out for him. This year however, he’s one of the bigger names in the line-up, and his entry is gonna be one that everyone will listen out for. What a difference a year makes, eh? Or what a difference a performance makes, rather. Last year on the stage, ‘Shout It Out’ electrified Gothenburg arena, and that translated 100% onto TV too. So he’s been brought back for 2013, in the hope that he can bring with him some of that energy that caught the attention of the viewers last time.
Personally, we were never very fond of ‘Shout It Out’ on the Melodifestivalen stage at all. But we were won over by his debut album that was released a few months later – a record that entered the Swedish album chart right at number 1. And it’s for that reason we’re looking forward to seeing what he brings to Melodifestivalen this year. If he’s capable of pulling off a great dance album like ‘Get Started’ was, despite it being (we think it’s fair to say) probably quite rushed together, then we have high hopes for ‘Skyline’, which will have no doubt been a year in the planning stages. So we wanted to have a chat with David about all of this. Here’s how the conversation went;
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Scandipop: Welcome back David! A lot of eyes will be on you, and a lot of ears will be on ‘Skyline’. What can these ears expect?
David: ‘Skyline’ is kind of like where ‘Shout It Out’ ended. It goes straight into the beat. The bass is….wow! We’ve been working on the production a lot, and you’ll be able to feel that.
Scandipop: That’s good. One of the standout sounds from your debut album was that it had a good production – tracks like ‘Rendezvous’ and my favourite from there, ‘Perfect Crime’. So it’s good to hear that the production on ‘Skyline’ has been a big focus too.
David: Ah cool, thank you. Well if you loved ‘Rendezvous’, it’s the same guys who did that, who did ‘Skyline’ too.
Scandipop: So it’s a big club track.
David: Exactly. And it goes straight into it, whereas ‘Shout It Out’ started off a little slower.
Scandipop: You’ve had quite a big year since ‘Shout It Out’. Number 1 album, always on tour, doing lots of gigs all over the place. And when I met you last year, nobody really knew who you were. So there’s quite a bit more expectation on you now. Do you feel that too?
David: I know yeah, of course. And I actually said last year that I’m gonna enjoy being the underdog – nobody knows who I am, I was that guy in the suit. But now this year I do have expectations on me, and I like that. I have to embrace it. And I’m gonna give the people what they want. The people who liked ‘Shout It Out’ are gonna love ‘Skyline’. I’m certain of it. It’s even better than ‘Shout It Out’. And we’re gonna dance. I’m working with the same guys who worked with me last year. They choreographed my tour too, and they’re gonna choreograph this. They know how I wanna be on stage. It’s gonna be visually very nice. We’re not gonna hide behind anything – any special effects or anything like that. The song is good enough and we are good enough.
Scandipop: It’s nice to hear you speak so positively about the song, and with such excitement. It makes me excited about it too.
David: Good! Yes, I’m really excited about it. Last year was kind of a shock, a real shock for me. I was so glad but I didn’t know what to expect. And maybe I was a little naive too. I was like “yeah I’m gonna do it, and then I’m gonna go back to work“. But everything changed that day.
Scandipop: Well, you certainly went to work after that, but it was a new job!
David: Ha ha! Indeed. A new job. And every day. But I love it. It’s been the best year of my life. I wish I could spend a little more time with my family, but they’re really happy for me and they know how much it means to me. And all the time that I’m not working, I’m spending with them. We’re doing this together.
Scandipop: You say that last year was the best year of your life – I guess the challenge now is to make this one even better.
David: Yeah it’s like that. You have goals in your life but you always move them all the time. And I think that’s what’s so lovely about this job. You get the chance to do a lot of different stuff. I’ve released an album, I’m recording my own children’s TV show, I’m doing some voice-over work for a Disney movie…..I’ve always been dreaming about stuff like that, and now I’m doing it. And that’s nice.
Scandipop: And do you think you’ll have a second album ready to be released soon too?
David: Yeah absolutely, I’m working on it. And we have some really great songs so far. We don’t know exactly when it’ll be released, but we’re working on it right now. Maybe spring time, or the beginning of the summer.
Scandipop: You’re the hardest working man here today I think!
David: Ha ha. No I think Sean Banan might be working even harder!
Scandipop: Any more singles from the ‘Get Started’ album, before the contest starts?
David: No there won’t be. Radio isn’t interested – they just want ‘Skyline’ now. We were thinking of releasing ‘Perfect Crime’, your favourite song on the album. But no. I do love it though, and in fact, I really hope that we can perhaps record a new version of it, with a lady vocal, as a duet for the next album. That would be good.
Scandipop: That would be amazing!
David: But yeah, for now radio just wanna have ‘Skyline’. It was difficult too for ‘Rendezvous’, which was the follow up single to ‘Shout It Out’ – radio were like “no it’s not as strong as ‘Shout It Out‘”. When you have a really big Melodifestivalen hit, it’s very hard to follow it up with another single. Maybe we rushed it. Maybe we should have waited a little longer before releasing ‘Rendezvous’. I don’t know.
Scandipop: Well I’m glad to hear you won’t be forgetting about ‘Perfect Crime’ too quickly. That’s one hell of a song.
David: It is, it really is.
Scandipop: The whole album was solid. A really good record. I’ll be honest – I didn’t like ‘Shout It Out’ at Melodifestivalen at all, but it made a lot more sense as part of ‘Get Started’.
David: Ha ha, no it’s fine – be honest. The version of ‘Shout It Out’ you heard at Melodifestivalen was actually the first demo of the song. We didn’t have a lot of time to work on the production at all. So that’s the big difference between ‘Shout It Out’ and Skyline’. We’ve been working on it a lot more than what we worked on ‘Shout It Out’. A lot more work on the production.
Scandipop: Looking forward to hearing it. Best of luck David!
David: Thank you!
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More from David Lindgren over at SVT’s Melodifestivalen website here.
And you can pick up the ‘Get Started’ album on CD from our online store here.
