Seinabo Sey interview: "My sound? I think we need to come up with a new genre"

Amongst the flock of brilliant Swedish females in pop, Seinabo Sey still manages to stand out. 

As you'll have guessed from the headline, her sound is difficult to pin down; but it's somewhere in the realm of soulful, bassy, wistful, dark, happy-sad R&B.   

You'll be able to judge for yourself soon enough as her debut album Pretend is released this week. We phoned up the rising star to have a chat about it:

Hello Seinabo! Your debut album Pretend is about to come out; where are you off out to celebrate?

I’m thinking of heading to a sunny beach and switching off my phone. I have four days off after my album comes out, and I’ve been wondering what I should do. I’m so nervous about the release but I’m happy it’s going to be out there. I’m excited to start creating again.

For people who aren’t familiar with you and your music yet, who is Seinabo Sey?

If you want to listen to some wicked vocals and some honest lyrics, I think you should listen to my music! Really though, I try to be as honest as possible – I just want people to relate to what I’m singing about.

We tried to explain your sound to a friend the other day, but it was too difficult to put into words. Can you do it for us?

Not really! A lot of people call it soul pop because I have a soulful voice and there a lot of pop elements to my songs. I’m not the best ‘genre’ person but you can definitely hear a lot of different things going on in my music. Maybe we should make up a new genre? It’s hard to put it in a box, so let’s make a new on.

The album is consistently very good, without being samey. Did the whole thing come together really quickly?

Thank you! I actually spent three years working on this album so I’m glad the songs don’t sound worlds apart. I did work with the same three or four people though, and the whole album was produced by Magnus Lidehall (Kylie, Britney, Sky Ferreira).

We tried all kinds of different things with the music as well; some songs came together almost instantly and others took up to two years. Most were real labours of love – there are about 35 different versions of some of the songs. When you have three years you can do that, but honestly, I’m looking forward to choosing one method and narrowing it down for the next album!  

For you, what makes a great song?

The idea of it and the emotion of it has to be real. That has to be clear from the start and not be other-thought. It’s the drums and the tempo and stuff that you can agonise over, like I did. The heart of the song still has to be easy to find – that’s the most important part.  

The lyrics on the album are quite dramatic and emotional; are they all true stories?

It’s a bit of everything really. The heart of the song is often something I’ve experienced or something that is going on in my brain or heart at that time. To make it a song that’s not just for you – like a journal entry or something - you have to find an extension or a solution to paint a picture and make it relatable to other people. That’s a bit harder.  

Which song on the album do you think you absolutely nailed?

I really like Hard Time. It’s a very clear song to me and just love it. I remember writing Still as well. It’s very personal to me.

Words is our favourite song on there at the moment; what’s it about?

Oh thank you! I remember I wrote that at the same time as Younger and Hard Time. Those three songs are the ones we ended up liking the most and they set the tone for the rest of the album. We basically tried to make more songs like those. Words is about how I can be hard on myself - I really am own worst critic. It's about how sometimes you need darkness in your life to see the light. It sounds cliché, but I think darkness is important in your life sometimes – a necessary force.

Your visuals are very strong and impactful; do you envisage that side of things when you’re writing and recording?

I’m not one of those people who sees both at the same time, but I love music videos so much – I’m very much of that MTV generation. When I first got into this, I thought the music videos would be the easy part, but it’s actually very complicated! Music videos are hard work – seriously they’re very difficult.

I basically just think about how I can enhance the message as much as possible and incorporate some element that I find beautiful. Not the obvious kind of ‘pretty’ beautiful we’re told to like in Western society, but something different and beautiful about life.

What’s the first song you wrote?

I remember I was ten years old – nine maybe. It went: “See me and I will show you what happiness really is. She doesn’t love you like I do.”

Blimey. Who was that about?

I have no idea who I was writing that about, but I remember that melody so clearly. I wrote it in my journal that I was given at Christmas. I don't know who I was talking about!

Growing up, what album(s) did you play non-stop?

There were a couple. The first album I bought was Ashanti’s album. I loved that song [sings], 'Dreams are real, all you have to do is just believe'. I was obsessed with that song and her. I remember buying The Miseducation (Of Lauryn Hill) long after it was released in a sale department. That was pretty major for me too – that was the first time I stepped in the world of an album… all those interludes – it was like being in her life. Alicia Keys’ Songs In A Minor is still incredible as well.

Any guilty pleasures?

Oh god so many – I eat too much good food, I drink to much wine… you know! I watch loads of ratchet TV shows – so much nonsense. I watch Love & Hip Hop Hollywood, I watch Empire. This is ridiculous… I just watched the entire series of She’s Got Game. It’s like the Bachelorette but with the rapper The Game. Seriously, what’s the matter with me?

Seinabo Sey's debut album Pretend is out on October 23.