Facts: Marit Bergman
Born 1975 in Rättvik.
Lives in Bredäng in southwest Stockholm. Has two children and a separate home.
Started her career as a singer in the punk band Candysuck in the 90s. Solo debut in 2002 with the album “3.00 AM serenades”. The previous album “Molnfabriken” came out in 2016 and was her first in Swedish. Has won Grammys and P3 Gold and was the initiator of Popkollo.
Competed together with the journalist Karin Bojs in the last season of “På spåret”: “I didn’t feel any nervousness at all. I thought that I have zero drop height and that no one expects anything. But after the matches I noticed that I was hugely disturbed by have missed some questions.”
Listening to right now: “A little Barbro Hörberg yesterday, it was good. Rebecka Törnqvist’s new album is incredibly good. I like French Trio a lot. And I like Langendorf United a lot.
Current with the new album “Här kommer vargen”, and with a mini-tour coming to Malmö April 14, Stockholm, April 15 and Gothenburg April 22.
The last album was Marit Bergman’s first in Swedish and it took seven years to get out. The idea was that it would go faster this time. But then came a painful separation. And another child. And then a pandemic at that.
— It probably takes about seven years for all the body’s cells to be replaced. So it actually becomes a pretty perfect range. Then I think that I automatically have something new to tell, says Marit Bergman.
Next week, in any case, the new album “Here comes the wolf”. As before, the lyrics are personal and detailed. She always tries to write as truthfully as possible based on how life is right now, she explains. Which means a middle-aged parent of small children with severe climate anxiety.
— To be a parent of small children when we live in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. It is what is at the front of the head and in the heart. How the hell are you supposed to deal with that? It almost doesn’t work. You look at your little children and just, well, go ahead, she says.
— Then I’ve tried to actively write in some light and hope and forward thinking, both musically and lyrically. But it’s basically sad. There has been quite a lot that has been heavy in recent years.
The narrator on Marit Bergman’s new record is a middle-aged parent of small children with severe climate anxiety. “I’ve always tried to write as true as possible from where I’m at,” she says. “Fuck some more miracles”
Becoming a mother again was not something she had anticipated. She was newly divorced, 42 years old and she had already gone through the grief of not having more children.
— But then I went to Gothenburg. And as we all know, everyone is a bit sloppy there. So I met a guy, who I fell in love with. It took four months and then I was pregnant.
“All children are miracles, but she’s a bit more of a miracle than others.”
Having children again has forced her to work even more efficiently. It is simply not possible to “laddle around” because then nothing gets done.
— And pure crass, now I have two children to support. Then someone comes and says that I get paid very well to write theater music for six months. Then I might have done that instead of recording my own music, she says.
After the pandemic, she also felt more gratitude than ever before when she recorded the new album.
— For a while you didn’t know if you could even be in the studio together or if I could have musicians or how it would turn out. I have not known if this will continue to be my job.
Marit Bergman will release the new album “Here comes the wolf” next week.”Wants the most beautiful”
While the lyrics are driven by feelings of doom, she wanted to make the music beautiful with pop choruses, brass, strings and analog Juno synths – all of which she likes.
— I thought I just wanted to make it as beautiful as possible. I want the most beautiful and the best and take in everything that I think is beautiful. Sometimes it might border on point singing and melodrama, but it has to be, she says.
In a way, it’s about honoring the music and the person, she explains, and adds in the next moment that it might sound a little pretentious.
— But if you sit at the Konserthuset and look at all the musicians, and you start to think about all the time and knowledge that has gone into people being able to make music. It’s a great thing, and I want to try my absolute hardest to make an album that’s everything I’ve learned over the last 47 years.
Marit Bergman, at home in the area around Bredäng. “I’m here very, very much. And I really, really like being here,” she says. More politically active
A mini-tour with three dates awaits in April. Whether there will be more has not been decided yet. Otherwise, the plan for the future is to engage more in climate activism.
— I’m trying to figure out the best way to organize myself together with others. I am trying to campaign a bit for the Nature Conservation Society and I will try to become more active politically myself as well.
It might also have been nice not to wait so long before she releases something new next time.
– You have to learn the industry again in some way every time, and it’s a bit tough. It would have been nice if you had gotten a little roll on it at some point, so that you don’t have to understand all your damn new formats.
TT: Have you got Tiktok?
— I’ve actually settled in there, but I haven’t posted anything yet. And I’m also a little afraid to even open the app, it feels like poison. My kids are not allowed to have Tiktok so then I wonder why I should get it.
“Here comes the wolf” will be released on February 17.
Marit Bergman, current with new music.