Anna von Hausswolff is one of Scandinavia's most unconventional songwriters. Her instrument is the church organ, the sacred instrument forms the anchor between delicate and brute spheres. On her fourth album "Dead Magic" the Swede also uses her clear soprano more expressively than before. Some songs literally explode: They reflect a time when Hausswolff was faced with total exhaustion.
When Anna von Hausswolff receives journalists in the office of her Berlin record company, they meet a very friendly person who speaks in thoughtful, printable sentences. With fine long hair, porcelain ink and a black wool stole around her shoulders, she looks as if she had escaped a bourgeois tragedy of Strindberg or Ibsen. The 31-year-old looks at the plate cover that has just arrived from the print. "It should be blacker," she judges after inspecting the cover, which shows a mummy-like face in red and black. Abysmal. Welcome to the world of Anna von Hausswolff!
eclipsed: Are you a person who distinguishes between resting and working phases or do you collect ideas for your music all the time?
Anna von Hausswolff: I definitely have a strong inclination to collect. It's in the family, my father, the musician's like me, he's like me. Working all the time helps me keep my creativity flowing. Even if I don't feel creative at all, I still want to work. For this reason, I have become accustomed to always working on several projects at the same time. I stay in the river and perhaps later return to something I started and find a new approach. In the meantime, however, I am also learning to take a step back, to rest and to accept that I don't have to learn something new or produce something great without ceasing. There must also be times when I am passive and simply perceive without judging what I am creating. Both are important.
eclipsed: You mentioned your father, the Göteborg experimental musician Carl Michael von Hausswolff. How important is his opinion to you?
Hausswolff: I often ask him for his advice. Especially in situations when I have to do with the music industry, when certain concepts are brought to me, but I want to be as free as possible. I have already encountered resistance, which can of course be unsettling. In cases like this, I ask my father what he thinks. But as far as the artistic side of my work is concerned, it's something else.
eclipsed: In what way?
Hausswolff: I don't really ask anyone their opinion. When I write songs, it's something very private. I don't play them to others until they're done. I fear that if I put them up for discussion earlier, critical voices might mix too much with my own. I don't want that, because normally I can rely on my ideas, they are usually very clear. I want to put the ideas into practice quickly and I don't want any obstacles on the way.
