Karin sent me an email and asked if I wanted to listen to her record with the group Lovi did This. Of course I thought and she sent a record right away. I like her sound very much. This interview was done the day after the release party on 16/4-2025

Tell us a little about the group? Is it your alter ego or is it a homogeneous group or is it your loosely composed band?

-Lovi Did This is my solo project - then there are different musicians who contribute on the album (besides the one I play myself) and different musicians I play with. Many musicians are of course recurring, but I like to dress the songs in different musical shapes depending on the instrument and person in the band.

 What have you done before you started this band? Previous band and band on the side? Tell us about yourself?

-I did a lot of classical music when I was young, went to music classes up to high school and sang a lot in a choir. I also did dance and art. Then followed a fairly long period when I tried a "normal life", but I missed the creation. When I found my way back to music, it was when my two children came - I realized that time is limited and you need to make the most of your hours on earth. Then I started writing quite experimental music and loved it. Then I have played and sung in pop bands, for example Lätta Fot Blåa Knän, and also punk and post-punk bands. I sing a little opera with a singing teacher as well and like to play with other musicians, last year for example with the Råneå musician Mats Wikström who also plays in the awesome Eterkropp. I have worked as a journalist and some with sustainability and tried to influence the world from my small horizon. But realized that the most powerful way we humans have to work with ourselves and the existence around us is through art. And the music crosses all boundaries and can reach where nothing else does. That's why music is most important to me.

You have done a record before with the group, how can you get hold of it and was there similar music on it? Was it physically released, by the way?

-My debut album as a solo artist "Monsters" I had the privilege of making together with the producer and composer Katharina Nuttall. She was also the one who encouraged me to release my own songs. The album was fantastically beautiful, and consisted mainly of older songs about inner anxiety, you could say. Things I've been afraid of. I'm a pretty scared person, but I've really decided to be brave! The album is available physically and digitally, for example via bandcamp:  https://lovididthis.bandcamp.com/album/monsters

You have a very own style but I can still hear influences from artists like Björk and Tom Waits, am I completely wrong there or are there some you like?

-Love both Björk and Tom Waits! But what you always have is your own style - no one can be you more than yourself. That's how I think. I like distorted (or soft), daring music that dares to cross boundaries. And who grabs you in one way or another. And music is very visual to me. That's how I see Björk and Waits too: Visual, cinematic, in motion.

You call the record Trenches which means Trench and you mean that it is a record that is about Trench War.... develop?

-I wanted to write about what is happening around me - how people are increasingly taking a stand for diametrically different perceptions of reality. I wanted to dive into it. What can make neighbors start war. What can make leaders walk over corpses for... well, for what? And what makes us neglect to take care of our living environment, even though we know that we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on. Then it slipped with a little hope as well and a wedding song - although marriage can certainly also be a trench war.

The album is released as vinyl, was it important to release it physically?

-Yes! I like physical objects. I think it happens more in the brain when your hands are holding something physical like a vinyl or CD. At the same time, I think it's important to reduce resource consumption so it's a bit double haha. But the vinyl is sustainably produced anyway. 

What do you think the target group is that buys this record?

-People who like the skewed and contrasting. Who likes to be taken on a trip. Who appreciate soundscapes, but also melodies. And who appreciates an album that is a whole. 

How does your audience look like when you play live, what type of people come to the concerts?

-There will be both people who are also musicians and songwriters and people who go to gigs a lot in general. And then all kinds of people with a love for music and curiosity and openness to new music, which hopefully touches me. Both older and younger. 

What's the best thing about playing live?

-You become incredibly alive in the moment! Now or never! You can't cheat, you have to own the songs and own what you want to say. You share a piece of eternity with other, usually completely unknown people, and you feel great emotions together. It's amazing.

You do a song in Swedish called Wedding, was it thought of in English first or why is it an English title with song in Swedish?

-I thought it was reasonable with all the lyrics in English, but it was a last minute thing to let it be called that. But the song should be in Swedish. I've tried to translate but it doesn't really fly. I will release some other songs in Swedish as well. It's fun to change languages. 

Do you feel more comfortable singing in English or why is it mostly in English?

-The first record was mostly in English (I wrote mostly in English before), and there was interest in different corners of the world which made me want to keep in English so everyone understood. The lyrics are important to me.  Then I think I actually sing best in Swedish, haha, so maybe there will be a little more of that in the future.

When do you best do lyrics and songs, when you are calm, upset, angry or when are they at their best?

-I have a very hard time getting angry, but I'm working on it :). No, I think they are at their best either when I'm really sad, or happy. Any emotional state can be used - one of the things that makes music so perfect. 

You wrote in your email to me that you were happy to have found SkruttMagazine, how did you find me?

-I wanted to read up on Hjelle och Ormarna that I didn't know about. Then I ended up with you and I was so happy because there is not exactly a lot of music journalism on the web anymore.

You also wrote that you liked many of the bands on my page, which bands were you thinking of the most then?

-I saw for example Golvad Grävling, Toad Venom, Haerdmelta and Spader Kung, and then lots I haven't heard of which is awesome - discover new bands. 

Now it's mostly punk on my website but a lot of other things too, how do you see on punk is it only a word, or is it a lifestyle or just music. Do you have any punk favorites?

-Punk is a lifestyle and an attitude.  I'm just saying - Mögel!  Punk is not linked to a certain age. Mögel is a great example of that. 

Are there any really good bands that you have discovered that you want to tell the Swedish people that we should listen to?

–Efterkorpp! Love that band. And then maybe Ånghäst - Karl Boson who plays bass on the record and also live with me has a band together with I think a drummer only. Very exciting. And Tess (who plays drums live with me at the release gig) doesn't only play in Snake but has a new band called Motylki, distorted and grungy. and then L.T. Fisk of course. Bashjärta. Hmm what else... Vi som älskade varann så mycket (screamo in Swedish).

Back to Trenches now, it's hard to put you in a particular style of music because you mix quite freely between genres, how would you describe it to someone who has never heard you?

 -Yes it's hard, haha. Genres don't help. But very skewed sounds, still melodic and sometimes crazy, sometimes dark ballads, sometimes skewed poppy. Very difficult I think to describe.

What is the strangest thing you have heard about your music by any reviewer or similar?

 -Hmm, that I'm from Denmark, haha. (I'm not). I think I sent some old demo to a pretty conventional band that was looking for a singer. They replied "it was.... Interesting" - I understood that they didn't like any of it haha.

Are reviews important? Do you care and get sad if someone writes shit or how is it?

-I probably take both the positive and the negative, but for me it doesn't really matter - I do the music the way I want anyway. However, to succeed in getting gigs and then you have to show that people like you. So that's kind of an important part. It's such tough competition and I don't have an external record label either so then you have to fight a lot to be noticed.

You had a release gig yesterday (16/4) I understand and then go out on a smaller European tour, where are you going to play then?

-During the tour we will play in Copenhagen, Belgium and Germany.  It's going to be really exciting! But I haven't really started to get into all that. I have a booker in Germany who helps thankfully.

 Which is the biggest band you have played with?

-Oh hm, it depends on what you mean by big. On Friday we played at House 7 and the Indonesian act (Denisa) had a lot of followers. I actually don't know. It's such a new project anyway so we've only done a few opening gigs - hope there will be more!!

Rank your five favorite records ever?

-It really depends, but some classics are:

Rage against the Machine - Rage against the Machine 

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Beth Gibbons - In Seasons

Eterkropp - Bara vi, inga gäster

Tom Waits  - Mule Variations (or Rain Dogs)

The five latest records you bought?

-Rats on Rafts - Excerpts from chapter 3:

The mind runs a net of rabbit paths

Anika - Anika (2010 debut album)

Foal laczoid - V Mary Ocher - Your Guide to Revolution

Oh don't remember where it was before that...

How else do you think it is to live in Sweden, in the world etc, what makes you most happy and what makes you most worried?

-I have children so I worry about the future, but in it I really try to appreciate what we all have here and now - a relatively functioning society and peace. But wish we could take better care of our living environment and not have to worry about war, violence and conflicts. And that we invested more in the children in general. And creativity and culture - that's the only thing (after food and a roof over their heads) that can make man content to be such a complex being, I think.

Futureplans for the band besides the upcoming tour?

-I want to get some cozy festival gig and also a gig with a good stage space so I can bring weird scenography too! And many odd instruments on stage.  Then I want to start on the next album soon - I have a hypothesis at least about what I want to do!

For yourself?

-Oh, survive financially, haha. Time to rest, start exercising. But living in music means that you have to give up some things, but you get so much more! 

Words of wisdom?

-Go out on the plank, dare to do what you can't really do. Then things happen. 

Something to add?

-No, I don't think so:)