A Life in Six Songs

Ep. 11 - From Melancholic Anthems to Metal Music Creation: A Life of Travel and Transformation

• A Life in Six Songs Podcast • Season 2 • Episode 11

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Join us as we explore the musical journey of Stefan Nordström, metal vocalist & guitarist, content creator, and digital nomad from Stockholm, Sweden. Travel back to the 90s with us as Stefan recalls the significant role that melancholic tracks by artists like the Cranberries and Moby played during his adolescence in Stockholm. Sit shotgun as we learn about Stefan’s musical growth into more and more extreme metal music. We finish our journey by exploring the transformative experiences that come with embracing a travel-driven, digital nomad lifestyle, and the profound connections between music, existential growth, and physical well-being. Pull up a folding chair, grab a drink, find a spot “around the fire,” and enjoy the conversation and community. 


Check out Stefan’s Instagram, YouTube, Website, Bandcamp, and Spotify


Follow your hosts David, Raza, and Carolina every other week as they embark on an epic adventure to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos that tell the story of who we are and where we’ve been, to help us figure out where we’re going. It’s a life story told through 6 songs.

Reach out to us at alifeinsixsongs.com

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Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit or educational use tips the balance in favor of fair use. The original work played in this video has been significantly transformed for the purpose of commentary, criticism, and education.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of A Life in Six Songs. I'm your host, David Rees, and I'm joined by my co-hosts, Carolina and Raza.

Speaker 2:

Hey, hey.

Speaker 1:

Hello For those of you new to the podcast, each week we embark on an epic adventure to find the songs that are stuck to us like audible tattoos, that tell the story of who we are and where we've been, to help us figure out where we're going. It's a life story told through six songs. We approach our conversations with love, kindness and curiosity to counter the prevalence of hate, anger and judgment in the world. Our goal is that by listening to these stories, you can bring more love, kindness and curiosity into your own life. With that, let's go have a listen together.

Speaker 1:

Our guest today is Stefan Nordstrom. Stefan is an underground musician, metal vocalist and guitarist, digital nomad and content creator, mostly based in Stockholm, sweden. He has a background in extreme metal music and currently has four musical projects going. In 2019, stefan decided to quit the nine to five and instead live in a more passionate and healthy way to experience more in life. Stefan, welcome to A Life in Six Songs. Thank you very much. All right, so to kick off before we get into your actual six songs, we're going to warm up with just a general question. Briefly, just tell us you know what role music has played in your life oh well, it's been huge.

Speaker 3:

I would say like, uh, given the team themes of the podcast, I think it matches perfectly, like with associations and like important moments in my life and like especially with the songs and bands. It's like very clear connections to different parts of my life. So, like, as long as I can remember, it's been playing a huge part and I think the part is just growing more and more strong also. So awesome.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for that.

Speaker 2:

All right, I'm gonna kick it over to carolina and we're gonna get into your six songs yeah, I would imagine if, if just based on your intro um, you know, making a big career change and everything to just live in this more like musically authentic way really really shows what a big part of your life music is. Um to to start us off, what's your earliest music memory?

Speaker 3:

the song that I thought about is oh to my family by cranberries that I heard a lot in the early 90s not really by choosing to hear it, it was more that it was was everywhere and it's a song that I very, very much connect to being like seven, eight years old yeah period.

Speaker 2:

It really was everywhere during the time when, when it came out and was popular let's, let's have a listen. My mother, my father.

Speaker 4:

She hold me she hold me whenever I dare. My father, my father, he like me, he like me, cause anyone can hear.

Speaker 2:

How does it feel listening to it now? What kind of memories does it bring up for you?

Speaker 3:

How does it feel listening to it now? What kind of memories does it bring up for you? It's mostly so. I think it's very interesting, like how this song kind of disappeared for me when it wasn't on the radio anymore. And then when I was like in my 30s and started exploring like 90s alternative music and that stuff, then I started listening to it again and then I realized like it has that melancholy to it and I think that's what I liked also about it when I was seven or eight years old and heard it on the radio. It has a feeling that resonated with me even then, but I wasn't sure what it was, and so maybe I needed to listen to all of the extreme music and become a musician to understand, to go the long way, to understand why this affects me so much as it did back then, which I didn't quite get back then.

Speaker 4:

So I love that. I love the idea of going back to music that we listened to and and and liked, back when we were, you know, 10, 10 years younger, 20 years younger, um, but but then coming back to it and then being able to identify what was it that you liked about that song? Right, I think. Um, this idea of learning vocabulary, um, is, is is interesting to me, meaning that, even though you can't define what it was like with a word, um, you had to feel you had, you had the same feeling and then now, as an adult, you can say that, look it, it was the melancholy in that song that really resonated with you. But the cool thing is, it sounds like your ears were still tuned and resonating with something that was melancholic, even though you didn't know that that's what that was at the time. But yeah, that's really cool. Was there music in your household? Did you grow up in sort of a musical family, you know, parents, siblings, things like that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they were not playing music, but there was like a lot of music in my house, but the thing is that my parents were a lot older than I am, so I mean they were basically checking out of looking up new music in like 1970. So it was like they were like when the Beatles and Rolling Stones came around, they stopped checking out new music. I had a lot of 50s and 60s, especially instrumental guitar music and stuff like that. I think that is definitely in the back of my head when I write music and stuff like that sometimes, even though I don't actively think about it.

Speaker 3:

I think it's still a part of the musical vocabulary.

Speaker 1:

Make it left an imprint yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, and I I love how that happens. You know, kind of going back to what raza was saying and and what you said, stefan, about, like you know, you connected to this in some way when you, when you heard this cranberry song in the other music at at the time, um, but it wasn't until later that you sort of like worked your way back to it and said, oh yeah, this is why I'm kind of kind of digging it and stuff like that, and I always find that really, really fascinating in that sense, because it's like we we have these moments in our young childhood that are formative, but we don't fully understand them until we kind of go back and, uh, you know, check them out.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, I appreciate that early 90s. I think it's it's very true for me because, like there were so many songs that I heard and I wasn't even sure which band it was playing them, like you know, right in 3, 94, 95, less. As I also like thought about the pesh mode was also another one of those bands that I was like I didn't know who Depeche Mode were and then I started listening to them maybe 10 years later and I realized, oh, that song is actually by them.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly, yeah, and it's cool too in that way. I think it's that whole thing of like, you know, we should stay a child our whole life and stuff, and because what happens when we're young? We sort of just absorb whatever. We're not worried about what genre it is or if it's cool or not, it's just like that's an amazing song, that's cool, I like hearing it.

Speaker 3:

I think I made a turn there, kind of like, from being very open and then I became this like extreme metalhead type person for a very long time and had a very close-minded taste for a very long time and then maybe in my late 20s, I started opening up again and then I just realized that a good song is a good song basically, and then I returned also to a lot of music that I considered maybe stupid, like grunge or stuff like that, and realized that, oh, this is just about the song in the end.

Speaker 4:

I think we're all speaking from the same sort of experience, because one, we're all kids of the 90s, so we have this like just just this, really like intrinsic love for that. That era of music whether it was grunge, whether it was metal, whether it was alternative, whether it was there were so many different sort of musical movements that were, that were happening then. Musical movements that were happening then and which now, as an adult, I think so you know, two of your other hosts are also. You know, we've all dabbled in music in some ways, so we were sort of music nerds in that way.

Speaker 4:

But I definitely find myself going back and if I'm playing like a guitar lick, I'll think back and go. I think I heard this somewhere in some random 90s thing, some little nugget which has then like filtered over time and then it comes out as something completely new. I think that that's how a lot of musicians, you know, do things. It's like acting as a musical filter and taking some of those old influences and then they come out in this unique way. So that that's really cool to hear so we'll.

Speaker 2:

We'll move ahead here to your next song. Um, you know, as as we contemplate, like our, our childhood or past, or certain memories that really stick out for us, what's a song that when you hear it, you're instantly transported to a specific time or place, we'll listen to it and then get to know where that song takes you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the song is Porcelain by Moby. It's a song that I also have like very early memories with, just because it was one of those songs that was also everywhere in the late 90s. It was all over TV and it was like a very, very commercial song. But it's also one of those songs that has this unidentifiable melancholy to it and this was a song that I actually didn't stop listening to. I've loved this song since, like I don't know, it came out in like 1998 or 99 or something yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Let's take a listen. I never meant to lie, so where does this song transport you to?

Speaker 3:

to that time period, I would say when I'm maybe like 12, 13 years old, living at my parents place. It's also like pre my real musical interest. I just remember like hearing this song all over tv shows and stuff and like it catches my ear somehow. But I didn't really engage with it until later. But it was one of those songs that definitely like it has a strong connection to that time and it stayed with me definitely also when did you get into sort of playing music yourself?

Speaker 1:

was it around this time, or were you starting already and this kind of took it in a certain direction, or this was right?

Speaker 3:

before, actually maybe like two or three years before I started playing guitar and I got really heavily interested in music. So it's it's interesting that the song is kind of from the period when I was least interested in music.

Speaker 2:

I ran into it, which probably tells a lot about the power of the song actually, Sure, and I think at an age I think you said like 12 or 13, like adolescence, we're starting to have all of these feelings, some extreme feelings about things, trying to figure out our place in the world, our voice, finding our voice. That's like a very delicate age, I think, and sometimes a theme I've noticed with this show is we don't really pick the songs, but the songs kind of pick us in that way.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if you had a similar feeling, because you may not pick that song today, but at the time like seemed to really just stay with you yeah, I think the case with that one is it's definitely like that, because I mean I never willingly turned on that song until maybe like five, seven, eight years later than hearing it for the first time. So it was more that I heard it on like I think it was on like the movie the beach and a lot of stuff like that, and it fits perfectly with the themes and the whole whole atmosphere of that and I think I connected it that way also. So it's really I think you're definitely right there, because you're so impressionable also at that point.

Speaker 1:

So it sticks, yeah, absolutely, and it's sort of like that thing of um, you know, when you hear it you can be where have you been all my life? Like it just like that immediate, like it's like, oh my goodness, I feel understood by this song. Like this song gets me and I get it right. At that age, 12, 13, you're starting to become, you have a sense of yourself as a self, right, and you're sort of like making your stake in the world of here's who I am, here's kind of what I feel and believe and stuff, and so when you find a song that just hits just right, you're like, yes, this is perfect.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and just like the Cranberry song, this is also like a very melancholic song.

Speaker 1:

And that was also something I didn't really reflect on back then. Right, right, right, you're just like it just connects. You're not like, oh, I like this kind of melancholy, sad feeling song.

Speaker 3:

You're just like this feels right, this is yeah, exactly because that's the stuff that I started reflecting on again, maybe like seven years later than that, so it makes it very interesting were you someone who paid attention to to lyrics back then, or was it more just the feeling from the music than the chords and chord progressions and things like that? I think I started caring about lyrics when I became a metalhead, like around when I was 14, 14, 15, started listening to metallica stuff like that. Then that started becoming a part of it.

Speaker 4:

Nice, yeah, yeah, I mean you can't have a better metal lyricist than James Hetfield, right? It's like when everyone else is singing about, I don't know, black leather and flames and Satan, he has the genius of thinking about political statements and drug references and the ills, things like that. I didn't realize. And it sounds like in this song moby is is singing because I always thought of him as like um, like an instrumental uh person and he would have guests, guest people come in, I think when stefani was the one that I remember, um driving to the east side or whatever that song, um, but I think this is moby singing in this song, which is interesting. Yeah, and it is melancholy. I wouldn't, um, I was associated him with like nike commercials, not not really deep, like introspective.

Speaker 3:

you know sad, sad music, but yeah, it's fantastic yeah, he's kind of an underrated songwriter because you think of this very commercial kind of techno guy, but he's written some of the saddest music actually yeah yeah, absolutely and to me, this, this song, like the second you hear it kick in, um, you know it's perfect because the question is a song that transports you somewhere else and it, this does it.

Speaker 1:

This song does it for me too. Like you can't hear this song and just boom, be right back in that time. Um, because it's just such a perfect representation of that time. Um, for me, it reminds me of that uh val kilmer movie with elizabeth shu, uh the saint. Um, I don't know if this song was in it, but I think there was maybe a moby song in it. But it just has that same kind of vibe and techno and kind of music and it's like right at that time, like later 90s and everything.

Speaker 3:

And yeah, it was a very characteristic time. I think it's not not only like that. I was in such an impressionable age. I think it was like a lot of unique stuff going on, like 97, 98, 99.

Speaker 2:

100% for me to it. So in 1998, I was I was studying abroad in England and when I hear the song it takes me like right back to a fall, gloomy, rainy London of that year. But it was a pivotal year. We were reaching like 2000s. It felt like kind of the end of a period of time before like things got chaotic with like Y2K in 2000 and all that kind of stuff. So it was like this really like interesting little bubble of a time, the late 90s.

Speaker 4:

I felt like this was before cell phones and social media. So we were like forced to just digest all this music and entertainment and pop culture that was happening at the time, which just so happened that it was really, really good you know good pieces of entertainment in there too. But yeah, how was it like I'm going to ask a completely, you know, sort of novice question, but you know, growing up in, did you grow up in Stockholm, and if so, you know how was it sort of like city life for you, or did you grow up in the outskirts? Can you describe some of that experience? Give us a little taste of what life in Sweden was like for young Stefan at age 13.

Speaker 3:

I grew up in the suburbs outside Stockholm in a very typical kind of middle class area. So it was just like basically working people, not not much going on, like very comfortable upbringing and like really like pretty simple. I would say just uh, not rich, not poor, just normal swedish stuff and it's not that much, not that much to say about.

Speaker 3:

It's like not that much going on, really, just yeah it's a very normal upbringing going to school and then coming home and, and and listening to music yeah, I mean, I had a brief period for like two, three years around this when I was gaming a lot. So I was basically like a complete hermit, just gaming and gaming, and gaming. So that that was what I luckily sacrificed when I started doing the musician thing. So I didn't have space for both.

Speaker 3:

So luckily the musician stuff came in which was good, because if I would have gotten stuck with the gaming I don't know would have probably been a very different life.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And I'm like I'm sure the gaming kind of set you up well to do the musician musician thing, because it's a similar, it's's a different activity, but it's a similar sort of um uh environment in that way. Right, gaming you're sort of sitting in the room in front of the you know screen and you're playing and you're kind of investing a lot of time and then when you start writing music and listening to music, you're doing the exact same thing. Right, it's a lot of it's not on stage performing all the time. It it's a lot of alone in your room writing chords and writing music and writing songs and stuff like that. That you kind of sit with it in that same way.

Speaker 1:

I know, like playing video games you can kind of lose track of time, right. You sort of like oh my goodness, it's midnight or 2am or something like that, and writing music can be similar, right, you lose yourself in it. Did you feel that similarity from a transition into, like gaming, into music? Was it a similar kind of feel or did it like, was it a? Did it feel like a kind of 180 shift for you when you made that change?

Speaker 3:

I think it was kind of a logical overlap, especially in the listening part, because there was like a lot of alternative people in sweden that were very into gaming so naturally all the gamer people were often into metal music. So like a lot of the early music that I listened to, I actually found through people that I was gaming with.

Speaker 3:

Because this was still like pre-Google, pre-social media times. So when people found great bands for you, it was like absolutely invaluable and this could have been like really I mean bands that would have been taking five seconds to find on spotify now, and I mean right, right. And when someone gave you that link to a down to download an album by like in flames or something like that really big band, it was still like a miracle back then. So it it was absolutely the gaming played its part, for sure, in the.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's so cool that's so cool, so cool.

Speaker 1:

We've talked a lot on this show about that, about sort of the currency of music and how it gets like exchanged and migrates and you know, you have a cousin who you know is from New York or you know somewhere else and they come back home after their summer away and they bring back music and it's like oh my goodness, and all the different ways, and so that's really cool to hear how the gaming community was a way people were sharing music before. We just could, like you said, punch something into Spotify and kind of find whatever we kind of want. That's really cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I do have a lot of memories from the era I haven't been through the real proper CD era, but still just the era when you found music on tv was also very interesting, because you kind of had to wait for your song to come on again and you barely knew who did the song and right that stuff. And then transitioning to this kind of file sharing era where you still couldn't use spotify and it was still super hard to find information and I mean now it's just like you can google death metal bands and you have 500 of them. It's a whole different game.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, I remember the. I don't know if you guys remember Headbangers Ball right. That show on MTV was like dedicated to metal and then, right when metal was getting good, like when Pantera's Far Beyond Driven came out they decided at least in the States, MTV canceled Headbangers Ball. So it's like oh God why. But that, I think, led to Stefan what you're talking about, which is like you know folks, that people that are into metal, the sort of underground music. There was very limited outlets for finding new music and, I think, gaming. You're absolutely right. I remember some of the like, uh, some of our heavier bands. You would hear their sort of single but attached to um, to like a video game that came out. I know, like typo did, did uh um, one of their, one of their singles. They couldn't get it on on headbanger's ball but it came out on a game called blood back in the day. It was right in the like mid, mid, late 90s or so that's the most appropriate game for typo negative.

Speaker 4:

My goodness I remember like being in my college dorm and downloading the game just to get the video version of I think it was like my girlfriend's girlfriend that was a single at the time and I only got it because of the song, not necessarily the game. I wasn't really a big gamer. But yeah, this video game releases was like this commercial way of getting access to underground music, newer, up-and coming underground music, and yeah, and then Napster happened and then that was the lead-in to Spotify and and yeah, and then, you know, the napster happened and then that was the lead into spotify and apple music and all the streaming stuff. But yeah, no, it's really cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's the real struggles. I can remember like having those early file sharing platforms and trying to download something, and I think I had like dial up and it was like 20 minutes to get one song and I'm trying to trying to find something that was actually the real song, which exactly also was.

Speaker 1:

So it was a lot of challenges back then and then someone would call the house and cut off your download and you'd lose the whole thing oh my goodness, angry if somebody picked up the phone, oh my goodness.

Speaker 3:

Then my mom got like the bill for the telephone and it was like seven times higher than it was supposed to be. Why are you?

Speaker 1:

calling Russia all the time I'm downloading music mom.

Speaker 2:

It's super cool to hear the journey and the progression to things. We see that a lot as a theme on the show too. Like deviations in folks um journey throughout their lives. Because you had this, you know, brief stint of of gaming and somebody could say, well, you know, you could have been playing music that whole time or did you feel like that was a waste or whatever? But that's what led you to the community, which exposed you to certain music which, like you know, um, what do you say, david, like the universe doesn't make mistakes, right, all the things that we like go through lead us in our path. That'll lead us to our next question here, when we start to really really kind of get into your musical tastes and exposure to music. What was a memorable time when you were first exposed to a band's artist or music? What was the song? Maybe we'll take a listen and then and then I'll ask, maybe, like, who played it for you and and what did that feel like?

Speaker 3:

the song I thought about that made like such a huge transition is also from this time. It's the song crawling by Linkin Park that I actually saw on on tv and it was one of those songs that I was kind of hunting on the TV to come back because I didn't know which band it was by and it was very cool but I had no idea what it was.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, let's take a listen. It's a really good song. So what was it like, this exposure to this band and this artist and this song for you?

Speaker 3:

I think they were just so right on time with their music, like especially for people that are born like 85, 86, 87 they all, like everyone that I know that are from Sweden and born around this era, has this album. So it was like they just made basically the perfect album for people my age who were like sort of into alternative music but didn't dare to take the step yet. And this is. This is kind of dark and depressive, but it's also commercial enough for people who are not really into rock or metal yet to kind of dive into it. For me it was like I saw the music video and I heard the music on tv and I was like there is something about this that was just. It was like immediate, just like what is this?

Speaker 3:

and I was it was once again like why is this so exciting? I wasn't sure about, but I wanted to listen to it, like over and over again yeah, this was a great record all around.

Speaker 4:

Um, this was, I think, the first time that, uh, that we've heard sort of commercial, um sort of screaming right in like, like screaming growling vocals, but there was still like melody in there.

Speaker 4:

And then there was like sort of the hip-hop, um influences and and um and then and the beats that it had a guy doing electronics and and uh yeah yeah, yeah wiki wiki wiki why and, by the way, for for those of us who were born slightly before, uh, you know 85, 86, this it was cool to see sort of like the next era of uh, of of what, what, heavier music, but but melodic music would look like, I think, for us day for you, and I was like, I mean, I was born in 1980 and for for me, like the breakthrough was metallica's black album. Right, it was the first time that it's like it was just everywhere and you had no idea. Uh, that wow, these, these guys playing really heavy, heavy music, chuggy guitars, yeah, talking about nightmares and stuff, and all of a sudden it's like the super bowl, you know theme song, um, I think lincoln park lincoln park did that a few years later for the next generation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and even for us that were, you know, late 70s, early 80s, I think it did the same thing. Right, because this is that transition to new metal. Right, but not so much right, like you said, we've got two vocalists here, we got someone singing, we got someone rapping, we've got a person doing turntable stuff, but it wasn't to the extreme of like Limp Bizkit or something like that. That was, like you know, really just kind of like hip hop metal together and really taking it up, and so it was this way of like, like Stefan you said, all these people that were kind of into a little bit alternative, maybe indie songwriter, some hip-hop and stuff this was like everyone could gravitate towards this and then it was like, all right, what's next after this?

Speaker 3:

yeah, because melody and production wise I mean it's it's pure pop, right, and they make and they really put it together so well because, like it has the extreme edge in the darkness but it's also simple enough. Mean, I was listening to like boy band music at this point almost so still I could understand the language of this. Sure, they really found the middle ground there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so in like the timeline of your life at this point, were you playing anything yet? Or was this kind of the catalyst for, like I might want to actually play some music myself?

Speaker 3:

this was right before, I would say, because I had the transition from this and then I started listening to as I would have said back then real metal music like iron maiden and metallica. I like got absolutely obsessed with metallica and iron maiden like maybe one year after hearing this. And then when I think about Linkin Park, if you would ask me what I would have thought about Linkin Park in the 20s, I would have said this is the biggest trash that ever existed. And now I've gotten back to the point where I'm really still appreciating it because the singing is amazing for one, but I wasn't playing instruments yet. I think I was 14, 15 when I started picking up the guitar and started understanding and that's when the real deep music interest kicked in.

Speaker 3:

I think at this point it was still a bit superficial. But this album definitely in the trajectory of what I was listening to is super important Because I think it could have gone a completely different way if I didn't have this kind of mid-transition bands that got me to death metal, because I had to transition first through Metallica and Iron Maiden and then through lighter extreme metal music, like the more melodic stuff. It took me getting from this to listening to death metal and thrash metal music. It still took me maybe three or four years of adapting to how it sounds and how it feels and kind of progressing more and more extreme yeah, you gotta crawl first, then you can walk and then you can run right.

Speaker 1:

If we just try to make you run right out of the gate, it might be like I'm not ready for that. Um, and I really appreciate you sharing this and really these first three songs have been these kind of. We see this progression in you and your sort of musical taste and musical growth and I think that's something that you know we really try and do with this show, because a lot of times we can be in our 20s or 30s or whatever and look back and be like, yeah, I had my grunge phase or I had my, you know, new metal phase, or I had my boy band pop phase or whatever it might be, and we can kind of feel like, oh, I should have known better, I should have been cooler back then, or whatever. And it's like it's just so. Not about that, right, it's about how the ones lead you to the other and it's all this journey we're on and you can't get to where you are today, making the music you are, listening to the music you are without going through those in that way.

Speaker 3:

It's not something to regret, it's something to kind of put in the perspective and go yeah, that's part of my journey yeah, like I mean, of course, there are bands where I think, still think, like what was I thinking when I was listening to this? Of course but in case of, in case of lincoln park, I can understand the and I can also appreciate just that, like the productional elements and like the singing is absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1:

So that part is also yeah, yeah, even if you're not throwing it on, still now, right, we have those bands and groups that maybe were from 20 years ago that we still put on or, like I, still like it today. We might not be doing it with certain of these bands, but we can at least appreciate it for what it was at the time and for us, yeah, because in the case with the of these bands, but we can at least appreciate it for what it was at the time and for us.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, because in the case with the Cranberry song and the Moby song, I mean that I still listen actively to definitely yeah.

Speaker 2:

Do you still actively listen to Linkin Park?

Speaker 3:

No, but I did hear a really good Linkin Park cover by one of my favorite singers. That was really amazing. So that one I actually listened to because it's kind of a singer-songwriter version of a Linkin Park song, sure. So I can appreciate the songwriting aspect, but I don't think. I'm listening to Hybrid Theory.

Speaker 1:

So much for getting the episode shared by lincoln park.

Speaker 4:

Just kidding we're just kidding, just kidding I, I heard, uh, I heard the craziest cover. Uh, this, this is lincoln park covering an adele song and it was at some I think it was like the iTunes festival. It was amazing. It was like Chester's range but doing Adele's vocals and it was just him and Mike Shinoda on piano and it was amazing, it was spectacular.

Speaker 4:

So the three of us grew up in South Florida and we have a very specific genre of music associated with South Florida from that period, from the early 90s, which is booty music, which is hip hop, dance, party, right, that's, that's, that's sort of that. That's South Florida to the bone. But different areas have different. You know musical affiliations and Sweden and you know Scandinavia I mean metal and death metal and heavy music is like, when I think of Sweden, I think of heavy music and just like just getting it right and doing it right, and then there's so many different offshoots and stuff from your, you know, opeth to Ghost at the Gates, you know.

Speaker 4:

But as someone who lives in Sweden, who kind of grew up there as this, you know Swedish metal was becoming like a thing. How was it for for you locally, like, were you guys? Was it like, were you guys cool with it? Was it like? Were you guys cool with it? Were you guys, was it sort of a matter of pride that look, this genre that comes from the place that we're living in? And so how did you guys feel about it being in Sweden at the time, you know, in the early 90s, mid 90s and give me, if you can give me, your perspective of how it was for you guys.

Speaker 3:

I don't think there was like a Swedishedish, like swedish pride type element to it, but there was definitely, like in sweden. It's so different, like, if you like, if I go meet people in portugal, for instance, that are metalheads from my age and I mean they were like a small clique that got bullied and they were super weird and to everyone and that kind of stuff, and in in sweden it was more like, I mean, every class of 30 people had like three or four people in our iron maiden shirt. So I mean it was in that way.

Speaker 3:

It's it was cool it was very different compared to other countries because there is like and you can still see that like. If you pass by a high school you will see like the metal or at least like some kind of alternative clique of people.

Speaker 3:

So I think in that way it's very different in the nordic countries because it's so normalized and I think you can see that in in workplaces also, because like they're I mean most metalheads in sweden they're working like office jobs it or they're teachers or whatever. So it's and that's something that you can definitely like. Spot that it's extremely different in like south america and stuff, that the metalheads are more pure metalheads and they're maybe not so interested in the career stuff.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm generalizing, but it's more that type of vibe, so just more mainstream culturally than maybe it would be in other regions of the world or other countries.

Speaker 3:

I think even in the 90s it was just so normalized because there were simply so many people and so many bands.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so it's more acceptable, so to speak. I remember I was a so I'm an attorney by trade and I remember living in Milwaukee many years ago and I walked into court one day and the lead prosecutor had like a neck tattoo, but wearing a full suit, and then and made the most like eloquent legal arguments and I was just like, ok, so I know, this dude is affiliated with metal somehow and he's, you know, of sound mind and and and an argument and it's and it's completely acceptable and it's normal and I think over the years it's just it's become acceptable. But maybe in some of the more up and coming countries, like I know, I mean so I grew up in, I grew up in Pakistan, which is not the Middle East, but I mean it is a Muslim country, but the idea of like metal and tattoos and things like that is still immediately you have this associated association with things, like you know, satanism and devil worship as opposed to, and it immediately labels people as outcasts as opposed to just being.

Speaker 4:

Hey, I like heavy music and that's okay. It seems like in Sweden. There was much more of the look. It's much more acceptable. There isn't anything to fear there. It's just music, it's just entertainment of sorts.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, especially after I went to other cultures and seen metalhead people there, I realized that we were kind of blessed because especially when I was in Egypt I noticed I met a gang of metalhead people in Cairo and when they were walking around in public places people were staring at them like they're aliens. Basically it was a very weird attitude places people were like staring at them like they're aliens, basically, and like very, very, very weird attitude towards them.

Speaker 4:

So it's definitely different in many different other places give it I, I think, give it time, right, I think, time time has this, this amazing uh thing of healing things, and I think, just uh, you know it's an education thing as well. Um, um, yeah, I think that's all I had to say about that.

Speaker 2:

I'm watching you going somewhere right real time rosa rosa was like in all different countries.

Speaker 1:

Right now living life well I I remember, um.

Speaker 4:

So you know, I I think one of the reasons, stefan, why I reached out to you on instagram was I saw, you know, I'm like this guy is traveling all over the place, um, and and and and just it seemed to be coming from the same place that our podcast is coming from, which is, you know, opening minds. You know there's an education factor, being curious about the world, judgment free and things like that. And I saw one of your posts I think it was the one from Egypt, and it immediately reminded me of the Slayer video, seasons of the Abyss, which was filmed in front of pyramids, and I'm like, okay, look man, if Egypt can welcome Slayer for a video shoot, and then, 20, 30 years later, my boy, stefan, is over there. Things can change, change is possible. I got so many Slayer comments on those. You know things can change. You know change is possible.

Speaker 3:

And and and and. Yeah, I got so many Slayer comments on those pictures also.

Speaker 4:

Was it Slayer or was it Slayer?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was definitely Caps Lock. At least there you go Caps Lock.

Speaker 4:

I love it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it's exposure. It's exposure to different people, to different genres, to different musics, and having good experiences with those folks. That ends up kind of breaking some biases and barriers.

Speaker 3:

And I feel like I'm kind of a very work-in-progress person also, so I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, even though I'm approaching 40. So that helps also to keep an open mind because, like I haven't really decided on anything when it comes to the future. So that makes all of that stuff much easier also, I think.

Speaker 2:

Totally, let's kind of take a little step to the side here of just like kind of everyday life. For for you, um, I think I hope we get more to your travels because it's it's you seem to have a really, really interesting um journey. But for for our next song, what's a song that you intimately connect with another activity, like a, like a book or a location or a trip? What kind of song do you tie to that?

Speaker 3:

I chose my feel good travel song monte cristo by klimp 1918, like an italian shoegaze band, because it's a song that I think of always when I think about like new beginnings and starting something interesting. This I always put on this song like if I'm sitting on an airplane or whatever. It's always there. So it's a very much like a traveling song for me awesome, let's.

Speaker 2:

Let's take a listen. I love it. It's super cool. Tell us about what you tie it to. I think you said travel, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I have this initial memory because I started solo traveling very late, before I got really into it, and it was winter of 2018. I went on my first solo trip to Lisbon and then I was walking, walking I think it was like four or five o'clock in the morning. I was going to the airport, walking through stockholm like super dark, and then I had this song on and it kind of that's why it's so tied to like new beginnings and traveling because I remember that specific memory and that trip was like extremely transitional, like I met a lot of people that are longtime friends and I started bands in portugal and I keep returning. I'm going to portugal tomorrow. So, sorry, ironically so.

Speaker 3:

So it's uh, it's one like this song, especially like, like I told you like, uh, on airplanes and stuff, if I'm, if I'm on an air, starting an airplane journey or if I'm starting a whole trip, I usually put this song on as like a starter kick to kind of get into the right mood, because it has that. And this band is very special too because they have this kind of it's hard to explain like this kind of happy, sad, double feel to it.

Speaker 3:

It's very nostalgic, it's kind of romantic nostalgic but also sad at the same time. They have very like, very weird vibe to it that I haven't really found in any other band this song is just like.

Speaker 1:

I mean it's perfect because it's your song and it's your interview. So whatever song it was is perfect. But from the outside it's perfect too, because if we were like, when you just said, like, going to the airport at four or five, am you walking through downtown stockholm to get there? Whatever this song is like, if we were going to make a movie of it, this is, this is a song we would pick. It's like just perfect from the outside too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, really love it yeah, it's a very special band. I'm seeing them live for the first time also this summer, so that's going to be amazing, awesome, that's super cool.

Speaker 2:

I hadn't heard of them, but their music did remind me of a band I really like called the naked and famous had. Uh has a little bit of a similar sound, so I'm definitely going to check them out.

Speaker 3:

I haven't heard it. Are they like alternative rock or something like that?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I need to check that out. It's got a little bit of a similar kind of melodic like instrumental sound.

Speaker 3:

Great, that sounds cool.

Speaker 4:

While you were mentioning the song, I was imagining, you know, orlando Express and Central Station in Stockholm. I was there with my son last year and, yeah, putting that song, just that little excerpt, I can imagine just sort of sitting in the middle of Central Station and just watching the chaos of people, you know, going to work, coming home from work, escalators up and down, uh, you know, uh, lattes um in hand and uh, and, and yeah, it's a, it's really cool. I'll, I'll, I'll, I will affiliate this song with with stockholm and travel, I think moving forward as well, that's great, then you can try using it for the same purpose and see if it fits yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's definitely going on my travel flying list for sure.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, it's perfect and I've actually never heard of this, this band, or are they banned or so? Like a solo act type?

Speaker 3:

thing they are banned. They're from italy, but I think that they don't play live that often and they don't promote themselves very well, like the people who are into them are extremely into them, but they haven't really gotten very mainstream, despite being quite catchy and I mean they're not very extreme band.

Speaker 2:

So they definitely have possibility to be more mainstream, I think, if they will try I think it's super cool that you associated with travel because it's not just any trip, right, you aren't going like on holiday, you know, and a break from from school or something like that. Like this was kind of the start of what has become your, your somewhat kind of I don't want to call it like nomadic, but very travel driven life, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean, if you compare my life seven or eight years ago, I had no idea it was going to be like this for sure Cause, like when I was in my twenties, I was just like, oh, career money, career money, that's everything you can do, do. And then this kind of opened up, I think maybe I watched some youtube videos and stuff about because the digital nomad stuff was emerging around then, right, I was naively thinking that, oh, this is going to be so I can do it like that.

Speaker 3:

And then it's, of course, like it was a big transition to learn how to do it properly and sustainably. But I think I think, uh, like before that I had no notion that I will would ever do this stuff before I did the first solo trip.

Speaker 2:

So it it was like 2018, 2019, 2020, like I changed pretty much everything I can see how a song like that will stick with you because it's a real shift in like your life trajectory but it's such, a, such a nice thing to have.

Speaker 3:

Like, if I'm on an airplane taking off and I'm going away for three months and then having that particular song to put on to get kind of into the right, right mindset of the trip, I think it's like just perfect to have something like that. Sure, I mean, I have multiple songs for that, but this one is definitely definitely a number one.

Speaker 4:

Do you plan out your sort of travel? I guess not travel journeys, but I guess your sort of extended itinerary for the year, like, for example, right now? I mean, do you have the rest of 2024 sort of mapped out in terms of places that you want to travel?

Speaker 3:

Or is it just more spontaneous, sort of whatever spur of the moment idea might seem cool at the time. I'm usually like, maybe like a year ahead oh, not in exact plans, but in what I can afford to do and how I can do it. So sure, I for next year. I already have an apartment in portugal for a couple of months in, I think, february, something like that. But then I'm going to South America before and that's only very loosely planned at this point, because planning the last South America trip was like oof, so I kind of Just roll with it, yeah exactly, but I also have a lot of smaller trips this year.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to Portugal for a cycle trip tomorrow and then in the summer I'm going to do the usual metal thing go to a few festivals. So that's gonna be basically it, because I sometimes I feel like I'm not even using my apartment in stockholm at all. So I'm trying to trying to at least be home for a few months of the year.

Speaker 4:

So it's nice, nice actually. David and I were talking about some of the cool places that we'd want to hit in stockholm, uh, starting with that amazing, uh 2112 burger place in in gothenburg, the one that, um, the guys from inflames I guess are part owners, peter and bjorn from from inflames oh, I didn't know they had one.

Speaker 3:

but also, like I don't think I've been in gothenburg for for like 10 plus years, so I'm actually going there this summer a little bit. So check it out then. It's probably one of those things.

Speaker 1:

For the Swedes, it's like this is just another music-themed restaurant out of the millions we have here, but for us from the other side and me being a big Rush fan the restaurant being named 2112 is like yes, yeah, they got it just right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but it's. It's really nice for people who are coming to stockholm and goffenberg, because you have this list of sites. I mean you, you already have like 10 or 15 things that you can push in there easily. Like in stockholm you have the biggest cemetery with the cross, that it's like the entombed band picture and you have all that stuff, and I mean it's it's kind of endless, like like when I, when I have, when I have people here, like we barely in in a week we can barely get through the stuff that they want to see, because so much, so sure yeah, next, next visit to stockholm.

Speaker 4:

I'm gonna get in touch with you ahead of time because I'm kicking myself, because there are so many landmarks and stuff. But you know, we, we hit the viking museum, we hit the abba museum, uh, some of those types of details which is great, by the way, you know, had a blast. I mean, come on, like the cemetery we're entombed, had their photo shoot I. That should have been on my itinerary. So next, next go around.

Speaker 3:

But that one is a bit harder because it's not kind of in the mainstream tourist area. You have to get a little bit out of town. But I'll help you out next time.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2:

So we've talked a little bit about, you know, adventures and travel and exposures to new music, which is all great and exciting. But you know life has its ups and downs and with adventures and wonderful things come some difficult times or situations. So for your next song, what's the song that that has helped you through a difficult time or situation?

Speaker 3:

the song I thought about is gone by kristallinder. It's like a very existential song for me, for good and bad, like I can't go into the details later, but it's definitely the song I immediately thought about with this let's, let's take a listen.

Speaker 2:

Bestowed upon my soul Like shackles of gold, and everywhere I turn, the world anticipates when I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone.

Speaker 3:

How does it feel listening to it now? Good, I would say Maybe there was a period where I connected this with darker things, but I mean it's an amazing song. This is one of the songs I listened to like 500 times and I still want to listen to it over and over again. Wow, this is one of the songs I listened to like 500 times and I still want to listen to it over and over again. Wow, but it's definitely like kind of an good and bad existential anthem for me, something in that vein. I would say like sure, because, as if you connected to the klimt song before, like 2018, 2019, I was like living a very adventurous, very interesting life, just exploring everything.

Speaker 3:

And then COVID hit in 2020 and I was forced back to Sweden and in that period my relationship fell apart and my dad died in that COVID period of 2020-2021. So this song was one of the songs I listened to a lot during that period. Because you probably know nothing about Kristallninder he's very underground, so he used to be. He used to be a 90s artist in sweden, used to be very, very big in the 90s and then he kind of disappeared into his own obscure little world and still making music and he's like a very existential guy that's just sitting on social media making this kind of not religious but very, very spiritual content about spiritual things and for me I've never been like an existential spiritual person at all before all of this stuff happened.

Speaker 3:

So this song was kind of my my intro to, kind of, because if you don't learn how to existentially deal with those kind of things like then I think you will completely lose your mind eventually. So this song was a big part of me transitioning into dealing with death and dealing with big transitions and just still keeping some kind of hope in the darker parts. I would say Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And in this way where I think the pandemic is such a unique time. Obviously it's a pandemic, but up to then you had traveled right. That may have been an outlet for you or a way to process things, or you know, but in the pandemic, like we all had to stay put, so that thing you used to do you couldn't, and now you had to really process some challenging moments yeah basically went from like 100 percent happiest status of my life to the worst in a few months.

Speaker 3:

So it was like I mean, me and my ex, we were living like the life of the life in portugal, having a super nice time, and then suddenly we're back in stockholm with no apartment and months later my dad gets sick and then I am stuck with like all of the stuff after him, like I'm an only child with a half brother, so I was stuck with the whole situation of dealing with all of that admin regarding whatever happened around that. So it was like it was a life lesson, really like. So it was basically like maybe like a year where I was just grinding the admin of all that stuff and just trying to get back to life, and this song kind of stayed with me through the dark part of it, but also the light part, like in 2022, when I was finally through all of that and started my new life by myself, and that's like the person that I am right now is based very much on from 2022.

Speaker 3:

I don't even like remember what I was like in 2018 or 19, to be honest.

Speaker 1:

so, right, right like a rebirth yeah yeah, I would say very much, and and that's that's where the songs, I think existential, good and bad comes in, because, like now, I can be happy listening to the song almost right, right oh yeah, like it's evolved with you yeah, I would say definitely well, and it's like you too and I love the way you said it and thank you for sharing it of you know, you sort of weren't necessarily spiritual before and you kind of you know, and youth, right, when we're younger and we're not faced with these things, we sort of have that, you know, feeling of immortality. You know Rush says it well we're only immortal for a limited time, right. And then we have life hits us and we realize no people around us will be gone and also we at some point will be gone. And once you kind of come face to face with that, it makes you kind of re-evaluate your life and kind of reconnect with and say, hey, I'm going to be gone sometime and so I've got to live my life, there's no waiting on it. So I really liked the way you said that and shared it.

Speaker 1:

I had a, I had a person tell me this phrase and it was religion is for people who fear hell, Spirituality is for people who have been there. And I just love it so much because, yeah, once you've gone through hell, the tough times, that's where that spiritual connection comes in, not tied to any religious belief or anything like that, but just that, like you said existential right. That that what's my purpose here. We're limited. What am I going to do with it?

Speaker 3:

so thank you for sharing that oh, of course, uh, but I think it's made me both like more humble and more productive in the end. I mean it was a terrible period but, as I said, I can barely remember who I was before, to be honest. I mean, I can remember the person I've been the last two years, but the versions of before I can barely connect to yes, because it was such a gigantic transition. So in that way, the song is definitely going to stay with me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I also love with the song. Just one more thing, and then Raza, over to you. I broke my own rule with this song. We try and keep our clips to about 30 seconds or so, and this one I couldn't. We're almost at a minute and a half. But I just love how at the end he's singing when we're gone, when we're gone, and then the last line's singing um, when we're gone, when we're gone, and then the last line is just when we're, and it just cuts off and it's like, yeah, that's how it happens. When we're gone it's sort of in the middle of a sentence. We don't get to kind of tidy everything up, nice, and then go, it sort of just comes, and I just love that so much. So thanks for sharing the song as well, nice it's an amazing artist.

Speaker 3:

I recommend like all his work like a lot, because he's actively bad at promoting himself, like he's just sitting in sitting in a countryside cabin making amazing music and no one is hearing it. So he needs some hopefully this will help.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we'll we'll get the word out yeah, I was just gonna say I love how um get the word out. Yeah, I was just gonna say I love how um, music is the sort of vessel that like facilitates so much of these open-ended discussions. I feel like I've got more from music, the the idea of like freely thinking about these existential uh topics, than than out of any discussion or any book or anything like that. I mean, of course, you know you can, if you go out there and search, you can find whatever it is, whichever medium works for you.

Speaker 4:

But for me especially it's been music and sort of free-thinking artists that, where you're allowed to, you know, just question things, question. You know what happens, things. Question. You know what happens, what happens with our mortality, what happens with life, the end of it. You know those types of questions and especially the things that there are no answers for, right, no one can know. The stuff is a journey and it's an experience that we are just trying to survive and to and to navigate through. And and it seems like you know, for for a lot of us, music is that platform that allows us to just explore and sometimes we come up with answers and sometimes, sometimes we we start down the path, like listening to a song like this and then many, many years later, something, something about it clicks and and and then it all makes sense, and maybe that's that was what what the journey was about to begin with. But it's like music is the basis to do that, at least for a lot of us.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, no, I really appreciate the song as well and with that, um, we will lead off to our, our last song, our sixth song in your journey, in your story. We'll kind of raise it to a good note or a lighter note. What's? A song that was part of just a perfect memory, where everything felt just right.

Speaker 3:

It's Summer Night Horizon by Anathema, because, like a big part of my life, aside from the traveling, is also running, and I would say some of the most 10 out of 10 moments in my life have been like running in nice views, and it's, of course, once again Portugal, and this is one of the songs that I usually have on in those moments, because this one captures the whole. Yeah, it really sounds like that kind of perfection when you're like running above cliffs with the sunrise over ocean. Kind of has that feeling to it, I think.

Speaker 2:

You do a really good job of describing like the the sort of visual aspect. So now, let's take a. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 1:

Space between us. Space between us.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. What is this sort of perfect moment that you associate with this song?

Speaker 3:

I would say, though, kind of. I mean, I'm a very, very big sucker for nice views in places. I'm a very, very big sucker for nice views in places and, just as I said, like the running in a place with high cliffs, looking over the ocean, with a sunset, that's kind of a perfect. That's obviously my perfect moment, and this song is just like the, obviously the audio representation of that almost. And then AFMA is also one of those like really special bands that have this kind of happy, sad juxtaposition to them.

Speaker 3:

And I'm like especially that that happy, sad mix like maybe like 90% of my favorite bands have that kind of, it's something that really gets me about, especially about this song.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah. You can feel it in there of like that, that I'll describe it as sort of tension between those two things. It's like this, this hopefulness, and reaching and striving, but also like you feel the weight of kind of the past dragging behind and having to fight for it. Right?

Speaker 3:

yeah, love it yeah, and the whole and the song title itself with the summer night horizon, I mean it just fits perfectly with that also yeah, that resonates with me a lot.

Speaker 2:

I don't run very much these days, but I did used to run a lot, um and david and I used to do a lot of triathlons together and stuff and like. There's this thing about kind of matching a perfect run or ride, where you kind of get that runner's high with whatever might be in your headphones or whatever that soundtrack is and you're like out in nature. That makes you feel, I don't know that there's like a more alive feeling when, like, all of that stuff just clicks for you?

Speaker 3:

yeah, because I think it can sound a bit silly to people who don't run like when I felt silly when I said it, because it feels like but the feeling itself when you have it live, it's like, and really, really I mean it. You don't get it every time, but when it because it feels like, but the feeling itself when you have it live, it's like, really, really I mean it. You don't get it every time, but when it hits it's something really special.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would. For anyone out there who doesn't run and thinks anyone who runs after 10 years old is is crazy, think of the time when you were young and maybe you rode a bike for the first time and you had that feeling of total freedom. That's kind of what you get in these moments, right when you're out there running, you've got the perfect song in your headphones and it just feels like this ultimate freedom going on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I had that thought as I was putting your six songs together from your questionnaire and, carolina, when I had this one on here, I immediately thought of you because it just exactly the way you described it. Stefan is the way Carolina has described it to me when she goes on, runs and has that perfect song and in that same way of that mix of struggle and and kind of the the, the negative feelings or whatever, but also this kind of positive like breaking free, and you can just, yeah, you're kind of breaking the chains of of crap behind you as you, as you run, and so you're in good company here describing this song.

Speaker 2:

Yeah I've heard people say like I'll only run if somebody's chasing me, like that's how much I hate running, right, but if that's me is that you?

Speaker 2:

um, but, and a lot of runs really suck, like shit hurts or you're dehydrated or like it's just like not going well for you. I don't know how to describe a runner's high, but there's just something like I don't know. Your body just gets like flooded with like I don't know dopamine or serotonin or whatever those feel good chemicals are, and weirdly enough, it feels just like effort, effortless, like your legs are just like going and you're just like flooded with joy and you're looking around. I don't know. I'm gonna like no, but.

Speaker 3:

But for me it's like it's super important for my mental health. Like when I don't, when I'm not physically active, like it takes five or six days, and then I feel like really like just uh it's, I'm like I have like a really really active brain, that it's pretty much non-stop. So the only really good way to shut it up. It's basically exercise. So when I don't get it, then it starts spiraling very fast you know, old age will bring bring that about it.

Speaker 4:

I'm just I, I don't run, but I love rowing um, so I found it a few years ago.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, that that was my and and I can row for, like you know, 30 minutes an hour and I I just love it and I'm definitely in that zone. So I can relate to you guys in that sense, just with a different activity. But I will say that you know we're talking about feeling silly, you know about running. This is a rowing silly reference because we went to go see Amon Amarth and there's a song in the middle of it. They get everyone to do like a Viking row.

Speaker 4:

Imagine 15, 15, 20,000 people going row row it was the silliest thing ever, but it was so amazing and it was so much fun. So for listeners, that aren't familiar.

Speaker 1:

Amon Amarth is a Viking metal band. I think that's an accurate way to describe it. They got the Viking look and their songs are all about kind of Viking themes in that way. So yeah, raz is talking about this thing. They have the whole audience sit down and they're all like rowing while the music's playing. It's pretty wild.

Speaker 3:

It gets quite extreme on the big festivals when it's pretty, pretty wild.

Speaker 4:

So I imagine that gets quite extreme on the big festivals when it's like 10 people doing it yeah yeah, it's uh, it's quite a spectacle yeah, but you know it keeps the brain active, so that's good, so I like that yeah, yeah, probably less injuries too than a full-on just mosh pit, right, you know yeah although you know, when you have in flames following amon amarth, they're bound to be a few mosh pits, which is, of course, absolutely which is good all right, stefan, that that was your, your life in six songs.

Speaker 2:

How does it feel to hear your life reflected um through through the songs and through music.

Speaker 3:

It's really interesting because it's a bit of an opportunity to take a look at myself also Because it's a bit similar to I write a lot and that's also a way to uncover stuff in myself. So when I hear the songs even when I wrote the short summaries of the songs when I show them I started reflecting on things and I think it's a pretty good representation actually actually of different things that I've been through and who I am now. Very interesting, I really like this format makes it so much, so much more interesting because, like, I've done plenty of podcasts and musical interviews and it's always like, yeah, it's often very like generic questions and I mean this is this gets so much more engaging when you can get into personal experiences and connect them. So it's definitely something else and it was.

Speaker 1:

it was uh enjoyable from our side too to to hear your life in this way. I feel like we got a sense, like you said, uh different than the typical interview where it's like, all right, tell us about the new album and you know those types of things and you're maybe kind of feeling like you have to play a certain part or kind of live a certain persona here. We got to know you and that's so great, right, because what I love also is your music. That you play, write and perform is very different than all the music we heard today as part of you, and I think that's just so awesome to hear, and it's one of the goals of this show is to show like, look, what you see of someone is a piece of them, right. There's such a deeper story beneath that goes into that, and so you know, I just am, you know, I'm so thankful and grateful that you said yes to Raza when he reached out, and your questionnaire was a joy to read through. You definitely understood the assignment in that way.

Speaker 1:

And so, yeah, it was an absolute pleasure. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

Speaker 3:

But it's really interesting because I'm quite used to having this kind of conversations. Like my friend circle is very deep conversations and stuff. So it's kind of for some people I think it can be very uncomfortable, but I'm kind of used to having this type of conversations yeah yeah so that makes it easier for me, I think.

Speaker 1:

But but maybe you were expecting more kind of a metal collection of songs also yeah, you just don't, you don't know right, you're not you're not sure, um, and I think it makes perfect sense to, given the songs you picked and chose and are part of your life and the way you tell your story, that you were so eager to be part of this. Right, I think it was a perfect connection of like, yeah, I'm in, like this is exactly what I, like you said, you're already having these types of conversations, and so you're, you're, you're right, in line with what we're doing here.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, the universe doesn't make mistakes no no. But also when I started watching the episodes I was like, yeah, this, this is like already familiar for me.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah, and it's cool to like um, what you said about how, like, you have these types of conversations in your friend group, and that was one of the motivations of how we got this show going, because I was, you know we'd be out. I remember once it was a holiday party for Carolina's company that she was working at at the time and you know everyone's kind of just falling into work, talk of like, well, what do you do in this and this, and it's all like I'm like I don't want to talk about this at all. I want to know what was your last concert, what was the best concert? You know, these are the comments and everyone kind of around was like, yeah, let's talk about that. And so I was like, yeah, let's just start a show where we have those conversations, cause even when it was a lot of conversations around music I never really liked, because what it would always come down to is like, well, here's the band I like, and then someone else would be like, well, that band sucks.

Speaker 1:

Let me tell you why. My band that I like is the best and I'm like that's not the point. I don't care what the individual song is, I want to hear the connection you have to it, because that's what's similar between us and stuff and so um yeah, yeah, but because with me, like I'm very I'm allergic to superficial, so as soon as they start becoming like that, then I'm just like.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that phrase. Allergic to superficial conversations, I'm gonna steal that there can be a lot of misperceptions about, like, who you are as a person uh, based based on that, and so I feel like this reflection through points in your life gets us to to see who you are right, like maybe we no one would ever know you were a runner or you, you know, love certain parts of travel and things like that.

Speaker 3:

without, um, these sort of deeper kinds of connections to music, because I am in a pretty weird place with that, with the instagram stuff because, I'm like this, what you would call it like a micro influencer or whatever on instagram, and then people are making assumptions that oh, you're this swedish viking metal head and I'm like there's more to me bro, right, right it's something you do, but it's not all of you exactly, and it doesn't like my personality has nothing connected to what people think whatsoever in that sometimes, and it's like I have a very weird relationship with people who are like, oh, you're getting famous and all that.

Speaker 3:

I think it's a super, super strange to me all that stuff I really, I really dislike when I get that vibe that people are like my fans or whatever. Yeah, yeah, really.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a strange, strange feeling. For sure it's been a pleasure to get to know just to get to know you.

Speaker 2:

We will. We will start to wrap things up with our lightning round, Roz, if you want to.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah. I just want to kind of summarize the last little bit as well and say, look, we want to say thank you first of all for saying yes, for being a part of the show, for being willing and being open. And yeah, it goes both ways, in the sense that you know, the show is fantastic but it's only as good as the person doing the assignment. So we really appreciate that. But with that, yeah, let's do our lightning round, which is I think we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier, but what we want to know in a very quick spurt is what was your first, your last and your best or favorite concert?

Speaker 3:

The first concert I ever saw was Dark Tranquility in 2002 in Stockholm. I think it was my 16th birthday, so it was a very nice intro to live music.

Speaker 4:

Nice.

Speaker 3:

And the last concert I saw was I don't remember, I just watched two concerts in a row and I don't remember which one was first and which one was last, but it was I watched Over Easter. I watched Soen, swedish progressive band, and also I watched Cattle Decapitation I think that was the day after like a Brutal Death Metal band. So it was a very nice combo and they kind of both spectrums of music in one week. But favorite concert, like I would probably have to say, since Catatonia is my favorite band, I have to say Catatonia, but I don't know which concerts I've seen so many good ones Probably London 2012, when they had a double DVD show, when they played a very special setlist. That's probably number one concert.

Speaker 2:

Awesome.

Speaker 1:

That is awesome.

Speaker 2:

In the last few minutes we have left as we wrap up, we want to make sure to give you the floor to tell folks who are listening what you might have going on or what might be interesting going on with you and how they can follow you.

Speaker 3:

Well, music-wise, I have a death-do metal band called Soliloquim. That is my main musical project and I'm making a new album right now that will probably be out in maybe, like hopefully six months to a year, and I also have five previous albums. So I would say that that's the main musical thing I want to plug. And then there's also my instagram stefan soliloquim the band name and stefan.

Speaker 2:

That's where it's easiest to find me great, and we'll have links to all that in the in the notes um that accompany the show all right everybody.

Speaker 1:

Uh, thank you for joining. Remember, like and subscribe. Share the episode. If you like what you see here, share it with other people that you think would dig this kind of story, getting a little bit deeper into people's lives. And with that that was a life in six songs. We will see you next time.

Speaker 4:

It says browser prevented recording. Are we okay? Do you want to?

Speaker 1:

um, I think it's just happening right here at the end, so let's not worry too much about it. Um, in this I'll probably just edit it to have individual, like when each person's talking, and so, okay, if you didn't make it on the end, we just will cut you out. Just put out that part of the screen. It's from the show.

Speaker 2:

I'm fine.

Speaker 4:

I just want to make sure that Stefan is.

Speaker 1:

The note I got on my side is specifically you, Raza, that there's something with your browser that's preventing recording.

Speaker 4:

Fuck my browser.

People on this episode

Head Shot

David Reese

Host
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Carolina Reese

Co-host
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Raza Mahmood

Co-host