Swedish-born artist Hanna Ögonsten has returned with focus single ‘Kick Off My Shoes’ along with her sophomore EP ‘have you seen my mind cause I’ve lost it’ – including recently released singles ‘Lost It’ and ‘Big Teeth’ – due for release 28th April 2023.
The EP sees Ögonsten delving headfirst into her distinctive alt-pop sound, with synth-laden production and the incorporation of her very own style of dance-pop. Every song is written and produced together with Carl Goldkuhl (among others). Focus track ‘Kick Off My Shoes’ was originally written on the piano, but has been dressed up with a melancholy tinge and is reminiscent of deep lounge-inspired music, the song capturing the power of letting go in the most liberating way. Opening track ‘stupidasscoolboys’ features an electronic style trap-beat, bringing to mind DJ and producer Yaeji and complete with distorted vocals, while ‘Big Teeth’ sees Ögonsten exploring a slower, more mellow side of her sound. ‘Lost It’ takes inspiration from punk and indie-rock, describing the common feeling of insecurity.
Ögonsten says of ‘Kick Off My Shoes’: “Growing up I listened to a lot of Ben Howard and he has a song that’s called ‘Black Flies’. He says: ‘No man is an island / Of this I know / But can’t you see / Or maybe you were the ocean / When I was just a stone’. I was inspired by this metaphor and wanted to play around with it. I turned it around and came up with the concept of ‘If you were an island, I wouldn’t set my foot there’. It’s kind of goofy taken out of context but I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
Speaking about the process of creating her second EP, Ögonsten says, “I write a diary on my cell phone. Or at least I write lots of notes. They’re about a little bit of everything, mostly my feelings. I’ve been doing this since I was a young teenager, but this autumn I realised that the tone in my notes had changed. They weren’t happy and I almost sounded bitter. I was surprised, it didn’t really feel like me. But thinking about it, I realised it’s not that unexpected. Being a young woman in the music industry means to constantly be reminded that you are ‘a female producer’ and that you therefore should be questioned. It’s exhausting. I realised that it was time to get this out of my mind and the result became this EP…I’m so proud of how it turned out.”
Hanna Ögonsten was born in Akersberga, a suburb outside of Stockholm. She taught herself how to play the guitar, piano and how to produce music in her bedroom at a young age. In her teenage years she got accepted to the leading music-school in Sweden, Musikmakarna (in English, “The Music Makers).
Ögonsten’s parents got divorced when she was young, unfortunately creating a lot of disagreements and fighting. Escaping into the creative world, making fictive characters, writing stories and listening to music not only helped her, but it also allowed her to explore her artistic identity from a very early age.
Ögonsten’s music has appeared on channels such as Swedish Television, Vogue
Paris and Triple J. Her first single ‘Worth It’ hit #2 on Spotify Netherlands Viral-list and in 2019 she opened for Anna Of The North on her tour in Stockholm. Ögonsten has also been chosen as one of the participants inMartin Garrix X JBL Music Academy – a three day exclusive music camp in Amsterdam for up-and-coming talent.
Hanna Ögonsten’s focus track ‘Kick Off My Shoes’ and sophomore EP ‘have you seen my mind cause I’ve lost it’, are out now.
TRACKLIST
1. stupidasscoolboys
2. Lost It
3. Big Teeth
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