Kristian Anttila, who’s been cranking out pop songs laden with love and hooks for ten years now, and who is currently set to play a gig at Lund’s Nation. A mere year ago, however, he was seriously considering quitting music and going to war instead. What really happened back then? Lundagård has the answer.
How’s it going?
– I’m pretty good. Aside from having one hell of a cold…
You recently released the double album Popruna which is split into a one-disc retrospective of your best songs until now and one disc containing outtakes that for various reasons didn’t make it onto your earlier work. How come you waited until now to release them?
– It was a good way to celebrate the ten year anniversary as well as a good fit for a compilation. I rummaged through my musical closet and found a ton of good stuff that’d previously been rejected. Every song has its own story, that’s a given. Some were written in between sessions for different albums, some were never really finished, others were finished but I didn’t have it in me to release them at that time. Quality is not the reason they were put on ice until now, I never release anything that’s not one hundred percent finished.
Did you change any of the songs to bring them in line with your present-day views?
– I’ve had to add some lyrics where there were none, but some of them are fully intact and I feel as though I can release them with some distance now. Like the song den här, from 2007. The Kristian I was back then wrote that one, but it’s not until now that I feel that I can release it.
What’s your record collection been like all these years?
– As I’m now 34 years old I’ve picked up a fair share of records over the years. My sonic language is heavily indebted to primarily The Cure and Depeche Mode. Bob Hund got me into writing lyrics in Swedish, that’s all thanks to them. But I don’t really have an idol, as I have my own musical identity.
You’ve let on that you suffered from intense stage fright during the initial stages of your career and that positive feedback made you feel bad. How come you stuck with playing music?
– The way I see it there are two sides to the positive feedback coin. The first one is my inability to receive it in a normal manner. You should always be thankful for good reviews. The problem is that you become more vulnerable to criticism once you accept praise. I think expectations make me uncomfortable. It makes me feel as though I constantly must surpass myself.
Is this your first time playing in Lund? What’s your preconceived image of nations?
– Wow, I’ll have to do some soul searching. I played Mejeriet three or four times and I also did some outdoor festivals for students, but I’ve never performed at any sort of nation in Lund. However, we’ve done student clubs in other cities and those gigs generally turn out great. You’re usually dealing with at an attentive, inebriated audience and I hope what we’ve got in store for them is really good. Whenever we play people tend to get into it even if they’re not familiar with the material.
You write and produce everything on your own, a workload normally shouldered by four different people. Why have you chosen to do everything yourself?
– I don’t see anything unusual in doing things my way. I know how and I enjoy doing it all. But some people seem utterly perplexed by the fact that I actually do everything myself. They don’t get it, they always expect someone else to do things. I want to do it all because I’m damn good at it.
About a year and a half ago you enlisted in the Swedish Armed Forces. What’s the story there?
– In retrospect the underlying reason was a tragic life crisis. A complete breakdown. During my last tour I was about to quit music. The thought has crossed my mind several times these last few years, but here I am again. I was at a place in my life where I didn’t want to play music, I wanted to go to war. I just wanted to try other things.
But you passed the tests and were admitted?
– It’s a bit fuzzy, to say the least, but I passed the tests with flying colors and got myself admitted. Following that, an inquiry into my past was made and they confronted me with their findings. They were of the opinion that I was omitting certain facts about my past. This combined with my top marks on the intelligence test led to me being branded a national security threat. I was thrown out head first and didn’t get to fight my war. I had wanted to try my hand at something else than music and this made me reconsider. I realized that I’ve been living a life of extreme privilege, just one that had become stale. What I needed was to go easier on myself. I’m a bit less serious with my work nowadays, I’m not as hard on myself anymore.
As an audience – the students – do they distinguish themselves in any way from other types of audiences in your opinion?
– I have grand expectations for Saturday. I’m visualizing an intoxicated and hella psyched audience. As I said earlier, nations and student clubs are a good fit for our act. They’re very festive and dance-y venues which is right up your alley as well as ours. And then there’s the cheap beer – in short, everything required for a great night. It’ll be a sweaty ruckus – that I guarantee.
Text: Pontus Bark
Translation: Jesper Lodin
