Exclusive Interview: Elina Johansson of Dear Euphoria

Photo by Annevi Petersson

We here at Indiewin were super excited to have a nice talk with the vocally extravagant Elina Johansson of Dear Euphoria. Indiewinner Dusty Knapp posed the questions and Elina answered.
Here’s how it went…

Dusty Knapp: What pushed your interest in creating music? Was it something spontaneous or something you’ve always been connected to?

Elina Johansson: Feels like I’ve always expressed myself through music. I started composing melodies with lyrics at an early age. I have two songs in Swedish my grandmother wrote down the lyrics to that I still remember. I think I was about eight or so. They’re kind of swedish folkstyle. My mother used to take me to get-togethers in a small museum where we learned old Swedish folktunes and I think I was a bit inspired by that. Since those first melodies and small pieces I wrote on my fathers piano the music has come and gone. And at times still fills my every cell.

DK: So, what drives you day to day… what are your personal motivations in life that keep you going?

EJ: To heal. To be happy. To love. To be good to others and our beloved mother earth. To find out what I’m here to do. To fulfill whatever I am here to do.

DK: Shifting focus to the music you have available now, I find your song “Rescue” as hauntingly beautiful. What was your inspiration in creating that track? What does it mean to you?

EJ: Thank you. It springs from my hurt and complete helplessness regarding someone close to me going through hell since a very long time. Mixed with my own struggle and confusion. In the end, all we have left to depend on is Love. Inside, outside and all around.

DK: Do you feel you have grown musically since your album Heal My Violence? Do you think listeners will notice a change in your new EP?

EJ: Oh, I wish I will always grow both as a person and musically. But God knows if I do. Yes, I think they will notice a change. For one these songs came out more simple and direct but mostley because Sven pretty much has had free reins production-wise and has gone down a slightly different path.

DK: I definitely think the transition… or this path, rather, is a headed in a good direction. The sounds on the EP are nothing but great in my opinion. Do you have any more projects in the works?

EJ: I always have many plans and projects which are limited by time, money and a slight touch of self-sabotage. There are so many ways of expressing ourselves creatively. We must not limit ourselves. There are grand potentials in each and everyone of us. Probably there is a new album somewhere on the horizon.

DK: Well, that’s certainly great to hear. So next, I’ve been dying to hear you live, but being quite a distance from you, it might be a slight challenge to say the least. Do you have any performances scheduled? Any chance your US fans will get to hear you live in the near future?

EJ: We will be playing some in the fall but no set dates yet. We would love to play in the US. Haven’t played there since 2003 when I lived in LA.

DK: We want you back!

Shifting focus again- I personally discovered your music from a feature on the music blog It’s A Trap. Do you think the blog culture is increasing in importance when it comes to exposing great indie and unsigned artists?

EJ: For me it has made all the difference.

DK: What’s another track of yours (other than Rescue) that you’d like to introduce to us? What is this track about What does it mean to you?

EJ: “Coming Down“ was written last summer in my fathers house in Dalarna where I was born, 2.5 hours north of Stockholm. I was there alone with a piano while they were away on a trip. My love came to visit me. I wrote half of the song before his arrival when I was still in a relationship and actually played it to him over the phone. And the other half after we had ended it and he was long gone.

DK: What’s your current favorite track of the moment by another artist that you’d like to share with us?

EJ: ”The Falling Snow” by Damien Jurado. Simple and powerful.

DK: If you weren’t creating music, what do you think you’d be doing?

EJ: If I knew that I would be a much more sane person.

DK: Do you have a message you’d like to get across to your listeners?

EJ: It means the world to me that you do listen.

DK: Lastly, something fun, what’s something you can’t live without?

EJ: My survival skills.

I would personally like to thank Elina of Dear Euphoria for taking the time to talk to us. Be sure to check them out on their website, deareuphoria.net which will lead you to all their social sites and info about their new EP “This Night Will Flee.”

Dear Euphoria is Indiewin.