Ambitious Linda 917 Leader Who Learned From John Zorn Is on a Mission to Reinvent Experimental Indie-Pop Jazz
“I’m a control freak,” seemingly (but more likely surreptitiously) demure music wunderkind Alicia Lindberg freely admitted to The Bad Penny in a video conversation last week. “A part of me likes doing everything myself, because I like to get it the way I want it.”
Indeed, Lindberg – who leads the experimental jazz/pop group Linda 917 – is as clear-eyed and determined an artist as you’ll encounter. Lindberg doesn’t leave her new album, ONLINE, which comes out Friday, open to interpretation. To the contrary, she openly states that the record is intended to combat male domination in the jazz world, and that she draws on feminist music icons like Kate Bush and Björk for inspiration. She fearlessly addresses topics that, blasphemously, are still not more openly discussed in contemporary society: mental health, eating disorders and body image issues among them.
Lindberg also keeps a tight leash on her music output, even though six additional musicians contributed to ONLINE. She handled all the vocals, synths, arrangements, recording, engineer, production and mixing. And, as Lindberg explained to us, she wouldn’t have it any other way. She relocated from Sweden to the U.S. in part so she could realize her goal to pursue her music-career ambitions to the fullest, which includes having complete control over her artistic work.
“I love Sweden in so many ways,” Lindberg imparted during one of her first-ever interviews. “The society is structured in a way that’s maybe a little more caring of its citizens [than in the U.S.]. But I left Sweden for the U.S. four years ago to start over and attend The New School [a prestigious college of performing arts]. And during my time here, I discovered that I was more rewarded for being ambitious and driven. In Sweden, there’s more of a mentality of, like, if you try really hard, [people judge you as thinking that you’re] special.”
Noting that she is wrapping up her undergrad education (in vocal, jazz and composition), Lindberg continued: “It’s not really allowed in the same way to believe in yourself 100 percent, or to have really big dreams. And I think that can be suffocating as an artist or someone who wants to do a lot of things. The artist community vibe there is, like, you’re not supposed to care. And I got sick of that.”
Despite still being quite young, Lindberg has a track record that supports her claim that her ambition far exceeds that of most aspiring artists. Esteemed Swedish jazz magazine Orkesterjournalen placed her 2022 record, Before You Go, on its top 10 list for that year. But despite the acclaim she received in her homeland, Lindberg is dead-set on staying in the U.S. (In addition to the time she spends in New York, she also occasionally visits her boyfriend’s family in Wyoming.)
“There’s so much jazz in America,” she insisted. “I want to be at the source of this thing that I’ve been studying for years. I like meeting the masters. At the same time, here I can play jazz gigs but also write songs and maybe become a music producer. That’s not so much allowed in Sweden.”
Lindberg has also had the good fortune of meeting like-minded musicians with ambitions similar to hers.
“My whole band that I play with, I met them all at school,” she explains. “I get inspired by artists that are very niche and like specific, nerdy details. For example, for the last two years, I’ve studied with Wendy Eisenberg, a super-cool guitarist and songwriter who has her own world of writing music and combining genres. I’ve also studied with Jack DeBoe, who produced Cécile McLorin Salvant’s Oh Snap album last year. And I attended a class called The Stone Workshops at The New School that’s curated by John Zorn, who has conversations with artists who come in and talk to students.
When asked how she reconciles her desire for artistic control with her hunger for learning, Lindberg replied: “That’s a good question. I think I really love playing with unpredictability. I really like to write music that takes a different direction than you would expect it to. I do have a curiosity or a desire to twist and turn things, and be like, ‘What happened if I never returned to the chorus?’ Or, ‘What if the chorus just happens half the time, the second time?’ I do enjoy playing around with rules. Not that I’m doing anything revolutionary or inventing the wheel. But as a listener, I enjoy when I hear an artist [make an unexpected decision,] and I’m like, ‘Oh, shit, they went there.’
“I would never want my music to feel predictable,” she concluded. “I don’t want the listener to know exactly what’s going to happen next. I want the total opposite of that.”
Pick up a copy of ONLINE and learn more about Linda 917 on their Bandcamp page.
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