I bet you all know the story of Bosson´s success by now, so instead of writing down a biography
you´ve all read, I decided to publish a shorter version of an interview I made with him last year.
Here he talks about the difficulty of writing music, being an artist, his love for his late grandmother and the
new album.
So enjoy....
A great musician is born
Staffan Olsson from Särö outside of Gothenburg has always known that music was his calling in life.
He began to sing to the songs on the radio when he was for 4 and at the age of 6 he made his first
performance singing Christmas carols to a small but very enthusiastic audience.
Staffan´s first group (with two other musicians) was called Elevate.
After entering a local music competition and winning it, they got to record at
Jam Lab Studios. The result was so good that the groups demo tape landed them a deal with Virgin Records.They released three singles
(Easy To Believe in ´93,We Will Be One in ´94 and Mrs. Brown in ´95) and toured extensively through southern
Europe, Scandinavia and Lithuania between 1993-96.
In 1994, Staffan became a finalist in the TV-show Star Search when he performed as Michael Jackson.
Staffan had always been aching for a solo career and convinced his friends at Jam Lab Studios to
let him record a new song.
The up-tempo house track caught the ears of the record label MNW and in 1997 Staffan got to release
his first single “Baby Don’t Cry” under the name Bosson.
In 1998 the debut album “The Right Time” was released, however the big breakthrough
didn’t come until 2001 with the second album “One in a million” came out.
The single with the same name became the soundtrack to the movie “Miss
Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock and got Staffan a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.
The competition was stiff with artists like Bjork, Bob Dylan and Sting nominated in the same category and Staffan
didn’t win but thing turned out pretty good anyway as it resulted in a tour with Britney Spears, among other things.
The single became a huge hit all over the world a reached the top of the charts in most part of
Europe as well as Asia.
Getting the inspiration
In 2003 the third album “Rockstar” was released. The merry-go-round isn’t
spinning as fast anymore but things are still turning.
The album has resulted in 5 singles, which all have been played frequently on the radio.
There’s still a lot of travelling for Staffan, but April and May has been totally
cleared so Staffan can try to relax, breathe and find the focus to begin the work on the fourth album.
- I’m just doing little bits and peaces at home and trying to catch up on all the things I’ve missed
during these five, six years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about getting a cabin and just sit and write for myself for a couple of months.
Just shut myself out from the world and get away.
I
have a lot of lyrics, thoughts and ideas that I’ve written down, I just have to find a practical way to work, explains
Staffan.
Last fall Staffan reached a period when he felt he had a lot of thoughts and feelings inside
that he needed to get out and the inspiration was flowing.
Then a cabin in the middle of nowhere would have been ideal, but instead performances
in Sweden as well as abroad got in the way and the writing had to wait.
Now he’s ready for another period like that but there are a lot of things that has
to come in to place first.
- If I had gone to a cabin somewhere last fall for three months I wouldn’t have had to think about what
I would do or write, it would have just come.
But then I came out of it a bit since you can’t write exactly when you get the inspiration.
The shows gave Staffan energy to be social and see people, which in turn made him feel
good, which isn’t always the best when you write songs.
- If you’re going to write really sad and melancholic song and want to project that feeling, you have
to have it yourself.
It’s very hard to imagine a feeling.
And Staffan has his ways of getting the inspiration to flow.
- It can be enough to turn off the lights and light some candles and just
sit alone somewhere and think a lot.
Everything happens inside of you, it’s your thoughts. It’s just that you have to put yourself in
that frame of mind. It’s a whole process your body has to go through.
But then you can’t just walk down to the grocery store to buy food or meet people and talk in the phone
and then just continue to write. You have to put yourself in a kind of trans.
- You put yourself in your own little world and takes a lot of energy. Sp when you decide to go into this little
bubble you have to know where you want to go, what your goals are and what you want to say.
The meaning of
lyrics
As a pop artist it’s easy to be dismissed as “shallow” and “non-serious”
by the critics because of the type of music you do. But the lyrics are something that’s very important to Staffan and
isn’t anything he takes lightly.
- I might not weave in the lyrics in strange and spacey things so they
become impossible to understand.
I can make the lyrics easy to understand but still have a deeper meaning in them. If you just scratch the surface
you’ll find something more.
-
Every song has it’s own little story that tells you something. Whether it’s about being in love, being unhappy
in love or if you’ve lost somebody.
Staffan has received letters from people all over the world who has found comfort in is
music and in particular his lyrics.
He tells me about a woman in South Africa who he received a letter from a few years ago.
Her husband had died in a motorcycle accident and she had processed her grief by listening
to one of Staffan´s songs. The song “We will meet again” became so important to her that the song was played at
her husband’s funeral.
- It’s amazing to be able to write something that people can get help and
use of.
That’s when you can relate to a situation, when somebody else is singing about something that you are
feeling right in that moment. That’s when you feel that you’re not alone in a situation, that there are others
that feel the same way.
The
songs become a way of communicating, that’s why people relate to different songs.
The love for his grandmother
To loose someone is something that several of Staffan´s songs are about. A song that’s very
special to him is “It’s Over Now” which he wrote to his grandmother who passed away 12 years ago.
- My grandmother and me were very close. My parents lived in Brazil for four years so I spent a
lot of time with her.
She didn’t live to far from me so I used to drive by and bring some pastries or candy, she
loved jelly raspberries. We used to watch TV together and then I went home. If I were in the city working, I would come by
in the evening on my way home. Hopefully she would have some Spaghetti Bolognese and we would have that, and maybe a cake
afterwards and just sit and talk.
- She was very good and sensible when it came to a lot of things.
She was kind of an extra mother to a lot of people. We were so close that I wrote this song about
her to explain the wonderful relationship we had.
- We had different procedures every time I would leave her. I would drive around it the traffic
island outside her house and wave to her at the end.
- When I found out she had passed away I was down in Mallorca working. I went out to some really
high cliffs, the sea was running high and it was incredibly beautiful.
Then I just sat there and thought about her.
The art of keeping
yourself grounded
How do you manage to keep both feet on the ground when you’ve had a Golden Globe
nomination, been on the charts all over the world and have thousands of fans screaming after you?
- I walk in really heavy shoes, it’s great!
Staffan
says with a laugh and you can see how happy he is about his clever answer.
-
I don’t know but you definitely change. These past five years has totally revolved around the music, being an artist,
being on stage, writing songs and planning the future.
- I’ve gone without everything that other people has prioritised, like family, friends and children. The
things you’ve been through have formed you in a way, which can be scary at times.
I feel that its hard for me to talk about anything else cause it’s such a huge part of my life.
- I saw this as a small opportunity right from the beginning, a small
bonus I get to be a part of. I know it can be over for me tomorrow. I’ve always thought like that.
And I’m keeping all doors open so I have options depending on what happens.
Sure, that might make you a bit “safe” and unwilling to take any big risks.
-I guess that’s the problem when you keep both feet on the ground, you might not reach the top. But at
the same time I know that the day will come when I want to be able to lead a normal life.
The new album
= A new sound?
Irrespective of how long it will take until the new album is finished Staffan still has
a lot of ideas about how it’s going to sound.
- I think this album will sound the most different out of all my albums.
This
will probably be more uniform in a way.
After being a part of everything in the production on his previous albums Staffan now wants
to go back to basic on this new one.
- I want to make simple demos and write songs, that’s most important. Before I’ve produced and spent
time on that, but I’m not interested in that at all now.
I just want to do the songs, finish writing them and saying something with them.
It´s
probably going to be more “stripped” and “naked” this time, a bit more acoustic and melancholy I think.
- I need to make music now cause I haven’t done that in a while. To be on stage is one thing, but
to write and create is totally different. I think It would feel good doing that now.
-It’s just about trying to feel when you’re ready to go.
I´ll have to see how it will turn out but if you just follow your heart and do what feels right, people will
hear that.
Camilla Bergman
