Edda Magnason: Interview & Video Exclusive

Goods, the second album by Sweden’s Edda Maganson was one of last year’s highlights. With a playful jazz sensibility which intertwined with a quirky pop, Magnason’s approach was unusual and refreshing. Coinciding with the release of her new EP, theartsdesk premieres the video for its lead track “Jona”.

Magnason’s time is currently filled playing the lead in a biopic about the legendary Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund. Being shot in Sweden and New York, it’s directed by Denmark’s Per Fly (the director of 2010’s The Woman Who Dreamed of a Man, made for Lars von Trier's company Zentropa).

“Jona” was recorded with Swedish electropop artist and producer Johan T Karlsson, who records as Familjen. It's become the first track on an EP Maganson describes as a “chinese whisper” – her recording leads the EP off, then there is a remix by Vidderna, then a remix of that version by Niva, who had not heard the original. Niva’s remix was then, in turn, itself remixed by Justus Köhncke. Then EP can be heard here.

“I wrote “Jona” a long time ago,” says Magnason. “Even before I released my debut album. It’s kind of an orphan that never fit with the other things I did, so I simply put it aside. Then I got the opportunity to have a recording session with Johan Karlsson. Bringing “Jona” to the table was a natural thing because I knew he had liked the demo I had played for him several years earlier. So we had a nice afternoon in his studio in Stockholm and this is the result. It is a song where I’ve tried to recall the wildness and the magic of those innocent things from childhood, like being out playing in the dusk and not wanting to go home. Friendship and worries from a child’s point of view.

Talking about the video, directed by siblings Nisse and Wilma Axman, Magnason says they are “a brother and sister that have always shared a passion for finding handsome things in weirdness. The video originally relates to the ancient Greek story of Jona and the whale, our first ideas came from the name of the song and we tried to create our own versions of Jona and the whale. We changed a lot of storyline, and the story of Jona was altered quite a bit. We want the viewer to be able to connect strings, in a way we and them might not have anticipated. We want that to add a layer of depth and contemplation in the recording for the viewer”.

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• The Jona EP is issued on 1 May

Watch the video for Edda Magnason's "Jona"