Long Way Down - Soundtrack To The TV Series From Real World Records

Ebb

Ebb image

"It was actually something an ex-girlfriend came up with," laughs Ebb about his choice of moniker. "It's short, to the point, works in a lot of languages and I liked it. It was the best thing she ever gave me."

Born and raised in Lulea, a tiny industrial town at the northernmost tip of Sweden, Ebb discovered music at an early age when he heard his dad playing the guitar. "He only knew four chords, but he taught them to me and I did the rest." Even as a child Ebb didn't copy other people's songs, always preferring to make up his own. Joining his first band at the age of fifteen, he played in a slew of outfits until he finally left the world of rawk behind four years ago: "I wanted more creative control."

A friend had a computer with a music-making programme and Ebb, now ensconced in Stockholm, started to experiment with his song writing. It was here that he finally found his sound: "I knew this was the music I wanted to make, it felt right; I felt like I had come home musically." This pushed him to invest in his own computer, make a studio in his apartment and start to write the songs that would later form his debut album 'Loona'.

Written over two years, with Ebb playing, arranging and singing every song on the album, Ebb admits the process wasn't easy. "It was a frustrating time and I was really worried I wouldn't be able to finish the album. Writing it was quite lonely and isolating. When you create every part of the song on your own, you end up questioning yourself and you have to really believe in what you are doing. It was quite a challenge." Patience, a group of very supportive friends and a record deal pushed everything back on track. "The record company gave me a deadline, which meant I had to focus, get back to my original songs and finish the album. A bit of pressure is good, but not too much."

And so 'Loona' was born - a soundscape of discreet electronica filled with glitchy beats, warm melodies and a gentle pop sensibility akin to the likes of Four Tet, Sigur Ros, Mum or The Broadway Project. Not that Ebb likes to pigeonhole it: "It is a melodic pop/electronica album, but I don't really like to label it so. It could be so much more, depending on who's listening to it and what they get from it - it's up for interpretation."

Ebb has also been busy remixing for others. Like Sara Berg's acclaimed single 'Another Night' and Melnyk's 'Sound Of Falling' for the 'Silence Remixed' project, something which he really enjoyed and wants to continue with. "I love remixing - I love being able to put my own seal on a song."

'Loona' has already been critically acclaimed in Ebb's native Sweden, earning him a Manifest Award for Best Electronic Album, Sweden's most prestigious independent music award, and spending the first month of its release in the Swedish iTunes download top 20. And beyond this? Ebb says this album is just the beginning of what he wants to do musically. "I want to reach the conscious, insightful listener who is tired of everything shallow and without substance."

'Loona' is out now on Gaymonkey Records.

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