“ Music was always my escape. As a kid, I would dive into the record collection in our house: Abba, Beatles, Bach, French chansons, Jobim’s bossa and Charlie Parker’s bebop… Deep Purple, Genesis, Yes and Talking Heads… For my own part I discovered The Police at the age of 11, when I bought their album Regatta de Blanc together with The Fab Four’s Abbey Road. I saw Bowie live in my hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1983, and Springsteen in ’85. I had first taken up the trumpet (learning jazz standards together with my dad who was an accomplished amateur sax player). Then I took to playing the drums, just like my older brother, and also got a guitar for my 13th birthday that I started to knock out songs on (or at least they were songs to me). The family piano was also frequently abused. I got the opportunity to go to the US to be an exchange student right after 9th grade, and I ended up staying a year in Sacramento, CA, where I picked as many music classes as possible and became completely hooked on pop radio, following the Billboard Hot 100 with manic precision. The big songs of 85-86 are forever in my heart, however cheesy they may sound today…
I had already decided that music was going to be my career (I don’t think I ever really had a choice), and I was accepted to music college in Sweden, starting when I got back from the US. My singing had begun to unfold somewhat secretly, as well as my songwriting. Fast forward to the late 90’s and I had a Master of Fine Arts in Music from Gothenburg University, majoring in jazz vocals (I know a big chunk of the Great American Songbook by heart). I have been freelancing since – as a singer, musician, producer and songwriter – doing all kinds of stuff, moving between different styles and genres, releasing a few solo albums under my own name, getting nominated for the Swedish version of a Grammy (it’s called Grammis here) for my work with the avant garde vocal ensemble Amanda (with which I’ve also had the opportunity to tour the world), written a stage musical (working on the second one), written original music for kids (hint: They like good songs too!) and toured across Sweden playing at schools, in gyms and theatres (most recently with a Springsteen tribute show featuring singer-songwriter trio My Quiet Companion of which I am a proud member), studied Indian vocal techniques in Bombay for Dhanashree Pandit-Rai and not least co-written with a bunch of songwriters from around the globe. The co-writing started in earnest after I attended a Listening Room Songwriting Retreat in Denmark in 2010. In short, the assignment is to write a new song with a new person every day for a week.
My new CD project Sawdust & Rust is very much a result of these retreats and meetings with other writers. Six out of ten songs are co-writes, and I’m immensely grateful for the gift of those songs. I feel that this record is a new direction for me, a different sound than before, and that’s partly why I wanted to find a title for it that was not my own name. Also because I’ve come to realize more and more that it’s never really about me. Rather, it’s all about the songs and the stories and emotions they convey, taking flight into the world, finding listeners that accept them into their lives, and make them their songs.
The jumping-off point for Sawdust & Rust was in the Greenlandic village of Sisimiut, in April 2015. I was there, at the Arctic Sounds Festival, invited to play but also to write. I was lucky enough one day to be paired with Benjamin Petersen, a brilliant singer-songwriter from the Faroe Islands. We walked around Sisimiut, watching the desolate graveyard with wooden crosses in the snow and the bright red church upon the hill overlooking the harbour and the endless sea. The resulting song after our walk and our talk was Caroline, where Benjamin wove his banjo playing around my steel-string guitar strumming. After hearing Benjamin’s solo records and other projects he had recorded and produced I got the idea to go there and record. The Faroe Islands have a thriving music scene despite there being only about 50 000 people altogether on the islands. Think Iceland on steroids and you get the idea… So, after a year of planning (big thanks to Nordic Culture Point for the funding!) and postponing due to different personal circumstances (for one, Benjamin became a father) I finally flew over to Tórshavn, the Faroese capital, to spend some time in Studio Bunkarin (The Bunker), and record the bulk of what now is the debut album of Sawdust & Rust. I’ve chosen songs that have a folksy, rootsy, soulful quality, but also adding some big hooks and choruses that signify Swedish pop. All of this sprinkled with a thin layer of retro on top. To my mind, it’s a very collaborative effort, not a solo project, and I think the name is fitting. There’s something about the beauty of both creation and decay, what we bring with us and what gets left behind… sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. I am really proud of this album and I hope you’ll be willing to step into our world for a little while and find an escape in these lyrics, grooves and melodies that perhaps also can give you a glimpse of yourself. Welcome to Sawdust & Rust, and thanks for listening! “ Patrick Rydman, March 2018