A 20th Anniversary Edition of Astrid Swan’s album ‘Poverina’ will be out in September 2025 as a limited edition CD – with a reinterpretation of the US album artwork by Varpu Eronen.
The re-master will feature one unreleased track from the Poverina sessions – ‘Special One’s’ – not one about Jose Mourinho I might add – but a song Astrid Swan revisited years later on the Teosto-palkinto winning album ‘From The Bed and Beyond’.
She is also releasing right now an unseen video for the track ‘They Need You If They Think You Love Them’.
This video has never been released until now. It was shot in 2006 in Helsinki and directed by Miika Saksi. For various reasons it never saw the light of day. 20 years on it becomes a visual time capsule of the early 2000s.
While I am not particularly knowledgeable about Astrid – I think we have only reviewed her twice, once in collaboration with Stina Koistinen – there is something about the titles alone of these pieces that is so redolent of a previous era.
She says,
“In 2005 I was 23-years old. It felt like realising my dream had taken a long time and I was now too old to be releasing my debut album in the spring. I had been writing songs since I was 13, but most of the ‘Poverina’ pieces came relatively freshly; closer to the process of recording. The name of the album is an example of the certainty and playfulness I possessed: my boyfriend’s Italian mother used to call me “poverina” whenever we met or spoke on the phone and I liked the pity and the reference to poverty –– of having nothing and being nothing in feminine form. These were the connotations I was evoking. Of course it was a difficult title, often pronounced erroneously as ‘power-ina’ and interpreted as some kind of a feminist statement of empowerment. But my artistry was already constructing its forms both more seriously and more playfully than I was given credit for.”
She continues, “Writing songs for 10 years before the first official release is a long time. I had time to imagine and visualise what Astrid Swan would sound like. My vision was vast; I did not want to limit myself. It wasn’t enough to just have a group of musicians to realise one sound, I wanted orchestral sweeps, electronic minimalism and rock as well as jazz band capabilities. Luckily, I got it all.”
And then,
“’Poverina’ was enthusiastically received in Finland, though I remember answering questions about my song writing a lot. Did I really write it all myself? Was I really playing? I was often met with polite disbelief. Was I real? Was I late, early, a copy or an original? I have no yearning to claim to be the first of anything, but there was a sense of newness attached to me and to ‘Poverina’. The fact that I wrote and sang in English was not a problem then. I was perceived as a pragmatist: she must be reaching beyond this land.”
She concludes, “In 2007 ‘Poverina’ was published in the USA. There was no music video for the Finnish release in 2005, but in 2006 we made a video for ‘They Need You If They Think You Love Them”. The video had some elements that I wished for: choreographed dancing, a kind of narrative that builds from the song, but it had others that I felt uncomfortable with. Was I turning into the princess of other people’s dreams that I was warning against on my first ever single? Was I selling or being sold? Ultimately, due to artistic differences and managerial issues, the video was shelved and became something of a mystical memory. I did not see it for 19 years.”
There is much to unravel here that the aspiring musician of today needs to take stock of.
- The writing of songs at a tender young age, when they are released, and the influence of major labels over their content and style (I often mention her, but “this business is bullshit” Fiona Apple is probably the best example of label abuse);
- The downside of the signing to a major label and the very real possibility of being dumped by it because an album did not quite reach the anticipated sales volume;
- The authenticity of the writing and the writer. “Did I really write it all myself? Was I really playing? I was often met with polite disbelief. Was I real? Was I late, early, a copy or an original?” I am minded of the ongoing debate in the UK concerning the bona fides of The Last Dinner Party, a group of young women who are the latest to have their pedigree questioned and to be accused of being ‘manufactured’;
- The value of writing in one’s own native language rather than in English, where there is a change in the air. Notice how many Eurovision songs are in the native language now and this year’s Israeli entry is in three languages – English, French and Hebrew. Yet 2022’s beautiful ballad ‘De Diepte’ by S10 (Stien den Hollander, who overcame severe depression to perform), delivered solo without dancers or a light show, just her and the stage, and which should have won it, bombed. Because it was in Dutch?;
- Finally, the False Prophet syndrome: “Was I turning into the princess of other people’s dreams that I was warning against on my first ever single? Was I selling or being sold?”
Now we’ve got the academic discussion out of the way let’s turn to the song and video.
It is far too commonplace for reviewers like me to evoke the Kate Bush comparison. She’s the go-to analogy for the pretty vacant.
But there is much of Bush’s enduring class in both song and video here. Bush too, would open with the sound of a musical box to set the scene.
She’d dance; she’d use lighting effects; she’d change the tempo and bring in snatches of orchestra.
It’s like a brief hop in a time machine back to an era of greater creativity than we have become used to in recent years (but not with Katy Perry on board, thank you).
It has a hint of the aforementioned Last Dinner Party-ers in it as well. I wonder if they got a sneak preview.
And it has the same slinky sexy voice that I last heard on the half-Finnish Holly Palmer, the best female singer-songwriter you never heard of.
I really hope this song and video get some traction here in the UK, where we need a culture fix, urgently.
Astrid Swan – ‘Poverina’ (20th Anniversary edition) will be released on Limited edition CD/digital, 5th Sept. 2025 via Soliti.
The makers of the music video were:
Director – Miika Saksi
Cinematographer – Jukka Rouhuvirta
Dancers – Gruppen Fyra (Lotta Wichmann, Jenni Nikolajeff, Tommi Haapaniemi)
Producer – Paulus Puusaari
Oh, and a quick shout out for Soliti label boss Nick Triani, who produced the song and played guitar and tambourine on the album.
Find her on:
Website: https://astridswan.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/astrid.swan.3
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astridswanfinland/
