In 2022 more and more people are discovering Sweeter than Sorrow who started the journey 2021 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The music is made to be chill, often acoustic, slow, emotional, melancholy, romantic, intimate, heartfelt and beautiful. Some would even call it emo or sad. Mostly piano and vocals as bearing elements but also other acoustic instruments like cello and contrabass. A touch of dreampop like Cigarettes after Sex and folk but still pop like Sufjan Stevens. With the debut single 2021 “Like Water is Flowing” and “the bond” Sweeter than Sorrow, aka indie singer, songwriter Mattias Wahlberg has already gotten a lot of positive reviews around the world.
Special thanks to Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello Sweeter than Sorrow. What first got you into music?
Hello! My parents were working with music. My father was playing the organ and he was also teaching others at the university. For my mother it was singing and piano and also teaching music in school. All my siblings played an instrument.
It was sort of natural in the family that you played an instrument. I started with the trumpet at five but at ten I began playing the piano instead. I didn’t really start to sing until in my late teens. I played mostly classical music on the piano but was interested in making pop music from when I was maybe 11 so my mom got me keyboard on which I could record my first songs.
What do you think your role is in this world?
Wow! Big question. To learn and develop. To become a better and more humble and conscious person - and to learn to accept when I’m not. To contribute - both to my family, through my work and to society. I hope I have a role making people feel something through my music.
Your latest track is 'Into the night'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
Into the night started out as a simple lullaby meant for a child. But since I had experienced the death of a family member some time ago it also came to be about death as it was so very present in my whole being. It’s about making peace with the night, to let go, to surrender, both in the aspect of falling asleep and in the face of illness and death. You’re also free to interpret it as you want to of course. The fact that I myself had a period of illness during its creation gave, I think, more honesty to the song.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
Take your time…be silent…listen to the small things, both in life and in music. Allow yourself to feel. Be who you are. You are wonderful. I love you.
How do you spend your time?
I work, work, work…and spend time with my family. Wish I could have more time for my music and hopefully that will happen as more and more people seem to like my songs.
What are you most proud of?
My children. Such incredible wonders of creation that you don’t really can take credit for but still are immensely proud of just because they are here.
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
Probably Cigarettes after sex and/or Sufjan Stevens. And the dream would be to collaborate on a song.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
Listen to other artists and to many different kinds of music trying to keep an open mind. Taking it in and then see how I can use it as an inspiration, putting my personal way of playing and singing onto it.
Listen to audiobooks for inspiration to lyrics.
Listen, listen, listen. Trying to be simple and find the full expression of a single note. Listening to or reading philosophy/spirituality/poetry, taking in art in different forms. Learning from life and letting it inspire me.
Cooperation with experienced and skilled people!
Do you think that technology is improving lives?
It does both, depending on the human behind the controls.
What are your plans for the future?
To make wonderful, heartfelt, somehow honest music that I and other people can relate to and be touched by. To hook up with a fantastic record label…or not. To be my greatest self. To connect with the world. Learn to be more true…