THE LINDA BENGTZING DONTSTOPTHEPOP ALBUM PREVIEW/INTERVIEW!!!!!

Spread the news! An English Linda album is in our hands! Linda B is back! The queen of Melodifestivalen is ripping through the current stages with her key changes, "hah!"'s, gloves and the brilliant stomping schlager anthem that is "Hur svårt kan det va?". Her new album, wonderfully called Vild & Galen, is released in just a few weeks (I am counting down the days!) so DontStopthePop decided that it was only right to have a little chat with its key song-writers involved in one of her biggest anthems "Alla Flickor", her current Melodifestivalen/Eurovision anthem and some of the songs on the new LP.

Of course, the legend that is Tim Larsson (of Play Productions)! Its already March and I've used up my yearly allowance of exclamation marks but its Linda! Its Tim Larsson! Its PlayProductions!! Its Sweden!!! Its Melodifestivalen!!!! So without further delay....

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Tim, first all...can you explain to Dontstopthepop readers who you are? (although most will know, hehe)

We're a songwriting/production team called Play Production and we live/work in a town called Örebro in the middle of Sweden. We're focused on writing and producing pop music. We have released over 100 songs by different artists.

Are you aware that Linda has a huge international following?

Actually no. She told me that we should record an english version of the "Hur svart kan det va?" song but I thought that she was kidding :-). It's funny 'cause of the language we thought that she was "stuck" in Sweden...

Nooooo. Not stuck in Sweden at all. Despite not speaking or understanding of Swedish, she has a major international following! I think this is mainly down to brilliant song-writing.

Thanks, we thought that the melody structure are kind of Swedish as well. Still it´s fun how music can have an impact even though you most certainly can't understand a word, I guess :-)

I have played songs you've written - Alla Flickor in particular - at parties & such and the place has exploded with joy and merriment. Its the songwriting! Its not the Swedish lyrics per se. It goes beyond nationality. Thats the power of great pop music. It gets you up no matter what! Alla Flickor is amazing. Can you tell us how that came about?

We pretty much had the song done and we needed a fresh artist, we tried at least 10 artists known and unknown but it just didn't feel right. We talked to a Swedish label and asked if they knew any new fresh artists. Linda came to our studio and we loved her at first sight.

Linda strikes it lucky this time! "Hah!"

Congratulations on Linda's success at Melodifestivalen! you must be so chuffed!

Yeah, we´re really glad to make it to the final. The song were picked out of almost 3500 songs and 32 made it the Swedish Eurovision contest. Now there's 10 songs left in the final competition.

Ok, tell us about the next Linda B album and what we can expect from it?

We made 5 songs for this album and I think that this album will be much stronger in terms of songwriting than her last one. We tried to keep Lindas energy but mixed it with some deeper emotions but made some really happy as well...

Take us through the songs you (and playproduction) did on it?

Hur Svårt Kan Det Va?

The Swedish Eurovision contest song! A typical Linda song, energy from start and it gets more intense for every second..

Utan Dig

We wanted a more deeper midtempo song to show that Linda can be kind of deep as an artist as well. We used a lot of orchestral arrangement in this production.

Inga Pojkar I Världen

This one might be her next single after "Hur svårt kan det va". A different song that still feels Linda to it. We found a special baseline that goes almost through the song, Hi tempo one..

Vild & Galen

This one is really intense, this song i a couple of years old but it worked out well in a new fresh production. We had some plans to do a duet but Linda performed it so well in the studio that we removed the idea...

Sanningen

Linda wanted a harder song with some more heavy guitars. We had an idea of a the chorus and it turned out well. It´s more of this "I´m angry and frustrated" song. It's always good to do an album with different styles so that Lindas audience find her interesting in the long run.

What are they about? Any party anthems & any key changes? Are they all schlager?

There´s only one Schlager but there are party, mellow, harder & faster ones...

2008 Swden - Linda Bengtzing (Semi 4)

Can you shed any light on the other songs on Linda's album that made you go "Wow!"?

I haven't heard them but as it stands it feels like its a good album.

What can we expect from the Play Production team in the future?

We're working a lot in the US now. We´re working with some major acts but I can´t tell you more before the CD's on the shop.

So do you think Linda should do a English album consisting of english versions of her favourite hits?

It's more up to you guys, if the label says yes then we´ll fix it...

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I can't quite compute the poplicious magnitude of those answers. They. Will. Fix. It! Woohoo! We must fly over to Mariann Records & demand a English album. Linda wanted an English version of her new single! Its up to us, yes us! Tim & his team have done harder, faster, mellow and party songs with Linda on the album. WoohooX2! Yelps at the history of Alla Flickor! Linda knows about her English fans! & now so do her song-writing team! Woohoox3! Whatever next....

The album is out very soon and available through CdOn.