Summer's tour with 20 performances also summarizes Laleh Pourkarim's 20 years as an artist.
I rewind twenty years back in time and start at the kitchen table where everything began. Then I take it from there out into the world, says Laleh.
When she looks back, she realizes that she has only accelerated over the past years:
It has been incredibly fun! At the same time, I have started to question what I do and why I do it. The new album is about this inner dialogue about good and evil that I have within me, she says.
Always had anxiety
Her dark side is partly connected to the situation in the world around her. Laleh says that she feels a powerlessness, just like so many others.
World leaders do as they please, regardless of what we think. I have always felt that way, but it has become much more pronounced now.
The darkness is also about the anxiety Laleh has carried since the beginning of her career.
I have always had anxiety and I have let it limit me. I have felt cowardly, but if I look back on my life, I see a brave person!
Laleh, for example, chose to produce her own songs despite everyone saying it would never work.
I keep finding such evidence that I actually have dared and challenged. Maybe I have overcompensated and tried to be extra brave just because I have felt cowardly, she says and laughs.
Takes a long break
She has now realized that anxiety passes, just like a storm, something she also sings about on the song "Det blir ljust igen".
The songs on the new album are hopeful, even though they deal with my dark side. It has been a liberating joy to write about anxiety in that way, she says.
The song "Drömmare" Laleh has written together with Jakob Hellman, who also appears on some of her performances this summer.
Jakob feels like an original version of the sensitive singing man. We had never met, but we clicked really well when we sat down and wrote the song.
After the summer tour, a long break awaits. Laleh says she will devote herself to being a normal person.
I love to stand out on stage, but when I step off, I just want to blend in. After the summer, I need to reflect and write. It will take a while before I go on tour again.
Vivvi Alström/TT
Facts: Laleh
TT
Name: Laleh Pourkarim
Age: 43
Occupation: Producer, songwriter, and artist. Has her own record label under the name Palang.
Background: Born in Iran in 1982. When Laleh was two months old, the family left Iran and went to Minsk in Belarus and later to Berlin. Finally, the family came to Sweden and Gothenburg.
Current: Celebrates 20 years as an artist with her tenth album "Jag är" which is released on 6/27 and a summer tour that starts on the same day. Performs on "Allsång på Skansen" on 7/1.
