Kulturista - Cultural Experiences in West Sweden

C U LT U R E E X P E R I E N C E S I N W E S T S W E D E N 29 Popular guest artist on the TV show På Spåret, acclaimed replacement act at the Way Out West festival, music critics’ darling, and performer on Liseberg amusement park’s grand stage. Gothenburg-born artist Amanda Werne, known professionally as Slowgold, continues to go from strength to strength. Is it possible to grasp everything that’s happening in your career right now? “No. I don’t think you can ever really view yourself from the outside. The past year has been fun, but hectic. It feels like a natural progression. After all, I’ve played and sung an incredible amount ever since I was young. You just have to take time to pause and process everything that’s happened from time to time, without the need to answer to the outside world, in order to feel good.” You were asked to fill in for an act at Way Out West in 2017 with just a few hours’ notice. What was that like? “It was just a matter of springing into action and getting ready, the same as with any other gig. You do your thing, regardless of the size of the audience. My drummer couldn’t join us, so my bass player and I adapted the set to suit the double bass and electric guitar instead. It was nice to be able to enjoy a drink and listen to Pixies’ set afterwards.” It feels like people strongly associate you with Gothenburg and West Sweden. How much Gothenburg and/or West Sweden do you think comes out in your music? “Gothenburg is a part of my sound, as is the feeling of nature as a part of the city – the sky, the weather…nightfall. Still, I think my songs are more about emotion than any one location, so I think a lot of people will find something familiar in them, even though they were recorded in Gothenburg.” If you take into account everything that’s happened over the last five years and try to predict where you’ll be five years from now, what kind of future do you see for yourself? “Hopefully, I will have had time for a bit of a holiday and will have even more guitars and pedals to play with! And have released a couple more albums, of course…” AMANDA WERNE ARTIST