The Justice

Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Big Hassle Media

With midterms going strong, many students may not have time for a Wednesday-night excursion to Allston's Great Scott. However, if you are able to find the time, I highly recommend a voyage to that venue-located just west of Boston on Commonwealth Avenue-to see Anna Ternheim open for Asobi Seksu and Loney Dear. The Swedish singer, voted Best Female Artist at this year's Swedish Grammys, will perform songs from her latest album, Leaving on a Mayday, which won a Swedish Grammy and was released in the U.S. in August.

In an interview with the Justice, Ternheim described the album as "a lot of strings, a lot of vocals, a lot of dramatic drumming. … I think it's so hard to put words on music, on my own [music]; it's easier to describe other people's." Said Ternheim, "Someone asked me before and I said, 'a dirty white feather'-it's sort of light. You can use that as a metaphor."

For the live show, said Ternheim, concertgoers "can expect something completely different. I'll be playing with Loney Dear. They'll be backing me up as well, so I'll use their sound for my songs for this tour."

Leaving on a Mayday was produced by Björn Yttling of the group Peter, Björn and John-himself a noted producer who has worked with musicians like Lykke Li, the Shout Out Louds and Sahara Hotnights. Ternheim said of the songwriting process, "What inspired me first of all was I felt like, finally, in many ways, this feels like the first album that I've recorded without a history. It's just my third album and the first one was done during many years, and it sort of grew sort of slowly. … The second album was just a very difficult album to make because I compared it to the first one. But [with] this one, for the first time I felt like I did something from scratch, feeling completely free-something without a history, in a very liberating way. I knew I wanted to work with Björn because I liked what he's done in the past. The whole process was very free, and it was done very much on instinct, so it was a fun record to work on."

Though Ternheim has a long list of tour dates ahead of her, she plans to get started on a fourth album in the spring. "I think it's hard to write when I'm on tour and I'm still so occupied by this [album]," she said. "I'll be playing live for a while, and then sometime in the spring I think I'll start working on a new record, and what that'll be I don't really know yet. It'll be different from this one, of course, but maybe-I don't know. I'm still waiting for that idea to hit me. Usually it just comes to me: I don't really worry about it. Sooner or later I'll start working on it and I'll know what to do, but it's hard to put up deadlines with this kind of work I find."

For anyone interested in the Swedish sound of bands like the aforementioned Peter, Björn and John, Loney Dear is certainly not to be missed. And stay for Asobi Seksu, too: The group combines the textured guitar of the new wave and shoegaze bands of yesteryear with lead singer Yuki Chikudate's clear vocals.

Ternheim will perform with fellow Swedes Loney Dear, New York-based indie rock band Asobi Seksu and local act DJ Carbo at Great Scott (1222 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston) this Wednesday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $13.

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