El Perro Del Mar: New Music from a Young Woman with an Old Soul
Swedish Singer/Songwriter Finds Sweetness in Simplicity
by Amy Wagner
Imagine a perfect sun-drenched summer day. The clouds are puffy. The sky is pure blue and the birds are singing. It's the kind of day that makes you want to whistle.
Then, imagine a shower of warm rain starts to fall from the sky. The sun never loses its luster during the sprinkling, and the drops start to fade before you can even think of running for cover. As you continue on your way, a rainbow starts to form in the sky.
It's here, in this moment, that Sarah Assbring's music is born—in the haze before the rain completely stops and before the red of the rainbow reaches its true brilliance. It's a time, a feeling, a mirage just out of reach.
The Swedish singer/songwriter describes herself as "spending a lot of time in my head," and that goes a long way in explaining her sweet, melancholy music. Watching her in performance, strumming her guitar and swaying like a lost child completely oblivious to those watching her, Assbring recalls 1960s starlet Sandra Dee after she had her heart broken a few times.
Though her dreamy tunes are drenched with sadness, Assbring claims that she is not an unhappy person. "I do think the line between total melancholy and total euphoria is very close with me. I can be very euphoric one moment and then sort of sad the next," she admits.
Still, it's easy to image the scene that set her on her current musical journey. Struggling with the kind of self-doubt that is the hallmark of all artists, the struggling singer traveled to the coast of Spain to clear her mind. And there, in the form of a dog trotting at the water's edge, all doubts were erased. "I was just in a very black place and the dog was a peephole into something beautiful. It was like a reminder that life can be better," explains the wan singer.
Assbring decided to record under the name El Perro Del Mar in honor of the dog who gave her new hope. The music of her new moniker harkens back to the light as air, extremely tuneful tunes that wafted out of the Brill Building in the days when Carole King and Neil Diamond were still neophyte songwriters for hire.
Growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden, during the 1980s, Assbring gobbled up the American pop music of the day while also exploring the girl groups of the 1960s and some of the more famous warblers like Dionne Warwick. Taking that saccharine sound as a starting block and then stripping it down until the true emotion of the music was laid bare without any walls of sound to hide it, the singer found her sweet spot. And, in finding and nurturing her sound, the Swedish songbird joined a long and healthy tradition of artists from her native country, like Abba and Roxette, who have made careers out of out-popping American popsters.
When asked why her fellow Swedes are so adept at climbing the Billboard pop charts, Assbring thinks for a moment before answering, "We're just so heavily influenced by the American tradition. It's been felt so deeply in our culture."
But whether it's something in the water, or if hordes of blonde, blue-eyed Swedish tykes are secretly being schooled in the style of Phil Spector, Sarah Assbring is more than determined to make the most out of her innate talent.
Though she was once part of a band, the singer quickly realized the solo route was the only way she could truly reach the music in her head. "I need to make music on my own because when you're in a band, you have to be able to communicate your ideas and I couldn't do that," she offers with a small sigh.
So, what is a singular soul-searching musician to do? Write, produce and arrange an album all on your own, of course! While most young musicians might have spent a lot of time second-guessing themselves, Assbring felt completely at home wearing three hats at once.
"Making music is very multi-layered and you have to use a lot of different techniques," she explains. "Coming up with the songs and then singing them is very inspirational and abstract, and then there's producing, which is very practical and almost theoretical. I guess I just like the whole idea of being challenged."
The singer's focus and dedication not only show on her debut disc, El Perro Del Mar (Control Group), but it also shimmers and shines. The album's single, "God Knows (You Gotta Give to Get)," is a piece of pure pop heaven and, like every good song, it has a story. "It's a tribute to my boyfriend, who has been with me through thick and thin for a long time," she explains. "And for me, it came to be about realizing, in a very very happy kind of way, that that's what life is about."
Sarah Assbring's music quickly caught on in her native Sweden after she placed some of her early tunes on the Web. The buzz carried over to the U.S., which quickly fell under her spell, and now many more nations will probably succumb to her charms. After playing a string of dates in New York City, the singer is looking forward to her next venture—a tour of Brazil with fellow Swedish singer Jose Gonzalez.
Not bad for a girl who went to the seashore hoping to find herself. Sarah Assbring came back from that trip with not only a new sense of self, but also with a whole treasure trove of beautiful music.
Somebody find that inspirational dog and give him a big juicy bone!
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