Get to know Soleima:
The electro-pop songstress hailing from a small town in Denmark who’s currently taking America by storm. We got to chat with the singer/songwriter about her latest releases and what she has in store for the future. Having recently signed to Atlantic Records and touring the US for the first time with Electric Guest, Soleima has truly hit the ground running.
Give us a short explanation of who you are & your music
I’m an artist from Denmark. I’ve been doing music for like all my life but living from music maybe the last three years under the name Soleima. I recently got signed here in New York with Atlantic. And yeah, that’s why I’m here, touring with Electric Guest and the label kind of put it up for me to be here. So, that’s it, and I make, I guess, pop music. But somewhat left of center.
How did the signing come about? Were you actively trying to get signed in the States or was it kind of a happy accident?
It was a happy accident, actually. I was signed to Warner in Denmark, which is under the kind of Atlantic umbrella. So Atlantic just decided, or Warner decided to move it from Denmark to over here. It’s nice of course because it’s a bigger label and more power and stuff. But also, luckily I just really love the people here. The people I work with here are the best.
You’ve been working with the same producer for a while, how did you meet & how did you know he was who would be the best fit to make music with?
We grew up together. We were both doing something else and we wanted to write songs, but maybe not for ourselves. I guess we have this dream to be, songwriters and do that kind of thing. But then the more songs we started writing together, the more it was like, “Ah, this kind for fits me” or we didn’t really want to give them up so that was actually how my project started. We just wanted to release the songs.
You were in a 7-piece hip-hop group before going solo. How did that happen?
It was as a kid actually, we went to school together. So that was when I was super young still in primary school. We were like a 70’s super band. We played a lot of concerts and we got a label deal in Denmark as well. Played a lot with that band. It was a lot of fun. I think for me, that was how I learned to write music and to play concerts and stuff like that. Then that’s just so wonderful that it was together with my girlfriends. But it was never like something we lived from. It was something we, of course, earned money on but not as a living. So for me, this is my first time doing it as a professional, I guess you could say.
Now that you are a solo artist, is transferring over from being in a group with six other people to being on your own, was that creative process kind of a hard thing to get used to?
I guess actually that also has it’s pros and cons because I guess some of the things I missed being in a band was the 100% creative freedom. I don’t know the chance to just decide 100% that is of course the strength of being on your own, but also that’s the downside of it. Sometimes when you’re just all over the place and you’re like, “Ah, what should I do?” Then that’s no one really. It’s all on you.
How did you decide that it’d be best to write your music in your second language?
Coming from a country with five million people, you act kind of think… You can’t (sing in your mother tongue), even though it might be annoying to think that way, you can’t really avoid thinking like, “Okay, if I want to actually do this” then, it needs to be able to travel at least a little bit outside of Denmark. But also, as I said before, we started out by trying this songwriting thing, so we also rehearsed writing a lot because of that in English. And therefore, suddenly it was comfortable for me. When I started out, the hip hop band was in Danish and I think with your native language, it’s always going to be. And that’s just my opinion, but it’s all always going to be the easiest maybe and also the strongest. So that was how I come about it.
When can we expect more music from you?
I’m releasing an album in the middle of March. It’s always been a dream for me to release an album. I think it’s such a beautiful format and also, in these single days it’s not easy to be able to release those kinds of things. So I feel lucky and blessed and it is important for me that it have some kind of coherency. So that’s what I’ve been really trying to put into it.
For more about Soleima, follow her on Instagram.
Get to know more of our favorite up and coming artists!
- Get To Know: Blake Rose - May 15, 2020
- Get To Know: Soleima - February 25, 2020
- PHOTOS: Sam Fender – New York, NY 10/17/19 - October 23, 2019
