Meet Emil Svanangen. The Swedish multi-instrumentalist is perhaps better known as rising star Loney, Dear and the softly spoken Scandinavian can do no wrong right now. His fifth record Dear John has charmed all and sundry with its dark tales of love and loss and the former pro-cyclist (yes, really) aims to rock our world when he plays in Dublin this month.

“My live show is a bit of violent happiness,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s a kind of lively, moody, melodic experience. Loney, Dear live features four (almost five) singing musicians onstage. We’ve lots of instruments like synthesizers, guitars and percussion and we try to do as much as we can. I’ve played in Whelan’s once before and I also played Electric Picnic and enjoyed them both very much. They were really nice occasions and I’m looking forward to coming over. Ireland is a beautiful country and I’m a big fan.”
A few weeks ago, Ireland finally got to hear Dear John for the first time, and the sprawling, darkly comical record definitely warrants all the good press, which comes as something of a relief to Emil.
“I’m very proud of the good reviews. I’m glad the album has got such a reception and I’m flattered people have accepted it. The reviews have been spot on in terms of the record’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m not a self-critical person, but I am a professional which means I should always be open to criticism. I hope this album is just the start of the songs and I’ll be able to keep crafting them even more.
“I would definitely say it’s a darker record than anything I’ve done before though. I worked on it even harder than ever before. I wanted to add a palate of darker, tastier songs to the set when I first realised that it’s always fun to have a fast, sad to song to play.”
With all this talk of darkness and despair, it doesn’t come as a shock that the Swede is a born romantic and love infuses much of his music.
“Yes, I’m definitely fascinated by the idea of romance. I think the combination of darkness and romance is pretty interesting and I’m definitely a romantic at heart.”
And again, not surprisingly, it turns out that Emil would like nothing more than to make sweet music with a collaborator or two in the future. In a purely professional way, of course.
“Yeah, it can be pretty lonely making music on your own,” he sighs. “It’s quite isolating. From a social point of view it can be hard writing songs without anyone else. I really look forward to finding someone to make music with in the future or at least some kind of co-worker who could help me out recording some stuff. That’s where I ideally would like to be. I’m not sure what kind of collaborator I would like, but I think it would be fun bringing someone new to the process to lend a helping hand.”

Loney, Dear plays Whelan’s, Dublin on April 16. The Swedish multi-instrumentalist is perhaps better known as rising star Loney, Dear and the softly spoken Scandinavian can do no wrong right now. His fifth record Dear John has charmed all and sundry with its dark tales of love and loss and the former pro-cyclist (yes, really) aims to rock our world when he plays in Dublin this month.

“My live show is a bit of violent happiness,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s a kind of lively, moody, melodic experience. Loney, Dear live features four (almost five) singing musicians onstage. We’ve lots of instruments like synthesizers, guitars and percussion and we try to do as much as we can. I’ve played in Whelan’s once before and I also played Electric Picnic and enjoyed them both very much. They were really nice occasions and I’m looking forward to coming over. Ireland is a beautiful country and I’m a big fan.”
A few weeks ago, Ireland finally got to hear Dear John for the first time, and the sprawling, darkly comical record definitely warrants all the good press, which comes as something of a relief to Emil.
“I’m very proud of the good reviews. I’m glad the album has got such a reception and I’m flattered people have accepted it. The reviews have been spot on in terms of the record’s strengths and weaknesses. I’m not a self-critical person, but I am a professional which means I should always be open to criticism. I hope this album is just the start of the songs and I’ll be able to keep crafting them even more.
“I would definitely say it’s a darker record than anything I’ve done before though. I worked on it even harder than ever before. I wanted to add a palate of darker, tastier songs to the set when I first realised that it’s always fun to have a fast, sad to song to play.”
With all this talk of darkness and despair, it doesn’t come as a shock that the Swede is a born romantic and love infuses much of his music.
“Yes, I’m definitely fascinated by the idea of romance. I think the combination of darkness and romance is pretty interesting and I’m definitely a romantic at heart.”
And again, not surprisingly, it turns out that Emil would like nothing more than to make sweet music with a collaborator or two in the future. In a purely professional way, of course.
“Yeah, it can be pretty lonely making music on your own,” he sighs. “It’s quite isolating. From a social point of view it can be hard writing songs without anyone else. I really look forward to finding someone to make music with in the future or at least some kind of co-worker who could help me out recording some stuff. That’s where I ideally would like to be. I’m not sure what kind of collaborator I would like, but I think it would be fun bringing someone new to the process to lend a helping hand.”