Helena Josefsson

Helena Josefsson

Josefsson at the Bospop festival in Weert, The Netherlands, 9 July 2011
Background information
Birth name Helena Marianne Josefsson
Born (1978-03-23) March 23, 1978
Origin Kalmar, Sweden
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1996–present
Labels EMI,
Elevator Entertainment
Associated acts Sandy Mouche, Per Gessle
Website Official website

Helena Marianne Josefsson is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is the lead singer in the band Sandy Mouche and has been singing in Per Gessle's projects since 2003. In February 2007 she released her first solo album, Dynamo.

Biography

Helena Marianne Josefsson was born in Kalmar, Sweden on March 23, 1978. Her parents, Per Olof and Margareta, divorced when Helena was seven years old, and she and her sisters moved with their mother to a village called Björnstorp (outside of Lund, Skåne County, southern Sweden) when she was ten. Helena has four sisters (Charlotta, Sofia, Hanna and Carolina). She is left-handed and can play keyboards, tambourine and harmonica. Helena married Martin Nilsson (a.k.a. Martinique Josefsson), her longtime boyfriend, in 2003; they live in Malmö and became the parents of a boy, Charles-Didrik, on November 8, 2008.[1]

Helena's thoughts on life and her career;

- "What do you want to become when you grow up? Either a troll or an artist!, I replied to that question at 7 years of age. When I think about it, trolls and artists do have rather much in common. What I wanted, and still try to achieve, is the sense of liberty, being part of nature, getting room in the city, finding a spot for mushrooming. That it is all right to be the way one is and still being able to receive love. Being an artist and composer is probably one of the few lifestyles where one can be a troll simultaneously!" [1]
- "When you are born, you are complete but then shell after shell is added as protection against dangers around. Or society forces you to take different parts, needs and patterns you don't really need or want. Then one can spend the rest of one's life finding and removing the bad shells, and saving the good ones, one by one. At least that's what I want to do" [1]

First groups and Sandy Mouche

Main article: Sandy Mouche

Helena began to play in some groups of Lund and Malmö at High School.

Her first band was Plastic Soul (firstly called "Jive with Clive"), with Helena Josefsson (singer), Johan Duncanson (guitar), Fredrick Whitling (lead-guitar and keyboards), Olof Martinsson (bass) and Per Blomgren (drums). Between 1996 and 2000, they took part in club gigs and indie Summer festivals and released some singles ("Uneasy", 1999; Love poems, 2000). Johan and Per began a new successful project, The Radio Dept.

Helena also took part in two non long-lasting projects. In 1999, she played and recorded two promo E.P.'s with Magnus Tingsek and their band ewing.1. Between 2000 and 2001, Helena was the lead singer of Dan Bornemark's rock band, The Good Mornings, recording an album (The Good Mornings, 2000).

In the fall of 2001, during a holiday trip to Crete (Greece), Helena and her boyfriend Martin Nilsson started the band Sandy Mouche with their friends, the Blomgren brothers (Per -drums- and Ola -guitar) and Danyal Taylan (bass until 2004). So far they have had gigs in Sweden and France promoting their songs, that have been released in Sweden, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia and Japan: an E.P. (Sandy Mouche, spring 2003), some promo singles ("Cherry pie", 2003; "C'est pas juste and Papillon", 2004), three digital singles ("Une histoire", "In the sand" and "Spiderweb suit", all in 2005) and two albums (White Lucky Dragon, September 2004; and ... and poems for the unborn, January, 2006). The song, "Spiderweb suit", written by Helena, features in the film New York Waiting (directed by Joachim Hedén, 2006). Since 2007, the band has been working in a new album in Per Blomgren's home studio. Sandy Mouche played together in a gig in Malmö last March, 2010, three years later.[2]

Backing vocals

Josefsson at Per Gessle's live concert in Helsingborg, Sweden on 19 July 2007

Josefsson has been doing backing vocals for a lot of Swedish and some foreign artists: The Ark, Righteous Boy, Swan Lee, Justin Winokur, Gyllene Tider, Doug Wyatt, Junior Senior, Andreas Johnson, Sebastian Karlsson, Hideki Kaji, The Margarets, Metro Jets, Brainpool, Pelle Ossler, Air Bureau, Stockfinster, District 1269, Fredo and Arash Labaf.

Many of these collaborations have been recorded in the most famous studios of Skåne: Tambourine Studios and Gula Studion in Malmö, owned by Eggstone's and The Mopeds's members respectively, and the Aerosol Grey Machine Studios in Vollsjö, owned by Brainpool's member Christoffer Lundquist.

In 2003 Josefsson took part in the recording of Per Gessle's Swedish solo album Mazarin as a backup singer. Gessle's Mazarin project actually became a defined solo band, with Gessle (vocals and guitar), Clarence Öfwerman (keyboards), Christoffer Lundquist (guitar), Jens Jansson (drums) and Josefsson (vocals). They have released another three albums since Mazarin, both in Swedish and in English, Son of a Plumber (2005), En händig man (2007) and Party Crasher (2008). Josefsson's voice become more prominent in Gessle's latest album, Party Crasher, as she sang leading vocals in some songs. They also toured Sweden during the Mazarin Sommarturne (2003) and the En händig man Sommarturne (2007), and around Europe for "The Party Crasher Tour" (2009).[3]

In 2011 she will join Roxette to cover the backing vocals for their World Tour which starts officially in Russia on February 28 Helena is expected to do the backing vocals on the shows and this is to be shared with Malin Ekstrand who joined Roxette on tour in the summer of 2010.

Solo albums and other projects

On February 28, 2007, Helena Josefsson's first solo album, Dynamo, was released by EMI and Per Gessle's own company, Elevator Entertainment. The album, produced and mixed by Christoffer Lundquist at Aerosol Grey Machine Studios during 2006, was backed by the singles "By Your Side", "Never Never (My Dynamo)" and "Where Does the Unused Love Go?" Dynamo spent two weeks on the album Swedish Charts. (#23, 2007.03.08)

Helena Josefsson toured with her own band in 2007 in order to promote Dynamo in Sweden and Germany. Since September 2007, she has been working in a new solo album. Helena Josefsson released her first single in Swedish, Fen & Jag, in October 2009. She also released a new video with her song Kyss mig, in February 2010.[4]

Helena has also taken part in some live bands playing famous covers of other artists.

Discography

For releases by Sandy Mouche, see Sandy Mouche.

Albums

Singles

As background singer

Recordings at Aerosol Grey Machine Studios, Vallarum

Recordings at Tambourine Studios and Gula Studion, Malmö

Other recordings

Videography

Solo

Featuring

References

  1. 1 2 3 H.J. Biography - http://www.helenajosefsson.com/biography/biography.php
  2. ↑ http://www.sandymouche.com
  3. ↑ Party Crasher liner notes
  4. 1 2 http://www.myspace.com/helenajosefsson

External links

Arash feat. Helena - One Day (From The Upcoming Album)

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