Photo by Malin Johansson

THE 2015 LIVINGROOM TOUR

This was an idea that had been in my mind for a while. To take the music to where you are instead of you coming to where the music is. To tour outside the big cities, in the places where most bands don't go. To find venues that were not the usual rockclubs. I announced it in february 2015, said if anyone, anywhere outside the big cities in Sweden has a place where I can play, where there's room for some people then give me a shout. About 150 submissions came in and I picked out 14 places, a lot of livingrooms but also an old papermill, a missionary church, a trainstation, a bookstore etc. The tour was a success, selling out almost immediately, and it was one of the most memorable journeys I've done as a travelling musician.

2015 was a year when people in Sweden started talking about the role of the countryside and the smalltown vs. the major cities. When everything is becoming increasingly centered around the bigger cities, what consequences does that have for the smaller towns and the rural areas? The livingroom tour seemed to step right into these thoughts. Bringing music to those who wanted to hear it, to their hometowns, felt like a kind of cultural democracy.

Hopefully I'll be able to do this kind of tour elsewhere in the world someday.