Tidal asked several artists what the Velvet Underground meant to them – Josefin Öhrn said:
What has the Velvet Underground & Nico meant for you and how has it inspired your own work?
It has meant everything, most music that we’ve related to can be traced to Velvet, not only musically then lyrically and as a perspective on the world. It was Velvet that we bonded when we first met, before we started writing together.
Why did the album/band intrigue you in the first place?
I think the contrast between beauty and brute noise, of lullaby and rock’n’roll, I was just a child when I heard “Sunday Morning,” “Waiting For the Man” and “Run Run Run” and loved them without having a clue to what they were about. Then I was really into Celine and Genet and that just tied in with Velvet’s music without really understanding why. These beautiful, menacing beings that seem to occupy a terrifying world that is just where I wanted to live. I was absolutely absorbed when I first heard it. And who doesn’t want to look like Nico, John Cale or Lou Reed in 1967 or all three?
How do you consider their debut album 50 years down the road?
Goes without saying that it’s a masterpiece – and it’s scary how it seems to just change into something relevant and new for each period that passes.
Your definite VU moment?
Seeing the sun rise in Andalucía after a really really long drive with White Light/White Heat on repeat.
Read the full piece here: Tidal
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