Music and Parties in Sweden

My second night in Sweden had me at Anja's apartment with her boyfriend Mathias and my Aunt Elaine. Anja is in acting school in Sweden and has been working like mad during the summer to save money. Mathias is an MC in the popular group LoopTroop Rockers, which was performing at a reggae fest in just under two hours. What was he doing before going on stage? Sipping some tea and washing the dishes.


If you've heard me talk about Sweden, you've likely heard me talk about my cousin Jason, who is a popular and award winning hip-hop artist and manages his own record company here. When I saw him perform in NYC in December with a full band, I got an idea of how popular he was. The line to the club went down the street, which I thought was special for someone who would be singing in Swedish. At that event, everyone knew the lyrics to his songs. We were now at the reggae fest in Malmö where he was performing some songs as part of the reggae group Helt Off. Mathias's Loop Troop was on stage first, and the 3 mcs were dropping rhymes in front of an electric crowd. I couldn't manage a good picture of Mathias because he was all over the stage getting the crowd fired up. After Loop Troop came Helt Off, and I would get to see Jason perform reggae music with his friends Jens and Måns. The crowd got bigger as Helt Off performed its first few songs, and when Jason came onto stage, just a day after returning from a tour in China, the crowd erupted. Linsen and I were in the crowd and had to fight off many young girls as we moved forward. The place went nuts cheering for an encore.

What surprised me even more was seeing Jason perform a few days later at an indoor theater festival in a large barn like building in the Swedish countryside. The crowd had more white and grey hair than blonde and black, the average age of the audience was well above 45. Jason was performing with his friend Magnus on acoustic guitar and vocal accompaniment, and another friend Magnus on bongo drum, similar to an MTV unplugged set in which the arrangements of his songs were changed to be more laid back with melodic harmonies. When he played one popular song, he held the microphone out and the entire crowd, 60 and 70 year olds included, danced, clapped, and sang the lyrics on cue. They screamed and clapped for several minutes after the performance before the encore came. I had a combination of chills and on the verge of tears of joy. Jason has loved music since we were young. I remember back to the days when we couldn't have been older than 14, and I listened to a tape he sent me with a song he made by himself and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Now we can't walk 30 feet down the street without someone asking for a picture with him or an autograph. None of this comes without alot of very hard work. Over the years he was always meeting with people, picking up new ideas, reading and writing. It's so good to now see his dreams becoming realized, and at the same time, I still see him as only my cousin and friend, because he's managed to remain the same person he always was.

....................

Hanging out here has had me meeting artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers and has allowed me to see things I would not otherwise see if I was a tourist. After a day at the beach we hung out in the big warehouse flat of one popular artist-grafitti artist, covered with books and musical instruments and artistic designs. We went to illegal after-hours clubs (which unfortunately do not have smoking bans). After one night at a club that Jason hosts and DJs at with his friends once a month, the crowd coming out of the club upon closing had gathered in the parking lot alongside the canal-river-sound. Joakim (A buddhist, Ice-T look alike who I met last time in Sweden and was visiting from Stockholm) had a camper van in one parking spot, 5 parking spots away was another car with the doors open and music blaring as Jason continued to DJ on the car stereo and the crowd danced in between the two cars, getting beer from the camper van when necessary. Many of us were pissing into the water below, and then I noticed a few people stripping naked and jumping 15-20 feet down into the water, some diving and doing backflips. I thought to myself, "What idiots are jumping and swimming into.."

"Dave. Come on in, man, the water is so nice" Jason yelled to me.

"Dude, I just pissed in there" I yelled back.

"I know, so did I" he replied. I walked over and saw a ladder that people were using to climb back out and thought "what the hell". As I took my shirt off, a few girls had warned me not to jump in, saying that it would be a stupid thing to do. But they don't know me like my cousin. We jumped off of the roof of my house together into the snow, we went pool hopping in the neighborhood as kids. This was exactly the kind of thing that was in our genes. I stripped down and did a spectacular front flip into the water. It was very refreshing. More people followed. We went to Anja's apartment and danced until 7am. I've been off of a regular schedule for so long, that it no longer matters when I wake and sleep or when I eat. I don't know if this is healthy, but hanging with my cousins and having fun like this leaves me very happy.