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AMSTERDAM – Swedish singer-songwriter Tingsek released four soulful albums since his debut in 2005. Still, Restless Soul, his latest record, marks the first time that people outside of his own country get to hear the music that made him so popular there. “I wanted to have some meat on my bones before I went out there.”

Magnus Tingsek, as is the soul singer's full name, was born on December 19th, 1978 in the little Swedish town of Södra Sandby. Thirteen years later, during his first music class in high school, he decided that the rest of his life would revolve around music. “Music class before that was all just going tat-tat-tah with sticks and going waaah!”, the tall Swede demonstrates with a high pitched noise. “And all of a sudden I was behind a drum kit! I was like 'what the f-!' Then there was a piano, and an electric guitar, and a bass. It all happened really fast, at least in my mind.”

It would be another thirteen years before his eponymous debut album was released in 2005, followed by World Of Its Own in 2006 and Too Many Feelings At The Same Time in 2008. Restless Soul appeared in Sweden at the end of 2009. It was with this fourth record that Tingsek first set out to venture beyond the borders of his homeland: on the 16th of April, 2010, it was released in The Netherlands.

The decision to begin the journey abroad so late was in a part a conscious one: “I never wanted to stress anything, I never wanted to just dive out there. I wanted to have some experience first. I'm glad that I'm not 21 and doing this, because I would be nervous as hell, and I would maybe not be albe to express myself the way I wanted to.”

Still, that wasn't the only reason that it took him this long; there was one other obstacle on the road to Europe: “I was on a big label, I was on Universal, and I was not their first priority. I don't make  the kind of music that they think could be a hit. But now I'm free from them. As soon as I started my own label, the first thing on my agenda was to get distributors across Europe. So now I'm starting with Holland.”

It was not for no reason that Tingsek chose The Netherlands as the start of his conquest: “If you compare it with football, it's just the perfect gateway to Europe! Zlatan Ibrahimović came to Ajax and then Juventus and Inter Milan, and now he's in Barcelona!” The Swede jokingly explains. “No, but really, I do think Holland is a good gateway. I think there's a lot of musical eyes on Holland. Music plays a big role in people's lives there. I mean, there's music shops everywhere that actually sell cd's, and there are people in it!”

Text & interview: Bas Steeman

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