Love Is All sweat the small stuff, sweat the big stuff, and explode

By Jamie Gadette
Published: November 11th, 2008 | 4:00pm

Josephine Olausson is the Larry David of Swedish indie music. On her band Love Is All’s recent album, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night, the 30-something singer alludes to the paranoia that wards off blissful R.E.M. But if 100 neuroses keep her eyes glued to the ceiling, at least a million nuisances plague her during waking hours. On the new LP, for example, a relaxing vacation getaway “on the world’s most extravagant ship” inspires Olausson to complain about too much teriyaki and old ladies doing yoga. “I’m bored to death, I’m bored as shit!” she screams in frustration after several days off-shore.

Back home, even her band mates drive her absolutely bonkers.

“Every time we’re writing a new song there is some kind of argument involved,” she says, adding that they’re never completely satisfied with the end product. There’s always some note that could be higher; some line that could be rearranged to better convey the song’s original sentiment. But the constant give and take, push and pull — it’s really all for the best.

“That’s part of what makes Love Is All work,” she says. “It makes us better. Everyone is trying to make an impact on the song, trying to take up a bit of space, instead of the bass just following behind and being all secure. The bass might be all restless or trying to impress someone.”

Olausson’s previous group, Girlfriendo, operated as less of a democracy, encouraging the then-timid Swede to hold back even while she fronted the band.

“I was so very young when I started playing in Girlfriendo. I was not as confident. Not taking up so much space,” she says. Once she teamed up with the boys who now help round out Love Is All, something changed — a solid kick in the skirt that pushed Olausson to the front of the stage where she displays such confidence, many critics have compared her to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O. It’s a lazy analogy, but forgivable insofar as both artists run full throttle into each performance.

“I can’t be annoyed with being compared to her because it’s flattering,” Olausson says. “But it’s ridiculous. I don’t sound like her, and I’m not as animated onstage. I could think of a hundred other female singers who sound more like me.”

Plenty of people love Love Is All for all the right reasons, though — so much so that while recording their sophomore effort, the band tried to forget the hype surrounding their debut, Nine Times That Same Song. The press, particularly the influential blogosphere, went wild over the group’s infectious, frantic new-wave/pop/rock sound. As part of 2007’s kings and queens of indie music, the friends who formed a band by happenstance suddenly had serious stakes on the next album.

It’s enough to lose sleep over, but Olausson kept her cool (more or less), and listening to A Hundred Things proves there was nothing to worry about. Love Is All have guzzied up their noisy delivery just a bit to demonstrate a welcome evolution. But the energy remains intact, even buoyed by the recent addition of saxophonist Åke Strömer who replaced Frederik Erikkson when the original member resolved he was no longer up for the touring life. Olausson says Strömer is a “young and enthusiastic guy. He’s exactly what we need because we’re all old and tired.”

Their fatigue is well masked on the new album. Olausson still comes across as a teenager itching to move out of Mom and Dad’s, with her signature tone — somewhere between a yelp and a coo — and pronunciation, which makes “I need a new beginning” sound like “I need a new Bob Dylan.”

A Hundred Things also introduces a '50s girl-group vibe, as on “A More Uncertain Future,” a sweet and sour male-female duet with great big chimes that slows down the album’s hectic pace for just under three minutes. It’s quite soothing. But you know Olausson was still quietly freaking out about how the public would receive it.

“I try to not think about it. Just in general we can really annoy people. People get so upset because it’s mostly my voice. I have an accent,” she says, referring to nasty YouTube comments posted below the group’s videos. “Why would you even take the time to listen? I’m maybe more offended by those people than by reviewers. I know it’s just nonsense.” But it still keeps her up all night.
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