Björn Dixgård has always been on the move. Always in motion. But whether he’s boldly ventured between euphoric rock’n’roll, Swedish folk songs, experimental electronic music, or disco,
his iconic voice has remained the constant. After all, it’s the kind of voice that, at best, emerges only once in a generation. Equally powerful and vulnerable, instantly recognizable yet
soulfully resonant, it has tied together Dixgård’s restless desire to go beyond expectations and avoid easy solutions.
And it is precisely this drive that has brought Björn to the grand stages.
For more than 20 years, he has been the frontman of the beloved Swedish and international band Mando Diao.
The band has performed thousands of concerts in over 30 countries and released several albums that have achieved gold and platinum status, selling millions of records worldwide. Björn has also
staged the acclaimed and highly successful production Infruset – Själens skrubbsår (Infruset – The Soul’s Bruises) together with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, which last summer also graced the stage of Dalhalla.
But now, it’s time for the next chapter in the story of Björn Dixgård from Borlänge. In his upcoming debut solo album Shadowlands, we meet Dixgård without his bandmates for the first time, and this time,
the music has a timeless quality. Neither forcedly contemporary nor nostalgically backward-looking, it blends melancholic country, Americana, and soul with the Swedish folk song tradition.
Björn shares more about this musical choice:
“My grandmother had, through some strange, hard-to-cancel subscription, received a bunch of vinyl records from the series Country på svenska (Country in Swedish). She would always play them for me when I was going to sleep.
Later, I realized that most of them were Swedish translations of American originals, but that’s when my love for that type of music was born. I’ve always wanted to explore it, but it never quite fit with Mando.”
The arrangements are open, dynamic, and airy, leaving space for Björn’s voice as he sings with every fiber of his being about confusion, the longing for healing, but also the belief in a light at the end of the tunnel.
Never before has the listener been allowed to get this close to him. The lyrics are well-crafted, personal, and impactful. Such as on the first single, Fear of Winning, which will be released on September 20. In it,
Björn sings about overcoming the fear of not being enough. About daring to be alone. About the self-sabotaging fear of success.
“Working hard on lyrics hasn’t always come naturally to me, but this time, I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. And I do have a close relationship with darkness, that’s true.
But I also know that there’s often something universal in the personal, and that music can serve as a comfort. That’s one of the most beautiful things there is. The joy in melancholy, so to speak.”
Even though Björn has experienced greater success than most Swedish musicians, doubt lingers, and the courage to explore that darkness runs as a red thread through the personal album.
The album’s title, Shadowlands, was, however, his father’s idea. Björn shares how it came about:
“My dad had listened to the whole album and then called me, saying, ‘This is so damn you. How you can bury yourself under the covers for days and then turn it into something good.’ Then he said the album should be called Shadowlands,
and I said yes immediately. It was the perfect title.”
But even though Shadowlands is, in many ways, an intimate glimpse into Björn Dixgård’s inner life, he hasn’t been entirely alone. Simply because creating music with others is what he loves most. Apart from Björn himself, two of Mando Diao’s members,
Håkan Sörle and Patrik “Patso” Heikinpieti, have played key roles. Not only were they the ones encouraging him to make the album, but they also contributed with lyrics, production, and music. In addition,
they will be joined by an unexpected helper – a machine measuring six feet tall and wide. (Björn was unsure about the exact dimensions.)
“I saw those videos by Wintergatan where he built various machines that played music with marbles, and I thought it was fantastic. I contacted him for tips on building something similar, and now it’s finished.
I’m thinking ‘Patso’ will be the machine operator.”
