Swedish Language Blog

My mother is American, my father Swedish. For as long as I can remember, mamma speaks English with me, pappa speaks Swedish with me. It’s just the way of the world.

That world was turned upside down one day when I was about four. Being the oldest child, I also doubled as a guinea pig. So they decided to play a dirty trick on me. My mother, the American, spoke Swedish to me. My father, the Swede, spoke English to me. And I, the Swedish-American, was confused.

I refused to give in to their little games. I refused to respond in Swedish to my mother just as I refused to respond in English to my father. Pappa spoke Swedish to me, and I responded to him in Swedish. Mamma spoke English to me, and I responded to her in English. My four year old brain couldn’t handle responding to the wrong parent in the wrong language.

To suggest that this was some sort of watershed moment for me would be to exaggerate. I don’t remember this happening. Instead, I have heard the story more times than I can count from my parents, who always have a strange look of satisfaction and demonstrate just a hint of schadenfreude when they tell the story. My family ended up moving to the US and I fell into the habit of responding to my father in English, despite him always prattling on in Swedish. Apparently my 16 year old brain and my four year old brain were not quite the same. Strange, I know.

But the story sticks with me. Especially now, as I continue to study Scandinavia, Sweden, and the Swedish language. The household that I grew up in, with Swedish and English flowing freely from both parents, has followed me. It is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful reasons for my continued study. Why I moved to Sweden. Why I moved back to the US. Why I do what I do. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. But it leads me to a question… why are you here? What has drawn you to Sweden and the Swedish language? We all have our reasons, I’d love to hear yours!

In early 2008, I was sitting with one of my dear friends Emilie aka. Milkymee at work. She was telling me that she would record her second album in France and she was looking for new inspirations. I did not know back then that she had already released her first album in France. 

She asked me to try to write some lyrics for her. So I did it. She was an underground musician living and working in Sweden. She went off to Paris to launch her carrier as a singer later that year, but because of family reasons she was spending also periods in Gothenburg. A year later (I basically forgot our work togehter) she came home with an amazing news that she had met a director who wanted to listen to her demos at a party in Paris. And guess what! She handed over all her projects to him including our common song as well. And he liked it. The story is just as banal as it supposed to be. At least for me. As you see it on films.

So the song didn´t land on her second cd but in a French movie called Domaine, directed by the French-Austrian director Patrick Chiha and with the famous and controversial French actress Beatrice Dalle in the leading role. It was Dalle´s come back film in France after working many years in the U.S. If your are from Europe, you might have seen her breakthrough film or at least heard of Betty Blue 37,2 Le Matin. For my generation it was one of the cult movies.

The film was first presented in front of an international audience at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year and it went on touring in Belfort, San Fransisco, Budapest etc. Hopefully, we will see the film at Gothenburg Filmfestival in February 2011.

Milkymee is now back in Sweden and I have asked her about how life is going in general with her;

-Milkymee: I stayed 5 months in Kyoto, Japan, at a place called Villa Kujoyama. It is an artistic residency where French artists are sent by the government in order to achieve a project linked to the japanese culture. I composed and wrote my third album there, together with a bunch of amazing japanese musicians. Coba, an accordion player who released 32 records and is well known in Japan. He is also known abroad for performing with Björk in the mid nineties. Nishi Hajime is a tsugaru shamisen player, Yamagushi Ryoji at the guitar and Maruta Miki with Jushichi-gen – 17 string Koto player, and Singer. With our extremely unique mix of pop, rock and traditional sounds we gleefully dynamite the rules of genre!

This record is gonna be released in 2011. Otherwise I also released my second record on the japanese territory, and toured in the whole country. It was simply crazy!

These days I continue my tour in France and I work together with different projects, amongst which the original soundtrack of a theater play by Théâtre témoin, a physical theater ensemble based in London.

Mostly, I spend my time playing and travelling, as I get most of my inspirations out of my travels.

Emi Hanak is Milkymee : http://www.milkymee.com
(Check the website! Soundz, videos, blog & more. New album: OUT NOW!)

If you want to win a CD signed by Milkymee just leave a message for us why you should be the one to win it. The deadline is 26 Sunday 2010, 12.00 C.E.T. Good Luck!