FREDRIK

In the artist's words:

In "Demian", Hermann Hesse has his Emil Sinclair ask: "I wanted to try to live nothing but what wanted to come out of me. Why was that so difficult?" A century later, FREDRIK asks himself the same question. The 21-year-old belongs to a young indie pop generation that makes no secret of how it feels - a rejection of the patriarchy in which men are not allowed to show their feelings. He has now announced his first EP "Verlernt zu Fühlen".

FREDRIK makes indie pop in a way that few currently dare to: big, vulnerable, defiant - studies of a scarred emotional landscape. He sings, speaks, screams - sometimes to the guitar, sometimes to the piano, sometimes with cinematic epicness, sometimes with the quiet force of an inner monologue. New German self-doubt. "In my music, I can transform negative emotions into something positive. I sing about a break-up or the problems with my father - and draw something liberating from it. Music is self-care for me. It's almost therapy." Few people in German indie pop are that honest. FREDRIK knows that - and sticks to it anyway. "Some people are overwhelmed by it, but I'd rather open the door than lie. Why should I do that?" With his stirring music, the Hamburg native descends into the abysses of his own self and comes to terms with himself and the world. FREDRIK belongs to the lockdown generation - young people whose formative years were characterized by home schooling, curfews and shock paralysis. Lost years perhaps, but above all difficult ones. At the age of ten, he discovered Cro, whose "Raop" album influenced him lyrically in particular. FREDRIK wants to become a rapper, ends up singing, today it's a mixture of both. Why commit himself? He learns piano, guitar, producing - bedroom artist 2.0. "I'm someone who doesn't trust things," he says. "When I'm happily in love, I sing about what it's like to be apart. I can't sing about beautiful things." Sounds bitter - but as listeners, we can almost be happy about it. Sometimes there are flashes of hedonism in his songs, cigarettes, red wine - but it never lasts long. In the end, FREDRIK is alone again. With himself, with his thoughts, with his music. He is not alone in this. The playground of young German pop hopefuls is growing - Ennio, Mayberg, others. FREDRIK is one of them - and yet not. He cooks his own little soup, writes songs that are never too specific and therefore speak universally. He doesn't make it easy for himself. But he learned that at the age of 21: life is like that. Doesn't mean it's bad. You just have to keep feeling. Even if it hurts.