“Christmas Card” is the third single from the forthcoming album “Twilights” by Swedish sensation Jesper Lindell, to be released January 26, 2022. “Christmas Card” was recorded by Jesper and his touring band in their own studio outside Ludvika, Dalarna. Klara Söderberg from First Aid Kit supplied beautiful backup vocals on the track.
“Christmas Card” is a touching and intimate song, about big dreams coming to a halt. Instead of making dreams come true, Jesper had to deal with the pandemic and serious personal health issues. He got too ill to live by himself and had to move back to his parents’ house, where he had to isolate himself from everyone except close family. If Jesper had caught the Covid19 virus, it could have been fatal.
Things are better now
Though I’m still broke
But I’ve gotten me my own place
Since the last time we spoke
And my doctor says I’m gonna be ok
And hopefully my new meds
won’t take my spirit away.
After the success of his first single “Moving Slow” (close to 5 million streams on Spotify), his career was supposed to develop and improve. His huge talent would blossom and his dream to get out and play live would finally come true. But oh no. The debut album “Everyday Dreams” was recorded but the major label rejected the songs, and Jesper bought himself out of the contract. When the album finally was self-released, several of the songs turned out to be radio hits, and it was eventually picked up by the cool American label Alive Naturalsound. With a new label backing him up, and with raving reviews at home and abroad, it was time to hit the road. Then the pandemic hit, and right after that Jesper’s congenital kidney disease rapidly got worse. Instead of touring he was in for a long period of dialysis, while waiting for a kidney transplant.
Oh but the truth is
I’m still living with my folks
And my doctor says he don’t know
And that’s what bothers me the most
And I ain’t been on the road
And I ain’t met someone new
I got too sick to travel last fall
And now I don't know what to do
We’ve all heard about the healing power of music, how vitally important songs and music can be in difficult times. For Jesper, writing and eventually recording songs was the one thing that kept him sane. He wrote a lot of songs. And he wrote great songs. Once he started to record, it became clear that he and the band needed a slightly different musical approach. The kind of retro soul influences from before were still there, but now they were combined with what you might call ‘classic rock’ or ‘Americana-before-it-was-called-Americana’. Countless hours of listening to and learning from heroes like Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison and others, changed Jesper’s attitude and approach to writing and recording. More importantly, after a pretty miserable year Jesper had some stories, experiences and feelings to express and to share.
Today, at 28 years old, Jesper has a new kidney from his dad Anders. Both father and son are feeling well, but need time to recover completely. By the time “Twilights” will be released, both of them should be back on top, and Jesper ready to meet his fans with his own, special take on ‘blue-eyed soul’!
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