Says Hi

“It took me 15 fucking years to feel brave enough to do this!” Joel Wästberg, the man behind the eccentric sir Was alias, confesses. “To reach the point where I could let myself do this was a long struggle. But once I felt less scared, it was kind of easy. It just came out, like: ‘This is the sound!’” If you’re looking for the story behind sir Was, you don’t need to go far. The secret is there in the opening lines of his debut EP’s magical opening track, ‘A Minor Life’: “Stayed behind these walls too long,” a vulnerable falsetto advises us, “Kept my life on hold too long/ Dreaming of all I was not…” It’s a confession typical of an artist who demonstrates an unusual but gratifying honesty, and its musical accompaniment – distinguished by the unconventional sound of bagpipes and recorders – is similarly appealing.