Jonna Lee, also known as ionnalee, from iamamiwhoami is an electronic pop audiovisual artist from Sweden. Her 2019 solo album, REMEMBER THE FUTURE, received an abundance of support from Billboard, Paper, V Magazine, and Nylon. Pitchfork gave the album a 7.2, saying it “tilts her off-kilter electro pop toward compellingly dystopian visions.” On September 2, 2020, she celebrated the 10-year anniversary of ionnalee’s work through the online concert, KONSERT.
ionna, like many artists, had to cancel an upcoming tour (KRONOLOGI) due to the pandemic. However, in her interview, she focuses on the positive rather than the negative and shares how she has been spending her time since the world turned upside down.
We inquire how isolation has impacted her creativity, the future of her canceled tour, and what’s coming next for multimedia artist, songwriter, producer, and director, ionnalee.
The current pandemic happened as you were about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of your career with a North American tour – how did you live with this new reality and what is your perspective on the current situation?
Very few probably saw the seriousness of the situation coming. Of course, it was quite a blow to cancel the tour, but everything stopped for everyone. When the pandemic started, I was mid-production of my music, visuals, and rehearsals and was really looking forward to executing it and meet my audience again. At the same time, it’s a globally serious situation and you can’t do much else than accept a world emergency. My country hasn’t been under lock down, but I have been. I have been isolated most of the summer in my cabin anyway, living a simple life. I carry on with my work as best as I can, although now I am just now taking a break after finishing my most recent project, KONSERT.
Your project KRONOLOGI was launched while in quarantine, produced and mixed with weekly releases. What did you experience while creating the playlist?
I began to work with the productions I had started with for my tour and finished them one by one, creating the KRONOLOGI playlist for my followers to have something to look forward to each week throughout spring when most were in lock down. I decided to extend the playlist and released a lot of material they hadn’t heard before with it. I painted a lot of watercolours that became single covers. It made me feel like I wasn’t going to be defeated by the situation and it also gave me some financial aid to sell my watercolours as cancelling a tour is a massive thing financially when you produce your own tours. Not only do you lose the funds you were going to earn, but you also lose the pre-production costs. In the midst of that stress, I felt confident I would solve it somehow. The whole situation I was in as an independent musician and how governments decided to deal with support for the arts made me realize how music and art are taken for granted even though it’s consumed by everyone. You really need to know your own worth and feel the audience’s support to keep going.
Do you find isolation to stop or ignite creativity? What do you do to stay creative?
For someone that always works in solitude, it was the fact that I got to stay home that made me more creative because I was going to travel for a long time, but I don’t think my health was good enough for it yet. So, that’s something I am thankful for. That I got to rest in-between the intense work. Rest makes room for imagination.
Your childhood and area seem very close to a mountain and lake. In your songs as well, there is a connection to nature that haunting and otherworldly feel. How does nature inspire you, what does it make you feel?
The sense that I’m part of the natural world more than part of a fictive, shielded human made society keeps me rooted. I just feel like a natural part of my surroundings that is no more or no less important than anything or anyone else.
Our 2020 Flanelle Magazine October edition’s theme is REFLECTION – We are reflecting on past, present and future. What would your present self say to Jonna Lee from 10 years ago?
I would say don’t be afraid. You’re doing great. Don’t second guess yourself when you don’t fit in.
Your project in 2009 iamamiwhoami was first released on YouTube and became viral, followed by a large international audience. Would you say the digital world could stand a musical career on its own, or is proximity and real life (such as a physical tour) necessary?
We can see now the digital arena stands does stand on its own. I’ve been working exclusively in it for a decade now and have made three large virtual concerts since 2010. Maybe it’s not for all artists to work this way, and I do cherish human interaction, but maybe we’re just too many on this planet to take our old ways for granted as of now. The issue for artists is that art is never seen as necessary but remove it and it’s like it’s the glue holding us together. For some like me, it’s even the air we breathe.
You have created a visual alliance with Comme des Garcons – What attracted you to the brand and incorporate it in your audiovisual Everyone Afraid To be Forgotten?
Rei Kawakubo is an incredible artist who has been much ahead of her time throughout her career. Adrian Joffe and I met when his colleague found iamamiwhoami, introduced us, and we became friends. It was a natural thing to extend my work wearing Rei’s art pieces.
Are you planning on postponing your physical tour?
No one knows what is to come. People are planning for tours next year right now, but it’s of course, speculative of what’s to come with the pandemic. I’m taking things day by day.
What is the next chapter for ionnalee?
Right now, I don’t know. I feel very happy with KONSERT and it was a massive project to create and to feel like it mattered. I need some rest and perspective.
