Biography

Beyond the name Sol Skugga (Sun Shade) acts a young woman with clear direction and many passions. Being a classically schooled singer, songwriter, producer and artdirektor, she has woven a musical universe around herself - where rock, electronica and folk lore permeates the soundscapes as well as her graphic image.

The music oscillates between brittle and dramatic and is stained by a soft melancholy, and exposing, poetic lyrics. In the U.S., where the interest in her music is greatest, her debut album "Swimming without webbed toes" (Nov 2007) has been compared with the 90-century Nine Inch Nails, Björk's "Human Behavior" and female singers such as Tori Amos and Sarah Brightman.

Sol Skugga’s music can be found in several forums on the net, where all tracks are free to download under a Creative Commons license. Since the debut album was released, her myspace has developed into a well-attended forum, with between 100 and 1000 listens per day. Thanks to a growing and loyal fan base, she soon settled in the top of the site's Swedish charts for un-signed artist and do now climb the independent artists charts in her genre. In February she participated in a myspace competition, where her fans uploaded and tagged + 6600 pics of her. This resulted in her winning an one week promotion on the site, that she is just waiting for to begin.

These days she is up to date with the release of the new album "Gardenia", guested by the musicians Staffan Österlind - known as the guitarist from Paul Di Anno (ex Iron Maiden), and the fiddler Thomas Von Wachenfeldt. The aim is to market the album on the English, German, American and Swedish market in 2009. Plenty of her new singles are already played daily on various independent radio stations and podcasts as; last.fm, the U.S. satellite radio Channel 43, and Somojo; where she has also been in the top 20 chart since December 08 with five tracks from the album "Gardenia".

Sol Skugga has been signed to the American promotion company Rainmaker Public Relations roster since spring 2008 and got in contact with the production company Happy Minds in Östersund through them. In August, her collaboration with Happy Minds founder Stefan Hallgren, resulted in the music video for "Empty Street". The video was recorded at a quarry near Östersund and edited by Sol.

The song "Empty Street" was recently appointed to one of the year 2008s best releases by the staff at the web radio Somojo. Sol Skugga also attended the Tele2 and Warner contest for un-signed artists earlier 2008 with the same song, and ended up as number 21 out of about 800 participating contributions.

Sol just moved up to Östersund to continue the cooperation with Happy Minds, who also mastered the album "Gardenia." During the last weeks she has been interviewed by local media, and broadcasted over local radio a couple of times. She just released the new video for Intuition, a session she shot in the "colourfabric" exhibition "Taptim", created by the Swedish artist Fredrik Wretman.

Sol has been a character on Internet since the late 90s and most recently in August 2008 she was interviewed by swedish radio P3 for her membership on the video blog Bambuser; one of the places online where she is sharing her life, thoughts and music. She has a bachelor’s degree in media and interaction design from Lunds University and is interested in the creation of new digital solutions in addition to her music career.

She has recently been signed to the record label Cauldron Soundwerx in the eastern U.S. and they are now preparing a small U.S. tour for her in late summer 2009. Visit www.myspace.com/solskugga or www.solskugga.com to take part of her universe, which, besides music holds writing, photography and illustrations.

Pressclippings

"Slick, dark, semi-gothic pop" - Skopemag
"The tracks may do well on the pop tracks, but there is something much more deep and meaningful to the tracks on “Swimming Without Webbed Toes”" - Neufutur
"Swimming Without Webbed Toes is an album that is a must-add to one's music collection to totally experience Skugga's compositions and talents on all levels, as well as watch out for her follow-up work" - Indie music stop
"Skugga's songwriting achieves a lyrical balance that comes across as Euro-pragmatism—a blend of youthful naiveté and cutting brutality"
"She has an impressive vocal range..."- caughtinthecarousel
"Overall it feels beautifully dark with Sol’s classical voice pouring like a clear trickle through the mellow ambience, whether it’s a folk-inspired piece or a more dense goth-inspired music. The electronica forms the base of the music, but a great interplay with foremost brilliant guitars and violins creates nice contrasts." - Meadow music
"This girl has what it takes." - Ravenheart music