Interview with New Sunday

Knowing that Einar Askelsson discovered songwriting during recovery from CPTSD gives the songs a quiet emotional authenticity that feels earned. What began as a daily ritual to ease anxiety has evolved into a thoughtful creative process, where carefully crafted compositions are brought to life through collaboration with a vocalist and producer.

I admire how Einar embraces technology as a songwriting tool without sacrificing the heart of the music. New Sunday only needs purpose and melodies born from lived experience to create a genuine connection with us.

Interview with New Sunday

(^)> New Sunday is described as a studio band rather than a traditional live project. What made you choose this creative path instead of building a conventional band with plans to perform?

I was in my fourties when I started to write songs so it´s not my priority to play in a live band. My strenghts are creativity in writing poems, lyrics and music. That´s where I am now and probably will be.

(^)> Your journey into music began unexpectedly during a difficult period in your life. Looking back, what do you think it was about the guitar that helped you reconnect with yourself and begin healing?

Honestly I don´t know or didn´t knew at that time. Due to my CPTSD I went though a very painful time in my life. The pain from anxiety and panic attacks plus emoitonal flashbacks (you live through the original pain) was something I hope nobody has to experience. I fought for 2 years and that ruined my life and in fact I´m lucky to be alive. What I experienced in the end was something I can´t explain. After that I believe in destiny. So destiny wanted me to grab a guitar rather something else. I´ve heard about same experince from other guitarists and musicians. Creating music is a way to express your emotions. Not necessarily your own experience. Imagine the pain and agony in blues music. That´s real.

(^)> You discovered that playing guitar in the mornings helped calm your anxiety. Did you immediately recognize music as something powerful in your recovery, or was that something you understood only later?

It was not a one day discovery. Slowly day by day when playing the guitar I got into some kind of a zone. Like I´ve said I´ve such a creative mind. I tried to play songs by others on guitar but I always ended trying to make something. It was meant to be from the beginning I´ll say. But powerful it was and is.

(^)> Before writing songs, you used poetry as a way to transform thoughts and emotions into words. How did the transition from poetry to songwriting happen?

At that time I couldn´t find any professional help in CPTSD recovering. By reading articles, listening to doctors, therepist ect I learned about what was wrong with me and some basic stuff for recovery. I´m that kind of a guy I never give up. I simply created my own selfhelp therapy. Writing about what happened was like talking to someone else. Before that time I had never written a poem. I just started to do it specially when I was walking in the nature as I did every day. I found it a fascanited form to express my thoughts into words. Like I said before I always ended up trying to create tunes or songs so one day I tried to write songs based on my lyrics. That was a turning point because I use the same methods today.

(^)> After 12 years of creating music, you have developed from someone who knew only a few chords into a songwriter with a strong understanding of guitar and music theory. What has been the most rewarding part of that evolution?

It´s about 12 years since I started to use the guitar as a self helper. I was experimenting and aslo slowly I became interested in learning more chords and about music. My first songs were instrumental. I found the Hoodpad Theory tool at that time and there I created my experimental songs. I have one I like after that called Emotional Travel. It´s a kind of a rock opera.

https://soundcloud.com/einar-askelsson-956014787/the-emotional-trauma-instrumental?si=f490de0dce86498da47ab89110ad6002&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The songwriting was not serious until after my recovery. You can say it was my study time. And learning by doing. The most rewarding part is what I felt from the beginning. Playing the guitar, studying and writing music did always calm me down and still does. It helped me a lot to recover. That´s very rewarding. And I became a songwriter!

(^)> You describe yourself as a songwriter first and foremost. What is it about creating melodies, lyrics, and arrangements that connects with you more deeply than performing?

Yes it was. Also it´s very time consuming process. You write lyrics and the music. That´s one thing. If I wanna release it it´s a lot of work in doing that. Also the promotion. Like I said before creating music was a healer for me. In my poems I could process how I felt at that time. Creating the music is to transfer the words into notes. In my opinion creating music is a way to express your emotions. So music was a gift from at that time. I put my heart and soul into almost every song I write. I haven´t performed live so I can´t compare with songwriting.

(^)> Your process begins with writing a song and then building the instrumental foundation using Hooktheory. How does this structured approach help you translate an idea in your head into a complete musical arrangement?

It helped me a lot. Using Hoodpad you need to know at least the basic music theory. Hoodpad is more like a template with tools. I started to read about music theory like the circle of 5th and I´m still learning. To use Hookpad I had to decide in what time signature the song´s gonna be and understand why. Same for the key of the song and the tempo (BPM). Hoodpad allows you to put in chords and create meodies from the notes within the chosen key. I could grab instruments. I learned by doing by experimenting with writing instrumental songs.

I still use Hoodpad to create the initial arrangement for the songs I want to release. From there I convert an audio file for the vocalist to sing over.

(^)> Since you manually define elements such as key, BPM, time signature, chords, melodies, and song structure, how important is the technical side of music theory in helping you express creativity?

I believe I answered this in the question before. I can only tell for me but to learn the technical side of music theory was very important because it didn´t limited my creativity. It gave me a tool to structure my creativity.

(^)> Once the vocalist records their part, you work closely with the producer through an exchange of ideas until the arrangement feels right. What makes a collaboration successful during that final stage of shaping a song?

I work closely with the vocalist first. After the producer gets the file he develops his firts idea. From then we are in constant ping pong communications. Like I´ve said earlier in most songs I have a picture of a storyline in my mind and I´m trying to get into the music. So there´s a lot of tiny stuff we are discussing. But I give the producer total freedom to work on the song. Sometimes we need to add vocals. Sometimes instruments and the producer takes care of that. All of what I mentioned above is crucial to be happy with the outcome.

(^)> New Sunday’s music comes from a very personal place. Do you hope listeners connect with the emotional journey behind the songs, even if they do not know the story that inspired them?

Good question. I haven´t given it a thought to be honest. I don´t know really. I guess the melody is what grab the listeners most. Some might wanna read and understand the lyrics. Thinking upload maybe and hopefully my lyrics will help people who relate to my experince. That would be great.

(^)> Many musicians dream of playing live, but your passion is focused on songwriting and studio creation. What do you think people misunderstand about the role of a songwriter?

Do people misunderstand? I don´t know. Nowadays you only need a computer and some tools to create music. To guess I will say they might misunderstand the effort it takes to write lyrics and the music.

(^)> After everything music has given you personally, what does New Sunday represent for you today, and what kind of stories or emotions do you hope to explore in future releases?

New Sunday has given me chance to let my lyrics and songwriting sound professional enough to play on radio. I have so many poems to write lyrics from. I probaly will always write something personal. Well I have some demos in my catalog that´s not my experiments. I have this Ska song I really like. Totally different from what New Sunday is releasing today.

I have on dream you can say. I hope my music gives other musicians the interest to record it. I would be very happy if that happens. That´s what I hope the future brings for me. If it gets popular then I might not need New Sunday. Let´s see.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out New Sunday on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist