Per Störby Jutbring is a Swedish multi-instrumentalist, composer and artist. His music is rooted in the Scandinavian airy sound, with post-classic orchestration and modern electronics, drawing on minimalism. He has produced and composed 19 albums, toured the world with his band New Tide Orquesta, made electronic pop as Zeigeist and composed music for a wide array of media including TV, film, theatre-plays and dance performances, composed for choir, pop and electro. Don't miss our conversation with Per Störby Jutbring, covering topics such as influences, upcoming projects, and life.

Can you tell us about your early years in music, growing up in Falkenberg? How did the coastal environment and small-town life influence your musical journey?

Oh, Falkenberg is a hate love place, haha! It is a small town in Sweden, by the sea, where about 35k inhabitants live, with mile-long white beaches, open nature, the sea, air. During the summers I lived just a few meters from the sea and cycled around just like in the video for ”Undertow” (from ”The Thief Bunny Society” 2020). But it was not just romantic, the small middle-class society also meant a small-town boredom for frustrated teenagers. But I guess it pushed us to be creative. We didn’t have much else to do but form bands in small garages and hope for something ”else”. I longed away. The music became my driving force and Falkenberg was the push in the back, like an inner motor. The motor grew strong there, and has always helped me. It still does.

These days I have a different relationship with the small town. The world has become smaller, distances that used to be an eternity are so much shorter nowadays. I still spend my summers there, I think it’s an absolutely amazing place and get very inspired by it. As always, I guess.

Who were some of the composers or musicians that inspired you early on? How did they influence your approach to composition?

In my teens I moved towards jazz, studied piano and improvisation and soon found Pat Metheny who became a great source of inspiration. I started to play the amazing instrument Bandoneon (a sort of accordion, commonly used in tango, sounds as beautiful as it is difficult to play), and fell in love with the music of Astor Piazzolla. I loved his courage, to mix the old with the new, to handle traditional material in an unconventional way. And his sound, his way of playing a single note extremely interesting and beautiful. And then I love everything with Keith Jarrett of course. Always astonishingly beautiful piano playing! I’ve also been a lot into pop and electronic music and been inspired by everything between Gorillaz and Björk. I moved to Berlin and immersed myself in electronic music, started my pop alter ego band Zeigeist. Then of course I listened a lot to the post classics and minimalistic composers, like Phillip Glass, Michael Nyman, Arvo Pärt. Nina Simone (fantastic pianist!) and Joni Mitchell have also always been around. And then I must not forget the most basic of them all – Bach. A never-ending source of inspiration.

All this has become my backpack of inspiration. Most of these composers and performers, and others I like, have a common denominator in curiosity, the way to mix new with old, find new paths, to develop. And that’s something I’m trying to achieve myself.

With such an impressive variety of genres in your music, do you have a “favorite” style or genre, or does your preference change depending on the project?

No, I probably don’t have a favorite genre. I often like what is outside of genres, maybe what is a little more surprising, sub culture. But then again I also love pop music. I feel so curious about everything so I often can’t stay within a genre. But it’s also a lot of fun to do so many different things. Everything is fun!

What is your usual creative process when composing a new piece, and do you have any rituals that help you focus on the music?

I am a hard worker. No fuzzy artists soul achingly waiting for inspiration to create compositions between red wine and late nights. I get up in the morning, eat breakfast, go for a run, drink coffee and start working. Most of the time I sit in front of the computer or the piano, but work can also mean reading a short story or watching a film. Sometimes I create premises for music, that it can only contain a maximum of two chords or must be based on other creative things, or art. I love pretentious ideas like how Julio Cortazar (Argentine writer) wrote his short story ”The Clone”, upon Bach’s Musical Offering, a story about a small choir singing Gesualdo madrigals with characters and dialogue following the instrumentation and counterpoint of the full score. Wow! But I never seem to fulfill those kind of premises, I just start with them, haha. But it’s a way of ”starting the game”.

Having released 19 albums, is there a specific album or project that feels particularly special to you?

My albums are like one’s own little children. Everyone has their quirks, strengths and weaknesses, and I love them all. Having said that, there are albums that bring out special memories, for example the enthusiastic audience in the overcrowded and hot concert hall in Rio (New Tide Orquesta - Live in Rio), or all the performances with confetti, blood and feathers (Zeigeist - The Jade Motel), or when I was recording at night in an empty old haunted house and someone or something kept knocking, moving stuff and opening doors (”Dance Of The Diaper Fairy”).

Do you have any upcoming projects or new collaborations that you’re excited about?

I have recorded a lot of improvisations, solo piano, during a residence in the concert hall Studio Acusticum in Piteå, north of Sweden, which will probably become a new album soon. Right now I’m finishing up a film with some orchestral recordings, out next Christmas. A finished series is also coming up on SVT, Swedish public service. And I will soon start working on two new series that feels really exciting, but unfortunately I’m never allowed to say anything about these film projects before they’re out, haha. I’ll release the score albums for the film and series as well. And I have a really fun tour project coming up during 2025! Right now I’m dying to get out there and play live, meet the audience.

Finally, from your perspective, what is the meaning of life?

Family, friends, nature, animals, social relationships. Coffee, salty licorice. To be touched. To have fun and laugh at your own expense.