African cassavas to sweet-smelling Dutch tulips. And,
although Malmö’s population barely tops 300,000, it has
a seriously eclectic music scene. In short, it could well be
the perfect place for Europe’s biggest music event.
“
You can get a lot of help here as a musician,” says
local pop singer Michelle Zarati, who uses the stage
name Nova Delai. “There are writing classes, dance
lessons – plus it’s easy to get to know other people with
similar interests.” The 18-year-old picked up the guitar
when she was six and wrote her first song at the age of
nine (though she insists the lyrics got “more serious”
when she reached 11 or 12). Now she
has a management team behind her,
and is hoping to record her debut
album this summer.
On the streets around Folkets
Park, the tired-looking amusement
complex that’s home to one of
Malmö’s biggest nightclubs, Debaser
(
2
Norra Parkgatan; debaser.se
),
people aren’t just making music, but
buying it too. Peeling posters
advertising last week’s big gigs lead
to independent record shops
catering to rockers, hip-hoppers and everyone in
between. Inside, it’s often hard to move
for musicians browsing racks stuffed with punk,
electronica, black metal, Swedish hardcore, minimal
synth, dub, thrash and house. At one of the most popular
places, Rundgång (
14
Kristianstadsgatan; rundgong.se
),
LPs sell for more than SEK150 (€17.50) a pop. All this
in the country where Spotify was invented.
Simon Eliasson, a 27-year-old DJ and blogger with
big, gold-framed glasses, is one of Rundgång’s regulars.
“
It’s kind of like a kindergarten for adults,” he says,
Belle Epoque
(43
Södra Skolgatan; belle-epoque.se)
is a lively cocktail bar with DJs every night. "It’s a nice
place to play records, and a lot of my friends play there.”
DJ SIMON ELIASSON
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