Theresa Andersson - Biography
Theresa Andersson is a Swedish-born singer-songwriter, collaborator and multi-tasking instrumentalist who moved to New Orleans in 1990 at 18-years-old. Having performed and recorded with a who’s who of New Orleans-based musicians, such as Allen Toussaint, Betty Harris and The Neville Brothers, the unconventional rock violinist also has learned to play a host of instruments and performs live with enriching loop pedals (which she handles with her dexterous toes) to take the place of additional band members. She is commonly called a “one woman band” with her efficiency in replicating an entire rhythm section. Andersson is also known for her exuberant, strong voice and her quirky songcraft—a combination that had Rolling Stone describing her as a “spacier, sultrier Feist.” Since moving to the Big Easy, she has released five full-length albums and a pair of EPs, while touring extensively in the U.S. and Europe. She has also had cameo roles in film and television shows, performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, while earning a spot as the consummate DIY artist by posting a YouTube video of her paying all her own instruments and loops, barefoot and simultaneously, on the song “Na Na Na.”
Born on the largest island in the Baltic Sea, Sweden’s Gotland diocese, Andersson moved with her then-boyfriend Anders Osborne to New Orleans to form a band. In her earliest recorded work, she appeared on Osborne’s records. Her first full-length album—Vibes (Rabadash)—would come out in 1994, a collection of jazz ballads, Thelonius Monk covers and traditional songs. Soon thereafter she was doing session work with George McCorkle, Martin Hoybye, Kenny Edwards, Jake Band, Mike West and many others, moving and trying out other southern ports such as Austin, Texas and Nashville.
But she had developed a love for New Orleans and returned there to begin working more as a solo artist. Her second LP, No Regrets (2002 PoVolt) was an evolved sound for Andersson, with a roots rock/indie soul vibe that was more honed and stylish than her jazz record of six years prior. Two years later she would sign with New Orleans-based Basin Street Records and release Shine (2004), which featured a cover of the firebrand Osborne’s “It’s Going to Be Okay” and the down home number “Break Up.” Other notables that showed up on the record were Grayson Capps (“Lorraine’s Song”) and Jon Cleary (shared vocal on “It’s Going to Be Okay”). That same year Andersson would venture out into film, appearing in a bit role on the cable series, Infidelity. She would also release her first EP, Theresa Andersson The EP in spring of 2004.
After another EP—this one a teaser called I The River (2006)—Andersson returned with her most ambitious and unconventional pop album to date, Hummingbird, Go! (2008 Basin Street Records). The album’s material was written largely outdoors in Andersson’s private musings, along the banks of the Mississippi and in her garden, and reflect a fleeting mood. It was produced by fellow Gotland native and singer/songwriter Tobias Fröberg (whom she says is like her “brother”) and was recorded over a month in her kitchen with Tobias contributions using various utensils, appliances and off-kilter instrumentation (wine glasses, soda pop bottles filled to varying levels, mouth percussion). Allen Toussaint and poet Jessica Faust contributed to the album, along with Norwegian artist Ane Brun on the track “Innan du går.” With the infusion of Scandinavian indie pop and her own sense of songwriting, Hummingbird, Go! was lauded in the media for its makeshift innovation.
In 2010, Andersson released a DVD called Theresa Andersson Live at Le Petit, which is a live recording from a show at the famed Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans. The performance contains new material, as well as a duet with Toussaint on the song “On Your Way Down.”
She also performed a set at Amoeba Hollywood on January 17, 2009 during a West Coast swing, playing the entire carousel of instruments while turning loop knobs with her toes.
