INA FORSMAN

En una de sus visitas a nuestro País con : 

Travellin' Brothers Feat. Ina Forsman "PRETTY MESSED UP" Festival Jazz San Javier 2018








ABOUT BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU

It takes a special artist to snatch triumph from the jaws of disaster. Rewind to 2016

and everything was going right for Ina Forsman. The 24-year-old singer had gone

from Finland’s best-kept secret to Ruf’s hottest new signing. Her self-titled debut had

wowed the music press, from Classic Rock (“dynamite voice”) to Blues Blast (“debut

album of the year”). She’d blazed her reputation in the US and Europe on that year’s

Blues Caravan tour, and couldn’t slow the torrent of new songs that flowed from her.

Then fate threw a curveball. While gigging in New York, Ina lost her phone –

and with it, every last scrap of new material. A lesser artist would have crumbled. But

as you’d expect from a road-warrior who paid her dues under blues heroes like Guy

Verlinde and Helge Tallqvist, Ina stood tall, breathed deep, wiped the slate clean and

took two more years to pen a fresh batch of songs. “For a long time, I was so angry

at myself,” she remembers. “But at the end of the day, I’m happy I lost my phone. I

lived a little more life – and was able to write better songs with more emotion.”

We’ve had the introductions. Now, on second album Been Meaning To Tell

You, Ina brings the listener closer than an old friend, spilling her deepest emotions

while surveying the beauty (and beasts) of the modern world. Tracked at Austin’s

Wire Recording Studio with producer Mark ‘Kaz’ Kazanoff and a world-class band,

these are twelve songs for life’s highs and lows, whether you want speaker-rattling

soul for wild nights or a slow-blues for licking your wounds. “Let the music heal you,”

Ina advises, “or break you momentarily if you’re not ready to get back up yet.”

                 


Some listeners will focus on Ina’s incredible vocal, as she slips from the feline

purr of Be My Home and the rapid-fire punch of Get Mine, to the conversational flow

of Figure. But perhaps still more impressive is the quality of her original songwriting.

As on her debut, Ina is a creative force here, penning all the lyrics and co-writing the

music, on an emotional rollercoaster that swerves between the acid-jazz of All Good,

Genius’s raucous soul and the shivering slow-blues Miss Mistreated. “That song is

about getting out of a bad relationship,” explains Ina, “and I wrote Who Hurt You for

my best friend, who spent a long time trying to leave an abusive relationship.”

She’s full of surprises. Try Every Single Beat, with its Latin rhythms and a lyric

that Ina hopes will let you “feel the moment and stop being so goddamn concerned

what other people are thinking”. Try Chains, with its throbbing percussion and gang-

chant vocals. Even when she writes a love song, Ina twists the template, with

Whatcha Gonna Do and Why You Gotta Be That Way giving two perspectives on

sexual harassment. “The first song tells the situation from a man’s point of view,” she

explains. “He sees a beautiful girl, tries to get her attention and ends up making

some fucked-up decisions. The second song tells the story from the girl’s point of

view: she just wants to carry on with her stuff but this dude won’t leave her alone.”

It all ends with the stunning Sunny – a smoky acapella masterclass, written

entirely by Ina, that sends you off into the world with goosebumps, ready to spread

the word about this extraordinary artist. Been Meaning To Tell You is the second

album that you hoped Ina Forsman was capable of – and then some. Let us all be

thankful that she lost her phone…