We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Pehrsson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sandra , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I always find all projects I do meaningful, but I would specifically like to mention two very meaningful projects.

The first project is what I am working on right now, my first full length Jazz Album.
As a child, music was my life and I performed and studied music since I was a very young girl, but it wasn’t until my late teens that I was introduced to jazz.
Something that I have not shared with my audience before is that growing up, I struggling with severe anorexia (which I hope to write a book about in the future). I was in and out of hospitals to stay alive and at my lowest point, I could not even do music anymore. Music, that I had lived my whole life for, became a part of my disease and it took me a couple of years to even be able to touch a piano again.

As I started to become a little better, I decided to try to gently find my way back to music again and I joined the local girl choir. It was in this girl choir that I first got introduced to jazz. Something happened to me every time we sang the jazz songs, I could basically not stand still. I started to feel alive again.
I remembered the other girls used to look at me funny as I was stamping my foot and my body nearly uncontrollably moved to the jazzy rhythms, but I did not care! I felt that jazz saved my life in a way, it opened up my heart and soul to music again and it made me realize that I needed to have music in my life full time. It proved to me that I really do love music, and that music had NOTHING to do with the terrible disease.

After I realized how much I loved – and love jazz, I decided to focus on studying jazz and to continue my music journey. I studied jazz at several schools in Sweden and then moved to the UK to further my jazz education at Leeds College of Music – now Leeds Conservatoire. I ended up also getting a job as a singing teacher at the same school and I stayed in the UK working as a jazz singer/musician and singing teacher for many years. During these years, as I was doing many gigs all over the UK, the audience were asking for my album and I kept saying that I will record it soon.
I was so busy performing and teaching and didn’t take the time to record my album there.

In 2012, I ended up moving to Los Angeles, California. Here I ended up joining several other bands both as a singer and musician but it wasn’t until recently that I finally decided to record my Jazz Album. I am so excited to have an amazing producer behind this project and also fabulous jazz musicians that have worked with various famous musicians over the years.
This album means so much to me as jazz saved my life, in a way, and I am so excited to finally share my jazz voice and soul with the world.

The second project that also means very much to me, is my original song “We Will Be Okay”.

I also write songs and this song came to me during the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown. It was a dark time when we didn’t know what the future would be, how long the pandemic would last, if we would be able to stay healthy, if we would live or die or if we would be able to see our friends and family again. It was before the vaccines were out and I felt the whole world was in the same situation.
With “We Will Be Okay”, I wanted to give hope and faith to everyone. I wanted to spread love and hope with my song, I feel we can all relate to it.
I invited 36 children to sing, a mix of my younger singing and piano students and my friend’s children. They all recorded the chorus virtually, mostly just on their phones and then sent it to me. My producer did an amazing job of mixing all their voices into the chorus of the song.
The pandemic effected children so much too, they could not see their friends and go to school in person for such a long time. I felt it was so important to have children be a part of this project. I also did a video for the song with real photos of real people from the pandemic, I feel the video gives a message in itself.

This project meant so much to me as my goal with it was to help people to get hope and feel that we are all together in this – even if we could not be together in person.
The song has been listened to all over the world on Spotify and it’s been chosen for many playlists, specifically playlists for children.

Sandra , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Sandra Pehrsson and I am a Swedish singer/songwriter, jazz singer, musician and singing and piano teacher. I grew up in Sweden and music has been a part of my life ever since I was a child. Apparently, the only thing that could stop me from crying as a baby was a specific song and also, my family has has told me that as a toddler, they heard me pick out a children’s song by ear on my toy keyboard. So in other words, music has been within me my whole life.

I studied music from a young age and I started to perform in public at talent shows when I was about 10 years old. I was always very serious about my music and it meant everything to me.
After having studied at several music schools in Sweden, I moved to the UK to focus more on jazz and study at Leeds College of music (LCM), now Leeds Conservatoire. In the UK, I started to work as a jazz singer and I also started to teach singing. I got hired by the LCM and also taught at other schools and privately. I loved my career and time in the UK and stayed for nearly 13 years there.

In 2012, I moved to the US, first to just get some more inspiration for my music and then I ended up staying. Here, I’m working both as a singer and musician, both solo and in other bands. I do regular gigs with former Tower of Power singer Lenny Goldsmith’s band The New Old, write and perform my own songs, co-write songs for other artists, do duo gigs with my duo SandraKota and solo performances.
As mentioned before, I am also currently recording my jazz album, which I am very excited about. I am planning to do more jazz concerts this year.

Besides my performances, I also teach singing and piano, and have done so for over 23 years. I am very passionate about my teaching as well. My music teachers always encouraged and inspired me growing up and I want to be an inspiration for others. I want to help my students reach their goals, whether it is to work professionally in music or just do music for fun.
I believe music is for everyone, it’s important for our health to be able to express ourselves through music and arts.
It’s never too late to learn, I have taught students from the age of 3 to over 90 years old.

I think what sets me apart from others is both how I use colors to explain the voice and use visualizations to help with technique. My experience in teaching so many different kinds of people in different counties has taught me how to work effectively with many personality types and skill levels.

With my teaching style, I believe that the best way to learn is to play what you like. I don’t always use books where the students have to go through certain stages to be able to play the tunes they like, I let them choose more freely and then I find a way to teach them what they need to know through those pieces, Sometimes I also arrange harder pieces to easier arrangements that will suit my students’ ability level.

When it comes to singing, I also believe that it is important to develop my student’s full register, I prefer to not put my students’ voices in “pigeon holes” like soprano, alto, tenor etc. Yes, the voice may find it “easier” to sing in a certain register, but I truly believe that it’s important to be able to use more than just one part of the voice.
I learned this as I grew up and trained my voice since a young age. My first singing teachers often were thrilled over my high register and helped me train mostly my high voice. As I got older and also wanted to sing more popular songs and jazz, with a more stylistically lower range, I realized that I had not been trained in my lower register as much as my higher register. This made me seek out specific singing teachers that helped me more with that.
Being trained in both classical and popular genres in how to place the voice to suit the different styles, I believe I can help my singing students develop a more versatile singing technique and style. That is why I always make sure I train my students’ full voice register.

I also do a little acting on the side and I have been in a couple of movies here in the US so far. I have also been in a few reality shows in the UK and Sweden.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that my goal is to make people feel better. I believe that music can help people work through emotions that can be hard to otherwise express.
Both through my music, my voice and teaching music.
Through my music and voice, I aim to touch people’s souls and to make them feel it in their heart. For example, I wrote a song about losing my dad a few years ago, and I had many people writing to me saying how the song made them feel and that they could relate to losing someone.

Through my teaching music, I also aim to help my students to believe more in themselves, to dare to live to their full potentials and to go for their goals. It’s important to me that my students trust me fully, I often become friends with my students. I do believe I can teach and reach them the most if they fully trust me.

I believe that the more people feel good about themselves and believe in themselves, the better lives they will have and the better the world will be.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When Covid and the pandemic hit, life changed for everyone. In lockdown, all my booked concerts got canceled and I couldn’t teach anyone in person. I first thought that I would not be able to work much and told myself that I would take this time to work more on my own music and write more songs etc.

But that changed, I ended up being able to move all my students to online lessons virtually and I also ended up getting many more new students. Of course it was not exactly the same as teaching in person, with piano lessons it was not a problem, all I needed my student to do was to have the camera pointed so that I could see both their hands and the keys on the piano.
The singing lessons were more of a challenge at first. Because of the slight time difference,I could not accompany my students in real time, but I trained myself to listen to their singing and voices a bit after I played the piano part.

It was a new skill that I basically had to learn if I wanted to continue to accompany my singing students.
I don’t think all teachers took on this challenge but it works for me and my students. =)

The other good thing about being able to teach online is that I now have students from further distances that previously couldn’t take lessons with me as they live in another state or country. I have had requests in the past to do online lessons but I hadn’t got around to figuring it out, the lockdown helped me to do it and now I have students from several different states in the US and I have also helped students in Europe.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sandrapehrsson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandrapehrsson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandra.pehrsson
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-pehrsson/
• Youtube: youtube.com/@sandrapehrsson
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4nFfh6SQVMzYZmlP3Tl1B6?si=y7U5KDIGQO6uBUqMDS86yA

Image Credits
For the photos, they are mostly mine but here are a few that has photographer credits. The one by LACMA, standing in white dress and white glasses is taken by Ryan Graham. The one on the red carpet from the movie premiere is taken by Nelson Shen. The black & white headshot is taken by James Michael.
Evan Klassen