ISABEL NEIB

There is hardly a second of Isabel Neib’s life that hasn’t consisted of music. It’s as if she was chosen by music, and not the other way around. Already as a child she sang at weddings and funerals, and it wasn’t long before she started to identify herself as a songwriter. With a burning passion and endless ambition, she went from being a touring musician, and collaborating with the likes of Iiris Viljanen and Jonathan Johansson, to pursuing a solo career.

On her debut album, I Already Know, we witness Isabel Neib as a confident, full-fledged and fiercely determined artist. All the work she has done, a tireless commute between the town of Rågsved, her work and the studio in Hökarängen, can be heard. The home-built recording corner on the island of Alnö outside Sundsvall, where she got up at 06:00 every day to work on the album, can also be heard. Whether you choose to focus on the impeccable, soulful vocal performance or her flair for well-timed synth loops, it’s hard to tear yourself away once you enter her universe.

Together with the album’s co-producer Michelle Amkoff (Carly Rae Jepsen, Amason), Isabel Neib describes a creative and playful creation process for the songs. Analog synths, spontaneous little details, everything has been allowed to take place. ”Not even what was recorded by chance remains there by chance,” she says. Perhaps that’s why the bittersweet melancholy of I Had You By My Side feels particularly searing. And maybe that’s why the grandiose Home feels so euphoric when the chorus kicks in.

I Already Know is the product of being true to yourself and going your own way, at any cost. Because nothing comes for free.  The opening track Twenty One, whose soothing mantra of ”somebody’s going to find you” distills a sense of hope in all the darkness. I Already Know may be characterized by artistic integrity, but the album also contains an equal amount of workmanship and relentless attention to detail.

I Already Know was released 2023 November 24 through Isabel Neib’s own record label Hatago Records.