© Johanna Billing: You don't love me yet, artist: Emmon

The starting point of this project is the song 'You Don't Love Me Yet' by American singer-songwriter Roky Erickson, from the mid-80s. (See lyrics attached). In both a hopeful and disillusioned way, the song points out the difficulty of being in a relationship and daring to lose control of oneself.

The project begins 2nd October 2002 with a live performance at Index. Johanna Billing's projects often involve people that participate by being themselves and contributing their own experiences, in situations that are both directed and documentary in approach. 'You Don't Love Me Yet' invites some twenty young people involved in music, solo artists and a variety of bands, to perform an interpretation of the song, coming together as a form of manifestation. On a superficial level, it borrows from such events as Band Aid, where various artists collaborate for a common cause. The invited artists mostly belong to Stockholm's alternative music scene. Later in the autumn, those contributing will all join together in order to perform one single version of the song, which will result in a recording and a video.

The project primarily stems from the feeling that it is increasingly difficult for young, urban people to actually live the kind of life they want. And for some, love can become a repressed need in a lifestyle that steers us far away from what we actually long for. Writer Rachel Newsome captured this phenomenon when she wrote in the British lifestyle magazine 'Dazed and Confused': "If we lived in small towns, then we'd all be married with kids by now."

Participating artists:

Eric Beyond, Hello Goodbye, Marit Bergman, Ayesha och Diba, Karl Holmqvist, Steven Cuzner, Saralunden, Jmy Haze Beat Box, Emmon, Pistolband, Per Nyström och Martin Linder och Henrik Ahl, Florian, Mika Pollack, Magnus Vikström & Eva Wiggström (Granada), Nina Ramsby, First Floor Power, Per Gävert, Laakso.

Welcome!

For more information and press pictures contact Index.



YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET

Lightning never strikes anymore
but I can't make it rain
because it would only lightning again
Lightning never strikes anymore
but I can't make it rain
because it would only cause me pain

I have my start but I never have begun
because without you my life is unsung
I have my start but I don't have a part
because without you it only breaks my heart

To be or not to be
that's the question unceasingly
but without you I would long to be yours to be
cause without you I'm not a king
cause without you it will never do
cause I can't think what life would be like without you

cause you don't love me yet
you don't love me yet
I just won't forget because you don't love me yet

Roky Erickson, recorded 1984