Amit, former member of the A*teens and a driven entrepreneur has just released his first solo album “Songs in a key of mine”. The songs are a positive, sincere pop with influences ranging from the Cure to Queen and Robbie Williams. The material is his own, he releases it on his own lable and he has co-produced. Amit is the pop-product that took control of his destiny.

Amit Paul, 25 years old, born on the 29th of October in 1983 in Piteå in the far north of Sweden. His father came from India some 10 years earlier and his mother was originally from Värmland in the west of Sweden. Amit was born into an entrepreneurial family where humility and hard work was always in focus. Early on in it became clear that music would play a major role in Amit’s life, even if everyone thought that his academic career would become his major source of income.

Amit has always been into music, at least that’s what he says when I ask him when his passion started. It began with his grandmother (an accomplished organist and choir leader as well as music teacher) and mother playing for him since before he was born. At the age of two he enjoyed classical music and used to conduct the Vienna symphonic orchestra every year in front of the TV on New Years day. “I’ve always loved classical music such as Mozart, Hayden, Beethoven and Bach, it feels as if that’s where my musical root is. That’s the music I grew up with.” says Amit. At the age of four he started taking piano lessons and were already singing soprano in his grandmothers choir. At the age of 10 Amit applied for one of Sweden’s best schools for musical education, Adolf Fredrik’s school of music. Amit spent the following 9 years of his life singing classical choir pieces while learning musical theory almost as a second language. Combined with great academic results Amit’s understanding of music deepened vastly during these years.

At the age of 13 Amit took a ‘real’ dance class for the fist time in his life. This happened when his two years younger sister, who had taken lessons since she was a kid, switched dance studios and Amit, wondering if he might enjoy it, tagged along. This got him into renowned Lasse Kühlers dance studio. And lead to that he found his second real love, dance. After skipping through levels, due to his natural talent for dance and rhythm, he was placed in a group with boys who had been training for a lot longer than him. This was also where Amit met with his future band mate Dhani for the first time.
The studio, at the time, was known for it’s jitterbug and the students also took ballet jazz, funk, street and tap. The time with the studio taught Amit a lot about acting on stage, “Kühlers really taught me the art of showmanship in a way that you can only learn if you get great guidance and a lot of practice”.

His break in music however came unexpectedly: “When we came to the audition we only knew that it was secret and that only a few selected people from the [dance] studio were allowed to come. All we knew was that it had to do with some type of group that were to be formed”. What Amit and the others auditioned for and got that November was the job in Sweden’s first manufactured pop band: the A*teens. This was the moment where the realist Amit, for the first time, understood that music could actually become a serious carrier option for him.
In 1999 A*teens was on the charts everywhere, what was meant to be a tribute to ABBA’s 25th anniversary of their Eurovision Song Contest-win (1974), had become a massive hit in all of Europe. 6 years later the band called it quits. During these hectic years Amit and the others had travelled about 250 to 300 days a year, toured every continent except Australia and Africa, on their own as well as with superstar acts such as Brittney Spears, *N Sync and Whitney Huston. Sold more records than the Beatles in Chile. Been in the studio with three albums and a greatest hits, recorded a song with rock legend Alice Cooper, and collected gold and platinum records from all over the world. They also achieved rock star status in Mexico, were greeted by thousands of fans on Santiago’s airport and did more than 1500 live shows. “A*teens was the best trip of my life, we had so much success and I’m blessed to have participated in such a huge project, it made me to the person I am today in very many ways”.
But why did you decide to call it quits after all this success?
“I was done. There is no better way to explain it, we had done everything and what was such a great education for me in the beginning was wearing me down. All the politics and the focus on sales took most of what I thought was fun in music out of music.”

“I am grateful that I had the discipline and drive to continue studying that is what actually put the passion back into music for me. If I had not realised that I had options I do not thing that I would have stayed in the business. When I started studying for my business degree at the Stockholm school of economics I realised that I had options. I could do music on my own terms and so I started the project that later became my album.”
Amit was studying during the days and arranging and writing material during the nights for two years before he took a break and focused on getting the album done working with Patric Jonsson and Joakim Övrenius. The album was engineered by Martin von Schmalensee and mixed by Simon Nordberg. Musicians that participated was Victor Buck, Hasse Sjölander, Stafan Olsson, David Fjelde among others. “The fact that we went into the studio and recorded a ‘real album’ was a dream coming true for me, all analogue equipment, getting a groove, using click but only as support. People don’t do records like this anymore, it is to expensive but I had to, it was all I ever wanted.”

Reviews have complemented Amit’s songwriting and the amount of personality he puts into his songs. Daring to bare his soul (Resume). “I’m far from done with this just because I released an album. I already have a couple of more projects coming out, I think it is important to do a lot of stuff and not be afraid to lay it all on the line every time. I challenge myself to be a better songwriter and do things that are not expected of me. The music I do is something I feel for and something I believe in. Playing live is like a therapy session for me, it is crazy how much it takes out of you and how much I get back. I’m extremely proud of ‘Songs in a key of mine’ it is the first step on a long journey for me, just as A*teens gave me certain possibilities now I know what it is to do it on your own and I’m loving every step of the way.”

(Stockholm, 2008-08-07)