Ruido is our new music feature, where we ask different individuals from our scene to put together a playlist with ten of their favorite songs and explain why they picked each, giving us an insight into their minds when there’s noise.
Our third guest is one of Sweden’s most stylish riders, Simon Johansson.
“Music plays a very important role in my everyday life, as it’s one of the biggest inspirations and motivations for everything I do. It has formed myself and my riding into what it is today. Picking only ten songs is something I knew would be difficult, but here’s a collection of songs that always find their way back to me–songs that paint pictures in my head and make me feel good.” – Simon
- Daniel Norgren – The Flow: Norgren is a fantastic artist. His music makes your soul melt, and I could probably pick more than 10 songs just with him. To see him play live takes you to another dimension. That’s why I picked this live take of “The Flow”
- Stefan Missios – Faust: I love the bluesy/soulful way he sings, and it stands out a lot from today’s music, in my opinion. Also, the Swedish lyrics are just as heavy as the melody in this song.
- Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission: this tune makes me stoked. It has something powerful in it that makes you feel like you can overcome most things in life.
- Big Thief – Not: This song has such a haunted energy, which is just amazing, and has a mix of beauty and disaster. Adrianne’s solo at the end is just insane.
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Fudge: BJM is a band that’s really grown on me these last couple of years. I got the chance to use one of their songs for my first Santa Cruz video, and since then, it’s been a go-to band for me. It always puts me in a good mood.
- The Band, Neil Young – Helpless: everything about Neil Young is just awesome. I chose this awesome live version from the last waltz concert because I’m a big fan of The Band.
- Dougie Poole – High School Gym: I really enjoy ”cosmic country” music, and this song has such a good vibe.
- The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt: from my younger teenage years to my late twenties, Kristian’s music has had a big impact on me. His music made me listen and appreciate it on a whole another level, and inspired me to start playing guitar.
- Jonathan Wilson – Valley of the Silver Moon: this is just an amazing song that has such a mysterious and heavy groove that makes me dream away for a moment.
- The War On Drugs – Arms Like Boulders: this song paints pictures in my head about being on the road. I’ve been listening to this song a lot while road-tripping through Sweden to visit friends and bike parks over the summertime.