Let's Get To Know Ed Sweet of Electric Sol

1- Where did you grow up? I grew up in Chicago. When I went away to college it bothered me when people would ask “What suburb?” because I’m a city kid through and through.

2- What is one of the first songs you remember liking as a kid? I was big into John Denver when I was like 8 or 9 years old. Rocky Mountain High!

3- What influenced you to get into music? Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 had an unexpectedly profound effect on me, and it reminded me that I used to sing a lot as a kid. That’s when I started taking voice lessons, but it was all just for fun. I’m a professional writer, so eventually it dawned on me that I could write and sing my own songs. I worked on a bunch of ideas, and in 2015 a friend of mine who was a musician in a previous life offered to produce 10 tracks with me. That was Electric Sol’s first album and our sound was a bit different then. It was really the pandemic that influenced me to start taking music more seriously and really try to figure out what sound made the most sense for us.

4- At what age did you start playing/singing? I started singing at a very young age, probably 4 or 5, and would do school talent shows and sing the National Anthem at Chicago Park District events in my community. My family was very musical in a low-key way…We had an organ in the house and we’d have holiday parties where everyone sang but it was all just for fun. By age 10 or 11 I put music aside and moved on to other interests.

5- If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself after finishing school? After I graduated from college I got a pretty good writing job, eventually wound up at a big ad agency, and pursued interests in photography, writing, and filmmaking. I don’t know that I’d do anything differently, although I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to realize that my first passion, music, was the one I should have been pursuing all along. 6- What are some of your favorite songs at the moment? That’s a tough one. I have more than 200 “liked” songs in Spotify and that just scratches the surface. At this very moment, my favorite song is probably a dance jam called Relapse by Satin Jackets and Tailor. I find inspiration in instrumental chill music so I listen to that a lot, and I’ll revisit classic 1980s songs from Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, Howard Jones, The B-52s, etc.

7- Do you listen to your own music? Someone has to, hahahaha. I do listen to it quite a bit, mostly so I remember the lyrics when we do live shows and also because a lot of it I genuinely like.

8- Which musician would you like to collaborate with next? It would be great to work on something with Satin Jackets.