Eva Hillered – a biography

EVA HILLERED is a singer-songwriter from Scandinavia, born in Stockholm, living in Sweden. Eva has a unique voice that boasts a deep soulfulness coming from the need of expressing herself in songwriting from a very early age in life.
She has been working with many of Swedens most respected musicians, producers and artists.
The collaboration with the famous singer-songwriters Eva Dahlgren in Sweden and Anne-Grete Preus in Norway resulted in them being the producers of Eva’s debut album ”Inte varför - utan hur” (Not Why - But How, Record Station). This strong melancholic record with striking melodies and profound depth was nominated for a Swedish Grammy 1989.

Eva has made six solo albums. Besides touring in Sweden, she has also been touring in Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Czech republic and USA with her music.

Eva´s second CD was produced by Jonas Isacsson, guitar player in Roxette, and was released in 1990. ”Stråets längd" received very good reviews and a lot of airplay in radio.
At this time Eva performed a lot, not only as a singer but also as an actor in different music theater plays.
In 1991, she wrote the music and performed herself in the play ”Min bror var enda barnet” (My Brother Was The Only Child). In 1992, Eva wrote both music and lyrics to her own show “En kvinnas bekännelser” (A Womans Confessions). The show was a mixture of stand up comedy, poetry, and music and was played at “Mosebacke” in Stockholm. It received excellent reviews in the press and a producer from Riksteatern saw the show and gave Eva a leading part in a music play about the well known troubadour called Cornelis VreesWijk. Eva toured with this play, "Ballad på en soptipp”, for a long time. It was an enormous success, and during two years she made over 150 shows with the show. An album with some of the songs was also released. Eva participate with three songs of Cornelis Vreeswijk .
In 1994, Eva started the independent record label Diva together with five other female singer-songwriters, one of them “Ebba Forsberg”, now signed by Maverick Records.
As the first project, these talented singer-songwriters released a collection CD where every artist made two songs. Eva was working together with the American drummer Michael Blair, who has played with top acts as Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega, Elvis Costello and one of the best guitar player and producers in Sweden: Lasse Englund. The three of them played and produced one of Eva´s tracks on the collection CD ”Tolv spår från Diva”. That is how Eva started to work with the Grammis-awarded Swedish producer Lasse Englund, who became the producer of Eva´s third solo album, “Jag vet” (I Know, Diva Records 1995). “Living Swedish pop with a meaning” was one of many positive statements in all the good reviews the album received.

Eva was touring during 1995-1996 with an one woman show: “A stand-up comedy, and sit-down tragedy, about the sex war in your heart”, including songs from her CD "Jag vet".
In 1997, Eva was asked to write music for a theater play. She ended up also being the producer and making a record with the songs from the show ”Öppningsskedet”. She would also have had a leading part in the play, had she not become pregnant with the daughter Ella.
Between 1997 and 2001 Eva was focused on writing songs in English. In 1998, she met the Indian chef and professor Oren Lyons from the Onondaga tribe, and from then on Eva has written many songs inspired of the North American indian´s way of thinking and relating to the Earth.

The same year, she also started to work together with another singer-songwriter named Annika Fehling. As a duo, they performed as two solo artists doing backup singing/playing for each on intimate stages as well as on the Globe Arena in Stockholm. They have also made several radio shows together. In 2001 they released the record: ”Fehling&Hillered Live”. The record resulted in three tours, and TV- as well as radio performances.
In 2002 Eva started to write in Swedish again. She also started to work with a talented and young guitar player named Göran Eriksson, who has worked and toured with many of Swedens best known artists: Jill Johnsson, Uno Svenningsson, Louise Hoffsten to name a few.

Eva and Göran started a new solo project with Eva’s music and it resulted in the CD ”Hjärtats röda mening” (“The Red Meaning of the Heart”, Hawk Records 2004). The CD got excellent reviews and a lot of airplay. It was on the radio P4-list for half a year with the both singles released from the album.
Eva met he American Singer-Songwriter Dana Cooper from Nashville in August 2004, they wrote the song Life Line together and that song got to be the title song of Eva:s next solo album: Life Line (Hill Songs 2005).
Eva toured with Dana Cooper in USA march 2005 and then Dana Cooper came to Sweden and they toured together in Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
2006 in the fall Eva toured on Ireland together with Sean Millar
In the spring of 2006 Eva was invited to Folk Alliance and there she met the American songwriter called Christene Le Doux, together with Lisen Elwin (SE) the three girls formed the successful band Black Sheep Girls. Black Sheep Girls toured in 2006 in, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, England and Czech Republic.

2007 Eva started a band and a collaboration with the famous producer Coste Apetrea.After some advice from Evas American manager, they started to seek for a more “Swedish sound”.
The result is the newly released CD Hill Songs( Hill Songs 2008), wich got exellent reviews in the Swedish press. Eva toured and showcased the material from the CD in USA February- 08.Two songs from the CD has got airplay in both USA and Australia. Eva toured Sweden with the new material in March-May-08.

Besides touring , recording and writing music, Eva has also been teaching songwriting for many years. In april 2009 the big publishing company Nordstedts will release the first Swedish book about songwriting, wich Eva has been writing: “Lathund för Låtskrivare”.