Seven (38) is a synaesthete: he sees music and hears colors. The Swiss soul pop star divides his new album into four colors - and shows new facets of himself.
Blue
What is that? A classical orchestra! Like all four color chapters of his new album "4Colors" (to be released next week on July 7), Seven has the first, blue part bombastically introduced by the Arts Symphonic Orchestra London. Then it continues cold, electronic and dark. Seven calls this "Björkish", alluding to the Icelandic musician. Seven, who was born in Aargau and whose real name is Jan Dettwyler, says: "It's all about loneliness." The song "Zeit" features rap poet Thomas D from the German hi-hop combo Die Fantastischen Vier - a cautionary reflection on transience. "Something like these four blue songs is probably the least you would have expected from me," says Seven, who was previously known as a cheerful person.
Yellow
Heiter continues. "Forward, positive, urban - it's about looking forward together." This is how Seven describes the second, yellow part. In the song "Die Menschen sind wir", it says: "Hate and fear are now on pause." In the accompanying video, Seven climbs out of a tank painted yellow and distributes soft ice - in yellow, of course. In the song, Seven is accompanied by his German colleagues Kool Savas and Nico Suave - new friends in the German scene, where Seven's popularity has risen enormously since he wowed audiences on the TV show "Sing meinen Song" last year. "When someone asks me if the show has helped me, I say: not just helped - it really started it in Germany." On his tour, he is currently performing more often on German stages than Swiss ones - but he also performs in Austria and even Bulgaria.
Red
"It's getting towards midnight and we're in a club," says Seven about the associations he has with red. "It's very physical: beat, trance and R'n'B, dancing to ecstasy - the opposite sex is the focus."
Purple
Anyone who knows Seven will have guessed that the purple fourth act of the album is a tribute to Prince. "For me, it's the color and the epitome of funk - this part is really dedicated to Prince and his legacy," says Seven. "It's a theater of sex and freedom - music for adults." The death of his idol in April 2016 hit Seven hard: "I didn't know Prince personally," says Seven, "but it was an unexpected death. Everything was different with him - he couldn't even die normally."
