"Seventeen"-Sjowgren"
Jeannie Schumacher.
As of late, the iTunes selection stuck in that Steffen song-loop has been "Seventeen," an ultra-indy alternative track from a group of ambitious former San Francisco high school friends (Maija Sjogren, Don Steele and Sam Ahrendt) who dubbed themselves Sjowgren (pronounced "SHOW-grin").
"Seventeen" starts out unassuming with a couple of piano chords then slowly builds, first with a pulsing bassline followed by the introduction of the band's namesake. Her laidback, lazy lead and backing call-and-response vocals complete with handclaps and studio echo all seem to have been borrowed from the "Girl Groups" section of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound playbook.
Then, when you get to the track's rising "oooOOOH!," they hit the ground running! This is where I got hooked:
"If you want a second to breathe, I'll give you all of my love, I'll give you all that you need, ah. Don't worry. I'm not in a hurry. Not going nowhere, I'm not going nowhere..."
Part of the charm of "Seventeen" is that it sounds just a little bit unpolished, and there's a reason for that. The song began as "Three friends, making music for fun." According to their 2015 post, "About a year ago, we spent a weekend recording. Then a couple months back, on a whim, we posted those recordings to SoundCloud and it turns out... people like them."
Then, last Fall, Madison Avenue mad-men placed the Sjowgren track behind an AutoTrader television ad which supersized the song's clicks into the millions. And now, backed with record company support, "Seventeen" is finally starting to get the proper push it deserves.
While singing along in my motorized kareoke machine I realized the song's title -- noticeably absent from its lyrics -- was most likely used as a metaphor for the euphoric passion and innocence of young-love.
"We're puzzle pieces, we fit all adding up."Remember your first high-school relationship?
