Going into the recording of Be Here Soon, ionnalee (Jonna Lee) felt unsure. The Swedishmusician has made a career as the enigmatic iamamiwhoami, crafting haunting audiovisualpop alongside co-writer/producer Claes Björklund and cinematographer John Strandh whoshe’s worked with since the inception of her iamamiwhoami project. Not only is Lee theenigmatic voice of iamamiwhoami, she also serves as the writer, producer, and director of thevisual counterpart that encompass the world of each album—in addition to heading To whom itmay concern. (TWIMC), a label that she established in 2010. So the idea of facing the intensityof the creation process of leading the group again was daunting, particularly when thehaunting, highly-produced pop she had made in the past no longer fit the reality she was livingin.

And so, in order to move forward, she started by letting go. In the past, she’s had quantifiablesuccess, including more than 100 million streams on Spotify and 100 million views on YouTube,a legion of devoted fans, sold out shows across the world–and of course, her very first videos,that went viral when she appeared as a glitched out image with a haunting voice. But it wastime to try something new.

“I usually use a lot of layers to create soundscapes with my voice, and this was more about,now just the one lead,” she says of the decision to record in single takes and leave behindmany of the electronic sounds that had begun to feel like a limitation. “We just wanted to dosomething that would be true to where we are in our lives and careers now. A lot of personalstuff has been going on as well. Claes had just become a dad through the process, and I'mcarrying a child now. That kind of brought us to a pretty raw state. “

The way Lee sees it, becoming a mother (something she had never considered for herselfbefore) gave her the motivation to continue questioning her previously held beliefs. With a cleardeadline, suddenly she was forced to grapple not only with the direction of her art, but who shewas as a person—not just in the past and present, but also who she was about to become.The expectations around iamamiwhoami shifted. And she found that she was no longerinterested in removing her identity from the music, but rather using it to reveal herself tolisteners. Alongside Björklund, the collaborative pair decided to move forward into a folk-basedsound to explore this new set of emotions and meet their legacy before the inception ofiamamiwhoami.

“There was a time where I was kind of ashamed of what I did before,” she admits. “It was kindof like my discography before iamamiwhoami wasn't really counted in, and it wasn't worth asmuch. So, it's kind of nice to face yourself in the mirror, examine the stuff that you're trying toshield from others, to bring that in, and put it into focus in the center point.”

It’s in that spirit of openness that Be Here Soon winds its way through many of the issues thatwere heavy on Lee’s heart. “Don’t Wait For Me” reflects on closing old chapters of your life,while starting new ones. (Although Lee notes that the song’s tone is one of self-indulgence.)“Canyon” (with an assist from Swedish folk musician Lars Winnerbäck), pulls apart that idea abit further, ruminating on returning to one’s starting point and past life while still feeling distantto the world around you. In the beatific hush of “A Thousand Years,” Lee considers herdisconnect from reality—and how more time, the only thing worth dying for, is the only thingthat she can’t have. Emotive track “Thunder Lightning,” finds Lee meditating on the difficulty offorming relationships, warning a would-be partner, "Say I did no wrong by you I’m full of lies.Got malice pumping in my veins. Are you beat yet? Pressure keeps rising high. Nothing kills thesilence like the rain.” On “Zeven'' she reveals her real-life OCD diagnosis, and the struggle thatshe’s faced finding a balance with the invisible world of control she’s experienced that runsparallel to everything else in her life. And “Changes” (a nod to David Bowie), moves throughmemories of growing up in a desolate countryside home where music was a luxury not to betaken for granted, and gives her the opportunity to reframe those memories in a different light.

Lee’s bare and celestial voice functions as the spine of the album guiding the listener throughmoments of cinematic soundscapes and organic intimacy.

Meanwhile, the album's visual progression slowly traces the path of the new life growing insideher as Lee explores her artistic and personal evolution in the spellbinding surroundings of hernative Sweden. As with all of iamamiwhoami’s previous releases, each song will be releasedwith a corresponding video in consecutive order.

"Be Here Soon is a story about meeting memories with new eyes while creating the present,”she says. “It’s about the complexity of becoming a mother as a working artist. About thepsychological, emotional and physical changes this means, and the choice to be open withthese changes through my work process of making this audiovisual in relation to myself, mycollaborators and our audience. It’s also about living with OCD and reevaluating my work/process and the level of sanity of it all while struggling with motivation in the current musicindustry climate."

Ultimately, the album is a work of clear vision. Through the recording, Lee and her collaboratorschallenged their perceived limitations, ignored expectations, and created exactly what she feltshe needed to experience in order to move forward. More importantly, Lee emerged from theprocess knowing even more about who she is.

“My career started at age 17,” she says. “My motivation and life goals at that time were just tobe on stage. And then that developed it into something else, performing according to my ownvalues, and maintaining my own creative independence. But then as your career progresses,you start to criticize and think critically about, ‘what kind of business am I in?’ ‘How am I beingtreated as a woman inside of this life that I've chosen?’ So, that's the crossroads I foundmyself at when we began writing this record. In the beginning of iamamiwhoami it wasimportant for us to be anonymous, to not put the focus on our personal identities but on theproject itself. But that’s had to sort of evolve gradually with my life and career. I’ve now givenmyself enough space to be personal in the project. The otherworldliness, I would hope it's stillthere, but in a way where I can also exist inside of it.”