Your latest release "Romantika" has a marvelous version of Billy Joel's "All About Soul," which you've truly made your own, but also nine incredible originals that you collaborated on with Mats Bystrom. What do you find to be the most fulfilling aspects of composition process?

Thank you for your nice comment. I actually enjoy all stages of the process, especially the initial creative impulse, that comes to you when you least expect it. It might be a melody, a verse, a chorus, you get a page or two out of a movie script... something has happened, something will happen and you are right there in that moment to tell the whole story in 3-4 minutes.

Once you have the story, then you have to find the appropriate mood and atmosphere to communicate the story effectively to the listener. Typically, we go through from draft to draft, a song requires time to mature. It is a fascinating process, and when you leave the studio early in the morning after the first stab at it, it's heaven. .

Going all the way back to your childhood, what one piece of music or performance can you look back upon as being the most impactful or inspirational to you in moving you toward a career in music?

I think it was when I listened to my own song for the first time and got goose bumps... it felt as if someone else wrote it. I have the opportunity to work with the very talented musician Mats Bystrom, who has a unique ability to find musical arrangements of the ideas I bring to him in a way that creates a wonderful tension and warmth. The original idea is sort of lifted up, it floats and grows, and takes on a life of its own. When that first happened I knew that I could write great songs. The first time I experienced this was about 15 years ago, with the song "Don't Say The Words," a song that I truly love and hope to be able to record some time in the future.

I think we can all agree that the Smooth Jazz format is in a state of transition currently. What do you think are the most important elements in this genre to nurture and cultivate moving forward?

My answer would be to take the basic ingredients and experiment and innovate more with new influences to create a greater variety, excitement and tension. Someone told me that there has never been a #1 smooth jazz hit with lead vocals in it and I think that is pretty telling of how the format has not evolved over the years. When a music genre for various reasons is perceived as increasingly narrow, repetitive and predictable it becomes irrelevant in the ears of the listener.

I think the new smooth jazz needs to move in the direction of an increased overlap to jazz, world music and new age. I personally love the Buddha Bar and Cafe; del Mar compilations. I find them very inspirational in terms of arrangements and style. I once visited the Buddha Bar record company in Paris and the people there told me that they get stacks of CDs all over the world every day and there are three people who make their own personal choices first. Then they agree on the content of the final compilation together, which is based on a wide variety of music and I believe that to be one of the critical success factors.

How would you compare life in Stockholm to life in New York City, since you consider both to be residences?

Stockholm for me is "home" with my family, friends and the core team of three with whom I have produced the music for the last two CDs, Five and Romantika. Stockholm represents continuity, stability and connections to my roots. When you are away from it, you long for it, and when you're there, after a few weeks, you can't wait to get away from it.

New York on the other hand is the adventure, the new frontier and exciting environment where everything is possible. Everyone has an agenda, and your dreams may come true if you are hard working (and lucky). Here you always have to play on the offense, building and building. A project like this is built one brick at a time, it takes time... one has to be patient, but there is probably no better place for me right now in the world than to work in New York for these reasons.

When you take time away from your musical endeavors, what activities do you engage in that are the most re-energizing and renewing for you?

I am addicted to American politics and CNN. I like culture and art in every shape and form. Going to art galleries is a great way of opening up my sub consciousness- ideas for new songs pop up immediately. Same thing goes for taking a train ride, and seeing the landscape flow before my eyes. I think traveling back and forth over the Atlantic is reinvigorating and inspirational in itself. I go to the gym and take long walks around Battery Park and Hudson River Park which has been renovated and is amazing.

In a time when it seems the entire World is in a mode of change, what are your biggest concerns as we head into what appears to be a new paradigm?

My biggest concerns are that we are becoming more isolated, less inspired and quite frankly, less intelligent each day. I go to clubs and I have noted that nobody dances anymore; people are standing on the dance floor, moving to the constant texting of messages to each other. In today's world people have multiple conversations going on all the time, which leads to the fragmentation of social interaction in society.

Another concern is of course the arts. Will there be enough resources to produce inspiring art? The music industry has suffered from downloads, and the movie industry is next. Who will produce high class entertainment and art in our society?

Previously, we listened to major TV networks, radio and newspapers. If not unbiased, at least they had a mission of reporting news in a fairly objective way. That changed when news became entertainment. Today people have an individualistic way of choosing the news they want to listen to. My concern is that we will end up in a society were we loose our history, we loose our perspective, and we loose our faith in the institutions that built this country.

I have to say though, that I am an optimistic person, otherwise I would not do what I do. The very rapid development of the social change is very hard to move against, so perhaps the biggest concern is: how do we move along and still remain conscious of what we need to defend and rescue?