Hello everyone, it’s your host Oliver from DULAXI, and today I’m delighted to be joined by Swedish songwriter and producer Kent Olsson from Västerås, Sweden, whose latest release, “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” brings The Art of Breaking Up trilogy to its final chapter. Working across commercial pop and contemporary pop, Kent has spent more than four decades creating music shaped by story, emotion and strong songwriting. Released on 27 August 2026, “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” features Italian vocalist Jolie and completes the journey that began with “Replay:me” and continued with “Access Denied.”

Before we begin our conversation with Kent Olsson, here’s what you need to know about today’s featured project.

About Kent Olsson

Kent Olsson’s musical career has been shaped by a long-standing interest in storytelling and the emotional possibilities of music. Based in Västerås, Sweden, the songwriter and producer has more than 40 years of experience and has created music across film, theatre, games and tailor-made releases for artists around the world. Rather than approaching every project from the same musical formula, Kent builds around the story being told and the individual character of the vocalist involved. His work brings together pop clarity, rock-edged energy, electronic textures and detailed arrangements while keeping melody and emotional communication at the centre.

That approach is particularly clear in his collaboration with Italian vocalist Jolie. What began as Kent’s search for the right voice for “Replay:me” gradually developed into a creative partnership spanning all three releases in The Art of Breaking Up trilogy. Jolie became the voice of “Replay:me,” “Access Denied” and “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” with her tone, phrasing, attitude and ability to move between vulnerability and confidence influencing the way the songs were arranged and produced. By the time Kent reached the third release, he was no longer simply adapting finished material to a vocalist. He was writing and arranging with Jolie’s voice specifically in mind.

“Lipstick on the Exit Sign” completes the trilogy with a character who has moved beyond uncertainty and resistance. “Replay:me” established a relationship caught in repetition, with the character returning to the same emotional patterns. “Access Denied” moved into resistance as the door began to close. The final chapter takes place after that decision has already been made. There is no further negotiation, explanation or attempt to return to what came before. Instead, the character walks away with her identity intact.

The title itself captures the playful defiance at the heart of the release. The exit sign represents the way out, while the lipstick mark becomes a small but deliberate declaration of identity. It is not about revenge or destroying what has been left behind. It is about choosing the exit personally and confidently, while leaving a mark that says the decision belongs to her.

For Kent, then, “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” serves as both a conclusion and a transition. It closes one three-part story while demonstrating how a songwriter and vocalist can develop a shared creative language across multiple releases. More importantly, it leaves the character at the point where she no longer needs to look backwards. The story ends not with bitterness, but with movement, confidence and the freedom to choose what comes next.

Having this brief introduction to today’s featured project, I’m sure both new listeners and longtime fans are excited to hear directly from Kent about the creative thinking, collaboration and storytelling behind the release. So, without further ado, let’s begin today’s interview.

INTERVIEW SESSION

Oliver:

With more than four decades of experience as a songwriter and producer, you have worked across film, theatre, games, and tailor-made music for artists around the world. Looking back across such a long creative journey, what experiences have had the greatest influence on the way you now understand storytelling, emotion, and the role music can play in people’s lives?

Kent Olsson:

One thing that all these years of making music has taught me is that music doesn’t really need to explain an emotion. It needs to create a place where that emotion can happen.

Working with film, theatre and games has probably influenced me enormously in that respect. In those environments, music is never isolated. It interacts with a character, an image, a line of dialogue, silence, movement or a dramatic turning point. You learn very quickly that another chord, another instrument or another beautiful melody is not automatically an improvement. Sometimes the most important musical decision is what you leave out.

That way of thinking has stayed with me when writing songs. I’m always asking myself whose story I’m telling, what they are feeling at this exact moment and what the music can reveal that the words alone cannot.

I probably believe more strongly than ever that people don’t remember production techniques. They remember how a piece of music made them feel.

Oliver:

You describe music as a dialogue and a shared emotional experience, and that philosophy seems particularly important in the way you work with vocalists. How has that belief developed throughout your career, and how does it influence the way you approach another artist’s voice, personality, and emotional character when building a song around them?

Kent Olsson:

For me, the vocalist is never just the final instrument added to a production.

A voice carries an enormous amount of information – personality, fragility, confidence, age, attitude, breath, even things that are difficult to put into words. If I ignore that and simply ask somebody to reproduce my demo exactly, I’m throwing away half of what makes collaboration interesting.

Over the years, I’ve become much more interested in listening to what an artist naturally brings to a song rather than trying to force them into my original idea.

I can be extremely detailed when I compose and arrange, but when it comes to interpretation, I want the singer to have freedom. That is the dialogue for me. I bring the story, melody and musical world; the vocalist brings a human being into it.

And sometimes that person changes the song. That is not a problem. That is usually where the magic begins.

Oliver:

Your collaboration with Jolie began when you were searching for the right voice for “Replay” and eventually grew into a partnership spanning all three songs in The Art of Breaking Up trilogy. What was it about Jolie’s voice and artistic personality that made you realise there was a much bigger creative connection between the two of you?

Kent Olsson:

When I was looking for the voice for Replay:me, I wasn’t simply looking for someone who could technically sing the notes. I needed someone who could carry vulnerability and attitude at the same time.

Jolie immediately had that combination. She has precision and control, but there is personality in every phrase. I don’t want a singer simply to reproduce what I’ve written – I want the voice to become part of the storytelling.

Since then I’ve probably listened to her voice hundreds of times, both in our work and in other recordings, and I like to think I’ve developed a pretty good understanding of where her vocal sweet spot is. I don’t mean only her range. I mean where certain colours, dynamics and characteristics in her voice really come alive.

But there is another important part of it: trust. Jolie knows that I want her interpretation, not an imitation of my demo. And I know that when she sends something back, she has really thought about the song.

At that point it stopped feeling like finding a vocalist for individual tracks and started becoming a genuine creative collaboration.

Oliver:

By the time you reached “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” you were writing and arranging with Jolie’s voice specifically in mind, rather than simply adapting an already finished song to a vocalist. How did knowing her vocal character so well change the way you composed melodies, built arrangements, and shaped the emotional direction of this final chapter?

Kent Olsson:

By then, Jolie’s voice was naturally in my head while I was writing.

Knowing a vocalist well changes much more than simply choosing the correct key. You begin to understand where the voice wants space, where it can push, where intimacy works better than power, and where a melody can expose a particular colour in the voice.

It also affects the arrangement. If I know that a certain phrase will have real personality when Jolie sings it, I don’t need to surround it with twenty instruments. I can create space and let the performance do the work.

That knowledge also gave me confidence to write with more character. Lipstick on the Exit Sign needed someone who could sound completely convincing while being playful, ironic and slightly defiant without turning the character into a caricature.

I knew Jolie could walk that line.

Oliver:

Your work draws from pop clarity while also making room for rock-edged energy, electronic textures, layered harmonies, and theatrical elements. How do you decide which musical ingredients belong in a song, particularly when you want the production to feel modern and detailed without allowing it to overshadow the human personality of the performance?

Kent Olsson:

I never start with a checklist of genres or production elements. The story decides.

If a guitar adds energy, it belongs there. If an electronic texture creates tension or atmosphere, I’ll use it. If silence says more than either of them, they both disappear.

I often think quite visually when I arrange music. That probably comes from my background in film scoring, which is still very much the nerve of how I approach music. I imagine scenes, camera movement and changes of perspective. Some sections can become very wide and dense, while others suddenly become dry and intimate.

But the voice always comes first.

With Jolie especially, there is absolutely no reason to hide the voice behind production. Her lead is the narrator. Everything else is scenery.

Production should make you look more closely at the character, not distract you from her.

Oliver:

The Art of Breaking Up unfolds almost like a three-act emotional story, beginning with the repetition and uncertainty of “Replay,” moving into the resistance of “Access Denied,” and arriving at the freedom of “Lipstick on the Exit Sign.” What made you want to explore the emotional process of ending a relationship across three separate songs rather than trying to capture that entire journey in one release?

Kent Olsson:

The funny thing is that I didn’t initially decide to write a trilogy.

Replay:me came first and existed perfectly well as its own story. Then Access Denied appeared and I realised that I was looking at the same emotional world from a later point in time. The character had changed.

At that point I started seeing the dramatic arc.

Replay:me is the loop – knowing something isn’t working but still pressing replay.

Access Denied is the boundary.

And Lipstick on the Exit Sign is what happens when you no longer need either the argument or the explanation.

Trying to put all three emotional states into one song would probably have made each of them less interesting. By letting the character live inside each stage for an entire song, the changes become much clearer.

The trilogy wasn’t really planned. It revealed itself.

Oliver:

The title “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” carries an unusual image: leaving a situation while deliberately keeping your identity and sense of self intact. What does that metaphor mean to you personally, and what did you want that image to communicate about confidence, independence, and walking away on your own terms?

Kent Olsson:

For me, putting lipstick on the exit sign is a tiny act of rebellion.

She isn’t sneaking quietly out of the building. She leaves a mark.

But importantly, it isn’t revenge. She doesn’t need to destroy anything, win another argument or prove that the other person was wrong. She has simply reached the point where she owns the decision.

I love irony in poetry and lyrics because serious emotions don’t always need serious language. Sometimes an image that is slightly absurd, colourful or playful can express something more effectively than another verse about heartbreak.

The lipstick mark says: “Yes, I was here. Yes, I’m leaving. And I’m absolutely fine with that.”

To me, that is independence with a smile.

Oliver:

There is a noticeable emotional shift between the three chapters, with the uncertainty of “Replay” eventually giving way to the decisiveness of this final track. When you were writing “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” how did you translate that feeling of having already made the decision into the melody, lyrics, vocal performance, and overall attitude of the production?

Kent Olsson:

The biggest difference is that the character has stopped asking questions.

That changes everything.

The language can become shorter and more direct. The melody doesn’t have to sound as though it is searching for an answer. The rhythm can move forward instead of emotionally circling the same point.

And the production can have more swagger.

I wanted the track to feel as if the decision had already been made before the first line was sung. We are not witnessing the breakup itself. We are meeting the character after something inside her has already clicked into place.

That gave us permission to have fun with it.

The confidence in Lipstick isn’t about pretending that nothing hurt. It comes from having gone through the hurt and discovering that you are now standing on the other side of it.

Oliver:

Jolie’s performance is central to the character of the song, particularly because her voice can carry both vulnerability and confidence. How did you work together to make sure the final performance captured that particular emotional transition, and were there aspects of her delivery that changed the way you understood the song after hearing her bring it to life?

Kent Olsson:

That combination of vulnerability and confidence is exactly why Jolie works so well in these songs.

I provide a fairly detailed musical framework and demo, but I deliberately give her freedom with phrasing, expression and character. She studies the material very carefully and then returns something that is recognisably the song I wrote, but no longer simply my interpretation of it.

That distinction is important.

Once I receive her vocals, I start listening differently. Small inflections, breaths, timing choices or ad-libs can suddenly suggest where the arrangement should become larger or where I should remove something completely.

So the production continues to evolve around the actual performance.

I think that is one of the reasons her voice feels integrated into these recordings rather than placed on top of them. The vocal is not the final stage of the production. It becomes new information that affects everything around it.

Oliver:

Your songwriting philosophy places the song, melody, and performance ahead of production, with technology serving to strengthen rather than conceal those elements. How did that principle guide the decisions you made on “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” especially when adding the vocal layers, contrasting textures, and cinematic details surrounding Jolie’s lead?

Kent Olsson:

Technology is wonderful, but it is very easy to fall in love with what it can do rather than asking what the song actually needs.

My rule is essentially that the technology should serve something human.

On Lipstick, there are many layers, processed textures, harmonies, doubles, ad-libs and even a small vocoded spoken moment. But those elements need a dramatic reason to exist.

The vocal layers can make a phrase suddenly expand. An electronic sound can create a new perspective. A processed voice can briefly change the atmosphere.

But Jolie’s natural lead vocal still has to be the thing you believe.

If an effect starts becoming more interesting than the story, I’ve probably gone too far.

The listener doesn’t need to know how clever the studio was. They need to care about the person standing in the middle of it.

Oliver:

The vocals were recorded in Italy while you produced and arranged the music from Västerås, creating a collaboration that existed across two countries rather than inside one physical studio. How has working remotely with Jolie affected the creative relationship between you, and what have you learned about maintaining intimacy and trust in a production process that happens across distance?

Kent Olsson:

Strangely enough, I rarely think about the geographical distance anymore.

I’m in Västerås and Jolie is recording in Italy, but creatively it feels surprisingly close.

There is actually an advantage to the asynchronous way we work. I can spend time building the song and communicating what I’m hearing. Jolie can then study it without a producer sitting behind glass watching the clock. She can work until she feels she has really found the character.

Then I receive the individual vocal tracks and have the same luxury: I can listen properly before making decisions.

Trust replaces physical proximity.

I think remote collaboration only becomes distant if the communication is distant. If both people care about the same song and respect what the other person brings to it, a few thousand kilometres become surprisingly irrelevant.

Oliver:

You built much of the track through detailed vocal editing, harmonies, layering, timing decisions, and smaller production details rather than depending on one obvious studio effect. What attracts you to that kind of detailed production, and how do you decide which subtle elements deserve to remain in the final mix?

Kent Olsson:

I love details, probably far too much! But I’m interested in details that change how something feels rather than details that simply demonstrate production technique.

A harmony appearing for one line, a double moving slightly differently, a tiny timing adjustment, an ad-lib entering at exactly the right moment – those decisions can change the emotional size of a section without the listener consciously knowing why.

That fascinates me.

My film background probably plays a role here too. In film, a very small change in timing can completely change the meaning of a scene.

The difficult part is knowing when to stop.

My basic test is: does this detail strengthen the story, the groove or the performance? If the answer is no, it is decoration.

And decoration is always the easiest thing to delete.

Oliver:

Because “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” represents the conclusion of a trilogy, there is a natural pressure for the final chapter to feel like an ending while still standing on its own. What were the biggest creative challenges in giving this song a sense of closure without making it feel overly dependent on the two releases that came before it?

Kent Olsson:

I never wanted Lipstick to sound like a summary of the previous two songs.

That would have made it dependent on them.

The continuity needed to come from the character rather than from musical quotations or explanations. Someone hearing Lipstick on the Exit Sign for the first time should understand who this woman is without knowing anything about Replay:me or Access Denied.

But if you do know the earlier songs, her confidence means something more.

That was the balance.

The closure comes from recognising that the emotional question which drove the first song no longer exists. She doesn’t need an answer anymore.

That, to me, is a much stronger ending than simply writing “goodbye.”

Oliver:

Across your career, you have created music for very different forms of storytelling, from film and theatre to games and releases built specifically around individual vocalists. How has working in those different creative environments shaped your ability to recognise the emotional core of a song and know when the production is serving the story rather than simply adding decoration?

Kent Olsson:

Every medium teaches you something different.

Film taught me perspective and timing. Theatre taught me that emotion has to survive in real time in front of a human audience. Games taught me that music can exist inside a world that changes depending on what somebody does.

Songwriting brings all of those lessons back into three or four minutes.

I think those experiences have made me very conscious of function. Why does this section exist? Why does this instrument enter here? Why should the listener suddenly feel closer to the singer, or further away?

If I can’t answer that, I should probably question the arrangement.

I enjoy complex production, but complexity by itself has never impressed me very much.

The interesting question is whether all those choices make the story clearer.

Oliver:

The three songs also document the evolution of your working relationship with Jolie, from finding her voice for one project to eventually creating an entire musical story around what she can express as a vocalist. What has this collaboration taught you about the creative possibilities that emerge when a songwriter and singer continue developing together over several releases?

Kent Olsson:

The most interesting thing is that knowledge accumulates.

After one song, you know somebody can sing it.

After several songs, you begin to understand how they tell a story.

You learn where the voice becomes intimate, where it becomes dangerous, where it smiles, where it can suddenly become huge. And the singer begins to understand your musical language as well.

That creates a kind of shorthand.

The collaboration with Jolie has made me increasingly interested in writing for a person rather than simply writing a song and later looking for someone with the correct range.

At its best, that relationship works in both directions. The songwriter gives the vocalist material to explore, but the vocalist also teaches the songwriter what might be possible to write next.

That is exactly where I feel we are now.

Oliver:

With “Lipstick on the Exit Sign,” you have reached a point in the trilogy where the central character is no longer negotiating, questioning, or looking back. What do you think this final stage of the story says about emotional growth, and are there any parts of that message that reflect your own understanding of change or letting go?

Kent Olsson:

For me, emotional growth in this story isn’t about forgetting what happened.

It is about no longer negotiating with it.

There is a point where all the mental energy that has been directed toward another person – what they did, what they meant, whether they might change – suddenly comes back to you.

That is where the freedom begins.

I think that idea becomes more recognisable the longer you live. Change is not always about adding something new. Sometimes it is recognising what you no longer need to carry with you.

That is why I wanted the trilogy to end with humour and energy rather than bitterness.

She doesn’t win because somebody else loses.

She wins because she finally walks out of the story under her own power.

Oliver:

The response to the trilogy gives listeners an opportunity to experience the songs individually, but there is also a deeper reward in hearing them as one progression from repetition to resistance and finally independence. How would you like someone who listens to all three songs together to emotionally experience that journey from beginning to end?

Kent Olsson:

I would love them to feel the character gradually standing taller.

In Replay:me, she is still caught inside the loop. There is uncertainty, hope and frustration.

In Access Denied, she begins drawing the line. There is more resistance and more control, but she is still reacting to what has happened.

By Lipstick on the Exit Sign, she is no longer reacting.

She is moving.

That is probably the important distinction.

If somebody listens to all three in sequence, I hope the final song creates a strange combination of recognition and relief – that moment when you realise the argument has finally gone quiet inside your own head.

And then perhaps you smile a little.

That would be a pretty good ending.

Oliver:

Now that The Art of Breaking Up has reached its final chapter, you have described “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” as both an ending and a transition. With this story complete, what creative territory are you most interested in exploring next, and how do you see your songwriting and production continuing to evolve after more than 40 years of making music?

Kent Olsson:

I think curiosity is the reason I’m still doing this after more than forty years.

I never want to become a museum of my own habits.

The Art of Breaking Up is finished, but my collaboration with Jolie definitely isn’t. I’m already working on our next song with Jolie to be disclosed.

It has some of the irony and attitude people may recognize, but musically we are heading somewhere different. There is a lot of brass, a lot of vocal work and a slightly outrageous energy to it. I may have gone a little too far with all the brass – which probably means I’m exactly where I should be.

Technology will continue to change, and I enjoy exploring it, but I don’t think my basic philosophy will change very much.

Song first. Story first. Human being first.

Everything else is there to make those three things impossible to ignore.

“Lipstick on the Exit Sign” feels like the moment a story stops asking for permission to end. Through Kent Olsson and Jolie’s evolving collaboration, the trilogy arrives at a finale where confidence replaces uncertainty and movement becomes its own form of freedom.

~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)

EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE

What stands out about “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” is how deliberately its musical identity serves the character at its centre. The layered vocals, shifting textures and polished pop framework give Jolie room to sound both assured and human, while Kent’s cinematic instincts add dimension without overwhelming the performance. More than simply closing a three-song narrative, the release demonstrates what can happen when a songwriter and vocalist develop an increasingly natural creative language together.

~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)

CLOSING

A sincere thank you to Kent Olsson for taking the time to speak with DULAXI and for sharing such thoughtful insight into his creative process, his long-running collaboration with Jolie, and the ideas behind The Art of Breaking Up. His reflections offer a valuable look at how songwriting, production and human interpretation can develop together over time.

For those discovering Kent’s work through this interview, “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” provides an opportunity to experience the final chapter of a story that has moved through repetition, resistance and, ultimately, release. Whether heard on its own or alongside “Replay:me” and “Access Denied,” the track offers a distinctive perspective on what it means to reach a decision and move forward with your identity intact.

We look forward to seeing where Kent’s curiosity takes him next, particularly as his creative partnership with Jolie continues beyond this trilogy. For now, we encourage you to spend some time with “Lipstick on the Exit Sign” and experience the final chapter for yourself.

Thank you for spending time with DULAXI. We hope you enjoyed getting to know more about Kent Olsson, the creative world behind his music, and the story that brought this trilogy to its conclusion. Stay with us for more conversations with artists, songwriters, producers and creative voices shaping music in their own unique ways.