I\u2019ve been based in Oslo, Norway since 2010. Before then I lived in the US between 2003-2005, then small stints in Cologne, Paris, Sydney and Melbourne before relocating back to Oslo again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got my first guitar when I was six, and got serious about music at around 12. From then on I knew I wanted to be a musician. I\u2019ve been a touring musician and composer since I stopped studying in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I listen to so many different kinds of music all the time, so it\u2019s hard to mention just a few. I draw inspiration from everything from Indian and Brazilian music, English and American folk, electronic music, hip-hop and RnB to American visual art and spoken word. In recent years, the composers Robert Ashley and Luc Ferrari, the Velvet Underground, Milton Nascimento, Solange, Tyler The Creator, and the Indian sarangi player Ram Narayan have been important sources of inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I had kids I used to always do 10-6 studio days, which seems like a good amount of time to work without stress. Now that I have two small kids, it\u2019s more like 9-3.30, which makes the days pretty dense and full-on. I need a lot of time in the studio to make the music I do, it has a lot of layering and lots of complexities in the production. Before I start a recording project, I have most of the time just a vague idea where I want to be going. A feeling of how the project should be different to the previous stuff I\u2019ve done. Then I let the sound lead the way. So it takes time to listen, and then build and layer ideas. Typically every recording project I do takes about 6-12 months to finish. 3-4 months of composing and recording, then tracking with other musicians if necessary and then post-production. With my last record Sympathetic Magic, each song consisted of about 200 individual tracks, so it took a long time to balance that in the mix and the master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a large sound card which is always hooked up with a Neumann stereo pair + a large diaphragm FLEA 47 microphone, and a Royer 121 set up on my guitar amp. So I can just start recording the minute I arrive at my studio.\u00a0 In terms of keys, I have a Yamaha YC45-D organ, a Roland Juno-6 plus some other small keyboards and electronics. I have a bunch of guitars, both electric, acoustic, 12- and 6-stringed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the collaborative work I do is done in-person, so either working together in a rehearsal setting, or working together mixing and composing. I made music with trumpeter Eivind L\u00f8nning earlier this year for a dance performance called Fabulation by B\u00e1ra Sigfusdottir and Orfee Schuijt, and then we just did everything together, which was a nice change from sitting alone in a studio all day long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I actually like showing friends and colleagues ideas immediately after they\u2019ve materialised, even in sketch form. It could be the first idea of something. I like the constant exchange of thoughts and ideas with others, I always bring in friends to listen to what I do at various stages of the recording process, to get an outside ear. It proves very helpful, and helps me get a bit more objectivity in the process. And my partner Orfee listens all the time to my in-progress work, both voluntarily and involuntarily. She gives very important feedback, and helps me understand what it is I am doing at any given moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the massive amounts of releases being released all the time, I always wait until the music is finished until I share it publicly. Maybe this will change in the future, but I feel that it is a privilege when people give from their time to listen to my music, so it better be well articulated to make it worth their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n