Aurora, thank you so much for coming in
thank you for having me
there's a lot of people in Canada who are hearing you for the first time
and I'm so happy that they are
erm, you mentioned it and I know this about you
you started writing songs when you were very very young
Is that right?
mhmm
like nine or ten years (old); were you writing before you were nine?
Well, I wrote melodies when I was six
but I didn't add words to them before I was nine
Were you listening to much music back then?
Oh, yeah
what were you listening to?
Mostly classical music, a bit of Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan, and Enya
ENYA?!
Big fan of Enya
you like Enya hella?
'cause, classical music, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, I wasn't expecting Enya to be at the end of that
Do your parents listen to a lot of music?
oh, yes, they do
Are they musicians?
Err, no... but we share the same love for music at least
When you were in school were you listening to what your friends were listening to as well?
No, we still don't have a radio and didn't have a radio before either
So, I'm very bad at knowing what's new
did you feel like you missed out, 'cause everything you playing
Let me make you the first question: did you feel like you were missing out
when you were going to school did you feel like "oh, these kids are talking about the spice girls or these kids are talking about...
Oh, no, you're younger than I am; spice girls would be it for me
No, I don't feel like I was missing out
because if it's a
I don't know
I feel like I managed
I can manage without
did you feel diffent?
well, I was a bit different
and I think I, for many reasons I didn't have much to discuss with my classmates at that time
I find that so interesting... tell me more about your life in Norway
Tell me more about... you mentioned you had some apples, you didn't have a radio
What else can you tell me and people listening in Canada right now
Tell me about you life growing up
Well, erm... we didn't have a radio
Yeah, and the apples were there
Norway is not as cold as you might expect
It's like Canada, it's like here
I grew up in the forest, in a house, of course, with electricity
It's important to say that you had a house. You didn't just grow up in the forest
It is in the forest
We have, like, I don't know, bigger roads and cars and...
It's very quiet, it's by the ocean as well
And sometimes we have erm...
the animals with the...
like what? the reindeer or...
the cute one with the
Oh, guinea pigs! hamsters?
no, they're not pets, they're wild, with spikes on their backs
porcupines?
porcupines! no, no, that sounds weird
squirrels?
No, the... with the... and they're so cute
Oh, armadillos! I think porcupines are what we're looking for
Maybe it's porcupines
Porcupines?
Hedgehog! That's what I'm talking about
What you just heard by the way was the crack q tv camera team answering the question that I had no idea what they were talking about
the hedgehogs
we have them in our garden, a few of them
Wild hedgehogs?!
It's very common in Norway I think
And I began writing music when I was six
'cause it made me happy
Yeah, because you had no dreams of being, want to be a professional musician necesserily...
Well, it's kind of, like, thinking about where I came from
It would seem a very small possibility for me to become an artist like I am today
like being so far away from everything
and I didn't really have the need to be on the stage
I didn't have the need to be heard
I just needed to write
And how do feel about being on the stage now?
well, it doesn't bother me now
'cause the way you sing that makes me think that you'd be standing still when you perform, kind of eyes closed...
but you're not, you move, you dance, you put on a bit of a show
Well, I feel alive when I sing now
And it made me feel a bit afraid before
but it's kind of I was very afraid of the water as well before I learnt how to swim
and it's kind of like it feels
now I know that I won't die if I go on stage
tonight either
so it'll be fine and now I like it
Do you remember your first show?
Yes, I do. I think I peed myself a bit
It was horrible; it was really scary
Where was it?
It was in erm... do you mean my first show or my first real show?
either one; what do you consider to be your first show, the first time you played
I guess it was in 2014, in february
oh, just a couple of years ago
'cause then I had a band and it was my first show in front of like more than... in front of people, real people
that came to see us, me and to listen to music
and it was on a norwegian festival
And I think that was the performance that got me signed by a few of my record companies
because no one really knew who I was before that day
And were you expecting that or were you just kind of, you know...
Were you expecting to have that kind of attention on your music so soon as you played it?
No, it was a very strange day (I say strange a lot, so just brace yourself)
that's fine
I say hedgehog a lot
Well, it was a... we were not really... secure? we didn't know if I was ready for that performance
because I've only had about three weeks to rehearse with my band
and to learn the few songs I had back then, that were done
and not too morbid and sad
erm, we didn't really know what to expect, but
lots of people came to see us and we got good reviews in the papers
How about before that... I guess I wanna know...
like, you listen to classical music, you listen to Bob Dylan
and Leonard Cohen (and I want to talk about Leonard Cohen a little bit later, if that's OK)
But, erm, in those early days, like... tell me about the first performance, the first gig as you
Erm, that must've been... I didn't like performing in front of anyone, as I guess it's not really a special thing
and no one really likes to perform in front of anyone in the beginning I think
Erm, but then after a few years my parents discovered that I could write music
and then they kept asking me if I could sing for them, and I didn't really want to
so, I decided in 2012 to give them a gift of me, of a song
so they could hear me without me having to be in the room
and then that song was put online
and many people in my city heard it
and that's how my managerment found me
and a week after that song was released on the internet I had my first performance at school
it was the last day of school
in tenth grade
and that was not fun
I didn't like it
No? Tell me about it
It was me and a guitar (I didn't know why I was playing guitar, 'cause I can't really play guitar, as, you know, my heroes
I guess I wanted to play guitar like them)
erm, and it was a song called "I had a dream"
which is about me dreaming about horrible things that we realize is actually happening 'cause it's not really a dream
How did it go over, how did the kids liked it?
Well, it was really long, nine minutes long without a chorus
the song was nine minutes long?
yes
So I don't think the kids liked it that much. It must've been quite boring
But I think the teachers liked it
That's good, yeah
And so, but Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen these are, well, especially in the early...
Is the early Bob Dylan you are into or it's like all forms of Bob Dylan?
Erm, quite early, but also a few of the latest stuff
I do have his Christmas hideous one
It's wild, huh?
Have you ever met him?
Not physically
But metaphysically
But it's different music, I mean, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen
especially in the early Leonard Cohen's days it's a lot of acoustic guitar, violins...
Bob Dylan the same thing: acoustic guitar, pedal steal and drums
But they are very different in energy I think
Oh, I couldn't agree with you more.
However, I think what I'm saying is that the music that you play isn't these acoustic kind of folk music
It's very modern. Where does that come from?
Erm, well, I guess when you're sixteen and they put you in this, in a real studio for the first time
and you discover all the different possibilities and sounds
It's just... I think the first record is a result of me trying to find my sound
'cause I haven't found it yet
No?
I'm definitely a bit more into the more acoustic
I'm very into folk music, especially norwegian folk music
which erm...
erm, but it's just a result of me being very overwhelmed I think
by all the different sounds you can find
when you're in a studio
It's a such a great process I think
being inside there and kind of rapping (?) at the soul of your song
But do this music to you now...
I just find interesting that you say you love folk music and this is still kind of you trying to discover your sound
I mean, do you feel like this music is you, do you feel like you're reflected in this music
or does it feel like you're not?
Well, not anymore. I was then.
Which I think is the eternal curse of being a human that grows and changes
Which is a very natural thing
And when you make something and put it down on a paper or on a mp3 file
You can't really change it with you as you evolve
And it's both the curse and the gift, I think, about being a human and not a machine
Because, erm, it's very fun to be the hunter of the sounds
the hunter of the right energy
and it's not really about if every sound is correct
it's more about the energy, if it feels, if it hits you in some way
It doesn't really matter to me if it's not perfect
But, I'm still very excited while hunting for the right songs
Do you still like playing these songs?
oh, yeah, I do. Because I see it in the eyes of the audience that they still need them
And you feel that if you change your sound, if you hunt different species, if you hunt a different sound
do you worry that your audiences expect one thing from you and then you may be giving them something else?
Erm, no... I don't do worry much about anything... oh, I do, but not about just those kind of stuff
'cause I think, I think...
I don't think people really connects with my music because of the way that the snare sounds or the syns
I think they connect with the words and the melodies and the nerve and what's human in my music
and I think that will never change, my words, my stories and what I want to accomplish with music
and why I write music
erm, it's just the clothes around, it's like I dress differently everyday but I'm still the same
You said what do I want to accomplish with music and why.
What do you want to accomplish with music? What is the why?
Erm, well, it's very nice to...
because being a musician puts me in a place where I suddenly become important for many people
or at least it feels like it
but the greatest thing about being able to make music is that you realize more and more that I'm not really important
Is more about... like, music is a thing we've always had in us for so many years
and we sing songs to celebrate and when we're in grief and to...
and it brings us together and it's so nice to be a part of... to be able to feel so big and important
but also so small
becuase I'm just a part of something that's way more important than me
And I know that my songs have had more meaning to people than they originally had when I wrote them
which I think is amazing to see how people find treasures that I didn't even see myself
Erm, but I like music to make myself feel better sometimes
and sometimes to make other people feel better
because I think it's hard for us to speak about our emotions and sometimes we need a song
Do you feel that sometimes we don't have the language to talk about how we wanna feel?
Yes, and I think we don't... sometimes we don't understand how we feel or why we feel sad
Why we are heavy in our chest and how do we explain it
and how do I answer my friend if he's feeling sad? How do I make him feel better, you know?
It's hard for us, I think, sometimes to communicate with these things, because it's such a ghost so deep within us
and we so afraid to bother people with our darkness and I think a song can be such a good friend
But it goes back to what you said about, erm,
the idea that sometimes sad songs can be, or sad emotions, sad feelings can be played in kind of a jaunty kind of happy way
Oh, yeah
I mean, it's a... err...
I love what you said there about, you know, like it's sort of we can't quite figure out our own darkness sometimes
but we can express it, but it doesn't have to be sad to express it, is that what you're saying?
the music doesn't have to be sad to express it
No, it doesn't, because I think....
laughter and tears are very close to each other and sometimes we can be really sad and just laugh
because it's just emotions
and I think the most beautifull thing is especially on "I went too far"
I see people cry in the beginning of the song,
because they've been bullied to, or treated wrong by people that they gave all their love to
because we see these things happen all around us everyday
like these kind kind souls not knowing that they can get much better
and it's so nice to see my fans, or these people cry and then in the end of the song they're dancing and smiling
because I don't want to make people depressed
I want to keep some light and to remind us that is OK to cry and not be depressed
crying is not an unhealthy thing, it is a very beautiful thing, I love to cry, I cry all the time
Aurora, thank you so much for talking to us today
Well, thank you