Aurora: O. Martin is like a brother to me
Aug 12, 2016 20:15:51 GMT
AURONRA, aurorafan, and 7 more like this
Post by onelittlewarrior on Aug 12, 2016 20:15:51 GMT
(Translated from Norwegian by onelittlewarrior )
Bergen is bathed in sunlight. The people who are having their lunch outside the Kippers USF Bar & Kafe are sitting on the quayside looking across Puddefjorden. Large sailing-ships, a big Askeladden and a massive cruise ship are floating around the calm salty water. Just out of the blue a bearded man in his forties is standing on his surfboard paddling silently and smiling by us. He was there all of a sudden, unruffled and in the middle of all the big ones.
A bit like Aurora Aksnes - the 20 year old girl from Os who suddenly was on everybody's lips and in everybody's ears. In March 2014 she was the Urørt artist of the week on radio station NRK P3. Before that she had received praise and good reviews of her debut show at the by:Larm festival.
14 March 2016, almost exactly two years later, Aurora and her band played at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the most popular talk show in the US. The show and the Norwegians' performance of Conqueror was seen by 8 million viewers.
- Are you living a fairy tale?
- Yes, that's what it's been like. When you look back and people list everything we've done and accomplishes then it sounds like a fairy tale for sure. But we seldom see it ourselves. It's been so much work and two hectic years but it's really paid off. And as long as it's more fun than tiresome then it's really worth it, the fresh pop star smiles.
Tucked under a sunshade Aurora is sipping her coffee. Rested, after almost a month in Bergen without any shows or appearances in Norwegian or US talk shows. By her side is Odd Martin Skålnes - the musician that we from Haugesund like to be proud of and who made his debut as a music producer with Aurora.
- It's quite strange at the same time. We experience all these things, like on the Fallon show, yet at the same time we observe that they're just ordinary persons doing their jobs. You kind of lose your perception of it being so big. When you watch it on tv it does look like a fairy tale but we're there to do our job as best as we can among people who are doing the same in their jobs.
Skålnes won't deny that he found it very cool to play on US tv.
- It was pretty cool. We obviously knew the song very well but we were given Justin Timberlake's sound guy. It feels a little strange to say this but we had warmed up by playing on the Skavlan talk show. But it was a bit like that. It was a very good way of preparing for something bigger.
- I had no clue
In an interview in Haugesund Avis back in 2013, on releasing his solo album, Skålnes also talked about his new career as a music producer. Even at the time he pointed out that his new musical partner, Aurora Aksnes, was a name to make a note of. We would hear a lot from her in the future.
- The first thing we did together was Awakening. I didn't have a clue of what I was doing. I just programmed something bad, Skålnes reminisces.
- And I just pressed a few keys on my little keyboard and did a bit of singing, Aurora laughs.
- I don't mean to sound negative, not at all, but it's quite the circus, you know. Things happen and things change all the time. A lot of people want to have their say, especially when you, as is Aurora, are signed to three different record companies. Enormously fun, informative, hectic, all-consuming and a tremendously cool experience. Not many people get to experience things like that.
Skålnes, former singer, guitarist and song writer of bands like Saikoeple, The Alexandra Quartet and Haugesund Popensemble, is making a short summary of his time with and around Aurora. After the hectic and successful journey together they know each other well. Co-producers Skålnes and Magnus Skylstad are both members of her band. Aurora is the spearhead and in the front, the one everyone wants a piece of. Her record is doing 16 interviews in one day. Skålnes is her wing man and the one who usually goes with her at most things. Aurora makes no secret of the fact that he has been a big part of her success.
- He's very good at taking care of me and telling me when he thinks enough's enough. He's very much like a thoughtful big brother. He's behind much of the sound on my album and all the previous singles. Odd Martin for me is much more than just one of my co-producers. He's a very talented co-songwriter, an essential member of the band and a very good friend.
Stubborn trio
- Does he have any weaknesses?
- One of his few weaknesses, and a charming one at that I suppose, is when he's not had enough to eat. Then he gets very grumpy. He's a young man who needs a lot of energy.
- And what are Aurora's strengths and weaknesses?
- Well, she's very stubborn but I can understand why, of course. Everything we do has her name on it. But it can be quite frustrating getting a no from her without her telling me what she really means.
- Magnus is very stubborn too, making us a close-knit trio of stubborn people. It's a small wonder that we manage to cooperate as well as we do, Aurora contributes.
- Apart from that she has very few weaknesses. She's a natural and important rallying point in the band and is good at including people. She's not easily upset. I easily sweat and lose inspiration when many people are involved. Aurora is very good at keeping a distance and be able to work uninterrupted.
- We know each other's personalities and are able to challenge each other in a productive way. If you go into the studio with new people and start from scratch good things can come out of it. But for us it's been good to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, Skålnes maintains.
Norway's worst celebrity
Suddenly Aurora turns against "big brother" Skålnes, whispering loudly and pointing not very discreetly.
- Oh, my god!
She's just spotted one of the participants of last year's Expedition Robinson, the reality series that Aurora likes very much and watches with her two sisters.
The 20 year old isn't very fond of being a very public person.
- I think I must be Norway's worst celebrity. I'm not just very good at it.
Even in the streets of Bergen she's afraid people'll approach her.
- But if they do I think to myself afterwards that it was just a person. It was fine, I didn't die.
- What do you do when you don't play or think about music. Do you eat tacos and watch Skam like the rest of us Norwegians?
- I've been pondering that when I'm 40 then the rest of the band will be around 50. They're quite older than me so I've tried to socialise with people my own age. That's been my project the last month or so. And everybody watches Skam, and I've tried to have a look, but my teenage years weren't like that. Yet I believe that the series is very important. It's good that parents are reminded of how tough it can be to be a teenager.
- You're teenage years were kind of broken off. You were never "russ"*, for example, because it was then that we started to travel around, Skålnes comments.
- I'm kind of glad I didn't have to be "russ", because it seems kind of scary. But if I fail i can become the one who didn't become after a musician after all but instead became "russ" at the age of 30.
Disney's future voice?
Aurora does however, as so many others, have a strong affliction to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars. Every Christmas the Aksnes family gather in front of the tv for a Harry Potter marathon.
- That's something that makes me very happy. I've just bought Star Wars cereals. I also have the BB-8 robot, Darth Vader poster, a lego Millenium Falcon, built by myself, and chopsticks designed as lightsabers. I always bring those when I'm travelling in case I'd eat sushi. I don't know I find them interesting, but that I'm a bit older then it's maybe because they are good memories from when I was younger.
The golden voice with the silver-white hair is also very fascinated with Disney. Now it may seems this is an mutual fascination.
- Being in Los Angles I was invited to have a talk with the team behind the Disney films and the music. But this is something they do with a lot of artist, so only time will tell if it turns into something concrete, Aurora smiles.
Tristesse and yoyfulness
She started playing with her family's el-piano when she was six years old. At her confirmation she played a song she had made for her parents. After hearing it her mother suggested she contact professional musicians so that more people could hear her voice and music.
- Since i'm the youngest among three sisters I wrote a song about becoming older and that that is just ok. I imagine it's not always easy for parents to watch their children become grown ups. Even if I'm the youngest and it's a bit sad for them to see that I too become an adult, then that'll be just fine.
The chorus lyrics on "Lucky" on the debut album All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend that was released earlier this year Aurora wrote when she was 9 years old.
- I think I wrote a bit darker lyrics when I was younger, compared to the ones I write now. I basically only wrote about death.
- Why death?
- I'm what you can call hypersensitive. I process things more than most people do. The first time a close one died and I was old enough to realise that I'd never see that person again I started to think that mom and dad would also die. Or that I will die myself. I think I managed to cope with it by writing. To try to understand and accept. I felt it to be a very difficult concept to grasp, but it's like that for all children. I do write about it now quite often but maybe in a more hidden form.
The cooperation with Skålnes and Skylstad makes her manage to break away from her inherent tristesse.
- If I'm at home writing songs I usually produce sad and quite creepy lyrics. But "Conqueror", which I co-wrote with Magnus and Odd Martin, is quite the opposite. With them I get the little push I need not to dwell on the gloomy, but be more lively and have fun when I write. It's important to have a song that makes you smile.
Played more than the favourites
In 2015 Aurora and her version of the Oasis song "Half the World Away" was chosen to feature as the auditive part of the annual, lavish and christmassy commercial of UK retailer John Lewis. It is only natural then to check with Oasis fan Skålnes if he had a say or two in the choice of song.
- Unfortunately I did not. But I obviously was very excited when we got to know what song to cover. This is a big thing in the UK and the production company had send out invitations to about a hundred different artists both in the US and in Europe.
Aurora's cover has at the time of writing nearly 23 million streams on Spotify. The original by Oasis, on the other hand, has 8,5 million.
- ****, what happened?
- I sometimes think to myself, "****, what happened?" I've always been ambitious and always carried on but of course there are coincidences at play as well. Had I not been doing this with Aurora I'd still work with music with someone else. Now I've found my place in this band and I'm very happy about it.
- And your own future as a musician?
- I'm still working on my own songs. Next week I'll be the support for Aurora in London.
- I was a big fan of O. Martin before I met and started to play with him, Aurora admits.
This summer Aurora and her band has played Glastonbury, Roskilde and the Panorama Festival in New York. Wednesday 10 August she's one of the artist to open the Øya Festival before she takes the trip over the mountains to play in Haugesund and Maritim Hall the day after. And she's looking forward to it.
- Odd Martin has told me that it's the best place to play in the world and that in for the experience of my life, Aurora grins.
Haugesund-born Skålnes gladly admits that returning to Haugesund with Circus Aurora will be a very special experience. In the band bus, on sound, they have Paul Inge Vikingstad, also from Haugesund.
- I'm really looking forward to play at the Sildajazz festival. Over the last few years they've managed to renew themselves by inviting younger musicians so as not to make it just a New Orleans kind of jazz festival. I personally find that uninteresting. It's important for the town that things happen and I find it very rewarding to be a part and make my own little contribution.
11 September Aurora, Skålnes and the rest of the band will play just before, and on the same stage as Radiohead at the Lollapalooza Berlin Festival. In October and November they go on tour in both the UK and in the Us.
*Russ: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russefeiring
(Original article at issuu.com/iversenskogen/docs/isr160503-tebyn-aug-2016-web
Bergen is bathed in sunlight. The people who are having their lunch outside the Kippers USF Bar & Kafe are sitting on the quayside looking across Puddefjorden. Large sailing-ships, a big Askeladden and a massive cruise ship are floating around the calm salty water. Just out of the blue a bearded man in his forties is standing on his surfboard paddling silently and smiling by us. He was there all of a sudden, unruffled and in the middle of all the big ones.
A bit like Aurora Aksnes - the 20 year old girl from Os who suddenly was on everybody's lips and in everybody's ears. In March 2014 she was the Urørt artist of the week on radio station NRK P3. Before that she had received praise and good reviews of her debut show at the by:Larm festival.
14 March 2016, almost exactly two years later, Aurora and her band played at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the most popular talk show in the US. The show and the Norwegians' performance of Conqueror was seen by 8 million viewers.
- Are you living a fairy tale?
- Yes, that's what it's been like. When you look back and people list everything we've done and accomplishes then it sounds like a fairy tale for sure. But we seldom see it ourselves. It's been so much work and two hectic years but it's really paid off. And as long as it's more fun than tiresome then it's really worth it, the fresh pop star smiles.
Tucked under a sunshade Aurora is sipping her coffee. Rested, after almost a month in Bergen without any shows or appearances in Norwegian or US talk shows. By her side is Odd Martin Skålnes - the musician that we from Haugesund like to be proud of and who made his debut as a music producer with Aurora.
- It's quite strange at the same time. We experience all these things, like on the Fallon show, yet at the same time we observe that they're just ordinary persons doing their jobs. You kind of lose your perception of it being so big. When you watch it on tv it does look like a fairy tale but we're there to do our job as best as we can among people who are doing the same in their jobs.
Skålnes won't deny that he found it very cool to play on US tv.
- It was pretty cool. We obviously knew the song very well but we were given Justin Timberlake's sound guy. It feels a little strange to say this but we had warmed up by playing on the Skavlan talk show. But it was a bit like that. It was a very good way of preparing for something bigger.
- I had no clue
In an interview in Haugesund Avis back in 2013, on releasing his solo album, Skålnes also talked about his new career as a music producer. Even at the time he pointed out that his new musical partner, Aurora Aksnes, was a name to make a note of. We would hear a lot from her in the future.
- The first thing we did together was Awakening. I didn't have a clue of what I was doing. I just programmed something bad, Skålnes reminisces.
- And I just pressed a few keys on my little keyboard and did a bit of singing, Aurora laughs.
- I don't mean to sound negative, not at all, but it's quite the circus, you know. Things happen and things change all the time. A lot of people want to have their say, especially when you, as is Aurora, are signed to three different record companies. Enormously fun, informative, hectic, all-consuming and a tremendously cool experience. Not many people get to experience things like that.
Skålnes, former singer, guitarist and song writer of bands like Saikoeple, The Alexandra Quartet and Haugesund Popensemble, is making a short summary of his time with and around Aurora. After the hectic and successful journey together they know each other well. Co-producers Skålnes and Magnus Skylstad are both members of her band. Aurora is the spearhead and in the front, the one everyone wants a piece of. Her record is doing 16 interviews in one day. Skålnes is her wing man and the one who usually goes with her at most things. Aurora makes no secret of the fact that he has been a big part of her success.
- He's very good at taking care of me and telling me when he thinks enough's enough. He's very much like a thoughtful big brother. He's behind much of the sound on my album and all the previous singles. Odd Martin for me is much more than just one of my co-producers. He's a very talented co-songwriter, an essential member of the band and a very good friend.
Stubborn trio
- Does he have any weaknesses?
- One of his few weaknesses, and a charming one at that I suppose, is when he's not had enough to eat. Then he gets very grumpy. He's a young man who needs a lot of energy.
- And what are Aurora's strengths and weaknesses?
- Well, she's very stubborn but I can understand why, of course. Everything we do has her name on it. But it can be quite frustrating getting a no from her without her telling me what she really means.
- Magnus is very stubborn too, making us a close-knit trio of stubborn people. It's a small wonder that we manage to cooperate as well as we do, Aurora contributes.
- Apart from that she has very few weaknesses. She's a natural and important rallying point in the band and is good at including people. She's not easily upset. I easily sweat and lose inspiration when many people are involved. Aurora is very good at keeping a distance and be able to work uninterrupted.
- We know each other's personalities and are able to challenge each other in a productive way. If you go into the studio with new people and start from scratch good things can come out of it. But for us it's been good to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, Skålnes maintains.
Norway's worst celebrity
Suddenly Aurora turns against "big brother" Skålnes, whispering loudly and pointing not very discreetly.
- Oh, my god!
She's just spotted one of the participants of last year's Expedition Robinson, the reality series that Aurora likes very much and watches with her two sisters.
The 20 year old isn't very fond of being a very public person.
- I think I must be Norway's worst celebrity. I'm not just very good at it.
Even in the streets of Bergen she's afraid people'll approach her.
- But if they do I think to myself afterwards that it was just a person. It was fine, I didn't die.
- What do you do when you don't play or think about music. Do you eat tacos and watch Skam like the rest of us Norwegians?
- I've been pondering that when I'm 40 then the rest of the band will be around 50. They're quite older than me so I've tried to socialise with people my own age. That's been my project the last month or so. And everybody watches Skam, and I've tried to have a look, but my teenage years weren't like that. Yet I believe that the series is very important. It's good that parents are reminded of how tough it can be to be a teenager.
- You're teenage years were kind of broken off. You were never "russ"*, for example, because it was then that we started to travel around, Skålnes comments.
- I'm kind of glad I didn't have to be "russ", because it seems kind of scary. But if I fail i can become the one who didn't become after a musician after all but instead became "russ" at the age of 30.
Disney's future voice?
Aurora does however, as so many others, have a strong affliction to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars. Every Christmas the Aksnes family gather in front of the tv for a Harry Potter marathon.
- That's something that makes me very happy. I've just bought Star Wars cereals. I also have the BB-8 robot, Darth Vader poster, a lego Millenium Falcon, built by myself, and chopsticks designed as lightsabers. I always bring those when I'm travelling in case I'd eat sushi. I don't know I find them interesting, but that I'm a bit older then it's maybe because they are good memories from when I was younger.
The golden voice with the silver-white hair is also very fascinated with Disney. Now it may seems this is an mutual fascination.
- Being in Los Angles I was invited to have a talk with the team behind the Disney films and the music. But this is something they do with a lot of artist, so only time will tell if it turns into something concrete, Aurora smiles.
Tristesse and yoyfulness
She started playing with her family's el-piano when she was six years old. At her confirmation she played a song she had made for her parents. After hearing it her mother suggested she contact professional musicians so that more people could hear her voice and music.
- Since i'm the youngest among three sisters I wrote a song about becoming older and that that is just ok. I imagine it's not always easy for parents to watch their children become grown ups. Even if I'm the youngest and it's a bit sad for them to see that I too become an adult, then that'll be just fine.
The chorus lyrics on "Lucky" on the debut album All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend that was released earlier this year Aurora wrote when she was 9 years old.
- I think I wrote a bit darker lyrics when I was younger, compared to the ones I write now. I basically only wrote about death.
- Why death?
- I'm what you can call hypersensitive. I process things more than most people do. The first time a close one died and I was old enough to realise that I'd never see that person again I started to think that mom and dad would also die. Or that I will die myself. I think I managed to cope with it by writing. To try to understand and accept. I felt it to be a very difficult concept to grasp, but it's like that for all children. I do write about it now quite often but maybe in a more hidden form.
The cooperation with Skålnes and Skylstad makes her manage to break away from her inherent tristesse.
- If I'm at home writing songs I usually produce sad and quite creepy lyrics. But "Conqueror", which I co-wrote with Magnus and Odd Martin, is quite the opposite. With them I get the little push I need not to dwell on the gloomy, but be more lively and have fun when I write. It's important to have a song that makes you smile.
Played more than the favourites
In 2015 Aurora and her version of the Oasis song "Half the World Away" was chosen to feature as the auditive part of the annual, lavish and christmassy commercial of UK retailer John Lewis. It is only natural then to check with Oasis fan Skålnes if he had a say or two in the choice of song.
- Unfortunately I did not. But I obviously was very excited when we got to know what song to cover. This is a big thing in the UK and the production company had send out invitations to about a hundred different artists both in the US and in Europe.
Aurora's cover has at the time of writing nearly 23 million streams on Spotify. The original by Oasis, on the other hand, has 8,5 million.
- ****, what happened?
- I sometimes think to myself, "****, what happened?" I've always been ambitious and always carried on but of course there are coincidences at play as well. Had I not been doing this with Aurora I'd still work with music with someone else. Now I've found my place in this band and I'm very happy about it.
- And your own future as a musician?
- I'm still working on my own songs. Next week I'll be the support for Aurora in London.
- I was a big fan of O. Martin before I met and started to play with him, Aurora admits.
This summer Aurora and her band has played Glastonbury, Roskilde and the Panorama Festival in New York. Wednesday 10 August she's one of the artist to open the Øya Festival before she takes the trip over the mountains to play in Haugesund and Maritim Hall the day after. And she's looking forward to it.
- Odd Martin has told me that it's the best place to play in the world and that in for the experience of my life, Aurora grins.
Haugesund-born Skålnes gladly admits that returning to Haugesund with Circus Aurora will be a very special experience. In the band bus, on sound, they have Paul Inge Vikingstad, also from Haugesund.
- I'm really looking forward to play at the Sildajazz festival. Over the last few years they've managed to renew themselves by inviting younger musicians so as not to make it just a New Orleans kind of jazz festival. I personally find that uninteresting. It's important for the town that things happen and I find it very rewarding to be a part and make my own little contribution.
11 September Aurora, Skålnes and the rest of the band will play just before, and on the same stage as Radiohead at the Lollapalooza Berlin Festival. In October and November they go on tour in both the UK and in the Us.
*Russ: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russefeiring
(Original article at issuu.com/iversenskogen/docs/isr160503-tebyn-aug-2016-web
