AURORA finds the music business beautiful and awful
Sept 4, 2016 14:14:08 GMT
AURONRA, aurorafan, and 9 more like this
Post by onelittlewarrior on Sept 4, 2016 14:14:08 GMT
(Translated into English by onelittlewarrior . Thanks to chrisron for providing me with pictures of the text and scans of the pictures)
We met the new star Aurora Aksnes (20). We talked about the pressure of the music industry. And about magic, love, intoxication and death.
Aurora is wearing high socks with super heroes on them, a patterned jacket, a long green skirt and striped tights. She's in Oslo for a few days to appear on the popular Øya Festival. In between hectic days with a lot of travelling and many interviews she still found time to meet =Oslo for a chat.
I notice her eyes. It looks like icicles have frozen inside them. Ice blue with white details. She looks at me directly, a young and curious look.
- How do you cope with all the attention?
- I don't think I'm very good at it. I must be Norway's worst celebrity. You know when you walk down the street with music in your ears, in good moods. Then I notice that people look at me. "How strange", I think to myself. Some of them want to take pictures, and some are probably more interested in the pictures than they are in me. I understand it very well. That's how we people are: fascinated by things that are a little bigger than normal. But people are always nice. I guess I understand what's it like to be an animal in a zoo, Aurora laughs.
"Warriors and weirdos" is what Aurora calls her fans. And they have increased in numbers, in several countries. In only two years her career has just exploded. It whole started with a few songs uploaded to Urørt, a site that lets new artist exhibit their music for free. Then there was a concert at the Bylarm Festival in 2014. And she was off.
She signed with record companies Petroleum in Norway, Decca in Europe and Glassnote in USA. Now she's been on tour since the second day in January.
Aurora looks like a fairytale figure. The light skin, the short silver hair and the way she moves her hands. Her peculiar Nordic style has been picked up by the music industry and her fans.
- What does it feel like to be appearing at the Øya Festval this year?
- I remember so well the first time at Øya, two years ago. It was my ninth concert ever. I was so nervous I almost fainted. Have you ever been somewhere burning? Then you feel an intense fear and panic. But then you find out what you have to do. You look for the nearest excit, water or something to cover the fire. It's the same on stage, you know what you need to do, and then you do it. My brain screams: "No, no, no" as I enter the stage, but the legs keep moving. Then I start to sing. Often I don't remember the show afterwards. I'm so new. I still feel I am. It's scary and comforting at the same time to feel how safe I become on stage. Today I feel safer, less nervous. I always am just before I go on, but I think that's for the good. It's important to me to remember that all appearances are equally important.
Aurora's light, calm voice is full of Bergen dialect. She takes a sip of the water and tells me how dependent she is of it, plus two things she always keeps in her purse; lemon and ginger. Aurora grew up in Os outside Bergen. Before she became known as an artist she'd barely been outside Norway. Now she has toured USA and Europe. I have a look at her schedule. It's crammed full and has lots of travel miles. Hungary, Germany, Holland, France, Ireland, Poland and Belgium are just a few of the places she's going to this autumn.
- How's hotel life?
- I've better at it now than I used to. It's something nice with hotels, coming to a place you don't need to maintain or see again. Today I've just been in my room. Drinking tea and doing some yoga. Then I read my book, a very thrilling fantasy book. I always bring several books, because I'm afraid of finishing one and not having others. Books are sacred to me. And then they smell so good. I usually light some incense in my room. And I put all my clothes on the shelves. That way it feels more personal.
Aurora looks down at the table, pausing to think.
- I'm not much home these days. I spend almost every wake hour on music. It's lot of hard but exciting work. Sometimes I get very tired and think: "Why do I do this at all"?
- When you lie in bed at night in the darkness. What do you think about?
- Wow. It's a lot! Sometimes I think about small particles. You know that in everything there are tiny, tiny bacteria that look like small insects. Wherever we touch with our hands, we destroy them.
She lightly knocks on the massive wooded table we're seated at. She looks up on me and says eagerly.
- Like now, now something is happening inside this table. Such things I think about a lot. When I lie in bed I can find myself thinking about how many small bacteria I'm lying on. It's fascinating. And then I often think of death. I'm fascinated by death. I've been to many funerals, so it's probably got to do with that. There's death everywhere in the world, especially now. It's inevitable not to think about it, I feel. Death is the only thing that is certain in life. It' so natural, there is something nice about death. Yet scary. I start to think of how nice it is for us people to dare to love each other. Even if we know that we have to go through the pain of losing someone we love.
- Are you afraid of dying yourself?
- Sometimes. And sometimes not. I can get scared of death being just a vast unconsciousness where you're just nothing. Yet at the same time I think that I used to be just a foetus inside a womb. At the end of that period I became a person. At the end of my period as a person what will happen then? What do I become? I'd rather die myself than experiencing someone in my family dying.
She dropped out of high school to focus on her music. She tells me that she's always felt different, that's it a great relief not having a friend drama or boy drama in her life just now. Aurora says she's not regretting focussing on her career instead of studying. She notices that she and her friends live very different lives. The try to meet up as often as possible, when Aurora is back home in Bergen.
- You're young, beautiful.... do you have your eyes set on someone?
- Hmm, do I?
She smiles cheekily and stares into the air.
Her eyes meet mine before she says:
- I easily fall in love with people, and I'm easily fascinated by various persons. I like people and I guess I'm a bit in love with everything. There is nothing i crave less now than a relationship. I know I would be a bad girlfriend. I often forget birthdays and special events. I'd forget calling and messaging each night. I'm just not good at these boyfriend/girlfriend things. At those little things that mean a lot in a relationship. In fact, I've been single for quite some time now. Before I've been in two relationships. Or no, one and a half, in fact, she says and smiles.
- How was your first kiss?
- I can't really remember if it was a boy or a girl. Oh yes, it was my neighbour. I was four, he was two. I was a bit of a "cougar" when I was four. I put a dress on, an old one from the attic, with fringes. I went down, dragging the dress in the dirt behind me, spoiling and ruining it. I went to the neighbour boy and asked him to put on his Spider Man suit, and asked if he wanted to marry me. Technically, we're still married; we never divorced. I think that was my first kiss. We really should divorce soon; we've drifted apart, Aurora laughs loudly.
The pressure of the music industry is something Aurora is familiar with. She feels that the music is still very important, but there is also an enormous focus on good looks.
- The media today are just crazy. People are edited to bits. We look up to idols who say "Love yourself", when they themselves are slim, tall and tanned. There's much superficiality in this business. I mean, nothing is more beautiful than a natural human being. Can you imagine how hard we make it for ourselves with all this?
- Do you have self-confidence?
- Yes. Or no. Well. In situations that really demand that you are confident and brave, then I am. Like going on stage, interviews and things like that. I manage that just fine. But going to parties is my worst nightmare. In the music industry there are lot of parties where you're supposed to mingle, I'm not good at that. Socially I'm not very confident. I'm confident at some things and not at others. I think we're all like that. Some days we're stronger than on other days. I'm glad I've managed to stay quite down to earth through this whole process, Aurora says firmly.
In March her debut album "All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend" was released. In a bit over a year we will probably get Aurora's second album. Many are looking forward to this, including the star herself. She hates having to wait so long. She'd rather release her next album as fast as possible.
- Will you change your musical expression on the next album?
- Definitely! I've already changed quite much. The first album was finished a year before it was released. There are quite a few things on it that I'm not very happy about. I resented that. The reasons for this were time, money and that I couldn't decide everything myself. I understand that all the talented people around me want to make sure that my music will appeal to as many as possible, lest it become too eccentric. But that's basically a bit contrary to what I want. I realise it's for the best if I want a long and successful career. There's also a lot I love about the first album. I cried for joy when it came out. Before that I had been a bit sad. I realised I couldn't be that hard on myself but rather be proud of having been given the opportunity to release an album. I will use more time on the next one, and I'll listen more to myself and those I work with. The plan is for it to be released in month 11, i.e. in November 2017. 11 is my favourite number. I'm obsessed with numbers.
- What makes numbers interesting?
- Well, I just love eleven. It's magic. I'm happy if it's 11.11 o'clock, or if I've spoken to someone for eleven minutes and eleven seconds. Eleven is the same upside down and from behind. I'm generally very fond of numbers and maths. At school I was very good at maths, physics and chemistry. My plan was to become a physicist before I jumped on my music career.
- Where do you get the ideas for your lyrics?
- Oh, it can be anyything. Like when you smell something, it reminds us of childhood, something we didn't like or someone we loved. It's the same with the world. I suddenly just smell or see something, like a colour. Or the three inside this restaurant. It's very inspiring. It's a tree, made of plastic, and it's inside. It'll never see the sun and we'll never be able to eat its fruits. It must be a very strange situation for that three to find itself in. Everything's an inspiration. I sometimes just sit and think in silence. That's when I write the best. I'm writing on several songs at the moment, and I wrote just now in the hotel room. I was sitting looking outside at this little puddle and the rain falling. I started to write about this puddle and on why you sit and watch it. Oh yes, I think a lot, Aurora exclaims. She's all smiles.
Next year the young Aksnes will take a break from all the work. When I ask about the reason she says she wants to and needs to feel a little bored. She misses her family very much. She praises her two big sisters, Miranda and Viktoria, and her parents. They communicate a lot and work together in processing everything that Aurora experiences.
An excerpt from the song "Home": "Endless days of complaints, forcing the light to our veins, keeping in our minds, one day life will be kind".
She tells me it's about people who have strayed in their lives and who survive by finding a form of security.
- We humans have created so many things we get addicted to. Everything from drugs to sugar, things that destroy us. Isn' that just strange? There are so many people who profit from this. It's a nasty thought. I, like many others, is a very sensitive person. I have coped with that by having a good family, a quiet home, nature, and a talent for writing music and expressing my feelings through it. It doesn't take much for persons to make bad choices in their lives. I applaud all those who try and help these people who may all be artistic, sensitive and unique. But they needed another way to cope with the world. I find that sad. In Bergen they threw out the drug addicts from where they used to go. This was somewhere they could feel safe, at least for a few hours during the day, a kind of home. I'd love it if there were better alternatives. I will definitely engage in the policy on substance abuse.
- Where is Aurora Aksnes in ten years?
- Then I will be living in a house in the mountains, all on my own. I hope I'm still touring then and that my music is what I'd like it to be: emotional, real and with emphasis on the soul in music. I hope I will have managed to to achieve some of the things I'll fight for; freedom of expression, helping drug addicts and women rights. I think that in order not to lose myself, or not getting depressed in this beautiful but awful business, it's paramount to have an extra motivation for doing what I do - trying to be able to help others.
Aurora is a unique young woman, who can go far. She speaks with the confidence of an older person. She has impressed me and photographer Dimitri with her childish appearance, yet having very mature reflections on life.
- Before we leave I just have to ask: Why do you have super heroes on your socks?
- I just love super heroes and magic. It's magic that we can live on this planet that is rotating around in this vast universe, with lots of stars around. Sometimes, when I'm completely on my own, I can find myself staring at something. I concentrate and look at this object, wanting it to move. I do that quite often. But nothing has moved yet, unfortunately. I believe in elfs. I talk to myself occasionally but that's really to elves or other magical creatures. It's extra magical when strangers are kind to each other.
(Original article in September issue of street magazine =Oslo. As of 30 October the article is online at www.erlik.no/aurora-synes-musikkbransjen-er-vakker-og-forferdelig/)
We met the new star Aurora Aksnes (20). We talked about the pressure of the music industry. And about magic, love, intoxication and death.
Aurora is wearing high socks with super heroes on them, a patterned jacket, a long green skirt and striped tights. She's in Oslo for a few days to appear on the popular Øya Festival. In between hectic days with a lot of travelling and many interviews she still found time to meet =Oslo for a chat.
I notice her eyes. It looks like icicles have frozen inside them. Ice blue with white details. She looks at me directly, a young and curious look.
- How do you cope with all the attention?
- I don't think I'm very good at it. I must be Norway's worst celebrity. You know when you walk down the street with music in your ears, in good moods. Then I notice that people look at me. "How strange", I think to myself. Some of them want to take pictures, and some are probably more interested in the pictures than they are in me. I understand it very well. That's how we people are: fascinated by things that are a little bigger than normal. But people are always nice. I guess I understand what's it like to be an animal in a zoo, Aurora laughs.
"Warriors and weirdos" is what Aurora calls her fans. And they have increased in numbers, in several countries. In only two years her career has just exploded. It whole started with a few songs uploaded to Urørt, a site that lets new artist exhibit their music for free. Then there was a concert at the Bylarm Festival in 2014. And she was off.
She signed with record companies Petroleum in Norway, Decca in Europe and Glassnote in USA. Now she's been on tour since the second day in January.
Aurora looks like a fairytale figure. The light skin, the short silver hair and the way she moves her hands. Her peculiar Nordic style has been picked up by the music industry and her fans.
- What does it feel like to be appearing at the Øya Festval this year?
- I remember so well the first time at Øya, two years ago. It was my ninth concert ever. I was so nervous I almost fainted. Have you ever been somewhere burning? Then you feel an intense fear and panic. But then you find out what you have to do. You look for the nearest excit, water or something to cover the fire. It's the same on stage, you know what you need to do, and then you do it. My brain screams: "No, no, no" as I enter the stage, but the legs keep moving. Then I start to sing. Often I don't remember the show afterwards. I'm so new. I still feel I am. It's scary and comforting at the same time to feel how safe I become on stage. Today I feel safer, less nervous. I always am just before I go on, but I think that's for the good. It's important to me to remember that all appearances are equally important.
Aurora's light, calm voice is full of Bergen dialect. She takes a sip of the water and tells me how dependent she is of it, plus two things she always keeps in her purse; lemon and ginger. Aurora grew up in Os outside Bergen. Before she became known as an artist she'd barely been outside Norway. Now she has toured USA and Europe. I have a look at her schedule. It's crammed full and has lots of travel miles. Hungary, Germany, Holland, France, Ireland, Poland and Belgium are just a few of the places she's going to this autumn.
- How's hotel life?
- I've better at it now than I used to. It's something nice with hotels, coming to a place you don't need to maintain or see again. Today I've just been in my room. Drinking tea and doing some yoga. Then I read my book, a very thrilling fantasy book. I always bring several books, because I'm afraid of finishing one and not having others. Books are sacred to me. And then they smell so good. I usually light some incense in my room. And I put all my clothes on the shelves. That way it feels more personal.
Aurora looks down at the table, pausing to think.
- I'm not much home these days. I spend almost every wake hour on music. It's lot of hard but exciting work. Sometimes I get very tired and think: "Why do I do this at all"?
- When you lie in bed at night in the darkness. What do you think about?
- Wow. It's a lot! Sometimes I think about small particles. You know that in everything there are tiny, tiny bacteria that look like small insects. Wherever we touch with our hands, we destroy them.
She lightly knocks on the massive wooded table we're seated at. She looks up on me and says eagerly.
- Like now, now something is happening inside this table. Such things I think about a lot. When I lie in bed I can find myself thinking about how many small bacteria I'm lying on. It's fascinating. And then I often think of death. I'm fascinated by death. I've been to many funerals, so it's probably got to do with that. There's death everywhere in the world, especially now. It's inevitable not to think about it, I feel. Death is the only thing that is certain in life. It' so natural, there is something nice about death. Yet scary. I start to think of how nice it is for us people to dare to love each other. Even if we know that we have to go through the pain of losing someone we love.
- Are you afraid of dying yourself?
- Sometimes. And sometimes not. I can get scared of death being just a vast unconsciousness where you're just nothing. Yet at the same time I think that I used to be just a foetus inside a womb. At the end of that period I became a person. At the end of my period as a person what will happen then? What do I become? I'd rather die myself than experiencing someone in my family dying.
She dropped out of high school to focus on her music. She tells me that she's always felt different, that's it a great relief not having a friend drama or boy drama in her life just now. Aurora says she's not regretting focussing on her career instead of studying. She notices that she and her friends live very different lives. The try to meet up as often as possible, when Aurora is back home in Bergen.
- You're young, beautiful.... do you have your eyes set on someone?
- Hmm, do I?
She smiles cheekily and stares into the air.
Her eyes meet mine before she says:
- I easily fall in love with people, and I'm easily fascinated by various persons. I like people and I guess I'm a bit in love with everything. There is nothing i crave less now than a relationship. I know I would be a bad girlfriend. I often forget birthdays and special events. I'd forget calling and messaging each night. I'm just not good at these boyfriend/girlfriend things. At those little things that mean a lot in a relationship. In fact, I've been single for quite some time now. Before I've been in two relationships. Or no, one and a half, in fact, she says and smiles.
- How was your first kiss?
- I can't really remember if it was a boy or a girl. Oh yes, it was my neighbour. I was four, he was two. I was a bit of a "cougar" when I was four. I put a dress on, an old one from the attic, with fringes. I went down, dragging the dress in the dirt behind me, spoiling and ruining it. I went to the neighbour boy and asked him to put on his Spider Man suit, and asked if he wanted to marry me. Technically, we're still married; we never divorced. I think that was my first kiss. We really should divorce soon; we've drifted apart, Aurora laughs loudly.
The pressure of the music industry is something Aurora is familiar with. She feels that the music is still very important, but there is also an enormous focus on good looks.
- The media today are just crazy. People are edited to bits. We look up to idols who say "Love yourself", when they themselves are slim, tall and tanned. There's much superficiality in this business. I mean, nothing is more beautiful than a natural human being. Can you imagine how hard we make it for ourselves with all this?
- Do you have self-confidence?
- Yes. Or no. Well. In situations that really demand that you are confident and brave, then I am. Like going on stage, interviews and things like that. I manage that just fine. But going to parties is my worst nightmare. In the music industry there are lot of parties where you're supposed to mingle, I'm not good at that. Socially I'm not very confident. I'm confident at some things and not at others. I think we're all like that. Some days we're stronger than on other days. I'm glad I've managed to stay quite down to earth through this whole process, Aurora says firmly.
In March her debut album "All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend" was released. In a bit over a year we will probably get Aurora's second album. Many are looking forward to this, including the star herself. She hates having to wait so long. She'd rather release her next album as fast as possible.
- Will you change your musical expression on the next album?
- Definitely! I've already changed quite much. The first album was finished a year before it was released. There are quite a few things on it that I'm not very happy about. I resented that. The reasons for this were time, money and that I couldn't decide everything myself. I understand that all the talented people around me want to make sure that my music will appeal to as many as possible, lest it become too eccentric. But that's basically a bit contrary to what I want. I realise it's for the best if I want a long and successful career. There's also a lot I love about the first album. I cried for joy when it came out. Before that I had been a bit sad. I realised I couldn't be that hard on myself but rather be proud of having been given the opportunity to release an album. I will use more time on the next one, and I'll listen more to myself and those I work with. The plan is for it to be released in month 11, i.e. in November 2017. 11 is my favourite number. I'm obsessed with numbers.
- What makes numbers interesting?
- Well, I just love eleven. It's magic. I'm happy if it's 11.11 o'clock, or if I've spoken to someone for eleven minutes and eleven seconds. Eleven is the same upside down and from behind. I'm generally very fond of numbers and maths. At school I was very good at maths, physics and chemistry. My plan was to become a physicist before I jumped on my music career.
- Where do you get the ideas for your lyrics?
- Oh, it can be anyything. Like when you smell something, it reminds us of childhood, something we didn't like or someone we loved. It's the same with the world. I suddenly just smell or see something, like a colour. Or the three inside this restaurant. It's very inspiring. It's a tree, made of plastic, and it's inside. It'll never see the sun and we'll never be able to eat its fruits. It must be a very strange situation for that three to find itself in. Everything's an inspiration. I sometimes just sit and think in silence. That's when I write the best. I'm writing on several songs at the moment, and I wrote just now in the hotel room. I was sitting looking outside at this little puddle and the rain falling. I started to write about this puddle and on why you sit and watch it. Oh yes, I think a lot, Aurora exclaims. She's all smiles.
Next year the young Aksnes will take a break from all the work. When I ask about the reason she says she wants to and needs to feel a little bored. She misses her family very much. She praises her two big sisters, Miranda and Viktoria, and her parents. They communicate a lot and work together in processing everything that Aurora experiences.
An excerpt from the song "Home": "Endless days of complaints, forcing the light to our veins, keeping in our minds, one day life will be kind".
She tells me it's about people who have strayed in their lives and who survive by finding a form of security.
- We humans have created so many things we get addicted to. Everything from drugs to sugar, things that destroy us. Isn' that just strange? There are so many people who profit from this. It's a nasty thought. I, like many others, is a very sensitive person. I have coped with that by having a good family, a quiet home, nature, and a talent for writing music and expressing my feelings through it. It doesn't take much for persons to make bad choices in their lives. I applaud all those who try and help these people who may all be artistic, sensitive and unique. But they needed another way to cope with the world. I find that sad. In Bergen they threw out the drug addicts from where they used to go. This was somewhere they could feel safe, at least for a few hours during the day, a kind of home. I'd love it if there were better alternatives. I will definitely engage in the policy on substance abuse.
- Where is Aurora Aksnes in ten years?
- Then I will be living in a house in the mountains, all on my own. I hope I'm still touring then and that my music is what I'd like it to be: emotional, real and with emphasis on the soul in music. I hope I will have managed to to achieve some of the things I'll fight for; freedom of expression, helping drug addicts and women rights. I think that in order not to lose myself, or not getting depressed in this beautiful but awful business, it's paramount to have an extra motivation for doing what I do - trying to be able to help others.
Aurora is a unique young woman, who can go far. She speaks with the confidence of an older person. She has impressed me and photographer Dimitri with her childish appearance, yet having very mature reflections on life.
- Before we leave I just have to ask: Why do you have super heroes on your socks?
- I just love super heroes and magic. It's magic that we can live on this planet that is rotating around in this vast universe, with lots of stars around. Sometimes, when I'm completely on my own, I can find myself staring at something. I concentrate and look at this object, wanting it to move. I do that quite often. But nothing has moved yet, unfortunately. I believe in elfs. I talk to myself occasionally but that's really to elves or other magical creatures. It's extra magical when strangers are kind to each other.
(Original article in September issue of street magazine =Oslo. As of 30 October the article is online at www.erlik.no/aurora-synes-musikkbransjen-er-vakker-og-forferdelig/)
) and photoshopskills will take care of that..... 
