After a heartbeat
Kristin Fjellseth is a hopeful soul and her songs are full of light never forgetting the dark side of life. Finally, her debut album is here. Golden heartbeats (2011) was released just a month ago and it’s the end of the beginning of a songwriter with a lot of new horizons to explore. The album was recorded with Ellen Andrea Wang (double bass&Background vocals) and Arne Hehry Skullerud (drums, percussion, piano). Now it’s time to present her new songs performing live and enjoying the unique moment of a wonderful debut.
“Golden heartbeats” is your debut album. When you think about the way you’ve walked to get it, is it been too long?
I think it has been an important road to walk. I have learned so much from working with different styles of music and different musicians that has helped me to find the right way. I think it is very important when you write music that you really believe in what you do, and that it feels right and important. Therefore, it has been a long way, but I am sure it was worth walking.
The album is composed by eleven songs. What about the album’s composition process?
I sat in my apartment in Oslo in January 2010. I didn`t have my piano there, so I had to use my father’s old guitar. I didn`t know how to play, but I just started trying. I had quit my job to really put everything into writing, so I just had to do it. Then I wrote several hours per day for about six months. Then I picked a couple of musicians that I wanted to work with, and we started rehearsing the material together.
And your writings are mainly about personal experiences or there are some fictional stories too?
It is personal, but there`s always some fiction in it. I use my personal experiences, but I also make things up.
As you said, you’ve worked different styles of music. Which ones are your musical influences?
It is a lot!!! Everything made with passion and expressed with love, I guess. I enjoy everything from country to classical music. I think my influences are more from movies, books, people I meet and nature than one special kind of music.
And of course “Paris, Berlin, New York”...and I guess your country has an special influence too?
Yes, absolutely! Places, cities, water, mountains, snow...
When the moon begins to sing, what does it sing to you?
I guess you refer to the song "The singing moon". The song is about the harvest moon, or the singing moon as it is also called, that shines for the workers at the fields so they can harvest what they need for the winter. For me, this song is a comfort song. I want to tell the audience that there`s still time to fullfill their dreams and live the life they want to live, but they have to act now.
Why do you think people don't live the way they want to?
I guess there are many answers to that. I can only speak for myself. I am lucky, I live in a country with a good wellfare-system. I have the possibility to follow my dreams. I know that most people are not that lucky. For me, it has been a battle between being sensible and sensitive, or, as I say in one of the songs: Choose the head or choose the heart. Art and music is difficult ways to make a living out of, so I really had to believe in myself and what I had to offer before I could even dare to follow my dream.
And what does music give you?
It gives me the feeling of being alive. It gives me the opportunity to express myself in a way that I couldn`t do in other ways than singing about it.
In “Golden heartbeats” you sing “I can’t promise you that live is what it seems”. What is life?
The song "Golden Heartbeats" is written to everyone who is trying to find out what they want to do with their life. How they want to work, where they`re going to live etc. I am trying to tell these people that whatever they choose: Listen to your heart, and let the heartbeat lead you. It is not going to be easy, but you will always have someone there, who supports you and tells you to never give up.
In “Morning glory” you express your gratitude. Are you an optimistic person?
Yes, I think I am. I try to be. But sometimes I can be very harsh to myself. I push myself hard and Ii am not happy if things don`t go well. But I try to embrace the beauty in life. The beautiful, little things that make you smile.
“Mothers & daughters” is the last song of the album. Is it a kind of future wish?
No.
Is family an important element in your life?
It is a song about the difficult relationship between parents and children, written out of a daughter’s perspective (not myself). Yes, family is important in my life.
Obviously, a recording session is a completely different experience to a live performance. What kind of feelings do you have just before a concert?
I am always nervous!!! I ask myself: "WHY on EARTH do you do this to yourself?!". But, as soon as I am on stage, it is all gone. Then I feel like I am home, in my right element.
Could you give me an image of future?
Hopefully, in the future I will write and record albums and sing! I am already working with new material, so maybe there won’t be too long before another album comes out. I also want to cooperate with different people and do more conceptual things.
Conceptual music?
Conceptual albums.
What's the most important in your life?
Family, love, music, friends, art, food and wine.
Wine? Could you drink a toast to something?
I would have to drink a toast for people to follow their golden heartbeat!.
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero