IN Kelly On the Making Of “Sleepwalker”
What is the creative process like?
I became a father last spring, and it felt very natural to pick up my acoustic guitar and play in front of my newborn daughter. To my surprise melodic ideas were coming one after another, so I started recording them on my phone to remember them. After the release of my band's fifth album last summer, I knew it would be a while before we would record something new together, yet I had all these ideas. I felt that a lot of those small snippets had the potential to evolve into full songs. I began to put pieces I found fit together, and "Sleepwalker" was the first song I wrote in this manner. When I thought the melody was finished, my subconscious worked on it a bit more, and a new part just popped up out of nowhere when I was in the shower, so I had to record that on the phone too. When I finally had the melody and structure for the song, I wrote the lyrics and recorded it at home as soon as it was finished. In this way, I was able to keep the spontaneity of it. I think if there is too big of a time gap between the writing and the recording, the song can lose something on the way. In those cases, it's easy to forget what made the song good in the first place, and it can lose some of its energy. All the songs on my album were made like this – nothing felt forced. I never sat down with the intention to make a song – they just seemed to come along naturally. As I started recording them, they could change quite a bit, as I added a lot of electronic elements. I used the Ableton Push to program drums, and experimented with synth sounds. After recording a song, new ideas could evolve in my subconscious, and extra guitar parts, backing vocals and things like that could pop up as ideas in my head when I was out walking, before going to sleep and sometimes in the middle of the night after a dream. The whole album was recorded when my daughter was sleeping, with the baby monitor next to me, and it was written, recorded and mastered in only about seven months.
What did you enjoy most about making "Sleepwalker?"
As it was only me involved, I really enjoyed how fast I could work and just decide when I thought the song was finished. Normally when in a band, things take time. I also wanted to make something that was different from what we do in Bravo Papa. I loved experimenting with synth plugins and drum machines. I also experienced that using a drum machine made it easier to produce and make the mix sound clean. When recording live drums, we normally use around 6-7 microphones just for the drums, and getting that perfect balance between them, isolating background noise, adjusting the EQ for all tracks – that's really complicated. With the drum machine, it just sounded good at once making the whole process easier and less frustrating. And again, how the song just came so naturally - how it wasn't forced in any way, made it really enjoyable.
How does "Sleepwalker" fit into your overall artistic vision and what can listeners expect from you in the future?
If there is an artistic vision there, I think it is to not repeat myself too much musically. "Sleepwalker" fits into that, being so beat and synth-driven compared to what we've done in Bravo Papa. I think I'm also striving for a kind of dreamy feeling with this project, both musically and lyrically. Lyrics with a certain depth and playfulness are important to me. At the same time, I don't want to intellectualize what I do too much, as it takes away some of the spontaneity that made the songs good in the first place. I'm not trying to sound like anything specific or try to fit into any specific genre. That's how it's always been in Bravo Papa also. So, for the future, I'm releasing my first solo album very soon, and then hopefully we'll make another Bravo Papa album.
Have you collaborated with other songwriters or musicians? How does the collaborative process enhance your creativity?
Yes, I very seldom write songs on my own. My band Bravo Papa is all about collaboration every step of the way. I have been writing songs with the band's guitarist Øystein since we made our first song together on my 19th birthday in 2002. I've always found it easy to create melodies for his riffs and guitar ideas. In the band, we used to record every rehearsal where we were jamming together, and I would listen to it at home, pick out parts to make melodies and lyrics for and send them back to the band by e-mail. We would then structure the songs further as we got together to rehearse. We still do it this way, but we only turn on the recorder when something extra special comes out of the jams. We've played together for almost 15 years now, so we know each other really well musically. I think the album we made last year was the best one we've made so far. So, I feel really privileged to play with these people who just come up with all this great stuff all the time – they make it feel really easy to create great music.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced as a musician, and how did you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge has been to get enough people to hear our music. There are just so many bands and artists out there. I was once able to get into an after-party at EMI Records, and I thought maybe this was our chance to get our music heard. But when I put on 'Fourth of December' by Bravo Papa, there was first a silence before someone asked what this music was and if it could be the case that someone had put on their own. I admitted that it was mine, and I would learn that there was a rule that you should never put on your own music. It seemed to ruin their mood, so that didn't go too well. But of course, record companies don't play the same role for independent artists anymore. You can do a lot on your own, and I learned last year that you could reach out to more people by submitting your music to curators and bloggers, and here I am in an interview with you.
