In my first-ever feature for the newly-minted fresh pressed, I sat down for a charming phone interview with Norwegian pop artist Peter Estdahl, whom I recently met in Oslo on a short-term week abroad. Estdahl is like a mad scientist. Listening to his songs is like watching new organisms evolve at lightning speed from mellow electronica to moody house to slinky psychedelia. A native of Tromsø, a city in northern Norway (and a popular viewing destination for the aurora borealis), Estdahl has been immersed in music for as long as he can remember. In the following interview we discuss his musical origins, where he finds inspiration, as well as how his identity fits into his music.
FP: When/where were you born?
PE: I was born in '93 in Tromsø, up in the north of Norway.
FP: How were you introduced to music?
PE: Right from the beginning. I come from a musical family and both of my parents still play music. My first memory is of my parents' rock gospel cassette that they used to play. And there was a drummer on TV and he had a vest; a really nice verst with patterns on it. And I had the exact same tiny one. My first memory is putting on this vest and looking at this guy on the TV playing the drums and taking the babushka dolls that my mom had [you know, the Russian ones] and I'd turn them upside down and use them as drumsticks. That's my first memory.
FP: What artists inspired you as a child/later, when you started to do music professionally?
PE: When I was 12 I mostly listened to Eminem and 50 Cent and Dido and American pop music. That was the coolest stuff I knew. I also listened to classical and jazz music at the time but I've always been really into pop music. Nowadays...I listen to a lot of old pop music, [especially] from the 70s.
FP: When did you start writing songs?
PE: I wrote my first song for my confirmation ceremony...when I was 14 years old.
FP: How do you approach songwriting?
PE: I kind of try to approach it in a new way every time. Lately, I’ll take a long walk and play outside on a bench and write down lyrics. Often, if I’ve dreamt something or something has recently come to mind early in the morning I can use the afternoon, like I did yesterday, to walk down to the ocean and sit peacefully down and drink some coffee and write some lyrics. Then I brought them to the piano and recorded myself trying to improvise over those lyrics. A lot of the structure in the songs is kind of improvised and recorded and it’s like a one-take [instance].
FP: Where does the inspiration from your songs originate?
PE: I mainly get inspiration from other music. I steal a lot and I copy a lot. If I find a riff that I really like or a chord progression then I'll just take it. That's the main inspiration. Other than that it's often turbulent aspects of life, where I feel like I need the music in order to make sense of it. That's a more spiritual plane...I write music because I really have to. And I write about the things that I have to write about; like relationships that fall apart or having trouble with feeling comfortable and finding an identity that suits you (an expression of identity). I don't have too many happy songs.
FP: Do you consider your artist image/brand separate & distinct from yourself?
PE: I think that the line between the persona and the artist is quite blurred. And, therefore, I think it's important to me to express an artistry that I feel is representative of myself. But, on the other hand, I think that working with music and having this artist idea also kind of draws people like me...To a certain degree a character is a stereotype of what an artist should be like...I really like music and I really like performing for people and I really want to keep expanding that. So then I guess I also have to be an artist in some sense. I think I'm a part of a youth culture and a bohemian kind of environment in terms of who my friends are and my social network: a lot of artists and a lot of free-thinking people. I think that's something I want to express in the imagery of how I want to be branded. I think that's a huge challenge but it's also a great gift for people today; that they can actually create a whole visual identity for themselves and it's not that difficult or expensive. You don't need a huge label to do that. You can do that by the means of talking with other creative people around you and asking what they see in you and how they would portray you. Because I honestly don't know exactly what I should express as a brand. But I think somebody else might see that. I'm constantly looking for people to collaborate and help me keep that conversation going.
FP: How did your 2 EPs come about?
PE: The first EP I started working on straight away when I came to Oslo. I wrote like 25 songs and then I trashed half of them and kept some of them and then I trashed most of those and kept one of them and then I started recording stuff more seriously. Before, I was working in studios but then I started doing more D.I.Y. stuff, in my practice space with a few microphones and a simple setup...I was drawing from other contemporary artists that use...small budgets. The second EP I wrote 4 years earlier. I wouldn't say I've matured much but other stuff in my life was going on. The second EP...I just wanted to see if I could mix more electronic elements in with the music without losing the unpolished feel of it. I wanted to see if I could mix electronic sounds with live instruments in a way where it didn't sound like it was either an indie record or a pop electronica record...like an urban mix. I really like 70s rock n roll; like in psychedelic rock, they use a lot of weird combinations of tribal music and African drums together with operatic elements. You have to make something completely different to make something sound like its evolving.
FP: Tell us the story behind “Taking Up Too Much Space”.
PE: It was was written in a particular time in my life, 2 years ago, when I was in a bit of a fallout with my girlfriend. We were still together at that point but when I wrote the song I felt like there was this growing vacuum and I was trying to put words to what that vacuum felt like. As it says, am I taking up to much space?. It's like an addictive but potentially harmful aspect of being with somebody. You start developing this pattern where you have 2 really good weeks and then 2 really bad weeks and...sometimes relationships can just...take more energy than they give.
FP: Can you contain my heart’s feelings/Sometimes you’re the only thing that I live for. Is this a shout to that battle between wanting to salvage what’s left in a relationship and wanting to leave at the same time?
PE: Yes, that's spot on. I was trying to capture what that feels like in this lyric.
FP: In this alternative pop feel, the 99 Problems shout has an interesting context. It seems to be a nice nod to your childhood fascination with rap music. Can you talk about the difference between the 2 post-hooks?
PE: I remember when I put that in there. I wrote the song without melody or lyrics. I made the drums and recorded the guitars. And I just stood in the studio spitballing into the microphone and was trying to come up with something to fit the end of the chorus. I wanted to take the song away from being something that was a pure indie pop retro song. I wanted it to have some other connotations so it wouldn’t just be in that psychedelic pop universe. I like too much hip-hop and R&B and soul music not to reference it. Yeah (In reference to Post Hook 2), I’m into boys and girls. At the time, when I wrote that song, the relationship I was in was open a lot of time so I had the chance to explore other aspects of sexuality and I think it’s a really great thing. It reminds me of Elton John sometimes; how he never references guys in his songs. It makes me feel like it’s a shame that people couldn’t express themselves. At least now today it’s a totally different social climate for those sort of things.
FP: In Verse 2 the lyric Come take a chance with me/No! I forgot I’m HTG. appears. What does "HTG" stand for?
PE: It stands for 'hard to get'. I googled it and it came up in Urban Dictionary. I needed something that fit the rhythm.
FP: Who produced/engineered your single?
PE: I did.
FP: Where was it recorded?
PE: I recorded this in my old studio that I built and had with some friends.
PE: Do you play all of the instruments on the record?
PE: Yes.
FP: Who is this song for? Is it a therapeutic thing for yourself, to understand what you were going through?
PE: Yes, definitely. I'm always working on tracks...There are always things I'm humming in the back of my head...And then something occurs in my life that has emotional depth and then I have something to write to that music (in my head).
FP: What’s in your immediate musical future?
PE: I really want to do an acoustic thing, more or less. I want to do a stripped-down guitar/piano/vocal; that feels like a natural thing to do. It’s always expensive to go around and play nowadays. So bringing a full band can be a bit of a difficulty. Right now I want to make something a bit more acoustic and perform it like that as well.
FP: How did you end up at the Norwegian Academy of Music (Norges musikkhøgskole)? What was your schooling up until then?
PE: I lived in England for 2 years when I was 16 and 17 and went to music school there, where I did singing lessons and guitar lessons. And after that I did music college in Tromsø and then since I was 19 I’ve been playing gigs. That, I think, has been the most important schooling...It’s important to get out there and do shows for live audiences...I dropped out of college and I had to re-do my exams, so I took 4 years to do that. But I had NMH in mind for a long time. It was the only place I applied because I wanted to be in Oslo. I wanted to go to a school that wasn’t too pop-oriented. I find formal environments challenging in a cool way...People take each other really seriously...Even if you feel like people have an artistic view on music and what they think is cool, they are extremely humble when it comes to what other people play and what they’re interested in. They want to understand.
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Peter Estdahl's pair of EP's, entitled Ep.1 and EP.2, are currently available on Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
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