Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We have some fans that come to almost all of our shows, and they will travel to different countries to see us - that's pretty amazing.
I didn't think it would be possible for me to do music professionally. I was afraid to speak up and say I wanted to become a musician.
When you're surrounded by majestic Norwegian nature, it's very easy to start thinking about stuff you don't have time to in everyday life.
I'm very ambitious. But my overall goal, above ambition, is that I want to be happy with what I'm doing, and I want to be happy with myself.
I love that there's always something happening at festivals. It takes some of the pressure away, too, because you're one person on the bill.
Writing songs about having a nice time - 'Oh I'm so happy on tour with my band' - I'd find it really difficult to write a good song about it.
I would love to meet or work with Sofia Coppola. Or Wes Anderson or Spike Jonze. I'd love to meet them. The way they film, it's all so geometric.
Most of the songs I write are full of power, and I'm suspecting it may come from my love for grotesque Renaissance art and the Eurovision Song Contest.
The first time I listened to Coldplay, I was at a train station in Paris with my family on holiday. I put on 'Clocks' on my discman, and I fell in love.
If there's only one genre that it's possible to listen to or possible to see live, then how can you explore different styles? How can you evolve, musically?
I didn't look up to only pop stars, but I did look up to Adele, Amy Winehouse, Grimes, Robyn, Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones, M.I.A., Coldplay, Keane, and more.
I was a very shy kid. Very shy. But I started doing theatre when I was six years old, and that really changed something. My more playful side came out of me.
I don't think I would participate in 'Eurovision,' but I would love to write a song for it. But it would have to be for Norway, obviously. Do it for my country.
I was not a good singer. You know those children who are like, 'I'm gonna be a pop star,' and they sound amazing from the day they were born? I was not like that.
I'm a huge fan of Renaissance art. It's very direct. They're paintings that hit you in the face in the same immediate way that a huge pop tune hits you in the face.
The thing I love about Norwegian cities is that you often have nature right at your doorstep - you don't need to go that far. That makes it a lot easier to just get out.
What I want people to take away from my music is that it's important to listen. Especially for young people, your opinion is the one that counts the most when it comes to your craft.
I've got ambitions. I've always been very ambitious. But I think there's something nice about not saying all of my dreams, in case they don't happen and then it's just really embarrassing.
Whenever my friend says something cool, and especially if my team says something, like a cool line in English, I'll write it down, and maybe I'll rephrase or use in a different way or something.
My sister and I wrote some songs together under a project called Sala Says Mhyp when I was 17. Sala is our cat. She died, and we wanted to do something in honor of our her. We were a proper cat family.
I liked theatre because I could hide behind a role I was playing, but now, I just love being on stage. I don't pretend that I'm anyone else, I just show my full range when I am up there, and it's very liberating.
I try to, like, hang out with my family as much as possible. Hang out with the band, go hiking when I'm in the mood for that. Watch Netflix. It's really important for me; like, health comes before everything else.
I think I always kind of wanted to be a musician but never dared to say it out loud because I never thought it was possible. I wanted to be a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor - I wanted to be a lot of other things growing up.
I didn't grow up listening to him - my parents listened more to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell - but I lived in a flatshare for two years, and my flatmate loved Leonard Cohen. He would always play him when he got home from the studio or something.
I remember when I started writing lyrics, I was very grand. I tried to use a lot of symbols,because I thought that's how songwriting should be - with imagery and metaphor. I figured, after a while, maybe I should just write it as I would say in real life.
There's a Norwegian equivalent to 'BBC Introducing' called 'P3 Untouched,' and I remember when they played the first song I ever wrote that I'd put online. I was 16 at that point. That was the first moment where I was like, 'Oh, maybe this is something I want to do more of.'
I always have days off before and after I go to the studio. That's really important for me that I know that I have days off after, 'cause then I can give my everything when I'm in the studio. I love being in the studio and being able to think, 'Okay, I'm not doing anything tomorrow.'
That's the thing: pop music has sometimes had a bad reputation for being about a lot of other stuff than the music. And I am just a lover of pop music. I love pop. I love big choruses. Dramatic choruses - they're the best thing in the world. And I do this because I love making music and performing the songs.
'Don't Kill My Vibe' was made in a writing session, by Martin Sjolie and I, after he'd asked me what I'd been thinking about lately. I started talking about this earlier writing session that was quite difficult. The song is about the feeling of not being respected as a person, and I think that's something that speaks to millennials.
