Are you a classically trained musician?

Yes I am! I started playing violin when I was eight. I quit after two years, though. I started playing classical piano when I was nine, and I took classical singing lessons when I was a teenager. Then I went to Skeisvang musical high school in Norway. I learned sheet music, musical phrasing, classical rules of arranging melodies, stuff like that! I had a great time there. It's very encouraging, and very creative. Everything from piano lessons, choir singing, performances and even dance lessons. Yeah, I'm classically trained, in both theory and practice. We also learned about rock era music. That was really cool!

You obviously had a lot of experience in music and performing even before you made it internationally. Does that mean you never had stage fright at all?

Oh, I still have so much stage fright. Sometimes I'm so scared I freeze, I cant even move my fingers. Sometimes when I sing, and I'm scared, my voice gets all choked up. I've had stage fright since I started singing, and it hasn't really gotten — well, it has gotten a little bit better, because with time you get a certain professional distance to it. It's not like in the beginning. The first time I performed alone on stage, I was so scared I forgot the lyrics. I just didn't know what to do! Nobody had told me what to do if I fooled up the lyrics! I'd just stand there and smile. I was in hell. It's one of the worst memories of my life. I still have a lot of stage fright. I don't really know what the solution is. Sometimes it helps to just go be by myself a little bit before I go on stage and just focus, but it's still there.

Doesn't pre-show stage fright often lead to a great performance, though? It just means that you really, really care about what you're delivering.

I don't want to go on autopilot. When I tour, I like to try and challenge myself and the band all the time. We try out new things, and it just keeps it alive, and it keeps it fun, basically, to be on stage! That's, actually, regarding stage fright, sometimes when I go on stage, if I'm really scared, I just focus on the performance, just really playing with the band. That really helps, actually.

You've collaborated with M83 and Röyksopp, most recently on your last album Ten Love Songs (2015), and also a few Swedish artists like Kleerup and Timbuktu. Any one of these joint efforts that you have a fond memory of?

All of them! I just think it's so interesting to work with talented people, to learn how they think and how they form their ideas. I find that they all have one thing in common: they're all visionaries. They are not just musicians. They just picture a song, then they see it and then they're happy! It's just so interesting to see and it's so great to contribute to their vision, and to learn from them as well.

Any upcoming collaborations?

I'm going to do some remixes later on, but right now I'm practicing playing guitar for the upcoming album tour. It's pretty folksy! Right now I'm a practicing musician, not doing that much creative stuff.

You've spent many weeks in the studio recently, completing a new album?

Yeah, I've traveled round a lot to record this album. Some of it in LA, some of it in Bergen and Oslo, and some of it in London. It's been fun! I've worked with so many great musicians, more than on any previous album. That was so cool. I wanted to make an album of real performances, not just, you know, MIDI. A lot of Ten Love Songs was MIDI! I wanted real performances this time.

Is the album name and release date set yet?

I can't say anything! Sorry.

That's cool. I like a bit of mystery.

Ok (laughs)!

What was your impression of the Analog Heat, then?

First of all it looks great! All Elektron products look great. I'm a huge fan of Elektron. I've even got the Sidstation!

The Heat and the Sidstation look pretty similar, don't they? They both have the four performance knobs and that big jog wheel...

I'm definitely going to try running the Sidstation through the Heat!

Did you get it when it first came out?

No, the first one I got was the Machinedrum. I've used the 909 on a few songs, but the Machinedrum is the drum machine that I've used, by far, on most of my songs. Almost all the beats that I have on my albums. It's the best synth I've ever bought. Absolutely amazing. It's so versatile. You can do so much with it! I like to connect it to that French filter box, the OTO Biscuit, and it just sounds so lethal. Even in itself, though, the Machinedrum sounds so good. I used it on my song White Foxes. It starts with a clock sound. That's the Machinedrum.

When did you first learn about Elektron?

I think it was when I asked my geek friends in Oslo if they could recommend a drum machine. They said try the Machinedrum, it's a bit different, it's not the most common, well, it wasn't back then, but I got it. I didn't understand anything at first. I find that interesting, now, because it's actually really easy to use when you get it! You just have to understand it first. It took me a while to understand how it works, but then I started using it all of the time.

The thing is, when you do learn, you also learn how signal processing works as well. The machine sort of forces you to think in a signal processing way, which is very useful regardless of what instrument you'll be playing.

I think so too. I'm a composer, not a technician. I just need tools to make what I want to make. That's why I really appreciate the Machinedrum, because when you get it, it gives you so much. With my various sounds, and the possibilities of tweaking the sounds, it all adds up to a very big drum universe! I also have a couple of vintage drum machines. They're really cool, if you want that vintage sound, but at the same time, that's the only thing you get, you know? With the Machinedrum, it's so easy to plug it into other things as well. You can even make it into a synth. That's what I love about it! That's probably why I've used it so much, too.

You've got the Octatrack as well?

I have an Octatrack. I haven't used it in the studio, I've only used it live. As a backing track machine among other things.

What gear wouldn't you want to be without?

Well, I really like the Machinedrum! I also just got a new Arturia interface, and it's really good. I love my Dave Smith synthesizers, the OTO Biscuit, and the Macbeth Elements. It's got a spring reverb in it, and a tape echo thing. When it comes to acoustic instruments, I like pianos that don't sound too clean. I think if you're a classically trained piano player, you still play classical music. Your focus will be on the richness, the different timbres, and how you play and press the keys. If you play piano for pop music, or if you're a singer/songwriter, it doesn't matter much, the mechanical things, the finesse of it, it's more about the sound. As long as the piano has a distinct sound, I usually like it, if it's warm and nice, but I don't have a favorite brand. When it comes to half-acoustic pianos, I like the CP-70, and I really like the Rhodes. It's a challenge to have that on your rider, because usually the companies that handle them don't treat their Rhodes'es very well, and they don't restore them. They're pretty often in bad shape, but it's a very beautiful instrument.

Stuart Ross (featured in this Talk), audio guv'nor of Codemasters, told me he'd opened his Rhodes up, topsy-turvied the rods and pickups and used it as an electro-harp!

That's cool! The thing is that there's an online company that bought all the pieces from Fender, so if you break a key or lose a part you can get it online. There are no complex electronics in the piano, so you can just fix it yourself. Especially now with Youtube videos for everything. It's really not that complicated. It's a simple instrument that has a beautiful sound to it.

Do you plan to use the Analog Heat mainly for enhancement or distortion?

I will start using it for beats. What I like about effects boxes is that they can be useful for pretty much anything. Often, I have a sound on a synth or a drum machine, and I want it louder or I want it more punchy or I want it richer, you know, I want it more aggressive. I find it much more interesting to combine an instrument with an effects box, because it's two machines collaborating. It's more fun and more possibilities to the sound. It's like a new world opens up. I think I'll experiment with it a lot, with beats and with synths. Usually, when I do remixes, I start with the beat.

Where is your main studio?

It's been in London for two years, but now I'm moving back to Oslo in three weeks. It's a studio complex. I collaborate with a producer in Bergen, which I've been doing for my four past albums. I've been travelling around a lot, recording in different studios around the world including Oslo, then when all recording is complete I've traveled to my producer (Jørgen Træen) in Bergen for mixing. This time, I've also recorded with him in Bergen.

Speaking of Bergen guys, are you friends with the Kings of Convenience?

Yeah, I know Eirik! He was my neighbor in Bergen. You know, it's a small scene here. I know a few of the young girls from here who are doing really well internationally now. I'm quite a social person (laughs) so I know quite a few of them! It's almost like a small family in Norway. The scene isn't that big. We do a lot of collaborations with each other and we back each other up.

You met the A-ha guys too?

They had this competition many years ago. The prize was one million kronor to the bands or artists who won, and I was one of them. I talked to Magne and Morten and Pål. Very cool people. I'm a huge fan. Pål is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He's just incredible. I can't believe he could write the stuff that he's written.

I've got this half-baked idea that you're totally affected by the music of your birthyear. After all, you start listening to music even before you're born!

Don't you think it has a lot to do with what your parents listen to? My mom and dad listened to a lot of Sixties and Seventies music, and that's the music I grew up with. They didn't really listen to that much eighties music. Of course they listened to A-ha, so I grew up with that, but mostly I would listen to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aretha Franklin.

Have you read the awesome Book of The Sea (Norwegian: Havboka) by your countryman Morten Strøksnes? It's superficially about a Greenland Shark hunt, but covers so much mythological, astronomical and marine science ground that you're good for a lifetime. It's the Moby Dick that Melville aspired to write without quite nailing it!

Never even heard of it, but I love books that have a lot of mythology and symbolism! That's so cool. I'm going to write that down now.

Do you have the December 13 Saint Lucia tradition in Norway as well?

We do. I remember in kindergarten, we did a Luciatåg, and I was never Lucia. I was very offended. I think every little kid who didn't get to be Lucia was offended. We just did it in kindergarten. Then later, in elementary school, the kindergarten kids would come sing to us and give us cookies on Lucia. It's a really nice tradition, it's very peaceful and beautiful. A little bit risky though, because we did use real candles, and we were just kids!

Interview by Daniel Sterner