Name: Nive Nielsen
Nationality: Greenlandic
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, actor
Current release: Nive Nielsen and the Deer Children's new album My Mothers Name is out October 9th 2026 via Glitterhouse. 
Hometown Recommendation: In my hometown, I’d recommend going on a whale safari just in front of town. I worked as a guide when I was a teenager, and whales are awesome!
Things that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: All kinds of topics! But most of the topics I wouldn’t be the right person to interview about. I’m always very curious about all the newer frontiers of science. I love reading or listening to topics about physics, quantum physics and astronomy, but in layman’s terms. I’m horrible at math. The theories of how our physical world might actually work, seem more and more strange, and I don’t understand how one couldn’t be facilitated by such a tangibly present topic as our perception of “reality” shifting, based on data collected by new technologies. I once read a little sentence that said, we are long overdue for the next paradigm shift. That historically they have come every 100 to 200 years. And I wondered if I’d be a live to experience it. I now think I will be, and it’s so exciting.
I also have an interest in UFOs to colonialism and anthropology specifically about Inuit culture. Physics or acting :) 

If you enjoyed this Nive Nielsen interview and would like to know more about her music and projects, visit her on Instagram, and bandcamp. 



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

Music has always stirred things in me. In so many layers too. 

Music has powerful emotional conductivity (if that makes sense haha), a feeling, an atmosphere somehow just gets transferred through musical arrangement, by the nuances in the singers vocal performance, and change , and evolve, all within one song. Then there are lyrics in addition to that, that in themselves have layers. 

Long way to say, I’ve soaked in and felt strongly whether I loved it or disliked it, as far back as I can remember and all kinds of different seeds, from the different layers definitely got planted. 

But I didn’t start writing until I got really bored (because the texts were so dry) studying political science in my early 20’s.
 
Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?
 
I can for some reason not write songs if I feel the need to escape. Then I’ll be listening or watching. 

When I write, it’s part of sorting through thoughts and allowing myself feel and letting go of confinement. So it makes sense I’m drawn to music that feels, more than it’s polished. I like grit and sincerity.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

Early on would be Sume, a Greenlandic band from the 70s, I guess they were decolonizing before that word even existed. 

Their lyrics are poetry in a way that can’t be translated. They use imagery that conveys meaning we understand instead of saying it directly. (A lot of the times, direct can be clumsy or more limited, but not always) like, qaallorimmi illinersiorata, means, without following sled tracks on a clear sunny day, meaning we have to find our own way, not the easy way, not the usual way, not their way, as a people and a culture, politically, together.



Sometimes I love lyrics that may or may not be simple. I love Michael Hurly, his tea song. I hear it like a short story, so much between the lines, that I hear from his voice as well.

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

Not that I can think of, right this moment. 

But music always gets me through hard times.
 
It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

Makes sense. Humans are all emotional beings, whether they accept it or try to repress it. Feelings are sensations in our bodies and they are strong (I know mine are). 

Language can sometimes convey feelings, but feelings are more fluid and nuanced and physical in our bodies. Maybe that’s why music touches us, because emotions don’t have language, but we somehow hear emotions in played instruments. How we universally agree that minor chords are sad…
 
I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

There are so many similarities.

I guess all artforms are different ways, we humans can share our internal experiences with each other. Poetry playing a rhythm on paper, words turning images to concepts that are broader, more adaptable for interpretation, yet more specific at the same time.

With music we don’t have to understand words, we can just feel, and somehow we all know we feel the same.
 
The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

In a way, melodies, rhythms and instruments support the sentiments of the words so much, that they don’t have to be so strong to have an impact.

I recently wrote an entire song only repeating one word over and over again. But the melody didn’t repeat, the emotion behind the word changed and when you change your expression, the meaning of the word changes. The word was "you," and if you think of how many conflicting (beautiful and pissed off..ect) feelings you can have for someone you love, then that word can mean all of them, depending on how you sing it. 

It also is an expression of feeling flooded and words not being enough, so the melody and vocal expression delivers the rest. But that song is so recent I don’t know if I will still like it enough for the next next album. I have one coming out in October which is already printed.
 
What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?
 
I’ve realized at some point there was a lot about moving and traveling ect. But that was also how my life was! (Still is, but less extreme)

It’s funny how hard it is to answer that question, my mind is always busy, there’s always a lot going on, so usually something happened. But I haven’t looked for the thin red line :)

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

My new album is called My Mother’s Name.

In the song with that title, I write about being lost in a way. Not fitting into structures, or cultures or standards. The distress of why people care about things that don’t matter in the end, and forget or neglect what really matters. 



All that stress, to be on time to do that “important” work. Some driving recklessly “forgetting” their own and other people’s lives, so they can be on time to a stupid meeting? And wars!! On the TV everyday and no one is acting appalled. I get disoriented in this capitalist world sometimes.

So I sing: I go by my name my mother gave. Because that reminds me, of the strength of mothers.

Mothers, who gave birth to all humans in the world. The mothers who love all their daughters and all their sons equally, who love their husbands or wives or partner. 
Mother’s who know in their body that life and love are worth the worst pain a human can endure. Mothers who would never agree to war because they felt the value of life on their own body.

I think at least mothers know what matters the most, so I go by their name.

Do you tend to start writing with what will be the first line of the finished lyrics? The chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

I usually start with either a melody that came to me (randomly) or with some chords on my guitar, and the lyrics usually come stumbling along with the rhythm or the melody. 

So either my guitar has to adjust to the rhythm of my lyrics or the other way around. When the guitar has to fit, that’s usually when structures of the songs get a little unconventional, or a little more challenging to record. The type of melody has a feeling attached somehow, and that’s what leads me to what the song is about. 

A lot of the songs I write chronologically (but i don’t usually think vers chorus structure..) if I don’t finish a song in one sitting, I park it in my phone, to either pick it up again or I start something new and realize that it was a continuation of a parked song that I just have to pair it with.
 
I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

With each album, I've had to exclude a few songs that were already recorded because they somehow didn’t seem to belong. It’s very subjective, and that’s ok. We park those songs and maybe they’ll fit somewhere else at some other point, maybe in another album or in an entirely different project/ film, theater or collaboration. But maybe they won’t fit anywhere and that’s ok too. 

With my band members, we figure out a sequence for the album that feels cohesive and dynamic, not that far off from writing a setlist. Meaning is always very fluid to me, affected by weather, mood and context, so I don’t overthink it.
 
When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

Yes, lyrics always have a connection to my voice and my delivery. 

I do prefer to record my guitar and vocals, as early as possible after finishing a song. While the feeling or emotion of why I wrote the song is still fresh. Voices are so expressive, and we pick up much more nuances than we consciously realize, when we listen. 

I don’t often cover a song, and when I do, I almost feel like I have to take it as an acting job or change it a bit to make it a bit more my own.
 
I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

I actually love “misunderstandings” or rather, I don’t believe a song can be misunderstood. I love the idea that an entire song text can live many parallel lives. 

Like, if someone covers a song written from a male perspective, how the entire meaning changes when a woman sings it. How all of a sudden a word might become sarcastic or sound like a commentary on a changing social perspective, that didn’t exist when the song was written. A song can stay relevant and be repurposed, because it’s fluid or flexible that way. 

I’m always more curious about the interpretations people have of my songs, because they’ll usually come with a story about what they’ve been through, and suddenly I get to have the privilege to hear how I have been a part of someone’s life before I ever met them. I feel very lucky when that happens, often I don’t know what to say besides thank you for telling me, but on the inside I am very grateful.
 
Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Music, film, paintings, books, everything we call art, is often seen as a luxury or something that is not “necessity” for our survival. But I don’t know who or what convinced people of that. Maybe the ideals of effectiveness from Ford's assembly lines? In my eyes, the arts are a basic necessity right behind food and water. 

If we were without shelter all of a sudden, music and art are what will keep us mentally strong and warm enough, till we fixed that problem. Anything destabilizing in our lives (that happens to everyone, and frequently) heartbreak, frustration, destruction, loss, disconnection, we can get through because of art. Just imagine, covid happened … and there were no movies, tv shows, music, art or books? Just the news and mundane life. We would all have lost our minds. 

There are studies that show that when art is added to ghettos, making surroundings more beautiful, creativity is fostered and music is present. The overall health as well as mental health is vastly improved. Governments can save money on hospital bills, and save lives with art. 

I think we connect and show each other we care about each other as human beings, through art. Besides basic survival based nourishment, like food and water, we need nourishment for our mental and emotional needs for connection and love between people. 

We also collectively process more complex societal issues much better with art, because we can stay emotionally regulated listening to or seeing harsh truths when they are presented with a melody and rhythm or painted or sculpted.