Part 2

Does what you wear change your personality – and thus the music you create or the way you perform?

I can definitly feel that what I wear affects my personality and mood, and I think it's good to be concious about this.

For me I think it's more often the other way around, though. When I change my personality, or just get to know myself better, a new part of myself for example, my music and style change as well. It feels like it starts with my personality, and sometimes I think I had the same personality for a while, but that I haven't figured out how to express it through music and my clothes yet.

Then I work on my music and style, after I can feel the change in me.

Fashion and music can be expressions or celebration of identity, but they can also be an effort to establish new ones or break free from them. How would you describe your own approach in this regard?

To me I think my music and style are an expression of my sensitive, experimental personality. I always had the need to experiment in both music and styling, and this need comes from my general need for experimenting, for doing something new.

I think both my music and my style are breaking rules in the sense that I'm not following any. I don't follow trends or specific styles and in music I do the same, even though it's pop, it's a bit experimental and I don't follow any recipe in form or sound.

To me it's important to not follow any rules that others create, but create my own direction and expression, free from categories and expectations.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though designing a fashion item or even putting together a great outfit for yourself is inherently different from something like composing a piece of music?

To me there is definitely a similarity between composing a song and composing an outfit. What I find most interesting is when these two are combined, I mean, dressing up for performing a song / set on stage, and finding the right outfit for this. It takes way longer for me to compose a song – until I'm done, than composing an outfit, but I love doing both, and I feel that both composing a song and composing an outfit is about expressing something within me, and different songs and different outfits express different parts and moods in me.

I feel that I often think of adjectives both for making music and creating clothes / putting together outfits. To me creating music or clothes / outfits is often about contrasts, about finding what is beautiful together and that creates a clear, interesting and full expression.

Both in music and styling I try creating an expression that is both down to earth, sophisticated and from another world. Both in music and styling I often hear or see it in my head first, then try it out and experiment, before I get to the final result.

Are you currently active in the fashion industry? If so, tell me about your experiences, please.

I don't know if I can say that I'm active in the fashion industry when I'm doing music. But I definitely love collaborating with designers, and see this as an very essential part of my life and expression as an artist. I have been using a lot of design-clothes from very talented designers in Norway, for photoshoots and music videos, and for some of my up coming shows I have been collaborating with a designer who has been sewing some of my designs, that I have been drawing for her.

My most important collaborator in fashion / design is Carina Shoshtary who creates masks, earrings, necklaces and different pieces for me. These pieces are custom made for me, where I'll tell her what I want and she makes them.

These pieces are essential to my visual expression, both over the past years in general and on my up coming album.

Fashion extends to the artwork of releases and promotional photography as well. Could you talk about your approach in this regard and what some considerations were for some of your most recent cover designs and images?

My albums / releases are highly conceptional. I usually see one or several colours connected to each album, and use them in the visual expression. I almost always visualize photos and videos in my head before I start collaborating with a photographer / filmmaker.

When I visualize the photos and videos I usually see which colours and kind of garments I want to use, and then I do research online and look through catalouges of designers, if I don't already have one specific outfit in mind. Sometimes I have been seeing design earlier, and when I'm planning the shoot I know which outfit I want to wear. I also visit vintage stores and look online, to search for different options. What I wear definitely has a big role in the expression and my music.

Sometimes I just feel like I have been looking for something, to express what's inside, but I need to find the right people before I can express it in the right way. Sometimes I have this search and longing long before I find the right people to collaborate with. So when I find them, and they help me express what I have been wanting, it feels like finding the right one. It feels like a strong crush and a deep love for me, when it just feels right.

I felt it this way when I found the German mask designer Carina Shoshtary. I fell in love with her pieces, and it just felt very right for my music and personality. To me her masks is not at all about hiding, but they express the vulnerability, aggression or aliveness I want to convey through my songs, and to me the pieces are in a symbiotic relationship with my music. I chose the pieces specifically for each song / video, so they fit to each song.

Below you can see a promo picture for my EP called Swallowed. The EP is pretty aggressive and dark and therefore I wanted a picture that could convey this mood, but combined with the lightness around.



To convey these emotions in my music I thought it would be perfect to use this mask made by Carina Shoshtary and this outfit made by Tonje Plur. I really think these pieces are expressive in themselves and helped me to convey what I want to express in my music.

Photo by Ellinor Egeberg. Mask by Carina Shoshtary. Outfit by Tonje Plur. Hair by Malin Wallin.

There is a fine line between cultural exchange and appropriation. This true both for music and fashion. What are your thoughts on the limits of copying, using cultural signs and symbols and the cultural/social/gender specificity of art?

There is definitely a fine line, and this line is very scary. What I'm definitely afraid of is to offend people by being, in their view, disrespectful against their culture. I am definitely inspired by other cultures, both in music and my personal style. To me, this inspiration is very nourishing, and to me it's like a tribute of other cultures.

For example I'm inspired by Bulgarian folk singing, and flamenco, but I would never copy them. I feel like if I would sing flamenco in the traditional way with the traditional sound in my solo project that would feel weird and wrong. What I do, is that I listen to it, and put it into my expression, doing it my way, but without fully copying. I also just do it in some phrases, so it's more an influence, than doing that tradition.

I also wear kimonos a lot both on and off stage. I think that if I would wear the kimono in the traditional Japanese way, both with the japanese shoes and the kimono belt, that would feel wrong of me. But I do it my way, I think ,and I hope it's okay with others.

Please recommend two pieces of fashion to our readers that you find inspiring.

I really love this piece made by Iris Van Herpen, here worn by Björk. It felt really magical to see Björk perform with this dress, it was like it made her music even more magical. I love how Iris Van Herpen makes these beautiful, magical dresses, that are so special, like they are from another world, and always have an edge as well. I love feminine clothes, but that also have an edge, and she is really a master is this.



I also love this dress made by Anastasia Bull. I love how it is classy, experimental, edgy and beautiful at the same time. I would really love to wear this dress.

Photo by Camilla Fivian.