Hello Rebekka Louise how are you?
Hiii! I am very good!! How are you doing?
I’m very well thanks for asking!
Congratulations on the release of your album ‘Shame Is An Old Friend’. How does it feel?
It’s so exciting. Honestly, it’s always scary releasing music since it’s so personal. But I am so grateful for all the wonderful response I have gotten, so it’s really been such an amazing experience. And it’s also a piece of work I am extremely proud of so I am very happy to finally show it off
The title is thought provoking. What’s the story behind it?
I was originally going to name the album something along the lines of ‘It’s you, not me’ or ‘It’s not me, It’s you’, but I just wasn’t that sold on it. But then I wrote ‘Leave Me Be’ and the lyric ‘shame is an old friend’, and I just KNEW that needed to be the title. It felt like it perfectly encapsulated what the album represents. I feel like there’s so much stigma surrounding mental health, essentially making someone who struggles feel shameful about their struggles. So the album title really represents that shame that’s constantly weighing you down, just like this toxic friend constantly reminding you of all your mistakes, making you feel terrible, but you just can’t seem to cut them out.
What were the most challenging and easiest parts of recording the album?
Recording vocals are an absolute pain sometimes, and it’s tiring to record vocals for so many songs as well. It can also sometimes be a bit boring going through vocal comps and selecting recordings that sounds good together – but oh well it has to be done haha. I must admit, that the lyrics for this album just poured out of me. It was such an easy and organic process, where the lyrics just clicked into place. I also had a lot of fun with finding lyrics that linked between songs where they would answer or comment on things mentioned in another song.
What’s your favourite track?
I love ‘it was beautiful’ and ‘Leave Me Be’. I think they’re both such vulnerable, but at the same time simple songs – but their simplicity makes them more stunning and interesting in a way? There’s no overcomplicated productions or very metaphorical songwriting, but rather more of a storytelling of events and how those events made you feel, and I think that’s very beautiful.
This was created originally as part of a master’s project. What did you learn during the process?
This album is what really gave me confidence as a producer. I got to be so creative and just allow myself to do whatever I felt like, which was liberating and so much fun. It really pushed me as a songwriter as well. I have always been pretty honest with my lyrical expression, but never this blunt and confrontational. I have also never written songs that are a part of a bigger project and need to have a sort of cohesiveness between them – which was a new challenge that changed my creative process a lot.
You’re an artist from Norway now living in London how did it all begin for you?
It began with me having guitar lessons at school at 14, and then I started writing songs around the same time. And I just kept on writing so many songs, but I didn’t really know what to do with them. I would have gigs around Oslo and play some smaller festivals, but I knew so little about the industry and didn’t really have any ways to get my music produced and published. Then I compiled an album for my moms birthday, and I fell in love with production and the creative process behind the making of a song – not just the writing process. So I decided, a bit on a whim really, that I wanted to move to London to study Musical Theatre – I was also dancing a lot at the time so wanted to combine my love for singing and dancing. And then do music production on the side, slowly figuring it all out. After my bachelors I realised I couldn’t just do music production on the side, it was taking me too long to learn it by myself and I really wanted my music released – so I decided to study music production, so I could do it all myself – and here we are!
What did you listen to growing up?
ABBA all day every day. I was obsessed!
You recorded the album primarily at home and Tileyard Studios what was your favourite part of the process?
I absolutely loved playing around with all the weird sounds I found in Logic. There was so much creativity and just exploring that went into making this album, which was very very fun.
It’s been four years since the release of your debut single “One Step Ahead” what have you learned about yourself?
Gosh, so so much. Sometimes is feels as if I’m almost relearning things, moving away from home and being thrown into a completely new environment results in a lot of growing up and figuring out how to do things as you become more independent with all these new adult responsibilities. But I would say the most important thing I have learnt is accepting, or trying to accept, my flaws and allowing myself to not be perfect all the time. We can be so hard on ourself sometimes, and it’s very rewarding to just allow yourself the grace to have a shit day. And setting boundaries! Boundaries are so important.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Ooo, at the moment I am listening to a lot of Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams and Taylor Swift. And I obviously have ‘shame is an old friend’ on repeat!
What’s next for you?
I am currently working on an EP, that is a kind of extension of the album. But, all the songs are in Norwegian so it’s a bit of new territory for me. It’s the first time I have written in Norwegian actually, so very excited for this new release!
