The Doyennes

Can you tell us a bit about what a normal work day is for you?
 

Yes, absolutely! 80% would be e-mails, because you are selling something. The product is your music and the brand is your name! Of course, making music is also a huge part of the job, but it’s not like I can just say: ”allright, I’m gonna spend three hours making music now!” I mean, I do, but 80% of that will end up in a pile of unfinished stuff that never turns into anything… When it comes to music, I’m also dependent on the producers also being able to be there, it has to work for their schedules as well, I never finish 100% of the job by myself. So it’s mails, paying bills, working in the studio…. It’s hustling!

When did you know that you wanted to be a musician?

I’ve been a musician since I finished high school, really. I was a little insecure back then, I wanted to travel for a year, but then I just jumped right into Furia when they moved to Oslo and asked if I wanted to join. It became a full-time job already then! We got signed to EMI in Germany, toured a lot and had booking and all that in Oslo. I went to NISS (The Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio, ed. note.) for half a year, but we ended up touring too much for me to be able to study on the side. So I dropped out, and from then on, it was just rehearsing and touring. We all worked part-time in bars, like everyone has done, to earn enough money to live! I’ve worked with music only since 2008, when I quit the bar job.

Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve done from your Furia days till today?
 

I toured with Savoy for a year, it was the first time I did something other than Furia, which I kinda had grown up with; we’d learned to play instruments and all that together. So with Savoy, it was the first time I had to learn someone else’s songs and become a good musician in that way. Since then, I’ve done a few other projects as a bassist, and started Montée with Erlend Mokkelbost and Anders Tjore. I also started doing some solo stuff in 2011, and quit Montée in 2012. I wish I could have done both, but it became a bit difficult both for me and them. Then I did Otto Jespersen’s humour show a few years ago, as a bassist in residence. The kinda job
where you go to work from Wedneday to Saturday and play maybe two shows per night, laughing at the same jokes every day, haha! It was really fun to have a job with regular hours. And then there was Bård Tufte og Harald Eia’s show for a season, and some events and stuff. It was really fun, because when you play with different people, you learn and you become good.