T
he place where Sandra
Kolstad has suggested we
meet is a characterless
high-street bar, so when
she cruises in wearing a
flamboyant red cape she turns more than a
few heads. The impact is hardly lessened
when she takes off her cape to reveal the
turquoise silk bomber jacket underneath.
Kolstad, Norway’s latest electropop
export, is both cool and smart in a way
that would be otherworldly if she weren’t
so lovely. On the one hand, she’s the girl
W o r d s
⁄
E m m a P r e s s l e y
P h o t o s
⁄
T i m E W h i t e
I wouldn’t be able to return to normal
urban life again.” The album, she says, was
inspired by the way that water can be both
calm and turbulent. She wanted to produce
something that wasn’t quite pop and wasn’t
quite dark electro – “that made people
want to dance and cry at the same time.”
The album, produced by Swedish jazz
composer Petter Eldh, feels like a journey
through different styles, and includes
duets with Norwegian hip-hop legend
Son of Light, techno duo Boksberg and
Anglo-Norwegian singer Lucy Swann. While
Kolstad experiments on each track, the
album doesn’t feel overwrought and the
edgier songs hook you just as much as the
more radio-friendly ones.
Her burgeoning reputation is built just
as much on her hypnotic live shows, which
have graced much of Europe, from Berlin
Music Week to the Roskilde Festival. Tonight
she’s playing a preview for Oslo’s Øya
Festival and soon she’ll be off, but first she
admires the grainy, souvenir Polaroid I’ve
taken of the two of us – she says we should
grab a beer in Berlin one of these days. It’s
a little embarrassing how cool I think that
would be.
sandrakolstad.com
Left and
opposite
⁄
Sandra Kolstad
drank cider
through most
of our photo
shoot
Below
⁄
Kolstad
performs
wearing a top
by Norwegian
Christina
Ledang
and elements of sinister fairytale – just
don’t try telling her she sounds like other
Scandinavian musicians.
“
If you are a woman making electronica
in Norway you’re guaranteed to be
compared to Robyn or Fever Ray,” she
protests, pointing out it’s mainly foreign
journalists who like to lump Scandinavian
female singers together. “I think my music
has more in common with David Bowie
than Robyn.”
Certainly, life experience is to the fore
in the 28 year old’s musical output, which
so far consists of a debut EP in 2009 and
two very eclectic albums. She moved out
of her Oslo home at 16 and has since lived
everywhere from Svalbard to India. She
settled in Berlin three years ago, partly
for her boyfriend and partly to be in a city
that seems tailor-made for an arty electro
singer. But she returned to her homeland
last year to write her most-recent album,
(
Nothing Lasts) Forever
,
living alone for
three months in her family’s old house
facing the fjord in the coastal town of
Haugesund.
“
It was a challenge because I’ve always
been afraid of the dark,” she says. “I was
excited to see whether I could handle it or
not. I would wake up early every morning
and go for a swim in the freezing sea –
and after about three weeks I decided
“
If you are a woman making
electronica in Norway you’re
guaranteed to be compared
to Robyn or Fever Ray”
who mucks around during our photo shoot,
deadpanning, “Being a queen isn’t my cup
of tea.” Yet she’s also a classically trained
pianist who describes Simone de Beauvoir
as her style icon “because I love wearing
turbans”. From early in our interview, I’m
firmly in girl-crush territory.
Kolstad lives in Berlin, so it’s tempting
to parrot the line that she’s “Norway’s
answer to Robyn,” Sweden’s tomboy starlet
who also resides in the German capital.
But Kolstad’s music has more in common
with Kate Bush, all brooding soundscapes
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