Asbjørn

Congrats on the release of ‘Vulnerably Happy’! The track is so raw and intense. Can you tell us more about the story behind the song and how that bus stop moment inspired you?

Thanks guys! So happy to chat to you again, last time was such a pleasure.

Ok, so the bus stop situation is kinda the origin story about how the whole album came about, so here we go;

I was randomly standing by a construction-site waiting for a bus home. It had been an intense summer, a complicated relationship was weighing pretty heavy on me but something brought me out of my head; the heavy machinery from the site were creating these stumbling rhythms, morphing in and out of each other, sometimes creating moments of sync, only to completely fall apart again. It made me dance in a really weird way, trying to follow the unpredictability and tension in their glitchy polyrhythms.

I recorded the construction site sounds, hurried home and tried to translate the experience, the heavy machinery and the weird movements into music. That experiment turned into ‘Vulnerably Happy’ and kickstarted my creative approach for the album; letting my body lead the way and dance the music to life.

Your upcoming album, “The Secret Our Bodies Hold,” sounds incredibly personal. What can fans expect from this album, and how does it differ from your previous work?

I’ve always used dance to find courage. You see, I often write songs on the piano and they often turn out waayyy more self-exposing than I’m actually comfortable with, which then results in me shelving the song, thinking that it can never actually see the light of day. But at some point I found out that if I give my emotions a physique to freely explore the feeling through, I find the needed courage to stand by them.

So, to answer your question, I think The Secret Our Bodies Hold is both more emotionally and physically extreme than my previous work. I’ve explored body and emotion in harmony and conflict and as a result, it doesn’t always resolve in this catharsis that we tend to crave in pop music. I think the album leaves you with more questions than answers.

You’ve been quite busy lately—Roskilde Festival, Danish Breakfast TV, and even gracing the cover of GAFFA Magazine. How has all this exposure influenced your music and your approach to performance?

It’s been mental! I had never expected THIS album to launch me into that kind of next level career shit. The fact that I stopped trying to look at myself from the outside with industry-eyes while making it… I think that makes the commercial success feel rewarding in a healthier way, you know? It’s reaffirming that I should keep going with my instinct, which is easy to preach but a real challenge to practise.

That dynamic can be so confusing; striving for recognition and success can really fuck your navigation up. If you get acknowledgement for something you KNOW you compromised on, there’s a risk that it leads you in the wrong direction – further away from yourself. I’ve been there and that was not a good place.

Performing at Roskilde Festival is a massive achievement. How did it feel to be on that stage, and what was the audience’s reaction to your set?
It’s kind of a blur, to be honest. I often find that those moments you’ve been dreaming of your whole life can be a bit roller-coaster-y. Like, I felt happy, sad, self-aware, present, control, loss, totally in control, everything in glimpses and at once. We played most of the new album which was obviously something to demand from the crowd, that they’d be open to so much new music; but damn, did they welcome it with love!

It took me a couple of days to unpack, zooming in on videos to see if my emotions were visibly as all over the place as I felt. To my relief and surprise, my chaos was on the inside and now I just feel freaking proud.

Your school tours are a unique and powerful way to connect with young people about important issues like sexuality and self-acceptance. What inspired you to start these tours, and what has been the most memorable experience so far?

The answer to that question is a total apropos to your previous question. Around 2020 I was feeling quite lost in my career. I had been signed to a major label, written a lot of songs with amazing writers and producers around the world and I was trying to walk a more mainstream path. I was living out a lot of dreams on that path but along the way, my idea of success had been corrupted. Aiming for mainstream success comes with a humongous margin of error. The criteria for that kind of success is so hard to reach, so even though you do pretty good and the best you can, you still feel like a failure.

That’s when I started touring schools. I wanted to do something actively to make a change for teens who feel different and who grow up in environments that don’t accept them. That’s my own story and I know how much it would have meant, if someone like me had represented me back then. The wild thing is that I see the change happening before my eyes; during 45 minutes bullies turn into fans and we talk about a lot of difficult identity questions. All these shows have helped me rewire my brain into a healthier place, where success is not defined by uncontrollable commercial measures, but by integrating my values into my music and career in general.

‘Vulnerably Happy’ has this industrial, almost aggressive sound to it. How did you translate that emotional and physical intensity into the music?

I created the beat from my recording of the construction site and amplified it with some samples of a very naughty-sounding shelf that Rangleklods recorded and put on his Patreon. Then I made the bass-synth inspired by my butt (yes), simply cos it was bouncing in that rhythm to the beat. After that I found some really ugly pages in my notebook with the scrippled lyrics, that I’d written in a very helpless state of mind. The melody came as an improvisation over those words.

I realized that I could sing it with more emotion, calmness and catch all these little details in my vibrato if I recorded the vocals at a 10% lower speed. To me, that created a certain ambiguity that I still don’t quite understand myself and that excites me.

With “The Secret Our Bodies Hold” set to release on November 1st, can you give us a little tease of any standout tracks or themes that are especially close to your heart?

Right now I’m most excited about a song called ‘Dinotopia’, which features me rapping dinosaurs and dirty-talking but it’s also weirdly touching at the same time. With that said, I think the real power of this album lies in its entirety. I can’t wait to see people notice the connections and create their own understanding of it. My own is still changing and I’m so eager to find out what you see.

You’re one of the most played artists on Danish radio right now. How does it feel to have your music resonate so deeply with your home country, and how do you plan to bring that energy to an international audience, maybe even Australia?

I’m so proud. I’ve hustled for 12 years and it’s almost become an identity-thing to work in opposition to the mainstream, cos that part of the industry has rejected me again and again. To suddenly be acknowledged like this is obviously amazing but also comes with a side effect of identity crisis. Like, am I… dare I say it…. mainstream now???

I’m so happy that ‘New Moon, Same Old Me’ was the song to do this. It’s a symbol of my friendship with Brimheim, who is also one of my favorite artists in the world. The emotional intensity and the nuances in the relation on this song is a direct result of our love for each other and I think that might be what’s hitting people.

Me and my little team are working out butts off to make the most of it and Australia is no 1 on my wishlist; you guys have embraced the music with such love!

GAFFA Magazine has compared you to iconic artists with your recent cover feature. How do you handle the pressure of such high expectations, and how does it shape your creative process?

It took me ages to realize that I HAD to stop comparing myself directly to other artists. Especially superstars. I take so much inspiration from my own idols, often imitate them in music or in release-strategies and general career-development. But it’s so important to be extremely real with yourself about who you are and how those imitations become integrated in your career, in a scale that applies to you. If I compare myself directly to David Bowie or Dua Lipa, I’m setting myself up for failure, cos our careers are simply not comparable – and I don’t want them to be. But being able to take elements and translate them into your own reality is a potential superpower

With that said, I’m totally flattered by a lot of the comparisons people make – but I don’t let it become a pressure anymore cos I know I can only do it the Asbjørn way.

Australia is keen to see you live! Any plans to bring your music and message Down Under soon? What can Aussie fans expect from an Asbjørn show?

I will be needing a spider security guard at all times, since I am deadly arachnophobic but apart from that; YES, it is very much my plan to visit Australia soon. In a recent interview with DNA Magazine, I also indulged in doing some serial-dating while touring the country, so that’s exciting – but apart from that, my concerts are meant for finding connection. To each other, to ourselves and to our bodies. Exploring freely and forgetting how we look from the outside. At least that’s what I strive for, on stage, in music and in life.

https://www.instagram.com/asbjornmusic

Can you share a bit about your journey in the music industry so far, from starting your own label at a young age to where you are now with your fourth studio album?

This is gonna be a deep dive, huh? Let’s do it. Basically, I started my own label at 19 to have complete creative control and freedom. Despite all the attention I was receiving, every label I talked to wanted to change something about me, whether it was my sequined wardrobe, my weirdo dancing or the sound of my sampled breathe-snares. Luckily, I am stubborn as fuck and following a mere possibility of quick success has never really been an option in my head.

Establishing my own record label enabled me to “license” my music to other international labels, while still being in creative control. I did that on Pseudo Visions, Boyology and also had my very brief major-label-crash-and-burn-moment with ‘Nothing 2 Lose’ and ‘We & I’ in 2018. I worked with brilliant people along the way and appreciate their hard work – but with this forthcoming album, I needed a reset, to explore pop music completely freely again, without my own or anybody else’s commercial awareness = your boy is completely independent, yet again.

‘He’s Dancing So Well (I’m Better)’ is a captivating track with a unique blend of sounds. Could you tell us more about the inspiration behind the song and its production process?

I am obsessed with juxtapositions, how lyrical and musical elements can create confusion to a point where you have to stop trying to “figure it out” but just go with your body and your immediate emotional response. I love to write on the guitar because I suck at it and that pushes me to be less analytical and more intuitive. For some reason, I also hate my own voice on top of a guitar, so after writing ‘He’s Dancing So Well (I’m Better)’, I immediately made the string arrangement. I’ve always dreamt of doing a string-based dance song, like ‘Cloudbusting’ (Kate Bush), ‘Be Mine’ (Robyn), ‘Viva La Vida’ (Coldplay) or ‘Hyperballad’ (Björk) and this song seemed like the right fit. I took the song and string-arrangement to Steffen Lundtoft, he accidentally pushed a shuffle button on his drum machine and suddenly the loneliness and melancholy of the lyric and strings had a freaky, out-of-control and uplifting counterpart. It suddenly provided a possibility to dance with the sadness of losing him.

Your upcoming fourth studio album is highly anticipated. What can listeners expect from this new project, especially in terms of its sound and themes?

This album is a body! A body that dances, protects itself, goes WILD, rests, moves forward, injures and gets back up again. First and foremost, I’ve always strived for a kind of bodily presence in my music but this time I made it my whole approach; instead of producing the songs so I could dance to them, I danced my way to the productions, translating the movements my body made into sounds.

Thematically, I guess there’s a lot of liminality, which in many ways has been a constant in my life. Being an artist and being gay is a pretty intense combo and though I’ve accepted long ago that I can’t follow many pre-paved paths, I think I’ve dared to look into my doubts about belonging, both to places, people and in the world on this album.

Collaborating with Steffen Lundtoft from Lowly for your new album sounds intriguing. How did this collaboration come about, and how has it influenced the direction of your music?

MASSIVELY, oh my god. On Boyology I challenged myself to give in to the sonics of mainstream pop music that I grew up with, while juxtaposing it with almost unpleasantly direct and diary-like lyrics. I worked on that album for 5 years and I had a hard time coming out of the more structured and controlled approach to production that I’d practiced on that album. Steffen, on the other hand… he’s a firework of freedom, playfulness and never really knows what he wants to create, before it’s suddenly there. I was deeply provoked by that in the beginning of our collaboration but I knew that he was what I needed; a friend who could bring me out of control in a way that felt safe (Steffen has been my drummer for 12 years, since I started my career).

You’ve been announced as a performer at Roskilde Festival, which is a significant milestone. How does it feel to be part of such a renowned event, and what are you looking forward to the most about the experience?

Yeah, it’s a bucket list moment, for sure. Somehow I am really happy that it took 12 years to get that slot, cos I got to find myself as performer before standing that test. I can’t wait to give back to the audience what I, myself, have received from my heroes on that festival.

Your music has been described as genre-busting and unconventional. What drives you to push the boundaries of pop music, and how do you balance experimentation with accessibility in your sound?

I’ve thought about whether there could be an anthropological explanation, having to do with queerness and the whole ‘belonging’ theme… The genre-thing and unconventionality are not things I strive to do, I simply just can’t conform. And just as that can be frustrating on a personal level, so has it in my career, you know… sometimes wishing to be more “normal”, whatever that means. Ultimately it comes down to self acceptance and music has been THE place I could find that, always.

“Friction is freedom” is a powerful statement you’ve made about your music. Could you elaborate on what this means to you personally and how it manifests in your creative process?

On Boyology I had to repeat this sentence over and over again. In continuation of your last question, that album was at times pretty uncomfortable to make, cos I chose to explore conformity in the sound as an artistic approach. The only way I could do it was to create a friction, a counterpart in the lyrical approach. In other words, knowing that friction is always where I’m heading, I can “forgive myself” for going 100% Backstreet Boys in one part of the process, cos I know I’m gonna create other nuances at a later point.

As someone who interacts with teenagers through your high school concerts, why is it important for you to discuss topics like sexuality and identity freedom with young audiences?

Well, I’m just trying to make things a little bit better than when I was a teen, so I’ve played around 200 concerts and high schools the past years. The teens often start out pointing at me, laughing and whispering to each other, some yell “gayyyy” and try to bully me off stage. I am confronting my own school-trauma and overcoming it every time, though it can be intense. By the end of the show it has opened up a dialogue, some of them become huge fans and others have just met a different type of man (me) and they experience that I’m not dangerous. My hope is just that it creates a fundament of understanding and acceptance between them.

Your music videos have garnered millions of views and have been praised for their visionary quality. How do you approach the visual aspect of your music, and how does it tie into the overall storytelling of your work?

I mean, you can’t take the MTV out of a 90s kid! Every time I visited my grand parents, who had the channel, I’d stay up all night watching videos. Madonna, Michael Jackson, Britney, Destiny’s Child, George Michael, David Bowie and the list goes on. I didn’t even understand English but I understood what they wanted to express through those videos. The music video can be such a powerful tool to expand the universe of an album, which is what I’ve attempted to do on all my albums. The current consumer-climate has put the format in a difficult spot though and I’ve heard many business peeps claim that the THE MUSICVIDEO IS DEAD. I don’t believe that but I do believe we all, as consumers, need to choose patience, focus and poetry very actively, cos we’re so affected by the high pace of things online.

With your diverse musical influences ranging from classical to pop, how do you incorporate these varied elements into your songs while maintaining your own unique style?

Friction is freedom, baby! Music is just a playground, a laboratory, a bathtub full of plastic stuff to shove up your butt and try how it feels; it most likely won’t hurt you but sometimes it just doesn’t work and that’s cool. Then you try a different combination and suddenly it feels like you opened a new door in yourself.

Collaborating with artists like Tessa and Danny L Harle in the past, how do these collaborations shape your approach to music-making, and are there any dream collaborations you’d like to pursue in the future?

I find myself in a really interesting position career wise. The fact that I’m hard to place for people mixed with my curiosity for music experiments, enables me to navigate pretty freely and collaborate with both mainstream superstars like Tessa, left-pop-pioneers like Danny and Planningtorock and of course making the album with Steffen, two old friends in a dark studio in my hometown. They all inspire me so much. And when it comes to dream collaborations… well, let’s just say you won’t have to wait long.

Looking back on your previous album, Boyology, and considering your evolution as an artist, how do you feel you’ve grown creatively since then, and what lessons have you learned along the way?

I learned to measure success in new ways. Boyology was a commercial FLOP, none of the songs or videos gained the numbers I’d been so lucky to experience from the beginning of my career – and honestly, that was a tough blow – but an important one too. That’s when I checked my “popstar values” and realized that I needed to create healthier and more sustainable criteria of success for myself. I initiated the school concerts to try and make a direct difference, that I could see in a room, instead of looking at streaming counts. I began working mainly with close friends again to make sure every aspect of my career creates long-lasting memories and relations, that makes me happy when I listen to the music, watch the videos or play shows. In that way, the music can flop all it wants but it will still be meaningful.

https://www.instagram.com/asbjornmusic