By Jim Barber
When a musical artist can channel her own inner conflicts, the battles between the darkness and light that resides within each one of us, and create music that not only makes those who struggle no longer feel alone, but feel heard, empowered, and feel hope – well, that’s the sign of a songwriter and performer who is not only abundantly talented, but who is also unashamed to be honest, authentic and to use the vehicle of art and creativity to process the good, the bad and the ugly of the world and of our own lives.
Such is the well-deserved acclaim and respect being directed towards Norway’s Lily Löwe upon the release of her revelatory new album Beautiful Disaster. It is a work of emotional depth and psychological catharsis that is impactful as it is endlessly entertaining.
Starting off as a solo artist, Löwe (full name Lill Sofie Wilsberg) has now constructed a band around her for both studio and live performance, which features some of the most accomplished of Norway’s heavy rock players, including guitarist Adrian Sunde Bjerketvedt (Jorn), Patrik Svendsen of Tonic Breed on bass, drummer Eiliv Sagrusten of Invasion and second guitarist Stian Hansen.
Together, in 2023, they crafted the first Lily Löwe album, simply entitled LÖWE (which translates to ‘lion’ in Norwegian) a more-than-worthy launching point for the career of this talented young Norwegian artist and a foundation of melodic excellence that has evolved into what folks are hearing from the collective’s second effort, Beautiful Disaster.
Lily isn’t afraid to take deep thematic and lyrical dives into some of the vagaries and vicissitudes of human existence such as struggling with one’s self worth, our place in the world, all the various aspects of life that impinge upon a human’s mental health, the importance of self-empowerment, of standing up for oneself. She believes everyone has that capacity for good, but that there is also the capacity for negativity, for the demons to sometimes take chunks out of our positivity, our joy, our quality of life.
“For this album, I was going into a session with my producer Oscar Mathisen. We’ve been working together with me as the songwriter and him as the producer for some other artists, and then we decided, ‘hey, maybe we should try to work together.’ So, we did all the melodies for the ‘Puppet Master’ song from this new album and that was our first thing. All the songs had a kind of theme that was more dark, so we felt we should continue down this route. But it’s also the most natural thing for me to do. I love to write about things like heartbreak and emotions and all that stuff,” she said over Zoom from her home in Norway.
“You know it’s about how all people; we’re like divided. We have our dark side and then our good side. For me, it’s like I’m splitting my dark half off when I am writing. There is a lot of stuff about mental health and things like that, but I also want to empower people, especially other women as well. So, it’s natural for me to mix all those things together. A lot of times it’s like I am talking to my younger self, and how I dreamed about doing this for so long and realizing, even though I am a girl, I can do this, and I can do it all by myself. Rock music is still heavily dominated by men, so I want the other women in this business, and especially the younger girls hearing music who also have dreams to say, ‘okay, I can do it. I can do it too.’ And listening to music, and especially now that I am writing and recording and producing music, I really understand how it gets people through tough times. It’s always been a safe space. When I listen to music there’s so much going on in my mind, but with music I know I can be creative, and I can feel safe.
“It’s a way to get that dark side out, at least to get it out of your head. So much of what I write about are things that have happened in my life but also things that happen in the lives of people that I know. I will base a song on a real life experience but then make up the rest to make it more dramatic. I find a lot of inspiration that way. It is a kind of therapy. Being creative in any way helps me. That’s what keeps me going. I come from a background of costume design and makeup design in the film industry and that has always been a nice thing. Now I’m taking a bachelor’s degree in screenwriting, and I’d love to do that, and maybe some directing. I directed my last three music videos and edited it and everything and all of that also gives me an outlet. I just have this need to be creative.”
Luckily, Lily came from a family that encouraged creativity.
“Both my parents love music. My mom loves to write and my dad, he’s always been drawing this one little weird creature since I was little. They’re not musicians, but they love to paint. They’re very nice people who’ve always supported me in my music and whatever I’ve done,” she said, as she talked about those who inspired her to become a musical artist.
“I remember early on it was Pink, because she was pop, but she was so rock and roll in her attitude too. I remember having one of her albums when I was six or seven years old and thinking she was incredible. Then later it was more about rock bands, especially emo bands like My Chemical Romance; they were a big inspiration for me, but also Marilyn Manson. He’s still one of my biggest inspirations but also Lady Gaga. I think it’s been a lot of different combinations of pop and rock. I love Falling in Reverse even if I don’t make that kind of music, Ronnie Radke [the band’s frontman] inspires me so much – I just love how his brain works. The music he makes continues to surprise me.”
Lily has used all of these inspirations, delving into how they create, as well as her own varied experiences in different artistic media to develop a process for making music that works best for her. And the final result, as exhibited so boldly and so authentically and so memorably on Beautiful Disaster, is the proof.
“When I’m by myself, when I am out walking or whatever then an idea might just pop into my mind. So, I record it on my phone. Other times I need to write things down because the act of writing really helps me remember and process the idea. Mostly I work with ideas for melodies or for lyrics, but then sometimes I can go into a session and say, ‘okay this is a theme I want to do something with, and here’s a song that I find inspirational. I want mine to have the same vibe, or in the same tempo or whatever.’ And then I work with the producer and eventually we start writing lyrics that fit that idea. Most of the time, words and melody are at the beginning and then we put in the guitar and bass and drums. So, each song comes together in different stages,” she explained.
“I don’t play any instruments, so for me I am humming the melody that I like. Sometimes it’s successful and sometimes it’s not. On my first album [the aforementioned LÖWE] I started a lot with lyrics and some with the songs on this album as well and then I sit down with the producer to pull all the other parts together the way I am hearing them in my head. It’s that melody that is really the hook that everything hangs on. Everything comes off of that. With the song ‘Haunted House’ [a single from Beautiful Disaster] my producer put together this little songwriting camp. So, it was me and two producers and a few songwriters and then I had this idea for a haunted house because I thought it was the best way to describe anxiety. I was like, okay, you feel trapped, you can’t breathe, and you’re sometimes in the dark and everything’s scary. You’re on edge and it’s just f***ing terrible – just like being in a haunted house. But in this case, the haunted house is your body or your mind. I wanted to write a song about anxiety but wanted something visual. I wanted a metaphor that people can understand, I wanted that imagery of being scared and alone in a haunted house to really represent what it feels like to have anxiety.”
The song ‘Demons’ is the one from the album which seems to be getting the most attention, at least in terms of the number of streams online. Interestingly, this song was brought into the album creation process by one of the producers Ola Frøyen and penned by top Norwegian pop star Ehle.
“She told me that she really liked my sound and that she wanted to write a song for me. Normally it’s been important to me that I write everything myself, but I trusted Ola and when I heard the song I loved it. I only had to make a few changes. And I loved the theme of the song. It fit in with the other songs on the album. ‘Demons’ talks about revenge and setting yourself up so that no one can hurt you anymore,” she explained, saying how it has a darker tone than songs such as ‘Wild,’ another critically and popularly acclaimed song from Beautiful Disaster, which is more of an old-school banger about empowerment and not being afraid to be yourself.
“It’s definitely a power anthem. And it’s along the same theme as the title track. I loved writing that song. ‘Beautiful Disaster’ was, for me, the most fun part of the process. I actually had the lyrics on my computer for such a long time but realized when I was starting to get the songs ready for this album, that it was time to go back to these words. I feel like the song; it starts very slowly and then it grows and becomes more powerful. But it’s also so playful too. It’s more about relationships and being true to yourself, you know, to not lose yourself, and who you are, in a relationship. It was from one of my girlfriends who had a bad relationship and that’s where I got the idea. I only have nice exes, so I don’t have inspiration for a song like that from them,” she said.
From the beginning, Lily has chosen to forge her own path, preferring to be in control of her own artistic destiny by self-releasing her music. Learning to overcome challenges, some of which are inherent to being an independent artist, others which the universe will randomly throw up into one’s path, is all part of the growing process.
“It’s been a challenge. I’ve been working with a lot of different people and trying to find my own voice. I’ve been working with new producers [two of which are the aforementioned Frøyen and Mathisen, as well as Jonas Holteberg Jensen] and pushing myself out of my comfort zone by working with new people and trying to push both my writing and my voice further. It was also a process in getting the right band together, which we had for the first album but then my drummer [Magnus Galguften] passed away. He did some work on Beautiful Disaster, so he’s playing on ‘Wild’ and ‘Haunted House,’ and we have a little tribute to him in the music video for ‘Haunted House.’ It was very sad, man. He was just 49,” she said.
“It was such a shock. So, the whole process of putting this album together has been a mix of very inspiring and fun but also with a lot of heartache. And being independent means I have to do everything, and I also have to pay for everything. But also, I don’t want to give up my masters, the masters of my recordings. I want to own my own music, so there’s a price you pay if you want to go that way. But it’s important for me to own my own art. It’s so personal to me and I don’t want anyone else deciding how to use it or telling me how to do it.”
An album release show for Beautiful Disaster was held in Oslo on Feb. 20, with an appearance at the MC Rock Festival in Eidskog, Norway set for May 29, with more dates on the European summer festival circuit to be announced.
For more information, visit https://www.lilylowe.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment