After showering through all the warm water on the tank, having breakfast, swallowing some medication, and going through my morning ritual in the bathroom I am ready to go to the hospital for a regular check-up and some x-rays. The time is 7:30 when I go out the door. By the tram-stop I am having a “Sliding Doors”-experience: I just miss the tram I was aiming for, and have to wait for the next. So, I wonder how much of today’s contents would have changed if I had caught the first one.

The hospital has well-known corridors. Both the young girl with the black finger-nails at the reception and the radiologist with the penetrating eyes (x-ray-vision?) are nodding at me in recognition – one of the nice side-effects of having a cronic desease that repeatedly takes me back to the same place. I wait for a while, undress, put on a blue robe, and then I get hooked up to the machinery and some tubes, I answer routine questions, and then I get headphones so I can listen to the radio while being scanned.

Returning from the hospital I drop by my hairdresser to hand her 3 CDs I put together, mixes of pophits and Eurovision-songs. I do this for charitable reasons, imagine having to listen to the same music over and over again day out and day in… That is just cruel… My hairdresser pops the first CD in the player and thanks me by giving me a quick “makeover”. By a stroke of magic a “bad hair day” is transformed into a “good hair day”. Some good old-fashioned barter is underrated!

I almost forget posting my letter to two of my niese. I have written a few words enclosed with autographed photos – six of their friends want a photo of “the aunt who is a popstar” – and surely I have to fix this for my little darling ambassadors. Additionally, it is always nice to get a letter in the snailmail – I cannot remember the last time this happened. Nostalgia…

(Photos: Johs Bøe)

A great friend and myself have created a “writing-club” together. We meet up at a café and sit there side by side working on our separate projects – she is writing a novel, I am writing on my dissertation. First a coffee and a chat, then working industriously until lunchtime, and then onwards for as long as we can (sometimes wrapping it up with a pint…).

When I walk through the gate to my backyard I meet the neighbours who are out walking their little weird dog. I smile to myself: It is this little furry monster that “pipes along” every time I rehearse singing. Poor thing, he must be in such torture. I also suspect this might be the couple that entertain the whole neighbourhood having loud sex 24-7.

I eat chicken-casserole and punch away at my Mac. I have to send some mails about booking, concert-dates, and I have to book some flights (Northern Norway and Italy) before the airfares go insane. And of course, there are bills to pay… I am taking the daily stroll through Facebook, getting some updates on TV, and chatting with my family on the phone. I get an idea for some lyrics for a new song I am working on, and hurry to the piano to try out the words with the melody, but the time is moving rapidly towards bedtime and it is getting too late to be noisy in the building.

Time for my evening contemplation. I was supposed to meet a guy today, but cancelled when I decided to work with my friend. It was probably not “important” after all – so my gut feeling tells me anyway. There will be other chances. The film “Sliding Doors” crosses my mind again, and I feel perfectly at ease knowing the good things will appear on my path sooner or later. Due to many small decisions and strange coincidences these good things may just have to take a detour first…

I am using this concert teaser (press info) written by concert arranger Monica Brenna to say a few words about our duo (vocals & keys). Monica Brenna makes a tremendous effort for the music community in southern Norway by running this concert venue, but also by bringing music people together, cross-distributing contacts, and by daring to take risks in a music world where no one takes risks anymore!

(Photo: Tine Frich Møller)

As a heading Monica came up with this: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FAIRYTALE / Concert with ELIN SYNNØVE BRÅTHEN & HILMAR KRISTOFFERSEN. Based on her hearing the duo earlier she continues in the same spirit as if writing a review:

ELIN SYNNØVE BRÅTHEN is one of the strongest musician ladies in Norway today. Elin Synnøve writes songs with substance that moves within the genre pop/jazz mixed with Celtic elements. The compositions are utterly beautiful, melodious and strong, which make them perfect for the small concert venues where the artist is close to the audience – and where the artist cannot rely on anything but her own competence, presence and great songs. These are songs that are as solid in a stripped-down arrangement as with a full band and orchestra. Elin Synnøve is technically very concinving and she conveys the songs with a storyteller’s abilities and a vocal sound as beautiful and pure as water – leaving the listener moved to the bone. She combines technical skills with heart and soul, making her expression personal and real. Her range spans from the deep valleys to the highest highs with natural ease and eleganse. Elin Synnøve Bråthen is signed with CD-label Curling Legs here in Norway – synonymous with exceptional musical quality. She has received fantastic reviews for her two albums both in Norway and abroad. In the voice of Elin Synnøve melodious pop-songs becomes something exciting and jazz-influenced songs becomes more accessible – all in all this is mixed and given an ethnic flavour turning it into something quite unique and exquisite.

(Hilmar Kristoffersen and ESC-winner Alexander Rybak)

Elin Synnøve has joined forces with her Eliksir-pianist HILMAR KRISTOFFERSEN who is arranger, composer and performing musician. He has written music for television and films and has travelled around Europe with Alexander Rybak (the ESC-winner of 2009). Hilmar Kristoffersen has a strong signature in his lyrical touch and versatile musical style. He is also rather innovative when it comes to filtering and producing his own sounds on the different keyboards and vintage syntesizers. The duo presents a mix of Elin Synnøve Bråthen’s songs and a handful of neatly rearranged cover-songs, timeless classics that are given a creative yet respectful makeover in the hands of Elin Synnøve and Hilmar.

How do one write songs? There is no waterproof ritual here. It is a myth that writing songs only is possible in inspired moments. A wise person (“wiseass”) said that the best inspiration one can get is a deadline. Sure enough, inspiration is not something you can buy or take for granted. Sometimes you have to get into the work routine of composing even when you are not bursting with inspiration. Great ideas can spring out of hours of dreary jamming alone by the piano. Other times I wake up in the middle of the night with brilliant ideas and have to run to the piano to note them down or tape them on my voice recorder. Experience shows that such “bright night ideas” have a tendency to disappear by the break of dawn.

The songs I am working on now are examples of both processes. I have played around with some song-titles: “Disenchanted”, “You Can’t Bring Me Down” and “Your Ghost Becomes A Person”. The tunes are usually finished long before the lyrics. When writing the tune I trust the first pure idea; if I work too much on the same melody-phrases and keep changing them forth and back the original idea is lost. The more filterless I write the easier the creativity flows.

(Photo: Morten Brimi / Above photo: Astrid Lunke)

Writing lyrics is a more demanding work. I collect information and images for the lyrics from my dreams. Most of my songs are rooted in some dream I had some night. Dreams are both personal and fairytale-like – sometimes surreal – so it is not possible to copy+paste directly from my dream-journal. The dream images must be translated into pop-lyrics that are shaped to fit the melody and formed to sound good when singing them. Working this out takes time.

Tonight I am going to bed with the new melodies on my mind; they are dancing their own little dance inside my head and encouraging my dreams to post some suitable images that can be transformed into lyrics tomorrow or the day after.

All dressed up I met a man from the marketing department of Cosmopolitan who escorted me to the show at Ballroom. The event included a show with hot artists, award show, champagne, snacks and vouchers for goodie-bags – and – a nachspiel where you could mingle and dance. For starters I felt exclusive expecting a seance resembling “Eyes Wide Shut”, where you had to give a mysterious password in front of security-guards wearing carnival-masks to be let in to the premises. (So I put a note in my pocket saying “Fidelio”, just in case…)

(Press Photo)

I had a new role for this occasion – not as a performing artist or “the woman from the bachelor”. I entered the scene as a kind of “Carrie Bradshaw”, observing and taking notes to give the show and Cosmopolitan Beauty Awards an honest and edgy review – sparkled with some humour. This is the way I write, and at this event there was quite a lot to comment on for better and for worse – especially the latter…

I helped myself greedily at the snack-stand (those Anton Berg chocolates are heaven!) before showstart. Some artists were really good – I have to be careful not to be talking down about my colleagues in the music business. The Norwegian ESC-winner of 2010, Didrik Solli-Tangen, impressed me when singing rock – for a classically trained singer he did really well. This was the best performance all evening, just a pity it was at the very start of the show, from then onwards it all went downhill… The sound was terrible (stone surfaces are not the best conditions for amplified sound) and this affected the performances all through the evening.

There was a weird fashion show in the middle of the show that nobody understood the point of – where did THIS come from? I was not sure whether to laugh or cry at this ridiculous thing. The models were skinny teenagers not carrying the (small) weigh of their bodies very well. They were hunched “Haute Couture-wannabe’s” looking like kids gone berserk with mummy’s make up. The line showed off just ordinary clothes. They must have thought spicing it up with highly aggressive styling would help. Sorry folks: Me – no buy!

What I expected to be class, Rolls Royce, Cosmopolitan-exclusive from manicured fingernails to stiletto-heels fell together like a house of cards. It was noisy, messy, and looked like the inside of a party-tent at a college campus. The 500 guests did not seem to give a damn about what went on up on stage. The guests standing in the rear were more engaged in having their free drinks, chitchat, giggle, mingle and take photographs, and treated the show as background entertainment. They literally turned their rear ends to the whole thing while the editor of Cosmopolitan screamed in the microphone that this award is the Oscar among beauty awards. Cosmopolitan simply lacked a professional frame around such a pretentious event.

*******

Cosmo-conclusion: The people at Cosmopolitan need a serious evaluation of this year’s award show. There is room for big improvement! They should really go for a show that holds utmost quality throughout all links in the chain – something that one becomes happy and proud to be associated with, something that makes the guests actually feel exclusive and special. I believe they also learned that contents of more educational value (information about the beauty products) should not be mixed with alcohol and partyfacts, that is just unprofessional.

My critique is not meant to be harsh – just constructive. Setting critique aside, I had a nice evening and met a lot of lovely people. One lady dumped herself on a chair next to me and talked enthusiastically about a new organic brand within cosmetics that I grew very curious about: Maria Åkerberg (produced in Sweden). A young male stylist passed by and gave me the best compliment that night: I was so beautifully made up that I looked… retouched! Haha! Thanks! Another “high” was the female DJ who played Michael Jackson and pop hits from the 80’s. Still haven’t picked up my goodie-bag – I am waiting for an invitation to visit the Cosmopolitan office downtown – but if they read this they might decide to hang on to it…

(Photo: Johs Bøe / Above photo: Morten Bendiksen)

There was in fact a “direct link” between the movie and the TV-series – for me, at least. No, not because I was hunting a man looking like Jim Carrey hoping the Bachelor would be his spitting image – with elastic facial expressions and wild bodily movements.

A friend of mine and me sat down for a beer and evaluated our situation thoroughly after having seen “Yes Man”, and we got inspired to be more impulsive and say “yes” whenever something exciting came along – instead of giving each opportunity in life the female round of detailed analysis and probably ending up saying “no”. Jim Carrey portrays a guy who isolates himself, is afraid of most things, and ultimately is quite unhappy with himself. Coincidence leads him to a kind of “religious awakening meeting” where “yes man” it the motto. Afterwards he is unable to say “no” to any of the things that cross his path. When saying “yes” to absolutely everything he gets drawn into unexpected chaos, but this way he also meets the love of his life.

Luckily my situation (nor my friend’s) was identical to the character’s semi-traumatic life, and even though we were not ready to say yes to anything we concluded that a change would do us good in the “yes-sense”. We entered a pact together: From now on we would be more open and receptible to whatever came along. This applied to possibilities of learning something new, accepting invitations to coffee-dates, going to the cinema instead of getting comfy in the sofa at home alone, travel to new destinations when cheap flights fell into our laps, and more. In short: we were going to be more alive and present in our lives.

The first thing that happened to me after this was getting the offer to be a part of “The Bachelor”, and I said “yes” pretty fast – while thinking of Jim Carrey, “Yes Man” and the pact I made with my friend. I frequently remind myself of our “pact” which somehow seems to have turned a few things around in my life: being more spontaneous and curious has given me the chance to challenge myself in new ways and meet new people I otherwise never would have met. For example, one of my most important collaborators is my stylist who I met in South Africa while shooting “The Bachelor”.

(Press photos by Morten Bendiksen from the television premiere – with the bachelor, and (below) with my ex-boyfriend who was “my date” to the premiere… All good memories)

The PhD project is one of the first of its kind in Europe, where performing artists are allowed to do research on their own work. As I am an artist and singer/songwriter within popular music I get to do research on popular music. Some people are curious about what my project covers, and answering this could easily turn into a long and complicated story. This is the short version.

I don’t think my PhD project is too “nerdy” and academic for most people. It is about the human mechanism of communicating with each other by using metaphors. The working title of the dissertation is: Metaphor as a communication strategy within an album recording setting. When we recorded my previous album (The Anchor And The Dream) I taped everything that was said between the producer, the sound engineers, the musicians and myself, while arranging and recording the songs. Now I am transcribing the taped dialogue searching for examples where we use metaphoric language about sound, dynamics and vocal expression. The research is based on what is “off the record” (colourful discussions and unexpected language images) – which is part of the process leading up to what we can hear “on the record” (the finished CD).

A metaphor is when we let one thing say something about something else. My producer and musicians often use food-metaphors about guitar-sound for example. “I think we need a more creamy guitar here” (producer). “Dark cream!” (drummer). Here we are letting food/dairy products say something about guitar-sound. At one point the producer asked me to sing with the kitten’s paw on one of the songs: he wanted me to sing softly and gently. Thus he compared me (my vocal expression) with a cat/kitten.

When working on something creative together, something that may not be too clearly defined, we speak together by letting the language switch into a more “creative mode”. This is not a musician’s thing exclusively, this happens everywhere and with everyone – especially when the work includes abstracts and less tangible things. Throughout history the philosophers and poets have tried to capture in words things like life, love, time, sorrow, passion, etc. Like in the case of musicians recordings an album, they are sometimes making quite a “verbal party” of it…

This is just scraping the surface of a much larger research dimension. When we use metaphors in my context it is not only to describe and analyze, but also to negotiate. And in trying to influence each other with words – we create metaphor codes about music together. (Below are some pics from the reording by Astrid Lunke)

For one of the “characters” of the planned video I was heavily made up and dressed in black. The producer thought of one of the songs which is darker and more pop/rock than the rest of the album – and which carries the mysterious title “Shivas Blow In Cages“. The song is about a kind of forecast of a “growing darkness”, and therefore the “natural darkness” might be very fitting – as long there was sufficient light for the camera. On the impulse we decided to do an “on-the-spot video” for this song, just turn on the camera and see what happened. We had to be fast because the light disappeared fast, and everything was over in about 20 minutes. So, I did not get many chances of getting the text-miming right while playing it out in front of the camera, but I took the plunge. Sometimes I get into a “daredevil-mood” if I don’t get all the time in the world to prepare…

I threw myself into a “matrix-inspired” character – and acted to the camera from a shadowy edge of the woods on the west coast of Ireland (Think about this while watching the video: Several big spiders crawled forth and back across where I was sitting; imagine me panicking, yelling and jumping around, franticly waving my arms – I picture this vividly…, but luckily I kept my calm). There are not many different angles and not a well thought-through plot (I admit), and some people in my circle have strong opinions about the video and the photos from this session, saying: this turned out so… “different” than the other videos. Some of them think I look too cold and rough, and that I am “too direct” and “too challenging” with the camera. Others have given “thumbs up” and think it’s cool. I am sure what I think, to be honest…

In the end the track “Shivas Blow In Cages” was included on the album (after some discussion) along with 3 of the music videos, but not the video for this one. So we added some effects to the sound and decided to just release it on Yutube. Soundwise we experimented with an aggressive pitch-control, maybe a bit too much – I am not too fond of “the Cher effect”… For me it is hard to be objective, but if you like you can watch it here on this site and share your opinion.

• Camera: Nils-Petter Lotherington
• Edit: Erland Edenholm
• Sound/Mix: Giert Clausen
• Styling: Cårejånni Enderud
• Photo: Astrid Lunke

I was invited as guest (not performing this time) and met Skolimowski on the night of the opening. The pics are taken at Studio V (Majorstua area in Oslo) during the opening of the art exhibition, where the artist himself was in high spirits and the people attending could sense his relief over having finished such a gigantous project. One does not remain untouched by his work. I admit everyone who writes books, scripts, and creates the magical illusions you can sink into at the cinemas around the world; there is long way between having dreams and visions and putting these projects into reality. Hats off!

A number of other esteemed people from the world of film and arts were also present, and I grabbed the chance to introduce myself and share a glass with a few of them. At one point one of them discovered a magazine where I am the cover model (see photo below).

Photos by: Pawel Arczewski / Kvadrat Fotografene (Oslo)

Elin Synnøve Bråthen & Jerzy Skolimowski

Peter Piotr Kuzinski discovered the cover-photo

I met a relieved and happy Skolimowski at Studio V

With Skolimowski in front of one of his dramatic paintings.

(Photo: Johs Bøe)

I love doing guest roles like this because I get an extra “workout” on presence. Presence is a state I need to keep focused since it is central whenever I perform in front of an audience with my music. I can see myself taking on a bigger role in a soap or television series, now THAT would mean stepping up the challenge! In the meantime I am content reading my lines as a doctor, and preparing to go into the role as genuinely and naturally as possibly. It helps having your own real life experiences that are similar to the scene you are playing. This time I have a huge advantage, as I am often in a doctor-patient-situation, only on the other side of the table. (With arthritis I visit the hospital on a regular basis.) Anyway, I have many “scenes in my head” based on my own experiences, for example of how a doctor speaks to a patient, in a calm and pedagogical voice when doing a normal “desk-conversation”, but acting firmly and controlled in acute situations. The episodes I acted in are soon coming up on Norwegian television. Good fun!

Climbing stairs to get a better overview

I wrote this song for my album THE ANCHOR AND THE DREAM. The dream that inspired the lyrics was about climbing stairs, and as I climbed I gradually gained more and more perspective: getting a fantastic view and focused insight. But the case of stairs came to an end, and while standing up there I felt incredibly disappointed in not being able to continue – I wanted so badly to see more… Without boring you with too much details this insight revolves around the ambiguity in a person (and recognizing the same ambiguity in oneself), in that you are not solely good or evil, not either strong or weak, only happy or only sad. In the video I am considering this “two-way-bargain” through two different characters, one which is light, happy, carefree with self-confidence and openness – one who gives the dream life. The other is the darker counterpart, carrying the fears, holding on instead of letting go – one who feels the weight of the heavy anchor. The contrast symbolized as dream-anchor also inspired the album title.

Ambitiously I brought a crew from Norway and went to Ireland to film the material for the video in “authentic Celtic surroundings” (whatever that is…; strange trees growing crooked against the rough western wind, and numerous stone fences all across the fields.) Financially this was a completely wacky project (among other things I had to pay the airline company an insane fee for bringing onboard all the equipment, expensive and heavy cameras) – but: what a great experience, and definitely something I won’t ever find myself regretting! I am happy with the result as well, thanks to my competent collaborators (see name list below). Notice the “male choir” midway into the song, quite unusual for pop music, a true signature-move from the side of the producer. The male in the video is a dear friend of mine, the Irish actor Seamus Hughes, who insisted on learning some Norwegian along the way. Quite honestly, he sounded like the Swedish Chef in “The Muppet Show”…

I have made a fact-list below. If this video had been rewarded an important price within the music business, and I walked onto the stage to receive it and give a long and moving thank-you-speech – all these people would have been mentioned and applauded.

Presenting the song HIGHER THAN MY STAIRWAY from the album THE ANCHOR AND THE DREAM by Elin Synnøve Bråthen. Released 8 March 2010 (Label: Curling Legs / Distributor: Musikkoperatørene). Music & Lyrics by Elin Synnøve Bråthen.

This track is the reason for shooting the footage in Ireland, there is definitely a “Celtic connection” here. The lyrics are inspired by a dream I had one night about gaining perspective and wanting to see more. Location: Connemara area (West Coast of Ireland). Co-actor: Seamus Hughes, Styling: Cårejånni Enderud, Filming: Nils-Petter Lotherington, Cut: Erland Edenholm, Sound: Giert Clausen. Photography: Astrid Lunke. Worth mentioning is the beautiful colour of “men’s choir” (arranged by Øystein Sevåg), maybe unusual for pop music, but perfect for the mood of this song. Musicians: Hilmar Kristoffersen (keys), Haldor Røyne (guitars), Glenn Phillip Nilsen (bass), Trygve Tambs-Lyche (drums). Mix: Giert Clausen

(All photos: Astrid Lunke)