When Signe Marie Rustad, whose album is currently in development, writes music, she draws inspiration from both her American and Norwegian backgrounds.
/ 20/09/2019 / Kristian DugstadName: Signe Marie Rustad
TONO member since: 2007
Current with: Releasing my third album When Words Flew Freely on November 1st. The single "Something Easier" will be released on September 27th.
Who is Signe Marie Rustad?
Songwriter and artist, raised in Rustad in Elverum. Lived in Oslo for the last 19 years.
Tell us about your musical background?
I started writing my own songs in my early 20s, at the same time I picked up the guitar for the first time. In 2012 I released my first album, "Golden Town", and then came the next, "Hearing Colors Seeing Noises" in 2016. But, before all this, I traveled around with a trio that played 3-hour sets at weddings and company parties. That's when I got to test my voice and find out what was me, and what wasn't me. There was a lot that wasn't me, so to speak, but it was a very good school to sing everything from "Napoleon with his army" - with self-made verses - to Justin Timberlake songs and the Beatles. I especially remember that we were booked to play on the Danish boat round trip Oslo-Frederikshavn x 2. When we docked in Oslo after round one and couldn't leave the boat because we had to go straight back out and play 3 new sets on another trip, I thought "GET ME OUT OF THIS!". Not long after, I decided that if I was going to continue making music, it had to be my own music, on my terms. And that's how it's been ever since.
What is it about the USA and Americana and Country music?
I think it's in the folk soul, in a way. It resonates with them in the same way that I think it does with many people in the Nordic countries too – where this genre has gained an ever-growing audience in recent years.
Your mother was from Colorado in the USA. How has that influenced you, and how important is this connection to your identity and to your music?
I carry with me the landscape and atmosphere from there, in the same way that I carry with me the landscape and atmosphere from Rustad, where I grew up. I feel the same longing and restlessness, but also peace, when I look up at Lookout Mountain from my aunt's porch in Golden, Colorado that I do when I stand up in the forest at Rustad and look down at Glomma and all the fields. These feelings are with me in songwriting, without necessarily writing about them specifically. The fact that my mother has spoken English to me the whole way has also made it very natural for me to express myself in English in my lyrics. It is a native language on a par with Norwegian, and until now it has been easier for me to say what I want to say through my music in English than it has been in Norwegian.
What made you start writing music?
It happened when I was visiting my parents when I was about 20 years old, and I discovered my dad's newly purchased nylon string guitar. Then I realized that the little melodies I had been playing around in my head since I was very little, I could now play them out loud – I found them note by note on the guitar. Then the lyrics came at the same time. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Where and how do you write?
Mostly at home on the couch, with the guitar in my lap, while I look out the window. Or on a long bus or train ride: Then I can sit in my own thoughts and take in the melodies that weave into the landscape we drive through. Hopefully I have also remembered to put my notebook in my bag, I have to have an "old school" pen and paper for lyrics, while the melodies I may very discreetly hum into the phone.
What inspires you?
Good conversations with others, and getting in the mood through listening to music – combined with taking in the surroundings: Walking through the city with music in my ears, in a kind of parallel world; if I then have the opportunity to go straight home and write, that's perfect.
Do you have any equipment or tools that are indispensable in the writing process?
I can get a long way with pen and paper, but ideally I should also have a guitar and recording capabilities available.
You've mentioned that you recently came out of a three-year writing hiatus. What does it do to a composer not to be able to write?
I don't think I realized until I came out "on the other side" how much of a part of me was not getting an outlet. But I must emphasize: I didn't go around thinking during the years I didn't write that I had writer's block. My main focus was getting through the circumstances that had caused me to shut down that part of me.
How did you get over the hurdle?
I gave myself a very specific assignment: I wanted to make a kind of tribute song to the "Americana collective" Die With Your Boots On when they were celebrating their 5th anniversary. I didn't have very high expectations when I sat down, and I think that helped a lot, I just wanted to try to make something fun and nice for people I appreciate. So it ended up being a very personal song, about the power of music.
In May of this year, you released the single Die With Your Boots on to rave reviews. Journalist Erik Valebrokk wrote, “Is this the best song of the year?” What does that mean to you?
It means a lot. That someone feels the same things that I felt when I wrote the song, and that I feel when I play it live, it's a fantastic experience of communication and community.
It also seems like big things are happening in the Norwegian Americana scene. Is there an Americana revolution taking place in Norway?
I don't know if I would call it a revolution, but there are certainly a lot of artists and listeners who feel at home in the Americana genre. It is also broad, and has room for a lot of different things – that's one of the nice things about it. It's easy to go in many different musical directions with this genre as a starting point, and that's a great strength about it: I don't feel like I have to write, play or behave like an "Americana musician" – I feel very free in both the writing process and in the studio in terms of genre, because it kind of accommodates everything.
In May, you were also the first artist to be released on the newly formed record label Die With Your Boots On. A separate Americana label, that also says something about the trend of the time, doesn't it?
That a label like Jansen, with what I would say are Norway's most talented people in the record industry, creates such a sub-label, testifies that listeners, songwriters and artists associated with this genre are taken seriously.
Next week you'll be releasing your new single "Something Easier." What can you say about the song, and about your third album "When Words Flew Freely," which will be released on November 1st?
The whole recording process has been incredibly free and nice. Kenneth Ishak and I have merged ideas together, and then my band has taken this forward in the way only they can, because we know each other so well, and it has been so right for these songs. It is the first record where I had such a clear idea of the common thread and song order (it was set long before recording) before we started the recording process, because the lyrics had somehow already laid a natural lead on this. There is a lot of longing in “When Words Flew Freely”, both as a song and a record, but also a lot of hope. The single “Something Easier” was born through hopelessness, but recorded with a lot of energy and love.
What are your plans for the time being after the album release?
Then I'm going to go out and play as much as possible!
What is your career highlight so far?
That I managed to record and release my second album "Hearing Colors Seeing Noises" in the midst of an extremely demanding life situation.
Can you share one of your greatest musical experiences – as a listener?
I have MANY, fortunately, and new ones are added all the time, but for now I'll take the first thing that comes to mind: When Silver Lining played at Mono a couple of years ago, I hadn't heard them live before, and Halvor Falck Johansen sang his self-composed song "She Won't Realize". Then I cried.
