Marte Røyeng, who is currently recording, is both a pop artist and a contemporary composer in training. She herself believes that the contrast is less than people might think. “It is true that contemporary music can be associated with something that is difficult to listen to, but on the contrary, it is about finding something for the listener that is exciting, triggering, beautiful or surprising.
/ 27/09/2019 / Kristian DugstadName: Marte Røyeng
TONO member since: 2010
Current with: The debut album "Reach" (Oslo Session Recordings)
Who is Marte Røyeng?
I am an artist, lyricist and contemporary composer in training, who was encouraged to become a plumber as a child, but now works more with ears than with pipes. I also have an extra good eye for theater.
Tell us about your musical background?
I have been in a children's choir, played violin at the cultural school, and trod the streets of Horten with the school band. Then I became a teenager and started learning guitar by listening to Sondre Lerche. I played in a short-lived Jethro Tull cover band, and kept my own songs a secret. On the music theater course at Romerike Folk High School, I received much-needed encouragement to make music my main project. Right then, I was the last to see what I was driven towards, and what drives me. I put together my first band under my own name when I started musicology in 2010, and it went from there.
How would you describe the music you write?
It bears the hallmark of me being a relatively omnivorous music listener, and is less about conforming to genre ideals and more about giving each song the musical environment where it grows strongest.
What made you start writing songs?
I had a writing friend, Mari, when I was little. She wrote songs for her own plays, and I started doing the same, writing songs that belonged to a specific historical universe. I was also really inspired by the trio Ephemera and everything they did, when I heard them when I was twelve or thirteen. I wrote a lot of polyphonic fingerstyle songs, and planted the first dreams of making a record one day.
Where and how do you write?
When I'm working on a complete song from text sketches and audio snippets, I prefer to be in a room by myself. That way I can use my musicality properly and listen carefully inwardly. Then I take a step back and ask myself questions. For example: What could be clearer here? How do the lyrics and music fit together? Where does it become uninteresting? I need a couple of rounds of this before I'm done with a song draft. Then I record a demo at my leisure, preferably with backing vocals and ideas for band arrangements.
What comes first, lyrics or melody?
It's often a piece of text that is the catalyst. But a melody or another musical idea comes to mind quite quickly.
What inspires you?
The same thing that makes me curious about the world around me and the lives of the people in it, I think. Experiences that I want to dig deeper into. The feeling of recognition in what someone else is expressing. Or the experience of lack, that something should be said more about. Then my challenge is to find the right form of the message, the right tone and strength.
Do you have any equipment or tools that are indispensable in the writing process?
Audio memos on my phone allow me to catch an idea before I have time to consider whether it's interesting or not. It's fun to have a library of uncritical suggestions! My absolute most important tool is to test songs on a new listener, or play them together with the musicians in the band, who are really good co-composers and arrangers.
In addition to doing pop music, you also study contemporary composition at the Academy of Music. What attracted you?
I was drawn to the idea of expanding my palette of ideas, being in the middle of unfamiliar thoughts about what music can be, and learning a more thorough musical craft.
Contemporary music can be perceived by many as impenetrable and is often a-tonal. Do you see any connections between contemporary music and pop?
It is true that contemporary music can be associated with something that is difficult to listen to, but on the contrary, it is about finding something for the listener that is exciting, triggering, beautiful or surprising. This does not necessarily happen through finding something brand new, but by putting musical material together in new ways, hearing it with new ears that are shaped by living in the time we live in now. Everything I have said here now, I could probably just as easily say about pop.
The story continues below the video.
How will this affect your music going forward?
There is a lot of both contemporary music and pop music that expands the map of what music is, and challenges the audience. I am learning to break habits. The library of ideas in my head has become considerably larger, and different, than before I started studying composition. The most important thing is that I have become better at asking myself "Why should this particular thing be played/said here?". When I ask that, I often gain a greater understanding of how the music will be experienced by those who will listen to the music. Which is extremely important. The goal is to give people an invitation in. It is one thing to stand on the outside of the music and scratch your head, than to stand inside and do the same!
In May of this year you released your first full-length album, "Reach." Tell us about the album?
The album features my regular band, plus a couple of guests. Even Ormestad is the producer for it, and the recording was done at his place in Oslo, and not least at Athletic Sound in Halden, with Dag Erik Johansen who also mixed. There are ten varied and richly produced songs with a warm 70s-nodding band sound, where we have spared no expense on strings, horns or organs.
You write that "Reach" is about reaching for something. What are you reaching for?
After daring even a little more than I did the last time I tried something – musically, and otherwise!
What can we expect from Marte Røyeng in the future?
A dash of newly composed contemporary music, a single from a fresh string and electronic quartet where I sing Norwegian lyrics, and hopefully a new pop album before 2021! And in the near future: on Thursday, October 17th, my band and I will play at SALT in Oslo.
What is your career highlight so far?
Working on "Reach" in the studio, with very talented people, and hearing that it was worth it to let the songs slip out of my hands and live a little on their own.
Can you share one of your greatest musical experiences – as a listener?
I'm With Her, the supergroup of Aoife O'Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins, played at Riksscenen in March. Hyper-focused people with effortless musicianship. I stood with my ears wide open throughout the entire concert. Love it when that happens!
