No cap, I had to repeat the first song on “Waves” because the vibe it was giving is something that is hard to find in modern day music, I am glad to have discovered this album by Von Krogh. When I first pressed play on the first track “Scales” by Von Krogh I was immediately taken into a moody world of sound. Even listening to the first song on the album gives listeners a feel of what to expect with the remaining songs on the album.
Surprisingly this is his debut album, and there is no better way to cement your name than to drop such a breathtaking project. I got the chance to interview Von Krogh, the mastermind behind the album. Waves has a total of 9 songs on it, and one thing that cannot go unsaid is the effect it leaves on you after the song ends, the vocals is just right and perfect.
I like how each song is detailed when it comes to the production and the composition of the songs, during the interview Von Krogh was asked about the main inspiration behind the album, and his responses made me understand why the song has this much power.
He said
“I chose the name “WAVES” for my debut album, because it perfectly summarized what I felt like I’d been battling through my whole life – a set of waves, initiated by the last one and continued by the next.”
Von Krogh used relatable lyrics to grasps the listener’s attention, kudos to the other amazing musicians who worked on making this song what it is with Elias von Krogh being the Lead vocalist, guitar Adrian Michelsen: guitar, Aadne Salen Sandvik: keys ,Phillip Mjaatvedt: base and Filip Blindheim: drums/perc. By any standard I can boldly state this is a lost but masterpiece which has been lost for ages.
I recommend you listen to ‘Waves’ by Von Krogh with headset to catch the feeling, plus had more to say about himself and his album, his response was very detailed, given his listeners the chance to peep into his life, so join us as we delve deeper into te life of Von Krogh!
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Listen to Waves below
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What is your stage name
⁃ My Stage name is the same name I use on a daily basis – Elias von Krogh!
Is there a story behind your stage name?
⁃ Well, not much of a story really, a month or so before Adrian (on guitar) and I started the project, we both agreed just using my first name Elias as a stage name would be pretty lame. So we stayed clear of that one, worked with what we had left, and ended up using my last name instead.
Where do you find inspiration?
⁃ The older I get, the less I know – and that’s sort of where I get my inspiration, I guess – through frustration, not knowing what to do when refacing a situation I would have thought “easy” to handle just a couple of years ago. Life throws new ideas and perspectives from day to day, and sometimes I’m better at listening to them than at other times. I live with bipolar disorder, something I didn’t know until I was already well into my twenties.
So I find a lot of inspiration through that, the ever changing grounds I find myself standing on. A lot of old songs I’ve written give me some soothing, they remind me that I’ve already been through the worst my own mind can put me through, when I’m back there again. And judging by the last times, it always ends up feeling better if I just allow it to get there.
What was the role of music in the early years of your life?
⁃ I’ve always loved music, and I’ve been blessed with a mother and father exposing my brothers and I to many different genres growing up. I love classical music, and a lot of it has influenced the way I “think” about music, because my parents used to put on CDs of classical music (they named it “calming music”) when I was heading to sleep.
As I grew older, I found a lot of comfort in the lyrics of music I listened to. It seemed like a great way to ventilate all the emotions I had bottled up or just struggled to convey. The first couple of lyrics I wrote sucked, but still gave me enough “closure” to want to keep on doing it.
Are you from a musical or artistic family?
⁃ I’d say so! My father sings, used to play the trombone and worked as a chef, my mother sings, restores/fixes up furniture, and has all kinds of tiny creative projects keeping her busy most of the time – I recognize that last part in myself, having to constantly do SOMETHING to not “lose my mind”. Also I think there are at least five generations of musicians before me on my father’s side. I like to think that my need for creation lies in my genes!
Who inspired you to be a part of the music industry?
⁃ As a child, seeing the Norwegian band Wig Wam, from the same area as I come from, make it all the way to the Eurovision finales some twenty years ago, really set the bar for me when it came to seeing what Norwegian bands could accomplish. Later I kind of fell in love with some of the 2000s “classic” emo music – My Chemical Romance and The Used being my main “guiding stars”.
But it wasn’t really until discovering Jeff Buckley I thought “wow, here’s someone who understands what I’ve wanted to do in music for all these years – and he only released ONE album??!”. His music awakened something in me, and I’m pretty sure I would still be figuring out my sound to this day, if I hadn’t ever stumbled upon his masterpiece of an album “Grace”.
How did you learn to sing/write/to play?
⁃ When it comes to singing, I didn’t really begin singing until around the age of 8. I remember my mind as in a state of constant change around that age, singing to myself on my way home from school became something I enjoyed doing daily, it felt like a little “secret” back then. Around the age of 14 I wished for a guitar, and my parents gifted me the one I still use on stage to this day.
I learned most of my guitar playing by just noodling around until something sounded okay to me (I still do, please don’t tell me chord names cause I have no clue what you’re trying to say unless it’s major or minor). I’ve never really been interested in learning other people’s songs, so I just started writing my own stuff the day I got my guitar.
What was the first concert that you ever went to and who did you see perform?
⁃ The first BIG concert I ever went to was Green Day, here in Oslo in 2010. I lost all my friends in the queue, so I ended up watching the concert with a bunch of 18 year old strangers. Really cool experience for 14 year old me.
How could you describe your music?
⁃ I often like to use my diagnosis as a descriptor for my music – bipolar. I don’t get a lot of pleasure out of just writing sad songs or sticking to a specific mood. I want my music to be recognizable on it’s own, without having to use the same instruments, the same singing-technique or effects over and over again.
I would describe most of it as bipolar alt-rock, and some of it as bipolar pop-rock. Or if new emo sounded cool, I guess that would be a good way to describe it.
Describe your creative process.
⁃ Most of the times, it’s kind of a lack of process that brings me home. I usually just sit down with the guitar, discover some chords that resonates with something in me, and then the lyrics often just “show up”.
I’ve written quite a few songs predicting how I’d feel in a couple of weeks or even months, where I don’t realize what the song is about until I’m actually there, in the situation the song has been describing for some time already. You could say my process is laying traps for myself, until I stumble into one of them and find myself absolutely caught up in the idea.
What is your main inspiration?
⁃ As I get older, walks without music, and narcissistically through my own side projects. I have this b-project, representing the more manic side of my condition, where I write these over the top, silly songs for fun. Two of the songs on “WAVES” actually used to be humoristic songs I wrote in Norwegian. Today they are “Costs” and “Birds”.
I do this all the time, steal and interpret my own music made by the more manic side of my personality. To summarize where my main inspiration in music is: No music and my own music. The older I get, the less inspiration I find in other people’s work – unless it’s Radiohead, possibly the best band of all time.
What musician do you admire most and why?
⁃ I’ve already mentioned Jeff Buckley, MCR and The Used, but today I’d say Radiohead, norwegian musicians Thomas Dybdahl, Sondre Lerche and The late Tommy Tokyo are the one’s I look the most up to.
Out of all these, I think Radiohead takes the top spot for their ability to evolve, how they manage to change their sound while always keeping whatever makes Radiohead be Radiohead. Sondre Lerche has such a varied discography, I believe he could have been the fifth beatle if he had been born some decades earlier.
Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career?
⁃ It always has, and I hope it always will! As an 8 year old boy, my biggest dream was playing glam rock with make up on my face. Then, as a teenager, it was to play in a rock band with make up on my face. Now I play in a bipolar rock band, still working up the guts for some theatric make up. Looking at the trend, I’d say it’s certain some things will always change, but my desire for make up will remain.
Who do you see as your main competitor?
⁃ Hmm. I’m not really very competitive, but I suppose my alter ego DJ Krogh might steal the show before I do.
What are your interests outside of music?
⁃ I love making food, and 70% the time someone might be wondering what I’m doing, it’s either that, walking, music or sleep. I study sound design at the moment, and used to read the news on the radio for the Norwegian equivalent of BBC. Sounds, walking and food, those are my interests. And sometimes drawing. Or photos.
If it wasn’t a music career, what would you be doing?
⁃ I guess I would still be working in journalism, not really sure though. Feels kind of whimpy to say, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t doing music. I have been blessed with a loving and caring family, great friends and experiences, but I wouldn’t be able to appreciate it all if I didn’t have music to help me vent out all the other emotions. If it wasn’t music, I’m 88% sure it would be a coffin or an urn. That turned dark, and I won’t apologize for it.
What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
⁃ When it comes to the industry: Flinching people who say one thing and does something completely different. In Norway we call those people “vinglepetter”. Or just morons. The whole industry is full of them. Other than that, my ability to believe in myself and my music – things I’m still working on. Hopefully it gets better, but I still hope a piece of that uncertainty will survive and live on with me. I think it gives people an edge.
If you could change one thing in the music industry, what would it be?
⁃ I wish the industry as a whole focused on diversifying music – at this point I’m pretty sure we’ve already heard most of the music releasing this year, and even next year – I wish the industry would lift more unique and exciting artists. I don’t listen to a lot of music, simply because I feel like I’ve already heard most of it.
Why did you choose this as the title of this project?
⁃ I chose the name “WAVES” for my debut album, because it perfectly summarized what I felt like I’d been battling through my whole life – a set of waves, initiated by the last one and continued by the next. Also, in the summer of 2018, three months prior to writing the first sketch of the title track, I had a strange experience. After a particularily warm day at work, I drove to the coast and ended up swimming further out in the sea than I ever had and ever have, just because of a longing for silence.
I was in the water from when the sun set, until it dawned again, and I washed ashore exhausted. I didn’t realize how formative this experience was to me until almost a year later, when I decided I wanted to make an album about the waves. So to summarize, because the title describe exactly what I wanted to convey – an ever changing landscape, with no real resting place for your feet – and because of a long swim into the ocean nearly six years ago.
What are your plans for the coming months?
⁃ Right now we are busy playing shows in several Norwegian cities, while at the same time recording a bunch of the songs that didn’t make it on to WAVES – I hope to be able to release either an extended/full version of the album, or a b-side EP with songs that drowned in the waves. And I’m already planning my next album – the next one will take place on land.
Do you have any artistic collaboration plans
⁃ At the moment, no! We have a couple of bands playing support on our concerts, but not much more going on than that. The band and I collaborate well enough already!
What message would you like to give to your fans?
⁃ Firstly – a BIG thank you to everyone who’s listened to the album! And second – none of us wish to experience pain, suffering, sadness or loss. But what I’ve come to understand, is that these can all be enrichening experiences. Peace goes, so that peace can return – and oh MY how nice life gets when it returns. To boil it down to the cliche it truly is – what doesn’t kill you CAN make you stronger.
It has certainly made me stronger, and made me a more capable and loving friend than I would have ever been without all this pain. In Norway we say “Det er ikke så ille at det ikke er godt for noe» – basically, all the bad stuff must contain something good – or at least inspire some of it. Allow yourself to feel this pain, don’t hide from it, but don’t let it take over – it DOES usually get better after a while.
