Meet Louien, a Norwegian artist whose musical roots run deep. Growing up in a family steeped in creativity, Live Miranda Solberg developed a love for harmonies and songwriting and honed her craft from a young age. We’ve been waiting for about five years for the chance to meet up and film something, so you can imagine my delight when we met at the Volkshotel in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago. For The Influences, she played covers of Blaze Foley’s If I Could Only Fly and Marit Larsen’s Morgan, I Might and her own Let Go and talked about her musical journey, the inspiration behind her songs, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.

Louien is a Norwegian singer-songwriter known for her emotive and harmony-rich music. She released her debut album, None of My Words, in 2019, which features a collection of introspective folk songs that explore themes of love, loss, and personal growth. Louien’s music blends traditional folk elements with contemporary influences, creating a unique sound that has garnered attention both in Norway and internationally.

Following her gorgeous debut that made me an instant fan, Louien released several EP’s and this year’s masterpiece Every Dream I Ever Had. You might hear or see her sing with The Influences’ friend and fellow Norwegian Ole Kirkeng or in Silver Lining. It is her songwriting, her voice and her unique musical style as Louien though that mesmerizes the most and deserves as big an audience as possible.

‘I just always listened to music. Always, always, always.”

For Solberg though, like for so many other artists, creating music started out as a solitary undertaking. “I think I’ve just always been really interested in music in general”, Solberg remembers. “So I was always listening to a lot of different things. Obviously, I was listening a lot to pop music when growing up and my friends exposed me to that. My sister listened a lot to more advanced music than I did. She listened to The Beatles and Pink Floyd and stuff like that. I even told my sister that The Beatles was a bad band, that they weren’t any good – and I was listening to the Spice Girls. And I mean, they were good in their own way. But it’s just so funny. She teases me about that still. Like: ‘You told me that they were such a lousy band’.”

“So I think I just started developing my own taste very early. But I’m still kind of confused as to what kind of music I like because I like a lot of different things. Obviously, there are genres that I don’t like. But if a song makes me feel something, then I like it, basically. If it makes me feel good, in a way, then I like it. And that’s the only sort of guideline I have for myself in listening to music. So, I just always listened to music. Always, always, always.”

“Ever since I learned to write, I’ve been writing. I had this little book with silly little poems that I wrote. And so I kept on doing that. And I always had a diary. My mom’s boyfriend brought a guitar into the house when I was sixteen, and so I started playing that. That’s when the writing and the music came together, as far as I can remember. Then I could be in my room. I could be sort of more away from other people. It’s really nice to be able to go to your room and just get lost in things. At that age you’re so overwhelmed, at least I was, with all these things happening. You know, always experiencing something new. So, I spent a lot of time on my own in my room. I was having quite a good time, but I was just really obsessed with putting things into words. And I’ve always felt a huge relief doing that.”

“It’s such a gift to be able to harmonize.”

Let Go is a rare Louien song that is purely about or for a relative, in this case Solberg’s sister. “My sister and I have done a lot of singing together. Nothing fancy. And also at Christmas and all these holidays where there are songs, my dad and my sister and I would harmonize. And walking around the Christmas tree, we would sing three-part harmonies and stuff. Kind of nerdy, but it was really fun. My sister is now also in this philharmonic choir in the city that she lives in. So she’s also a really, really good singer, but it’s more of an opera kind of twist. But we have kind of the same, darker kind of voice.”

“So it’s definitely a huge part of my life. I think it helps… It stimulates you in creating yourself, especially when you’re learning about harmonizing and stuff. It’s something that I thought was just natural for anybody to put harmonies on tunes. And then I realized it’s just because I’ve been brought up the way that I have. And I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s such a gift also to be able to do that because it’s so much fun. Whenever you hear a song, you can sort of pitch in and… But I didn’t realize that it’s actually quite difficult. And then, of course, I’ve also found it very difficult when I try to sing with people that I don’t normally sing with, or hear melodies that I’m not used to. Because I have this one genre that I’m really obsessed with, and it’s really hard for me to harmonize with other kinds of music. But I always love the challenge.”

Watch Louien live at TakeRoot this November.

If you happen to be in The Netherlands, or able to travel to Groningen on November 2nd, make sure to buy tickets to this years TakeRoot festival. The Influences will be there as usual, filming sessions, and so will Louien! She is one of the many brilliant artists already announced by TakeRoot, and more will follow.

Find all TakeRoot sessions so far, right here.

Photos

Keep watching

Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones we filmed other Norwegian musicians.