2016–2017: Contributing Author @ Sound of Aarhus

• Being a contributing writer at SOA allowed me to explore Denmark’s alternative sonic landscape from a unique perspective.
• While it’s always fun to share thoughts on shows of high-profile artists, probably the most exciting part of my involvement was discovering and meeting fresh faces in the industry, eventually making it big before my very eyes.

When I now remember writing for SOA, a dearly departed online publication founded by Steffen Paust and Asbjørn Lyhne, there are a couple of stories that pretty much sum up the kind of adventure that it was. So, let’s dive right into them.

In winter 2015, already determined to give a MA at Aarhus University, Denmark a shot the following year, I was hanging out at my boyfriend’s place showing him a band I had recently discovered. It was a truly special one. Black metal fused with shoegaze in a way I hadn’t heard before. Not really in a conventional DSBM manner, not really like they do it in Deftones or Oathbreaker.

At the time, I hadn’t checked who these guys with only a handful monthly listeners on Spotify were or where they were coming from. The band I’m talking about is MØL – and there’s a very low chance you haven’t heard of these Aarhusians if you’re into the blackened shoegaze thing at all. Sounds of Sundrowned, the opening track from MØL’s debut EP filling up the room, I said out loud, I want to write about these guys someday.

Fast forward to spring 2017, the 5 members of MØL Nicolai, Ken, Frederik, Holger and Kim Song and I met up at Aarhus’ trendy Godsbanen area and sat down on its rooftop to discuss all things music. Later in Copenhagen’s Grapehouse Studio I caught a glimpse of the recording process of their debut album Jord released in 2018 via Holy Roar Records (US).

The band has proven to be as exuberant live as they are on record, which keeps landing them tours with alternative superstars all over Europe. Meeting MØL at the beginning of their journey gave me a close-up of a small local outfit blooming into one of the strongest names of new gen Nordic blackened shoegaze.

That day at the rooftops, I had fairly recently joined SOA as their contributing author with the focus on the alternative scene. How did this come to happen? Well, it all started with Placebo, actually. With Placebo’s gig that sort of didn’t happen. The band left the stage after a couple of tracks. Which I took almost personally, that being my second failed attempt to hunt down Placebo and actually see them perform more than 2 tracks. Driven by my inner turmoil, I wrote a think piece and started looking where I could submit it to share my thoughts with local music fans.

That’s how I discovered SOA, an award-winning online publication founded by Steffen Paust and Asbjørn Lyhne. And that’s how they discovered me as their new writer.

In Denmark, the idea of giving back to community is one of the strongest social values. As a part of SOA, I did my best to do so.

Many articles and a couple of years later, SOA still has a special spot in my cold heart.

Find my author profile on SOA here.

Photos: Heart Matter Artworks, Sonic.