Name: Misty Coast
Members: Linn Frøkedal, Richard Myklebust
Nationality: Norwegian  
Current release: Misty Coast's Nevereverending is out via Fysisk Format on October 28th 2023.
Recommendations: Linn: I would highly recommend reading Will Carruther’s memoir Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands while listening to the old classic, “Playing with Fire” by Spacemen 3.

If you enjoyed this Misty Coast interview and would like to keep up to date with the band and their music, visit the duo's official homepage. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook.

A year ago, Misty Coast answered a slightly different version of this questionnaire. See how their responses have changed in our previous Misty Coast interview.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you’re listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Linn: Most of the time I listen to music while doing other things. Walking somewhere, traveling to gigs, making food, cleaning the apartment, building a new pedal board. So therefore my eyes must be open.

I wish I had more time to just sit down and only listen to a record, not doing anything else - but the world’s been too busy lately.

Richard: My most emotional response to music is usually to live music. It hits differently than recorded music, engaging all the senses. And it is only when I attend live performances that I intentionally close my eyes while listening.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

Linn: There was always a lot of music in the house when I was a child, since my father used to play guitar and saxophone, and my older siblings constantly listened to music.

When I was about eight years old, I started playing the piano, and a couple years later I joined a band with two friends. We played two acoustic guitars and drums, and made songs about things we knew absolutely nothing about. We made it all the way to the stage of the local soccer cup. I later played and made music with many different people, and that has definitely shaped me as an artist.

I don’t think becoming an artist is limited to natural talent, but it might give you a head start.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Linn: When I was 15-16 years old I was like a sponge to new music, and I sucked in all my new discoveries. For me it was almost like finding my identity as a young adult through music, and I completely fell in love with lots of classic albums that were all new to me, like OK Computer by Radiohead, Blue by Joni Mitchel, Harvest by Neil Young and The Doors.



I think I had more time to check out new music back then, and was more hungry to do so.  Nowadays it feels so much harder to navigate through the endless ocean of music, and I often end up sticking to old classics, or new releases from my many talented and inspiring friends.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

Richard: Curiosity. Experimentation. Exploration. And a love for music as an artform!

Linn and I have been making music together for 15 years, and it is one of the most natural ways for us to communicate. We make musical traps to challenge each other, and I guess this is one of the reasons our music does the twists and turns that it does.

We just always want to make the best record we’ve ever made.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Richard: I’m not sure. And maybe both?

Ideas have their own ways of materializing. And if you try to remember where the idea came from it feels like a dream you can’t remember.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What’s your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

Richard: I can agree on that. The first thing that always hits me is the sound. We’ve always worshiped melodies, and we experiment with effects and the ways instruments are intended to be played.

I feel like our sound has a gentle change for every album, sometimes it has a dogmatic approach, most of the time it is just the music running in our veins.

Linn's sister once called our music “mosaic music.” I think that's a good way to describe it.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you’ve had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Linn: I love listening to the wind, and the way it’s howling on a stormy night, and I definitely think that non-human-made sounds can be “musical”. The sounds of a waterfall crashing into the mountain could easily make it to a noise music record, and bird songs have often been used in music.

I guess you could stretch this much further, and there are also composers arguing that a musical piece can consist of only the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it's performed (4’33 by John Cage).  



From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Linn: We’ve both always been drawn to noise and disturbing elements in music.

I think that the beauty in music is enhanced by resistance. I almost always use fuzz on my bass guitar, and I love the rasping sound of a whining, distorted bass.  

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that’s particularly dear to you, please? Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you’e making music?

Linn: On our new album Nevereverending there is a song called “Hi Goodbye”. This tune started with a rhythmic pattern of a carillon, and a guitar riff that Richard made while we were binge watching the Beatles documentary. I wanted to create a bass that evolved throughout the song, to underline the difference in the parts we put together.

The last part of the song sounds almost like an orchestra, but it’s actually just us experimenting with pedals and guitars, making them sound like different instruments in a brass band.

This whole song is a big experiment, and that is usually our approach to making music.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn’t or wouldn’t in more ‘mundane’ tasks?

Linn: You can learn how to brew a perfect cup of coffee, and it will always be the same as long as you follow the same steps.

I don’t think the perfect recipe exists in songwriting, and to me it's often flaws and coincidences that make music interesting.

Every time I listen to “Albedo 0.39” by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can’t explain?

Richard: Lately we’ve been listening a lot to Jim Reeves.

We’ve been spending a week in a house with an old record collection while dealing with sorrow, and his voice made of honey soothes our souls, and lightens up the room.



If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

Richard: More guitars.
Linn: Less playback.