Name: Malin Pettersen

Nationality: Norwegian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: On December 23rd, Malin Pettersen will be co-hosting Kvelden før Kvelden a musical "night before Christmas"-show in her native Norway. She is also in the process of writing the follow-up to her sophomore release Wildhorse, still available via Die With Your Boots On. The as yet untitled album is slated for release on October 20th 2023, with a first single planned for April 14th.

If you enjoyed this interview with Malin Pettersen and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.

For the perspectives of one of her collaborators, read our Signe Marie Rustad interview. 



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I’d say curiosity. The wish to understand the world around me, is a big drive when it comes to my writing. Impulses when there is something I don’t understand or want to try to look at closer / from a new perspective. It can be love, life in general, politics, philosophy, science.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?
 
When it comes to the writing itself, it depends. Sometimes I’ll just sit down, start writing and see what happens. Other times I’ll have a very clear idea of where I want to go.

When it comes to albums I am more of a planner. I love long plans and strategies, and concepts. Therefore, visualization of the finished thing applies very much to that part of my work.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I am very much of an impulse writer. I’ll write when, and where, ever I get an impulse, and all I need is a way to document the idea.

I’ll do research further down the process if I’m writing something where research needs to be done. But I’ll often get the idea and «body» of it down before that stage.  

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Sometimes the beginning can be super tough. But most of the time I’ll improvise, and something will come along to get me started - or an impulse will drive me straight into something where the first line says itself.
 
When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

For me this happens in different ways. Sometimes the lyrics come first, and I’ll compose the music and melody around it. But sometimes I’ll have a melody line I really like, and I have to come up with lyrics for that.

I improvise a lot and I love that way of getting ideas rolling. When a melody line and a lyrical line find each other in that process it’s such an amazing thing.
 
What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?
 
Whether a lyric is good or not, depends on your perspective. It’s very personal, and not an objective thing. I can love a line in your song that you’re not completely happy with because it resonates with me and my life or situation - and I can put stuff in my songs that you don’t get at all but that for me makes the whole song.

I do think art - in general - is good from the perspective of the creator if you feel like it conveys what you want to communicate in the way that you want it communicated. And I think it’s good from a listener’s perspective if it feels sincere from the writer’s point of view.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

I love to follow where the song leads me. I have several songs I have written where I did not know what the song was about until I had written it and started looking at the lyric as a whole and it all made sense.

It’s a strange feeling, but also makes it feel like actual magic when it happens like that. It’s like a part of your brain you can’t really control works on its own and you’re just doing what it tells you to do.

So no, I don’t keep strict control.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

This happens, yes. And I think that this is part of where the craft of being a songwriter comes in - you have to be able to try to figure out what will make the story richer, or on its track, and what will distract from the core of what you are setting out to communicate.

I’ve even written songs where the new alternative rout turns out to be much better - even though something completely different - from the original idea, so that I’ve thrown the old one out and gone with the completely new one.
 
There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I am not spiritual, but I am very fascinated with the brain, and with language, and how sounds and words can connect us. So, the way a brain works when writing, and the way it works after it has been a writer for many years I find very fascinating.

The way the words we choose, the instrumentation and chords, impact the listener beyond the exact meaning of the words is something I am very much into. I will choose a stronger word and have it make less sense in a song if I think the sound of - or the association to - the word will impact the listener more, or make them feel more the way I hope.

That’s my kind of “spirituality” - how we are all connected through communication and how that communication works.
 
Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

It’s a pretty abstract feeling and difficult to pinpoint - but - I tend to often do a lot of preparation and pre-production work beforehand, which takes me into sessions and recording with an idea of what I know we need to try to get down for it to be finished.

Sometimes that doesn’t work, or we need a lot of additional things, but often I find the process ending when no one in the room has more ideas they think we should test that could make it better.

I am not the kind of person who always want to change things, but I can see how it could be difficult to reach that finish line one wants to reach - that feeling - if you are a person who constantly get new and great ideas for the same project.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

These are of great importance for me. Mixing and mastering are as much a part of the finished work as most of the other things that happen in the recording process. There is so much you can do, and not do, to make your work come through in the way you want.

I love to be a part of these processes, a little bit too much maybe, so I have been trying to free up and give the people who mix and master a bit more space as I move forward in my work. And just like band members, something special can happen if you let people do their thing.

Production wise there are so many ways of producing an album, a single, anything - and I am on a continued journey to try out many different takes on the role of a producer. And the production.
 
After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Yes - the release day blues. That’s what I call it. It’s a weird space to be in.

For me, I have decided to just let it sit there for a while and go out and live a little to get a perspective on life and the world I live in, the friends I have and what’s important in my life.

It can help me to loosen up a bit, and to laugh and smile with others tends to help.