Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: Of course. I was born in a small city in Sweden called Kalmar. I partly grew up there, and partly on ‘Öland’ that is an iland close to Kalmar. A lots of nature. Well, I knew even from when I was a child. I was playing a lots of music with my father and it always came natural for me. As I grew older I realized I would never be happy with a 9-5 work, and I didn’t really think I had any particular talents nor interest besides from music. Someone told me “There’s gonna be great competition in no matter what area you choose to work within, so you might as well choose something that you really love.”
It was never really a decision that I actively took, though. It just shaped in to becoming the only thing I could imagine.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: My father taught me lots. I had different vocal coaches through out the years and I studied vocals and performance back in Sweden. At the moment I am working with a vocal coach in Berlin, and studying the bass guitar at BIMM.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Ormu’?
A: Green Day, Cornelis Vreeswjik and Kent was my first absolute favorites, I don’t listen too much to that anymore though even if I still appreciate it. My mother used to listen to artists like ‘The Smiths’, ‘Eminem’ and ‘Portishead’ when I was young, and I loved it from day one. The Smiths is absolutely a strong favorite and I guess Morrisseys persona influenced me somehow, and Eminem definately influenced me into being honest and real, haha. Ormu.. The name came to me in an Ayahuasca cermonie, the word was presented in front of my closed eyes and I just instantly knew that this is my artist name. To me it represents strength and a dedication to thrive and heal, a powerful love force.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Slaget Om Jaget’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Of course. It’s about an awakening I had. I suddenly saw my destructive bahviours and that I myself was partly responsible for my misery. That was quite chocking, actually. I blamed the world for everything.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: Yes, on the 28th of October ‘Doomed To Bloom’ EP goes viral. Most of the songs are in English even so then you’ll get the story up-front
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: The lyrics and the story is absolutely the main focus. I think the element of recognition, I think a lots of people could feel understood by the lyrics.
Of course the music behind it needs to represent the stories accordingly. My absolute sound I wouldn’t say is fully developed yet, as I’m still developing and working on finding the right musicians to support my vision.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: Well, the music in itself gives me everything I could ask for. I’m looking forward to more recognition and success in numbers, let’s say. I want to reach my fans, I know they’re out there, but they also need to hear the music.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: Usually some words with a melody comes to mind, and then I sit down with the guitar to find the chords that support that idea, and then I write the music and the lyrics simultaneously. Now I am playing more bass than guitar and it’s somewhat a new approach that I haven’t fully dug in to yet. I got many ideas for riffs and stuff, and some lyrics to it as well. But it’s more complex for me to write a song like this, and I need to experiment with writing it through a DAW or collaborating with another musician. It’s exciting though.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: The most difficult things of my life you’ll hear about in the EP. Check out the song ‘Open Letter’. I got more sexual abuse in the backback than I can count, and a couple of rapes as well. The one that Open Letter is about was the worst one in a way, cause I was mega high on LSD and Ketamine, alone in a foreign country. It was also the one particular experience in my life that taught me the most important lesson of my life – to be careful, not naive. Don’t trust no man, girls!! If you do – think long and hard on it haha.
Regarding music, It was really difficult to come to Berlin from the small city I’m from. I felt really special there, here I’m nobody. Which was a bit hard for the ego at the beginning. In the end I’d rather have musicians around to acutally be inspired from, than rotting in my home city where I felt like a missed placed star, anyway. Haha. And yeah, to release music is really draining for me, to work with promotion and social media and stuff, that really kills my vibe, so it’s been kinda difficult to settle with the fact that it’s not enough to be a great songwriter and performer, you as well need social and marketing skills. Perhaps it gets easier.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: To find myself sober and focused in one of the craziest cities of the world, I’m proud as fuck over my journey and the peace I earned within myself. Musically I’m still really proud over my former band ‘Jupiter’, we played together for like 4 months before we won the second place in the semi final of ‘Livekarusellen’ 2019. I signed up myself and the organizer was like ‘it would be really cool if you had a band’, so we made one, and it went really good. I mean there were really good bands in there who had played together for years, you know. I as well got the price of ‘best stage personality’ which was an honor of course. The EP I’ll release is actually a reflection of what Jupiter did together, obviously we changed it up a bit since it’s only me and the drummer, Alice, that were members of Jupiter, that are playing on the EP. So let’s see what the next release is gonna sound like, the essence will be Ormu, anyway.
