Foto-© Charlotte Alex

Nach zwei Jahren meldet sich die norwegische Pop-Star Sigrid mit neuer Musik zurück. Im Sommer erschien die erste Single-Auskopplung Jellyfish. Und jetzt steht der Release ihres dritten Studioalbums There’s Always More That I Could Say an. Bekannt wurde die Norwegerin vor allem mit den Songs Strangers und ihrer Debüt-Single Don’t Kill My Vibe.

Im August haben wir sie inmitten ihres Festivalsommers auf dem Dockville zum Interview getroffen und konnten mit ihr bereits ein wenig über das neue Album sprechen. Dieses hat sie gemeinsam mit ihrem guten Freund und langjährigen Collaborator Askjell Solstrand produziert. Dabei fand sie, wie sie uns erzählt, ihre Freude am Musikmachen wieder und zu einer Leichtigkeit zurück, die sich auch in der ersten Single Jellyfish widerspiegelt.

Hi Sigrid! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me! You’ve played a lot of festivals over the past few months. How has the festival summer been treating you?
It’s been an amazing festival summer! We’ve played every single weekend, and I’m getting towards the end of it. It’s been incredible. I love festivals. I think that’s my favorite part of the whole job. I love touring, it’s where I get to hang out with my band and crew. You get to travel, see new parts of the world. I’ve never seen this part of Hamburg before, so I’m really excited. It’s a really pretty place. And then I just think that crowds at festivals are very special.

What was the soundtrack of your summer? What are your favorite albums you’ve been listening to recently, or artists you saw live? You just saw Oasis, right?
Yeah, I did. It was incredible! I grew up listening to some of their songs, but it wasn’t until high school that I started to really get into the discography. I never thought I would see some of my musical heroes live. Morning Glory is probably my favorite song of theirs.
I also listen to a lot of Olivia Dean, a lot of Lola Young, who’s playing later tonight. I hope I can catch some of her set. I really love sombr. And then, Massive Attack, Cocteau Twins, Bleachers [she checks her phone]. Wolf Alice’s new album, Chappell Roan, of course. Kvelertak, a Norwegian band. They’re amazing. I have my summer playlist. I’ve done this new thing where I don’t make one big playlist anymore. Now I’m splitting it into summer, spring, winter, and fall. It’s really fun because you can go back in time and be like: what did I listen to in the spring of 2025?

You have an album coming out very soon. What is it like to be releasing solo music again after two years?
Oh, amazing. That’s why we do this. I’m really, really proud of this body of work. It’s my favorite so far. I’ve had a great time making it. I’ve really found joy again in the creation of music. In the past, I have done writing sessions that were more like a “make two songs a day”-type of situation. For this album, we’ve let the songs flow for longer than that. We’ve spent months on one song to get it the way we wanted it to be.

You wrote your song Jellyfish with one of your closest friends and collaborators, Askjell Solstrand. Did you work together on more songs on this album? What is the best thing about working with your friends?
We worked on all of the songs together. Askjell is the executive producer of the album, and I’m his co-pilot, the co-producer. We’ve written a lot of songs together. We wrote Dynamite and Sight Of You from the first album, The Hype from my last EP. He’s been there every step of the way. We’ve always done songs together, but this was the first time that we actually made an album together. It’s just like working with your brother. It’s really fun and very playful when we work together. We take the ego out when we walk through the door. It’s very cool for him to be able to leave his ego at the doorstep as well. Being that vulnerable in front of me makes it easier for me to also leave my ego and to think about what is best for the song. I’m so lucky to have him in my life. We made a lot of it in Bergen, where he is from, where I moved to after high school, and where we got to know each other.

What was the process of working on the album like? Was it mostly collaboratively? Were you also writing by yourself and then bringing something into a session?
I do a lot of voice memos, just humming melodies or ideas. It’s funny, listening back to some of them, because that’s kind of my diary. I did hum something similar to Jellyfish. I think it was just the loser line. It had a completely different melody. I didn’t like the melody itself, but that concept stuck with me for about a week, and I brought it to Askjell. We then made a completely different melody and a whole different thing around it. He came up with the jellyfish concept, but the hour before he said “jellyfish”, I talked about an octopus. So, everything is connected. It doesn’t really matter where the idea comes from, as long as it’s good. I don’t really work alone. I very easily get bored of myself. [laughs] So, I tend to have these fifteen minutes of splurging out ideas at the piano, then I bring them into the studio. That’s usually how I like to work.

I read that Jellyfish and the next single, Fort Knox, can be described as counterparts of each other. Was it important to you to release them back-to-back because of that?
I really wanted to start with Jellyfish to start with something that felt easy-going and cute. And not necessarily start with something dramatic, like: here’s the big single. All of the songs are close to my heart, but this one is very dear to me because I’m singing about friendship. It’s not about love or heartbreak or anyone. It’s just a sweet, very positive song. It was also musically fresh-sounding, a bit different from what I’ve done before. Then Fort Knox is me being very “me”.

I had the chance to listen to some of the songs already. Two Years was one song that really stood out to me. It is so catchy and it’s so fun to listen to, while the theme of it is a little more nostalgic. Was that kind of contrast intentional? Can you tell me a little bit more about it?
I’m so glad you picked that song! For me, that one is a result of all the years Askjell and I have worked together. We have a ton of ideas that have never seen the light of day, ideas that we’ve just put in a box and been like, this is probably a bit too weird. Maybe not weird, just not obvious pop music. Two years started as one of those ideas. We started it while we were in Tokyo, we’re even referencing Tokyo in the song. But we couldn’t figure it out for months. It was about to be one of those songs that was going to be shelved. Then we got James Ford on it, he has produced Florence and the Machine, The Last Dinner Party, Fontaines – he’s a legend. He kindly wanted to co-produce the song; he added some drums, and Askjell and I were like: Whoa, that fixed it. It really fixed the song. That gave us new motivation to finish it.

Was that the hardest one to write on the record?
Good question. I think Kiss the Sky was really hard to finish. The songwriting itself was super easy, it was just in the ninth hour of finishing and delivering the album, Askjell and I were wrecked. We were so tired. We couldn’t hear right from wrong anymore. [laughs]

Were there a lot of songs that didn’t make the cut for the album?
Yeah! Maybe thirty, forty, fifty? But that’s, like, varying quality. I’m trying to get better at acknowledging that you can’t write good songs all the time. I find that very frustrating. You unfortunately have to write a lot of songs that won’t make it. [laughs]

This is your third album, and you’ve been making music for quite a while now. Is there any advice that today’s Sigrid would give to Sigrid making her first album?
Honestly, I feel like that was a pretty good first album. I would almost give more advice to myself on my second one. [laughs] You have forever to make your first album. No one has heard anything from you. I was nineteen, grew up in rural Norway, and no one had any expectations. Then, after the first album, that’s when the pressure really kicked in. I had Don’t Kill My Vibe and Strangers to live up to, which was a bit more difficult. So, I think on my second album, I would just tell myself to chill out a bit. [laughs]
I feel like, on this one, I’ve done that. I’m very ambitious, but I’m also having a really good time with it. I’ve made something that I’m so proud of. I feel like I’ve really found my joy in making music again.

Sigrid Tour
03.03.26 Köln, Carlswerk Victoria
04.03.26 München, Muffathalle
05.03.26 Berlin, Huxleys Neue Welt
07.03.26 Hamburg, Georg Elser Halle