Level & Tyson Q&A

Your name: 

Richard Noir and Lorentz Johansen.

Where are you from? 

Oslo, Norway.

Name of band:

Level & Tyson.

Who else is in your band?

Sofie Søndervik Sæther (bass and vocals), Namra Saleem (Keys, guitar and backing vocals) Joakim Kristiansen (Guitar) and Mattis Møksvold Lauritzsen (Drums, backing vocals and electronics).

How would you describe yourselves and your music? 

I think we are all freaks. I think that is the glue that binds us. And that is reflected in the music as well. 

Who are your main influences musically? 

That's really a tough question to answer since we get influenced by new stuff all the time, and the fact that everyone in the band has different things they're into, but we all have a lot of love for bands and artists like  Sly and the Family Stone, Prince, The Pixies, Pere Ubu, The Cure, Velvet Underground. But also new things like Rihanna, Kendrik Lamar etc.

What do you hope to achieve in music? 

To keep moving I guess, and have fun while we do it. The road is the goal.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why? 

Finishing projects always feel like a highlight. When the mix of an album is ready and you can't stop listening to the music it's a real rush. But I guess you meant commercially? In that case, our first tour in the USA felt like a step up and a personal achievement for me.

And what’s the moment you want to forget? 

They are forgotten =)

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why? 

We tend to be pretty restless and looking for new things, and that's kinda the unwritten rule in the band; we're making music that keeps us interested at the time. The song that represent the band the most at this point and the upcoming music I think is «Tied Up». It's fun and has layers of emotion.

Where can we listen to it?

soundcloud.com/levelandtyson/sets/gruesome-twosome

Where can we find out more about your music?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/levelandtyson/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LevelandTyson

Spotify: Level & Tyson

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/no/artist/level-tyson/id540162583

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_drd_B008FQSQ7A?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=Level%20%26%20Tyson&index=digital-music&search-type=ss

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/levelandtyson/

Webpage: www.levelandtyson.com

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask? 

When can you hear some new from us? In August!

New video from Mona & Maria

HOTLY-tipped Nordic duo Mona & Maria have released their first music video for their track Babyflowers, taken from debut album My Sun.

The Oslo duo - Mona Andersen and Maria Knudsen - have written songs together for years and both were central parts of the band Bazooka Boppers, with whom they released two albums.

After the band's break-up in 2010, Mona and Maria continued together.

They said: "Something was let loose after we started working on songs that did not fit the sound of the band we were in. We strongly felt the need to create something more personal, and we started making melodies to something obscure that had been lying dormant in both of us. 

"We both were terrified of singing alone, but together we sort of found a third person to make us feel secure. We began experimenting with harmonies. It became our way of being together. After several rounds and recordings of these songs, the record started to take shape, and we found our soundscape by working with dynamics. 

"We wanted to have both the low-key and intimate, and the grandiose and dramatic, to have both darkness and light at once. We wanted to make unpretentious arrangements that enhanced the lyrics and the melodies, and not buried them. The result was My Sun.”

The album was recorded at Engfelt & Forsgren Studio with Christian Engfelt (Cato Salsa Experience, Apricot and Turns, and as a producer Lionheart Brothers, Cheaters and more) as a producer, along with the girls themselves. Engfelt also plays the bass on a few of the songs.

Check out the video above and for more on the duo visit facebook.com/monaogmaria