Photo: Juliane Schütz

And this we all have been really looking forward to for a long time! Hey Gloria’ single ‘Hur Fort’ out now! Find it on your preferred streaming service! ‘Hur Fort’ is the new single from the band’ upcoming debut album ‘Hur fort ska man gå?’ which will be released via Crispin Glover Records on August 11th digitally and on August 18th as vinyl edition.

With its new wave vibes, the drums which can remind you of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’, unbelievable guitar, ‘Hur Fort’ is one more true gem by Hey Gloria. But how and when it was written?

Kristin Wensel Ellingsen: I remember it was the first song to be recorded in our studio session for the album at Kysten, Tromsø. It was composed and recorded on that same day. The song just came naturally after musical improvisation, that’s how we usually create and write music together. 

After being obsessed for years over the drums on Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’, I asked Håkon (drums) if he could pull a similar vibe on the tom-toms, which he really did in his own unique way. I also remember having an addiction to my phaser guitar pedal. The production is naked but at the same time powerful, which really exposes Linnea’s lyrics. There is such a raw truth to it.

Linnea Jansson: The lyrics for the chorus I wrote down while I was working on a job together with a colleague – the two of us really running up and down (that hill) super stressed. And I just felt this is not a situation I want to be in. I felt working my ass off doing something I didn’t want to do and felt comfortable in. Feeling like a machine while dreaming of something better. The rest of the lyrics came when I met the band and we improvised together. So in a way the lyrics for me was like therapy – meeting the friends and through music described my situation. 

The length of the song isn’t the normal 03:30 (if that’s what’s normal now again..;)) We are stretching out the parts and for me that is also a contributing counterweight against that a lot of things have to be quick. Our society is so fast and spinning faster so maybe it is also consistently that the music mirrors that? But I feel like we are doing something right, not always trying to match the normal standards of how things work in society today. Hope this makes sense. 

As B-side of the single Hey Gloria released ‘Att känna nåt igen’ – the cover version of Motorpsycho’ classic ‘Feel’. And if the original version was full of beautiful melancholy, Hey Gloria’ interpretation is dynamic avant-garde rock with dark and pretty mystical riffs. Linnea Jansson has also written her Swedish version of the ‘Feel’ lyrics. ‘Att känna nåt igen’ is available digitally, and will be released on a bonus vinyl single included in the first 500 vinyl copies of ‘Hur fort ska man gå?’ 

So, why Motorpsycho and why ‘Feel’? And how was it to write this Swedish version?

Kristin Wensel Ellingsen: Motorpsycho never compromise in what they do, (when we listen we feel) they have total artistic freedom. We really respect that. 

Svartlamon has been our musical playground since we were students at NTNU, it shakes up the music scene and enriches the musical environment in Trondheim. Though they are huge internationally, it is also something very local about Motorpsycho and it felt more natural to cover them, than to cover a massive hit single from a random superstar. It’s like staying loyal to the community. 

Linnea Jansson: Yes, we say that Motorpsycho has the status of being like the national band of Trondheim and since we love the music scene here with its wide spectrum of music and personalities we felt it would be nice to also honor the community in a way. I love the song ‘Feel’. It is so bittersweet and melancholic. The mellotron under the guitars is so perfect and then Bent’s voice that’s fragile and vulnerable. I can only have my version of the song theme but listening to ‘Feel’ I can really put myself into a boy room, a boy going through emotions while reading old love letters that he didn’t have the courage to send to an earlier girl he once kissed. 

It was really interesting to translate the lyrics, at first I just translated it very fast and then I didn’t like the outcome of the Swedish words and felt I had to work more with the bigger picture. Giving other words to the story. So I’m true to the story but in some parts I have described it in other words than what Motorpsycho has used.

Hey Gloria
Linnea Jansson: Vocals/synth
Kristin Wensel Ellingsen: Lap steel/guitar/beats
Håkon Kvam: Drums
Jonathan Fimland Kleven: Bass
Nicolas Leirtrø: Baritone guitar

‘Hur Fort /Att känna nåt igen’
Recorded and produced by Kristin Wensel Ellingsen at Kysten Studio, Tromsø
Mix ‘Hur Fort’: Pål Brekkås
Mix ‘Att känna nåt igen’: Eirik Øien
Mastering: Magnus Kofoed

Listen to the single on your preferred streaming service: https://bfan.link/hur-fort