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Hi Kirstine, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Thank you so much! I am very good. I just returned from 10 days in the Swedish forests, so I am recharged with nature, good food, wild berries and refreshing lake swims.
Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Open Chest”?
‘Open Chest’ is my first release under my new artist name ‘Sitrekin’ and it is also my first song in English since my exit from Blue Foundation. ‘Open Chest’ was chosen to manifest the new revolutionary Dolby Atmos sound for the UK press on July 1st and was pre-released exclusively to Apple Music in Spatial Audio on the same date. There will be a full release of the song on all streaming services on September 3rd – in stereo.
‘Open Chest’ is a love song about attraction, passion and longing. The song is about a woman somewhere in a timeless Nordic country who falls madly in love with a mysterious stranger who arrives at her coastal town. Their union becomes a pathway into inner landscapes and inspiration, where she experiences herself as boundless, connected and free. The song explores the power and potential of two people saying fully yes to the embrace of the other. The song is also about the pain of being separated from this intense state. Once experienced, you will always long to go back. It is in your blood and bones like an obsession.
The name ‘Sitrekin’ is anagram of my first name, Kirstine. ‘Sitre’ means ‘quiver’ in Danish and represents for me the frequency or vibration of sound and music. ‘Kin’ means relative, clan or family in English.
Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?
I wanted to tell a story about a breathtaking and interesting man seen with a female gaze. The song is inspired by incidents of my own life, but I also let my imagination be part of the writing process. The song is both joyful and sorrowful. It is a great mystery and an amazing joy when you meet someone who you truly resonate with, but even a greater pain if you lose this ardent connection with the one you love – either in periods of your life, or for good.
At the moment, I am super interested in flow and resistance. What takes us into the state of flow and what keeps us separated? The title ‘Open Chest’ is for me an image of a powerful way of being in the world. Where you lower your shields, show your self, are curious and non-judgemental. It also leaves you vulnerable, so it takes courage and strength to keep your chest open.
Any plans to release any sort of video for the track?
There will be a video release together with the full release of the track on September 3rd 2021!
The song’s cover artwork is a frame from the video. I am really excited about the vibe and the aesthetics in this video and can’t wait to release it. The video is created by the artist Ninna Bohn Pedersen (https://www.instagram.com/ninnabohnpedersen)
How was the recording and writing process?
The hook line melody (the chorus) came to me at a time where I had actually decided to take a short break from writing songs. After a while, the melody simply appeared in my head and kept repeating itself for days. It insisted on being recorded. So, I had to pause my break from music and record it. I added a baroque-inspired marimba bass figure and from there I unfolded the rest of the song with the beat, synths, guitars, samples, strings and vocals and finally the lyrics.
I work in the program Ableton Live and I am self-taught in music production and songwriting. My process is intuitive, and I use my ears a lot! I try things out again and again and keep on working until I get a certain feeling of things falling into place, like a big pattern or a camera lense that suddenly focuses. I always work on the songwriting and the music production simultaneously.
I record and create my music in a little red wooden shed that my uncle built in our tiny garden in Copenhagen. I love having my workspace so close to my home. I also have a rehearsal room in town where I can make more noise.
I often create the vocal melody before the words. It has always been super important to me that the melody can stand alone and create a vibe, even without words. When you add the words it gives the song a direction, but it also precludes a lot of other ways of interpreting the music – so I work throughly with the lyrics to make them support the vibe of the music.
I recorded the final vocals and the final strings for ‘Open Chest’ together with the Danish producer Aske Bode and the Danish violinist Maria Jagd in Aske Bodes studio in Copenhagen. After that, I finished the production in my red shed and sent everything to London to Dyre Gormsen at the legendary Eastcote Studios in West London, where he mixed ‘Open Chest’ – both in stereo and in Dolby Atmos.
I heard this is among the first tracks to use Dolby ATMOS – how did you get this opportunity to make some history?
Dyre Gormsen was working on the stereo mix of ‘Open Chest’ in early 2021. During lockdown, he became totally excited about the possibilities of mixing music in Dolby Atmos and he started to build a Dolby Atmos studio at Eastcote. Since he was already deep into the (stereo) mixing process with ‘Open Chest’ at that time, he asked me if he could do his very first experiments with mixing in Dolby Atmos on this track. He said that ‘Open Chest’ would be perfect for the three dimensional sound format because of all the details and space in the production, almost as if I had created the track with Dolby Atmos in mind. The amazing thing is, that when Apple announced in May that they would make Dolby Atmos available through Spatial Audio in Apple Music and iTunes, Dyre and Eastcote were already up and running and had the mix of ‘Open Chest’ ready. So the timing was just perfect! And when Dolby Laboratories heard the mix, they were instantly very excited and gave approval for ‘Open Chest’ to be one of the launch tracks for this new groundbreaking format.
What role does Denmark play in your music?
When I started to do music in Blue Foundation we were based in Denmark, but we ended up having fans all over the world. With band members from Japan, England and Denmark, we had an international approach right from the beginning and it was natural for me to write my lyrics in English. After my exit, I had a strong urge to go back to my roots and focus my activities in Denmark for a while. I created my first the solo album ‘Hamskifte’ (‘Sloughing’) entirely in Danish. It was a very inspiring and intimate experience to write and sing lyrics in my mother tongue, but I also enjoy writing and singing in English a lot, and all my new lyrics at the moment are in English.
I am not actively trying to make Denmark play a role in my music, but I guess that there are some Nordic or Scandinavian features in my sound. I am fond of traditional melodies and Nordic folk songs, and I think you can find reminiscences from that in my melodic language.
I am also told that my songs often have both a light and a sad flavor at the same time – and I have been thinking that this maybe reflects the contrast in the seasonal shift between light and darkness in Scandinavia, which is quite significant. In the winter the darkness is massive, and we do not have so many hours of daylight. We tend to become more introvert or maybe even melancholic and we spend a lot of time indoors. In the summer, the sun is up for the most hours of the day and there is only little darkness, and this gives a lot of energy and a lighter mood.
With the reception your music has gotten – did you feel any pressure while putting this song together or rather the opposite?
When I create music, I always try to start from a clean new sheet and not think of what I created before. So, I never know what will happen and I never know if the new will be received the same way as the previous. You could say that I constantly put a huge pressure on my self when I create something because I always try to not repeat myself and always do my best with any work I do. And at the same time, I try to only focus on the music and the right feeling here and now, and not everything around the music. The most important thing is that I feel the connection. And my experience is that if I feel it, the audience will too.
Does the new single mean we can expect an album – how’s that coming along?
I expect to be releasing more singles in the months to come and that this will culminate in an album or a couple of EP releases, but it is too early to say when.
Any tentative release date or title in mind?
I can’t reveal anything at the moment J
What else is happening next in Sitrekin’s world?
Right now, I am getting everything together for the full release of ‘Open Chest’ to all streaming services on September 3rd as well as the video release.
Besides that, I am planning to release a live video of the song ‘Eyes on Fire’ (which I originally created together with Blue Foundation and which was featured in the original Twilight movie). I did my own alternative version of ‘Eyes on Fire’ in the spring and filmed when I performed it all alone in the wooden foyer of the magical Court Theatre in Copenhagen from 1767.
I am also working on an acapella song called ‘Thaw’ that I am planning to record together with a choir this fall, and I will be working on more singles and videos.
Along with my music, I will continue as co-CEO of the concert concept and record label HUN SOLO which aims to elevate and celebrate the female and non binary voices in music. Among other things HUN SOLO is planning a tour in Greenland in 2022, if the state of the world allows it (www.hunsolomusic.com).
