Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
After making her eagerly-awaited return with her stunning single ‘GRENADE‘ near the end of last year, Norwegian alt-pop artist Sval is back once again to offer up her rich and captivating new song ‘ANGELA‘.
Teaming up with regular collaborator Jimi Somewhere for the release, a known icon in the emerging Norwegian pop scene, ‘ANGELA’ sees the pair unveil a truly tender yet euphoric new offering. Continuing her reputation for fresh and shimmering pop production once again, her newest release is another heartfelt gem that captures the same glittering direction she has brought to all of her efforts to date.
Speaking about ‘Angela’, Sval said, “ANGELA is a what if story. You fall in love, but you don’t have enough time to make it work. It’s about meeting someone and falling in love in a place where you know it’s temporary. To me the song feels nostalgic, about someone you don’t see anymore, but you still think dearly of.”
While adding about working with Jimi Somewhere, “Writing this song was super easy, I just sang the first thing that came to mind. I only had a guitar loop and some drums and wrote my part on a late night in my living room, before bringing it to the studio with Jimi and Milo. Jimi’s verse really elevated everything, and I love having him as a feature. His voice really suits the song, and I love the story in his verse. It’s one of my favourites from my upcoming project and I hope people can resonate with it.”
The idea of a child star has morphed over recent years. Where it used to be a catalyst for disruption, recent years have seen a plethora of musicians navigate a career out of teenage acclaim into adulthood. Norwegian singer/songwriter Sval is one such name, with a decade in the industry under her belt and still only 23 years old, her new chapter reinforces that with even greater vigour.
It wasn’t until her first English-language recordings, with the release of her 2019 EP ‘Young Alien’, that Sval began to carve out a niche, and a new path all of her own making. “It felt like a new creative chapter,” Sval says of her transition to English-language writing. “The languages are so different, so it’s a different way of writing and it feels like exploring something untapped – a way to express myself in different ways.”
Inspired by the intricate storytelling nature of Frank Ocean and Lykke Li, Sval’s new work is less polished, more off-centre than what’s come before, and finds her embracing the imperfections that come from working closely with people in a room together. As such the music is freer, unafraid of breaking the rules and creating its own boundaries – a development that was inspired by writing the majority of the songs in Jimi Somewhere’s home studio, amid the friendship that grew between them during the process.
It’s a far cry from Sval’s roots, but she’s never shied away from the unconventional journey that got her here. “I’ll always appreciate the competition because it was a songwriting competition, and it showed me the value of telling my own stories and translating what I go through.”
