Sólveig Matthildur is a member of Kælan Mikla, an acclaimed solo artist, and a Grapevine Music Awards winner. Here, she talks us through her new album, ‘Constantly In Love.’
CONSTANTLY IN LOVE
The title track is about being constantly in love with everything around you. It’s not necessarily about love between two people, but also about the trees, flowers and all the beauty around you, and living with the fear of being hurt, so you break everything around you before it breaks you.
MY DESPERATION / YOUR DESPERATION
These are sibling songs about two people or two things that don’t fit together, but somehow always end up interacting with each other in a self-harming way. Some things in my life I just can’t let go of. Without them, all days feel the same; with them, I hurt myself. So in the end I regret any decision.
TÓMAS
I wrote the song last year the day one of my younger brothers graduated. I am so proud of him and I feel like over the last six years he’s done all the right things, while I’ve made a series of bad decisions. In the lyrics I tell my brothers that I will mark all the holes and hills that I have stepped in and tripped on with a red mark, so they can avoid making those same mistakes.
MY FATHER TAUGHT ME HOW TO CRY
In this song I am walking in a forest on a dark evening, not sure if I’m dreaming. I’m walking home, but it’s getting late and snow is covering the path. I see there are shadows following me—I start to run, but I fall down on my knees, hearing the voice of my father. I cry out: “Will my voice be silenced before I have said everything I wanted to say?”
CONSTANTLY HEARTBROKEN
The sibling of ‘CONSTANTLY IN LOVE’ it’s about not being able to fall asleep, but not being able to wake up. The lyrics are partially from an old poem, ‘Sofðu, unga ástin mín,’ about when the bandit Halla sings her child to sleep before she has to drown her. I have a constant fear of not waking up if I fall asleep.
DYSTOPIAN BOY
I was sitting at a bar with a guy. He said “I’m a dystopian guy, Sólveig.” I thought it was very beautiful, as I have always seen myself as a utopian girl. This song represents my current lifestyle—I sing and dance in front of people that I have a 24-hour relationship with. Constantly meeting new people is amazing, but it gets lonely.
UTOPIAN GIRL
This one is about the limitations of your own dreams. There was a sentence that really inspired the whole concept: “Now we are happy, and then what?” I have always been a dreamer and I have these crazy surreal dreams. I get sad when I wake up and realise how limiting reality is.
I’M OK
I made the base of this song in my bedroom in Leipzig. I had been upset all day and felt defeated. I decided to lock my sadness away and make music, and ended up with this track on repeat, dancing in my room. I sent it to my friend Dylan (Some Ember); we met up his studio in Berlin and made this song.
THE END
The final song, and the most dramatic. The lyrics are partially taken from the first song I ever made solo—’Unexplained Miseries I’—which is about the end of my last relationship. Then I sing a vulnerable poem where I admit my pain and repeat the question: “If I never again lust, will I ever again hurt?” Isn’t it just easier?
‘Constantly in Love’ is out now on vinyl and online: get it at solveigmatthildur.bandcamp.com. Read more about her here.
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