Oda, Nicholas, Daniel, Brynjar and Torstein are: Kelvin. What started out as an underdog college band in Kristiansand, Norway is gradually about to become known throughout Scandinavia and even beyond. Jutland Station met up with the newcomers at SPOT Festival and chatted about Ninja games and peer pressure.
By Paula Rösler (Jutland Station).
You’re playing at SPOT Festival for the first time. Only two hours to go… Do you have any rituals before concerts?
Sometimes we’re playing this Ninja game called “Shanghai.” We slap at each other’s wrists and stop motion as fast as we can. It’s amazing. And then we have our own little contest. We vote for the best performance after every concert and the winner gets a “Kinder Egg.”
Great extra motivation! Who usually wins?
It’s different every time.
How did you guys meet each other and when did you start with the band?
We met at university in Kristiansand four years ago where we studied music in our Bachelor’s. We might have been the least popular people in class, not socially but instrumentally. We weren’t like the hip guys, so we found each other; it was this kind of an underdog start.
And then you performed to an audience of 11.000 people by opening for ZZ Top in Poland last year. How was that?
Surreal! The whole weekend was so incredibly warm, during the sound check we almost fainted. And when we actually started playing it felt like we almost didn’t get the chance to take it in. But hearing the crowd cheering was just great.
What are your musical influences?
It’s hard to tell. We are not thinking about it when we make music. Maybe we always try to create our personal new favorite song, and if everyone likes it, we go for it. We inspire each other.
You released your first music video last year. What is the idea of the story to the song “Lights are low”?
The movie is about peer pressure, how people follow other people and do stuff just because other people do it. It’s about standing up against this pressure, not to do things you don’t want to do. It was our idea and then the director suggested to take kids as actors.
Are you also working on an album?
Yes we are, next year we will release some new singles and in the end we will have our first album, if everything goes according to plan.
Thanks for the interview and good luck for the show and your future plans!
