Siv Jakobsen
Siv Jakobsen has become a household name in the Indie-Folk scene. The Oslo native spent four years attending the Berklee College of Music where she wrote and recorded her first songs. Jakobsen returned to her home in Oslo, Norway two years later and made her streaming debut with The Lingering. The 2015 EP became a major success with hits like “Dark” and “How We Used To Love”. The quick success led Jakobsen to tour with names like Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Damien Jurado. She released her first studio album in 2017 with Nordic Mellow, featuring tracks like “Blanket” and “Like I Used To”. They are just two of the hits that have earned the artist over 33 million Spotify plays. Her new album, “A Temporary Soothing”, will be released in late May. We recently talked to Jakobsen about touring the world, her time in the United States, and more!
How did you get started making music?
I’ve been a singer since I was quite young, and started studying music more seriously as a teenager. I didn’t start properly diving into writing music until I was a sophomore in college, when I was urged by a friend to take a songwriting class. That was a real turning point for me. Since then, I’ve focused most of my time on writing, recording, releasing and touring my own music.
Which artists would you say have had the greatest impact on your work? Who would you consider a “dream collab”?
Many artists have impacted my music. Some that come to mind are Ane Brun, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Laura Marling. It’s hard to pick just one dream collaboration but I would love to work with Gregory Alan Isakov — he’s got such a unique and beautiful voice both as a writer and performer.
What was it like taking on such early success following your debut EP?
It was very nice that the EP seemed and still seems to resonate with a good amount of people. It’s felt like a slow and steady build though so I’ve never had this intense moment of feeling a sudden and big success. But it’s nice to know it perhaps seemed that way to you.
What was is like touring with artists like Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Bear’s Den?
Both of those tours were really wonderful. We had a lot of fun and I consider both Ben and the guys in Bears Den friends to this day.
Your latest release “Anywhere Else” has a hauntingly beautiful tone. Walk us through writing and working on the song.
“Anywhere Else” came quite easy. I wrote it on a particularly rainy autumn day — it was so quick that I remember sort of writing it off as too simple. Too easy. It’s usually not like that for me, so it was a nice experience. I tried to just write exactly what was happening to me and how I was feeling, without any filter.
You write on your Spotify page that you spent 5 years living in the United States. What did you learn in these years and are these experiences reflected in your song writing?
I did indeed. I studied music at Berklee in Boston for 4 years and then went on to live in Brooklyn for a year. I learned a lot in those years, especially about writing and performing my own music. I wrote a lot of bad songs and learned a lot of songs I liked, and after a while I think my own style of writing started to emerge. What I learned during that time helped shape me as a writer which definitely still reflects in my songs now.