A Ripple Conversation with PIA ISA ( Pia Isaksen ) co-founder of the stellar Oslo, Norway Psych/Doom Metal band Superlynx sharing her just released solo debut album 'Distorted Chants.'
Music was a mainstay in our house in my Wonder Years. Sun Ra, Motown, Miles Davis, Luciano Pavorotti, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd. The list is long. It was all great and so diversified.Time portal to 2022, PIA ISA is the solo album debut of bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen from Norwegian heavy psych/doom band Superlynx. Pia brings her diverse, huge talent and love of music as a song writer, bassist, and vocalist, graphic artist and love of music to us here to talk about her debut solo release "Distorted Chants" out March 25th on Bandcamp and Argonauta Records for a special conversation
By Mark Partin
Thanks so much to you as well. I appreciate the kind words. I have had thoughts about doing music on my own for a long time. I love playing with the guys in my band Superlynx, but after we recorded our last album and EP in 2020 I felt the need to do something alone, as I had so many ideas I felt were too me and too personal to take into the band. I had a head full of riffs, lyrics, moods and expressions and in January 2021 I started digging into them by going through my notebooks of thoughts and half written lyrics and started putting them together with the riffs and music ideas I had. I worked on the songs as I recorded simple demos on my laptop, and went back and forth between them, added layers of guitars and basslines etc. This was during lockdown in Norway, so I had the time to really go all in and it was pretty much all I did for about a month. When I had the 10 songs on a demo I felt ready for the next step. Then Ole Teigen and I spent a few weeks recording everything. I did all the guitars first, then bass, then vocals and after that Ole added the drums. A very different process from how we do it in the band where we always record live, but I loved this puzzle or layer-method too. A little later on Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Yawning Sons, Big Scenic Nowhere ) added guitar to some of the songs and sent over the tracks which Ole then added then took into the mix. The mastering was done a little later by Fridtjof Lindeman.
You designed the artwork for all of Superlynx's releases and also on "Distorted Chants" Were both graphic design and music something you strived for at the same time? What started 1st?
The music definitely came first. When I do cover art I always want to make it according to the music. I want the cover art to encapsulate and convey the overall feeling, mood or content on the album in a way. I see it as a visual translation of the music. I don’t think I would be comfortable designing a cover without hearing the music first. Then I wouldn´t know if the artwork and the music belonged together.
In listening to you live (on my must do list asap) there is emotion simmering to the surface of the music, atmospheric but also grooving to your artistic output. Do you prefer live or in studio to share your music? The live and overall music scene in Norway?
To me they are too different things. I love the intense creative process bubble in the studio, working on creating the music itself and just focusing on that. It can be hard, but very exciting and rewarding. I also love playing live. It is another kind of experience which is about the shared energy of the moment with the people present. When the nerves have settled and you get lost in the music it can be a real high.
The music scene here is pretty good. There are many great bands, and in Oslo, close to where I live, you could pick a cool gig to go to almost every night.
When you started out on this journey writing, rewriting, saving changing, would you share the process in creating the lyrics or the music and why?
Like I mentioned before it was a quite intense process during the strict lockdown we had January last year. I made the decision it was time to make a solo album and really took a deep dive into writing and really work on it. I went back to the ideas I had in my notebooks, phone recordings, pieces of paper, emails to myself etc. and the more abstract ones in my mind. I try to store the ideas that come to me at random times as much as possible, so they are a bit all over the place. Like when I am walking down the street or shopping for vegetables and a riff or melody starts playing in my mind I´ll find a quiet place to hum it into my phone or write something on a receipt. It is not like I just wait around for ideas to pop up though. When I am in writing mode I spend a lot of time sitting with the guitar and pen and paper working for ideas too.
I have always felt that writing is very therapeutic and I had quite a bit of mind mess to sort out during that time. Reactions to difficult things that had happened, a lot of worries, nightmares etc, and I really felt a lot lighter and refreshed coming out on the other side of the album.
Pia, tell us about your growing up in Norway, who influenced you when you were younger and then as you progressed in the scene. Did you find it hard to break into the metal scene in Norway with 'Superlynx?'
There was quite a bit of music growing up. My mom and myself used to sing a lot when I was a kid, and my parents used to play a lot of Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix etc in the house. When I was 13, the very moment I heard Nirvana for the first time I instantly felt like this music was my thing and almost instantly quit playing the piano and picked up the guitar, so that was very influential. Around the same time my older sister´s boyfriend brought me some mixtapes with bands like Sonic Youth, Juliana Hatfield, The Breeders, Pixies, Hüsker Dü etc which also made a huge impression. I also had two close cousins that played in great bands, and they inspired me in the way that I wanted to do the same and by introducing me to more bands. In the nineties there were so many bands, young and old, in Moss where I grew up and there were gigs every weekend where all ages were allowed. I found it all very exciting. In my late teens/early twenties I discovered Kyuss and started listening to more heavy music like Black Sabbath, Neurosis, Melvins etc which also influenced me a lot.
We never tried to break into the metal scene with Superlynx really. We just wanted to play to whoever would be interested and open to it. I guess it is easy to put heavy, doom-ish music there, but we don´t really feel that we do metal. But, the metal scene here welcomed us by inviting us to play festivals and writing about us, and we appreciate that of course.
"Distorted Chants,” which features the massive beat from Ole Teigen (Superlynx) on drums along with the outstanding production work he did in making your album and a guest appearance by superb guitarist Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Yawning Sons, Big Scenic Nowhere) on three of the songs. How did this collaboration come to fruition?
Ole was the first person I talked with about doing the album, and he was into producing it and doing the drums from the first moment. It felt like a natural thing to do it together, and he was very encouraging about me doing it. That meant a lot, and he really did a great job with it. I had gotten to know Gary a little while before, and one day we were talking about how the pandemic was affecting our music projects, tour plans etc. I mentioned that I had just finished recording a solo album, and he said he would love to hear it. I was quite nervous to show it to him and almost didn´t know if I would dare to but convinced myself to not let that get in the way. It was a little while before I had actually thought of asking him to add some guitar, but I chickened out and decided there would only be me playing everything except the drums. A few days later I got this lovely message from him saying that he thought the album was so great and that he got inspired to play by it and asked if I would let him try to add something to it. So that was really cool and I am still a bit star struck, haha, and really happy he asked to join in. I absolutely love how it turned out and his guitar work really lifts these songs.
I think it is hard to pick, as I know all the songs so well. But Statistics and Trauma are a bit special to me. I think it has a lot to do with what I put into them and how it helped me to a better place.
Women in metal have really made great strides over time. Starting with yourself, Jinx Dawson, Lori Crover, Katie Gilchrest, Karen O'Connor, Doomstress Alexis, Sarah Moore Lindsay, and so many talented "artists" But change is slow. Never does anyone describe a band as a "male fronted band" why do you think people describe an extremely talented woman such as yourself who plays both bass and vocals as a band/artist that is "female fronted?"
I am not sure. To me it is a little weird. There certainly was a time where there were few women in rock and metal bands and they weren´t accepted the same way as men, or they met other expectations, were considered by other standards and experienced a lot of sexism. It is still happening, and I am sometimes faced with it myself. But luckily most of the time it is not an issue at all.
The term “female fronted” seems quite outdated, like some old thing leftover from the past. I definitely think some people just use it as a way to describe that the music has a female sounding voice without putting too much into it, but female voices are just as different as male ones are, so it doesn´t really say that much. And I feel it is just cementing the old idea that a female musician is something different than a male one. There are so many other factors than gender that makes us all both different and equal.
I don’t think of myself as a female musician any more than I see my band mates in Superlynx as a male-guitarist and a male-drummer. We are all people who are playing. I just wasn´t born a man, and it affects my voice, but what gender box you check or identify with doesn’t say much about who you are, what you have to say or how you play music. I think the best thing is just referring to women musicians as musicians too, just as we do men and not focus on the gender boxes.
I know some women focus on being female musicians themselves and feel it is an empowering thing, and use hashtags like #womeninmusic, #femalebassplayer, #womenofdoom, #chickswithguitars, #femalemusic, #chickswithgear etc. I don´t mean to judge anyone, do whatever floats your boat, but I feel like it is contributing to the separation between men and women musicians.
Also, I think people should ask men these questions too and not just women, which is often the case. I think it is not just our responsibility to have an opinion about these topics. It could very well be that men are using the term more than women are, so ask some of them too why they do it. I always feel ambivalent about how much I should say about these things at all, as it makes me a woman musician talking about women musician things, when I really just feel like a person creating and playing music like anyone else.
Which motivates you more being a graphic artist, vocalist, song writer or musician? Where do you see yourself 3 years from now?
I think doing music in general. It is just a big part of who I am and how I think and deal with things. No matter how many or few people listen or care about it I can´t see myself stop doing music any time soon. Visual work is also important and motivating to me. I think I just like translating thoughts and ideas into music or a visual language. It is exciting and also way of expressing things that words aren´t enough for.
I hope and I think I am doing both music and graphic design in three years, with both Superlynx and PIA ISA. I think more albums will have been made and more gigs have been played. And I hope to do some collaborations, and to have had a longer break from everything on a tropical beach, haha.
But I have learned that anything can happen and that life can suddenly turn things around that you can´t foresee or control, so I am also trying to have an open attitude to the future and to worry less about it. Focus a bit more on the here and now. I am not always great at that.
Norway has a huge metal fan base being the birthplace of black metal. Music and the pandemic were/are sadly intertwined and did not allow for live shows until recently. Did you have thoughts of holding the album back?
I actually didn´t. Since the project is really just me I wasn’t (and I am still not) sure there would be gigs anyway, because of time pressure and other obligations and because of the pandemic and the uncertainty of how long it was going to last. I didn´t want to put more things on hold because of it.
I am however thinking a bit about doing some PIA ISA gigs in the future if possible. We´ll see.
photo by Ole Teigen
The digital age in music is here to stay but vinyl has made a huge come back and is very popular. Which do you prefer and why?
I like both. I love the feeling of a physical album and the sound of vinyl, of looking at the actual cover and reading the booklet. Streaming music is perfect for all my train rides and walks and is an easy way to check out so much different music. Spotify is super convenient, but I really dislike how they are robbing the musicians by paying so little. I hope that will change. I try to use Bandcamp more.
Frank Sinatra crooned in his anthem 'My Way' "Regrets, I've had a few, But then again too few to mention" Anything you might have done differently from what you know now?
Not really if you mean for this project or album, I really went with my instincts, tried out my ideas and trusted my own expression, which was what I set out to do. In life in general I regret not avoiding stress a bit more, as too much of it has not been healthy for me. I am trying to get better at that.
Advice to the many many Doom/Stoner/Heavy Metal Rock influenced artist's who are just starting out?
I am no expert, but I think it is a good thing to don´t think too much about what other people are doing or what they sound like. Or what you think you should sound like. Look within yourself for your own true expression and don´t ride the trends. They won´t last anyway. It is not easy to do this, so you should do it because it is rewarding in itself. Practice and playing together a lot to go forward as a band. And of course, always be nice.
Thanks for sharing time with us Pia, your future is bright no matter the path you travel. Stay safe
You can link up with Pia for digital and vinyl on these links:
https://piaisa.bandcamp.com/album/dis...
https://www.facebook.com/piaisamusic
https://www.instagram.com/piaisamusic/
https://linktr.ee/piaisa_distortedchants
contact : piaisa@gmail.com
LABEL:
http://www.argonautarecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/ArgonautaRec.
https://www.youtube.com/argonautarecords
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