TUVABAND is the dreamlike solo project of Norwegian singer, songwriter, and producer, Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser, whose third full-length offering to the world, Growing Pains & Pleasures, will out in the world in the May – and sees her change direction once again.
Her first album, Soft Drop, was airy, ghostly and cinematic, while the second, Entered The Void, reached into a darker rock aesthetic and earned her a nonimation for a Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian Grammys).
She’s dropped a new single to led us towards the album; it’s entitled “Post Isolation”, and you can play it while you’re reading.
She has an incredible, expressive vocal range which invites very real Liz Fraser comparisons – marry that with plaintive guitars, swaddled in reverb and bags of atmosphere and you have a tune which is really quite something.
“Post Isolation” follows a first single drop, the darker ‘gazey pop styles of “Growing Pains” last month.
Whereas I Entered The Void was about Tuva cutting herself off from society and the effect that process had on her, Growing Pains & Pleasures is about trying to find her way back. The title describes her journey through those changes; realising you’re not the same person you always were.
“Post Isolation” is, Tuva says: “… about returning to the world after isolation, and how overwhelming that can feel. It’s a song about irrational fears.
“I had a demo of the song, and went into a studio to rerecord parts of it. I realised later that I liked the demo version the most, so I kept everything I had already recorded in my home studio, except my programmed drums, which was re-recorded with Kenneth Ishak, who played on real drums.”
The album has it seeds in a week spent writing in Venice nearly two years back now. “When you’re in isolation you don’t meet many people,” she says, “and there are few impressions from the outside world. So coming out of isolation can be an overwhelming experience – in ways both good and bad.
“A lot of the songs have feelings of fear; an irrational and vague, but constant fear.
“I always thought that you stop changing and developing when you become an adult”, she says. “But it was in my late twenties that I started changing the most.
“A friend once said ‘Tuva, you seem so self-assured. You always know what you’re doing and what you want’. I thought that was true – until everything changed.
“At the start, I rejected the change. After a while I realised that I had to accept it. I’ve realised that fully mature things rot.
“People always said my music was cute, which almost offended me, because especially if you look at the lyrics, it wasn’t. So I wanted I Entered The Void to be tough, rough and edgy.
“Now, I feel I no longer have to convince everyone that my music is tough.”
Tuvaband’s Growing Pains & Pleasures will be released by Passion Flames on May 21st.
Follow Tuvaband at the band website, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and on Spotify and Bandcamp.
