Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

In person

Annie (née Anne Lilia Berge Strand) is currently the hottest pop star in all of Norway. Having won the Best Newcomer award at her native country’s equivalent of the Grammys, she is now hoping to break big on the international stage

Interview Molly O’Toole

01 How would you describe your music?

To describe it easily I would say pop music. But I find it quite hard to define – if somebody asks me who I’d compare myself to, I can’t come up with one artist because I’ve always been inspired by so many different artists.

02- Is the music that you write and play also the type of music you like to listen to?

Not especially. I listen to so much different stuff. I’m a big fan of Beck and I think the latest record I bought was Santa Gold. She’s great. I also DJ, so when I’m DJing I do much more electro and techno stuff.

03 Where do you live?

I moved to Berlin at the beginning of February, so I’m quite new to the city. Well, I have a couple of friends here. I got kicked out of my apartment in Bergen, then got an offer of this apartment in Berlin. Berlin is so cheap. If you’re a Norwegian citizen, you’re almost like a millionaire.

05 Where do you go to shop?

There are millions of record stores, good clothes stores… cheaper than at home.

06 What is your favourite place to go in Berlin to listen to music?

When I’m in Norway, I love to go to the mountains. You can basically just walk for five minutes and you’re in nature. In Berlin I have a bike so I take my bike and maybe just cycle away for one hour and then I’m in nature. I might bring some food and just take it easy. It’s so nice now that it’s getting warmer.

I go to a place called Panorama Bar, in Bergheim, where a friend of mine works. It’s more like a club. It opens on Fridays and almost stays open till Sunday.

07 How would you describe your perfect weekend?

I’d wake up early and go to a great market. There are loads of brilliant markets in Berlin where you can find lots of weird stuff like clothing and… I don’t know… everything, really. Then I would go and get a good coffee and a great big breakfast. Then I would take a bike and cycle around. There are some really good museums. A lot of artists live in Berlin so you can find loads of exhibitions and stuff happening. I would go and have a nice dinner and then I would go clubbing.

08 Since you enjoy the outdoors so much, are there any particular places in Europe that you like to travel to?

I really like Porto in Portugal. I think that’s a lovely place. Portugal has the best food in Europe. The seafood is the best I’ve ever tasted. This summer I’m probably going to Sicily. I’ve been to Italy a lot of times but never to Sicily, so I’m looking forward to that.

09 What attracts you to Italy?

Well, I’m always drawn to places where there’s good food. In Italy you can find so much good food it’s totally another way of eating than in Scandinavia. I mean, you enjoy good food there, but it’s not like Italy… There it is something almost spiritual; it’s such a big thing for them. I really love that.

10 What object can’t you live without?

My record player. I have this great record player that I can carry around with me and take with me when I travel. I really love vinyl, but it’s difficult to bring with you. Somebody once said that if I was a Native American I would be “He Who Carries A Lot of Things”. I’m really that kind of person. I really need to listen to vinyl.

11 What’s your favourite record?

I think one of my favourite records of all time would be Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power, but that’s more like a rock record. It’s so straight-to-the-point. And very… it’s just Raw Power.

12 Have you ever had any rock ’n’ roll moments? You know, throwing TVs out of windows…

I’ve never thrown a TV out of a window, no, but what have I done? Let me think… Well for me, the most awful thing is just to get up, go to one place, you do a gig and you get up again, maybe four o’clock in the morning to travel to Canada somewhere… I can party but I don’t do any drugs… If I did, I would probably be dead by now. I just hate to get up early in the morning.

13 Where do you hope to be in 10 years?

Well I hope I can still do music, maybe for films. I also run my own label so I would hope to release some other artists and maybe produce some stuff for others.

I want to do a lot of different things. Maybe write a book.

14 What book are you currently reading?

I’m reading this book about slavery and Africa, when the first person was trying to free the slaves. I’m reading it in Norwegian; I don’t know what it’s called in English.

15 What is your life philosophy?

I see so very many people who have all these things they would really like to do. Maybe it’s music or theatre or they want to build some castle or whatever – their main thing they want to do. Then they just don’t believe in themselves so what they do is maybe just fine, even just doing that. I think maybe people should try and believe in themselves and just try to do that thing they want to do, and if you don’t go where you want to go, at least you tried.

16 Are there any performances coming up in the near future that we should keep an eye out for?

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