♪ Still my heart ♪ ♪ It's no good to listen to the voices in the dark ♪ - We are the band Northern Assembly and this is our second time playing at Smukfest, the first time was 50 meters this way. It rained and five people showed up, so we're pretty sure today is gonna be a better day. We're excited to be here. - Hello and welcome to Dynaudio Unheard. My name is Christopher and I'm your host. My next guests are raised all across the world, so there were slim chances that they would ever meet, but somehow they found each other in a living room ready to play music. Hello Northern Assembly. - Hello. - Thank you for being here. - Hello. - It's great to be here. - You have just played your music in our mobile recording studio. - Indeed. - How was it? - A strange experience, to say the least. I think now I know how a fish feels in an aquarium. But, I know it was a good experience. - I thought it was really cool. A very professional set up. - And the whole thing about a fish in an aquarium, you're not the first ones to say that and it must be, you're feeling like you're in the studio when you have a bunch of people looking at you like you would work in the studio. - Exactly, it's a really strange experience because it feels just like being in a recording studio, just in a shipping container in the middle of a festival. Very odd. Out of context. - It's not something you'd try everyday, right? - No. - No. As I said in the intro, you guys are raised all across the world from different parts of Denmark, you've traveled, but somehow, you met up in a living room in Aurhus in 2013. How did that happen? - Well, I was gonna learn how to play the guitar and Andreas was gonna teach me, so he was my teacher for the first, like three months and he found out that I was a good singer and he was like "Hey, let's write some music." And the other guys, they were actually in another band with another lead singer and they just kept telling us to start our own thing and in the end we did. - And it all started in that living room with your first practice. - The living room, that's where we, that's where I taught Dina to play guitar, that's where we wrote our first few songs and that's also where we had our first band practice and I think that shaped our band quite a lot, is the closeness and intimacy of a living room, just you know, being able to look each other in the eyes and hear what each other are playing and I think that's the essence of folk music, as well. - I want to talk a little bit about inspiration later, but before we jump into that, I want to know a little bit about the dynamic of being a group, and some of the... the challenges that you face as four people who have to come together and create a product. - I really like being a band. It's, there are challenges as you say, but there are so many strengths also. Of course agreeing on everything is harder when you're four, but you, when things are tough and when you really need someone to carry you, you've got your band. - But dictatorship is easier. A lot easier, but I think sometimes we just have to admit that it's good having someone to make sure you're making good decisions and if you're just one person making those decisions then, it's like having someone quality proofing everything you do and I feel like we always ensure quality or at least a good solid group decision when we're a band together. - Because you have three other people making sure that you're on the straight and narrow, right? - Exactly, yeah. - Every time. - But musically is challenging because we all have an idea of what we want the band to sound like, but it always ends up different because it's a mix of what everyone sounds like and that's challenging for me personally, but I think outwardly it's a strength, a big strength. - Yeah. - Musically, we are connected together. - And I said I wanted to talk a little bit about where you guys get your inspiration from. - Well. - I think to begin with, if you're gonna start a band then it's good to find one band you want to sound like and then take it from there and Dina and I, we both played in rock bands before and we felt that we wanted to make something a bit more hand played. - That's why we did the living room concerts cause we were just sick and tired of dragging around big amps and instruments and drums and everything. So, we were like, "Let's do something totally acoustic "so we don't have to carry as much". - And initially we took a lot of inspiration from the band Mumford & Sons. - Yeah. - Some of the songs we really liked and we, I think basically we just tried to copy what they did and then after a few more songs, we started taking a bit more distance and doing our own thing and that's where the original inspiration came from, but I think mostly what inspires us is events, people, stories, our own lives, and then the music sometimes shapes itself around that. Would you agree? - I would totally agree. - And when you then have, let's say four people and it's four different stories that you've been inspired by and you want to translate into your music, how do you work on some things so it has a coherent? - Yeah. I think that's the interesting part is we all have stories and we all think that different parts of the same story are worth kind of stressing, so while we are each a person, we're also a unit and we have to agree on what this unit wants to say, you know? Yeah so, in the songs and in how we play and what we say. - One way we do that, is that it starts with Dina and myself so instead of trying to make all the first decisions in a song writing process, all of us, it starts with Dina and myself and we write a sketch or we'll have a session where we bring a sketch to the session and then we'll write a story together and then musically we'll develop it with the rest of the band. So, it's not always a band process, but it starts with us individually and then we bring that process on to... - And you add down the road? - And then we add on, yeah. And then the further, the more the song gets finished, the more we invite other people to influence the music. - Yeah. - Guys, I know that you're about to go to... "Into the forest" that's what we say here. Setting up for your concert, so before I let you go, I have a final question. If you had to give one piece of advice to new upcoming artists, that are starting their journey, a piece of advice that would make that journey just a little bit easier, what will that be? - You've got something? - I have something. Don't ever think that you can predict what's gonna happen. You can't. - And also, if you really want it, then invest. Invest your time and invest your money cause it actually costs money to make a band, as well. And yeah, invest yourself into it and I'm sure something good will come out of it. - Thank you for being here. Thank you for, - Thank you. - Sharing your story and your tips. As I said, you have a concert to play so I'll let you go. - Thanks. - And you can catch Northern Assembly down the forest, Smukfest, today. What time will you be playing? - Five o'clock. - Five o'clock. Stage? - Sherwood. - Sherwood, so be on the lookout if you're in that area. Thank you for watching. ♪Will return to my home ♪ ♪ But I won't be now ♪ ♪ It's too soon, way too soon ♪