By: Chris Pacifico
Serena Maneesh by Christie Harrison |
Siblings
Emil and
Hilma Nikolaisen of
Serena Maneesh spent their childhood in Norway growing up in a musically aware family. From the time they were kids, they were exposed to old spirituals, folk, medieval music, and classical. Emil discovered AC/DC at the tender age of six before eventually delving into bossa nova, jazz, blues, and the rougher terrain like
The Stooges and Ramones. However, it wasn’t until middle school that his true musical awakening occurred. Emil’s teachers frequently played music in the background for their students. Most of it was “bullshit music” until one day when he heard “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground for the first time.
“I was in like the sixth or seventh grade when that song was played. I remembered the name Lou Reed in my head. When I heard all those sounds in that song I was really scared to death. I remember riding my bike around the schoolyard and was totally frightened because something hit me that was so real,” he reminisces. “I had heard so much shitty stuff at the time but this was real in a new way to me. And, it has always followed me ever since.”
Serena Maneesh |
Serena Maneesh is the hottest thing to come out of the frost-bitten land of Norway in quite some time. Released last summer, their self titled debut is a whirling, kaleidoscope array of fuzzy guitars, haphazard drums, lilting, angelic harmonies and plain ol’ beautiful raw noise.
Throughout time, a musician’s geographical surroundings have played some part in their musical makeup. Black Sabbath managed to capture the essence of their bleak, industrial hometown of Birmingham, England, just as the MC5 evoked the dirty, oil-stained garages of Detroit, while the Black Keys stir up the working class, rubber scented air of Akron, Ohio, the tire capital of the world. The list goes on and on but for now let’s focus on Serena Maneesh.
Serena Maneesh by villageindian.com |
The band formed in Kristiansand, one of the most cultured cities in Europe, before eventually relocating to Oslo where their revolving lineup is currently based. Tunes off their debut like “Drain Cosmetics” and “Sapphire Eyes” send a gusty chill down the listener’s spine. Balancing some of the heavier aspects we find
Sufjan Stevens on “Candlelighted.” Emil used to be in Stevens’ touring band and chuckles, “I played guitar with him before he was famous.”
“During certain parts of the year in Norway you don’t see any daylight, and you also have the opposite times where daylight is the only thing you see” says Emil. These natural phenomena, known as Polar Night and Midnight Sun, go on for days and even weeks in certain places inside the Arctic Circle, and can toy with people’s moods and minds, leading some to a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka SAD).
Hilma Nikolaisen |
“There are people freaking out. There’s a lot of alcoholism, suicides and other intense stuff. The city of Bergen gets a lot of rain each year, which is why some people think that a lot of sad music comes out of there. Norway has a lot of music and you can find some extremes but I think it has to do more with [individual] personalities interpreting their own sound. In a way though, it’s a little bit more complex than that. We love our country – the valleys, the mountains, the fjords and everything. It’s just like Iceland or Finland or Sweden. The physical place affects the music, the mood and the general spiritual attitude. It’s just like anywhere else, especially the United States, because you do still get a general sound depending on what [region] it’s coming from,” says Emil.
Hilma observes, “It’s kind of hard to compare us to other bands in Norway right now because we’re doing kind of a different thing.” Serena Maneesh’s leggy bassist has piercing, sky blue eyes, blonde hair and a face like a princess from some centuries old Norse tribe. “To make it easy, I would say that we play psychedelic rock because there is a lot of psychedelia in our music. But, I would definitely not say ‘shoegazer,’ which is how a lot of people describe us.”
 | | | We’re approaching it like a symphony but play it like the Sex Pistols. Even when we’re in the studio I feel it’s important to remain true to an honest punk aesthetic and to play your honest heart out and not make too much of a complexity in between.
-Emil Nikolaisen | | | | |
Serena Maneesh |
“Hilma just discovered
My Bloody Valentine,” laughs Emil. “But seriously, I feel like our music is tension in a lot of levels, and tension can be brought forth in many ways. It’s as if you were to have [someone] like
Claude Debussy or
George Gershwin colliding into The Stooges. The Stooges were a sonically incredible band that’s like an asphalt symphony in their own way. We kind of create a rock & roll symphony that’s our own story. That’s my biggest dream in life, that’s the sound I’ve been having in my head since I was a little kid. When I was really young and I first heard Debussy, I wanted to recreate that in a rock & roll and noise context. The pop world and the avant-garde world colliding together is the greatest tension that you can ever have.”
However, there’s no shortage of European bands, mostly from the Scandinavian region, who cease singing in their native tongue (Dungen being a notable exception) to work in English, which a lot of artists assume is the only way to score a record deal and become accessible in America. Emil rejects this school of thought, saying, “As much as rock & roll is an institution, the English language is a part of it. So, to me, it’s very natural.”
Serena Maneesh by Christie Harrison |
Another rock & roll institution is powerful live performances that strike every nerve in the collective body of a crowd. Serena Maneesh’s concerts may leave you with a case of tinnitus but the transcending decibels are nothing short of rhapsodic. Emil dons his signature gypsy shawl to join the meandering, elastic viola of
Eivind Schou and
Ann Sung-an Lee‘s blend of organ and seraphic vocals. Once drummer
Einar Lukerstuen gets a groove going with his freely roaming percussion, Emil and fellow guitarist
Oystein Sandsdalen drain every single drop of reverb and feedback from their instruments, grinding them against the monitors and rubbing butter knifes against the frets.
Serena Maneesh |
Every live gig they play holds a special place in Emil’s heart because he sees it like being a kid again. “I relate more to the Sex Pistols than I do to some of the more sophisticated noise bands around today,” he says. “I also relate to the young days of rock & roll when it was taking new steps and twists and turns and new things were still being conceived. We’re approaching it like a symphony but play it like the Sex Pistols. Even when we’re in the studio I feel it’s important to remain true to an honest punk aesthetic and to play your honest heart out and not make too much of a complexity in between.”
One show that may stand out for Serena Maneesh is the SXSW showcase they played on March 15, 2006 at Emo’s Main Room. Many in the crowd had expressions on their faces as if they had just heard rock & roll for the first time. Afterwards, some press have called this the moment when Serena Maneesh broke out Stateside but Hilma modestly shrugs it off. “I think we’re still the same now as we were when we got to South By Southwest. We were really really happy to have gotten the opportunity to play there, and were also glad to see that lots of people were interested. We were there to play for the people who really listen to us, and in the end we were glad for the reception that we got.”
Serena Maneesh |
People tend to wonder who is Serena Maneesh? Their first thought may be it’s the name of someone in the band. Emil is quick to explain that Serena not only comes from his great great grandmother, who was rumored to be a witch, but also from an adaptation of the Norwegian word for veil. “Maneesh” relates to the Norwegian term “manesje,” which refers to the space around a stage. The band later found out it’s also a
Hindu name meaning “lord of the mind.”
Looking at what’s on the horizon for the band, Emil sees something amazing but admits that it may take some time. “It’s been a massacre in the past year. It’s a really deep process,” says Emil. “I’m excited to see what we come out with next but it might take some time to create it. It’s always a bit quicker to record but writing is a whole different process. I’m not like Hank Williams, who could write a great song in three minutes. I have to spend time with it. That’s just how I am. I write songs like a composer would. I need to spend time on it to really refine things.”
SERENA MANEESH TOUR DATES
05.07 | Riverstage | BRISBANE (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.09 | Big Top Luna Park | SYDNEY (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.10 | Big Top Luna Park | SYDNEY (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.11 | Big Top Luna Park | SYDNEY (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.13 | Metro Night Club | MELBOURNE (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.14 | Metro Night Club | MELBOURNE (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.15 | Metro Night Club | MELBOURNE (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.18 | Studio Coast | TOKYO (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.19 | Studio Coast | TOKYO (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.20 | Studio Coast | TOKYO (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.22 | Zepp | NAGOYA (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.23 | Zepp | OSAKA (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
05.24 | Zepp | OSAKA (w/ Nine Inch Nails)
07.07 | Kongsberg Jazz Festival | KONGSBERG
07.19 | G! FESTIVAL GÖTA JamBase | Worldwide
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