What if...

When I first came here I wanted to recreate myself but now I just want to be myself.

…and just like that the snow disappeared and the mountains took off their white winter coat and emerged from the windy white sky.

Every time I walk by Lena’s table she has more and more art and she has so many unbelievable shades of blue and has captured the landscape so perfectly. I asked her if she found the perfect blue colour yet and she said “no”.

After i played one of the songs Anne told me that she found a poem in one of the snow drifts close to the studio. She didn’t want to remove it but she took a picture and then sent it to me and that is the song that I am currently working on.

Naakai expressed her interest in collaborating, which gave me the courage to express my own interest in collaboration as well. It’s amazing how just one person’s words can empower others. It takes a lot of courage to be the first.

A group of us were talking one morning about the birds that fly in swarms outside the fish factory and how they look like shoals of fish and then she talked about her friend who gave her a necklace with a fish and how everytime she sees a fish she thinks of her friend and now when she looks at the birds she think they look like fish.

I was thinking about process today because I posted part of a song that is not anywhere near finished. It’s the framework but I posted anyway because I like seeing people’s process which means that I need to share mine.

I sat on my small bed at midnight after I returned from the studio listening to the wind whistling and watching the snow fall and flipped through the book looking for a piece that might work as a song.

The days are slow here but then you look out the window and the sun is setting and the day is almost over.

At night I am often in there alone and hear the whistle of the wind outside. I can see the soft glow of lights from the prawn factory when I look out the window and I play my music to the wind, to the mountains, to the rocks and to the birds.

I finally set up my little studio in the freezer room of the fish factory and as I was fiddling with all the little pieces I wondered what DOES go on in a fish factory. So I googled it.

On my first day in Skagastörnd I was feeling a little jet-lagged and slow. I settled into my small room right across from the church, which is the landmark I use to find my way back home.

You know that feeling when you wake up from a deep sleep and momentarily forget where you are, but then you rub your eyes, and it all comes flooding back? This time, when I rubbed my eyes, the feeling didn’t go away because I WAS in a remarkably different, breathtakingly beautiful, and entirely new place.

What If is an exploration of hope and connection through music composition at NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland from March 6 to April 30, 2023.