Kaya Herstad Carney is part of the tremendous band Science of the Lamps. Born in Norway, a six hour drive north of the Arctic Circle, she came to Liverpool to study at L.I.P.A. and graduated in 2003. Her band Science of the Lamps released a self-titled E.P. a few weeks ago and it has captured the imagination of all those have listened to it. I was able to catch up with this hugely likeable, talented and enthusiastic musician for a short while after one of her Threshold meetings at the Bridewell.
Your new E.P. the self titled Science of the Lamps release; that came out a couple of weeks ago, how exciting was that for you to do?
“It’s been great, we were working on it since March and recording the songs so it’s been quite a while and the two singles were recorded in just over a weekend and the E.P. has been a full production working with Mark Brocklesby and he is going to join us drums in the future which is fantastic. He is a great drummer. So personally and professionally it is a great working relationship, we have had a lot of fun in the studio finding the sound.”
Listening to the E.P. I have described it as Nordic Fairytale, was that the premise of the idea, to do the whole E.P. to do it like that?
“I will go with that (laughs), I guess it has to do with growing up in Norway, Grethe (Borsum) is also from Norway, so we may have a lot of cultural references in there and I guess Science of the Lamps was a bit of a counter project from when I had been in the band for a while and there were some songs that didn’t fit into a rock/folk alternative thing and these were more lyrical, more theatrical element to them. I started writing my own lyrics when I was about five about flowers and monsters, I was always writing, professional journalism and short stories for a long while. I just love words, forgive me (laughs).
Grethe and I were good friends before although we had never worked in that capacity, we had worked together on shows and things. She got involved and then Paul and I started to hear more and more harmonies in my head and we got more people involved. At one point we had 24 people on stage for the E.P. launch which was fantastic. There was a lot of things going on at the E.P. launch at the Ioisis studios at the Elevator Building and we had a great turn-out…the last time round we had it as part of the nice festival (Nordic and Icelandic Culture Exchange Festival) for my first album and I didn’t have a lot of control over what was going on. So this E.P. launch was very much about loads of ideas that had been coming over the last couple of years and wanting people to feel like they were coming to a different world. I think people are tired of just going to a gig night with four guys with strats in the corner, (laughs) then again I like a lot of guitar music.”
I think that’s why so many people are taken with the E.P. because it sounds so different.
“The songs are quite dark tales, I always joke that the song Fight For Him is a jolly ditty about child custody, Duckling Hell about growing up in a small town and being a bit different from anyone else, small town minds and all that stuff and putting people into boxes…not literally …the freedom you find when you move somewhere else and finding people are different, a licence to be different. I have compared it to Hogwart’s in the past because you might have some people being evil or different but being part of somewhere where creativity grows and it wasn’t until after I had finished and was able to go out in the real world and I feel that this is the most me sound.”
How much of Norway do you bring to the music and to Liverpool?
“I don’t think it’s a conscious thing…I mean some people say it sounds eastern European, Jacques Brel, I think it’s just me being influenced by the things I listen to. I am influenced by some of the Norwegian music and I used to play the fiddle for quite a few years, so I guess some of the melodic structure came from that and naturally writing through osmosis. Grunge was the big thing in my formative years with Pearl Jam being one of my favourite bands and I don’t think you can hear a lot of that although perhaps some Eddie Vedder in my singing style. He has had influence as had Damien Rice. I just like that he can go and do a gentle acoustic track and then the next one is quite an epic rock number… I guess the thing is I don’t try and create what others have done; I don’t try and make Norwegian Rock. I am Norwegian and it is part of my identity.”
Do you ever get to go back home to Norway?
“I go back about two or three times a year, I am going back on the 23rd December in time for Christmas Eve. Most summers I go back to a little festival called the Oya Festival and we have taken a lot of ideas from them for our Threshold Festival because they just have fantastic programming and the bands they put on always have something new with regards to bands from Norway and from America. I don’t really know everything that’s in the Norwegian scene now as it is over ten years since I lived there.”
I was going to ask you if you felt more in tune with the sound of Liverpool or with Norway, is there a part of you that says I must keep true to my Norwegian past?
“I don’t think like anymore I guess, I feel as foreign in Norway as I do here but not in a bad way. You see the funniness of the people in both sides and I enjoy people in general and seeing how people come across is quite funny and I do recognise some things that are very Norwegian and that’s because I was brought up there and some things don’t make sense to me here but then other things do. There is a freedom I guess but I think Liverpool at the moment as I have been gigging here probably coming up to 13 years and in the beginning even the stuff I did which had a little bit of Indie or Brit-pop influences, everybody kept saying you should go to America, you should go to Germany, it’s not for the U.K. music scene. I just felt really home in Liverpool. I toyed with the idea of America as New York appealed to me but you know student loans and things like that, I have never really been travelling unless it’s been on someone else’s bill (laughs).
As a freelance musician you make the decisions mostly with your heart and what you need to do. The scene now is so much more diverse than it was; it isn’t now a typical Scouse sound, there is just so many things going on now, so many alternative scenes especially alternative events like Threshold and I was involved with other festivals as well in Liverpool, I enjoyed Liverpool Music Week. I think what is happening now is a scene of quirkiness that isn’t forced and isn’t rushed, it’s just loads of people who are thinking out of the box.”
You were at Dave O’Grady and Rob Vincent’s show the other night at Leaf as well.
“I have known Rob since I used to run a night at the Barfly about seven years ago and he was in a different band then. He is just fantastic and Dave O’Grady and I used to be in the band together and we have been on tour and all sorts together, he is just great as well. There’s just so many great people.
Will there be another E.P.?
“I think E.P. is the way forward, with an album if it gets recorded over a space of time, you change so much, even subtle change. I think E.P’s one a year is where I would really like to be because I constantly write. I want to do more gigs with the full band set up as well. I am lucky that I lecture at the University of Chester and I am a vocal coach by trade so that pays for the music. Obviously it is great to have the royalties for it but it’s more important to have the music heard.”
You can find more about the Threshold Festival, which is held in the Baltic Triangle between the 8th and 10th March 2013, online at thresholdfest.tumblr.com. You can also find out about the Oya Festival at Oyafestivalen.com. The Science of the Lamps E.P. is available from Ultimate Fake Records.
Ian D. Hall