Exposed Vocals Interviews Greta Narvik

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

 

Greta Narvik: After many experiences in different bands of northern Italy, we (Matteo on the guitars, Sara on the piano and vocals, and Michele on the bass) finally decided to get together to propose a kind of indie-folk with a little electro. After a year or so, we met up with Pietro (the drummer) and the trio became definitely a four element band. We didn’t’ really decided to become “artists”, we literally gave up to our musical needs, which are way stronger than the musical tastes and underground of each of us.

 

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

 

Greta Narvik: Greta Narvik is the ideal main fictional character of our stories, she represents, in our minds, both the listener and ourselves… and maybe something more. Greta is a feminine name that we love, Narvik comes after a small village in Norway, where a steam train still carries stuff from there to Kiruna, another small town in Sweden (Michele saw it when he went there on holidays). We like the symbolism of something coming from the past, carrying stuff between two small places; it’s a perfect analogy to our inner selves. We chose two northern cities also because of our musical references – Sigur Ros, Mogway, etc -, and we called our first EP “Kiruna”.

 

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

 

Greta Narvik: We are in favor of music sharing and free download, especially now that we want our music to join the widest range possible.

 

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

 

Greta Narvik: Actually we’re still a start-up! So we welcome every single tip you have on this matter. By the way, all we can say is try, try, and try, never give up and be always around (gigs, socials, webzines, etc).

 

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

 

Greta Narvik: Songs come usually from a melodic inspiration (guitar or voice and piano), then we share it during the rehearsals and we (each of us) put our contribution to the song. It shapes itself little by little, it goes through storms and destructuration and finally comes to life in our best way.

 

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

 

Greta Narvik: We’re still working to our website, which will be online just before our first LP. At the moment we’re sharing our music through SoundCloud and YouTube.

 

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

 

Greta Narvik: We’d probably rent a chalet somewhere into the wild and, after buying some instruments, we’d dedicate our time to compose and arrange our music. We’d obviously enjoy every second and publish the result of our happy days. For now we start crossing our fingers… J

 

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

 

Greta Narvik: We’re promoting ourselves on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, trying to constantly update the news of our activities (music, photos, gigs, rehearsals). Everything works well, as long as it helps our music to reach as much people as possible.

 

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

 

Greta Narvik: We’re working at our first LP which will be out in autumn 2016. We’re already arranging the promotional aspects, which means social media, webzines, and obviously a single and a video. Meanwhile we have some gigs already scheduled for April and May.

 

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

 

Greta Narvik: We come from different influences and it’s too hard to give only one answer. (Sara) “One of my biggest passions other than music is travelling, especially to the southern countries of the world. Probably, as an alternative to music I would have worked in the field of human rights and development cooperation”. (Matteo) “I’d fulfill the need to express my feelings through another art form, like photography or sculpture” (Michele): “I would probably have tried to write. I actually did it for a while, but in the end I chose music” (Pietro) “I would have studied something anyhow linked to arts, maybe acting”.

 

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

 

Greta Narvik: We share duties and honors like a big family J Seriously, each of us manages a particular matter of our “music world” (technical issues, social management, artistic aspects like photos and videos). In the end each one proposes the idea to the others and it’s approved or rejected… like in a big democratic family indeed!

 

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?

 

Greta Narvik: 2016 already is (and will surely be!) a very important year. Our first LP will be out and we’re going to promote it everywhere we can (in Italy and abroad, if possible – we’re working to find some gigs in Europe and we would be really happy to have this chance). So stay tuned and follow us, it really means a lot to us!!