Inglow

Once you start talking to Martin Diesen, front man of Norwegian rockband Inglow, it will only take a few minutes before youre completely engrossed in the ambitions of an artist who leaves precious little to chance. Instead, he follows a detailed masterplan of how to imbibe the world of rock music with fresh nuances and facets. Because Diesen thinks a lot about himself, the songwriting of the quintet which hes been fronting for twelve years now, also of the importance of a mood that is transported or the design of an individual sound. All of this is imminently audible in Inglows music: it is many-layered and powerful, has its theatrical moments or else is in-your-face, and always just that little bit different to what one is accustomed to in current rock music. Not just Scandinavian rock music, but rock music in general. In fact, thats the whole idea, explains Diesen: From the outset, we aimed at sounding a little bit different to what you will normally hear. We like tightening the screws on what is doable just a tiny bit more, testing boundaries without sounding cerebral or artificial. At no point in our career did we belong to a certain scene, we always went our own way. Which helped us a lot to become who we are today: a rock band with an individual character who yet lots of people can agree upon.

In the past, Inglow has been called the Norwegian Muse which is a comparison that sits well with Martin Diesen even though it hasnt nailed it completely. At any rate, theyve already shared the stage with the British stadium rock band and word got out that Muse was quite impressed with the power, insolence, and chuzpe with which Inglow gives their excellent compositions a special twist. Our versatility is also due to the fact that all members have extremely different backgrounds, explains Diesen. From the bare-knuckle metal drummer to the grunge-influenced guitarist and my own penchant for extravagant upscale pop. Which is why it always takes a while until we will find common ground on a song. But once we have, we can be sure that something will come of it that does justice to Inglow. The idea that something does justice to this band means to them to create something special and authentic, while carrying sufficient potential with it to rock the charts.

This has happened several times in Inglows native country. Founded in 2000, the band had two Top 20 breakers in the Norwegian charts with the single releases As I Am and Remember. Until then, its been a long and winding road: Initially, between 2001 and ?2004, they released three EPs, Womb, Eclipse and The End of Yesterday wanting to sound the depths of who we are, says Diesen. We moved into one direction and then into the completely opposite one, tested boundaries, and tried to find our core. In 2007, they published their first album Til Deaf Do Us Part, which was much loved in their native country and yielded the afore-mentioned hit singles. At this stage, we were already much closer to what we are all about. But there still was a lot of work ahead, is Diesens comment on the album which fast developed into an important standard for the current Norwegian rock scene. Among the lot of work that had to be accomplished was dealing with line-up changes. The band suffered three line-up changes between 2008 and 2009 which Diesen in hindsight considers a blessing: With each line-up change somebody new joined which came closer to the spirit of the band than his predecessor. We were getting closer and closer together and, despite our stilistic differences and preferences became a tight unit.

Never one to shy away from new experiences, the line-up change period saw Diesen probing very different, even shallow waters: He took part in the Norwegian version of The Voice as a solo artist. I was really looking forward to this experience, I wanted to improve my stage presence. What I really learned from this is acting differently in front of the camera more self-confident, more relaxed and still more convincing simply because I had now understood how important it is to just be yourself even when all the lenses are focused on you. Inglow took this self-confidence with them when they went into the studio afterwards.

With its 2009 line-up aside from Diesen guitarists Syver Normann and Andreas Rustad, bass player Ruben Larssen and drummer Christian Svedsen the band returned to the studio in 2011 to record what Diesen will call a kind of debut album with a decade of experience behind it. They mostly put up their own money for the songs produced by Endre Kirkesola to ensure their creative freedom and be free to do whatever they artistically fancied. Where all previous recordings were always made under the dogma of a clearly defined goal, we had now taken a few steps ahead: we knew what Inglow is and how to fill the band with life. There existed an intuitive certainty that we would find the right way. Therefore, we were abl