It must be difficult being compared to the likes of Nick Cave, P J Harvey, Patti Smith and Anna Calvi and especially when it is all in one sentence.
Firstly, that’s a hell of a lot to live up to.
And I remember talking to Jason Bentley (no relation) of KCRW at the Reeperbahn Festival a few years back about Calvi’s latest album and why he should give it a listen, his show having previously showcased her, only to be met by a put down that she was “too derivative” of Harvey.
That’s the problem when you all move in a similar circle. You can all start to sound like each other.
So does Sofia Härdig offer anything that differentiates her from those other, comparable, art rock musicians?
‘Pale Fire’ is taken from Sofia’s forthcoming album set for release on 11th April via Icons Creating Evil Art / Bark At Your Owner, two great labels for labels, I’m sure you’ll agree.
I browsed through some of the comments made about her by other publications, including some big names.
“…never been on more rumbustious form”; “She fathoms and conjures up the dark sides of the soul, love, sex” (that’s from the intriguingly titled CRACK magazine); and “oscillates between Post-punk, goth-rock, Placebo and Nick Cave.” Quite a set of endorsements.
‘Pale Fire’ came out of an intense period of creative isolation during which she wrote hundreds of songs from “a cave of writing.” It was embellished by Bebe Risenfors, who has worked with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello.
She likes to see her songs as representative of short stories or novellas she has written but which were presumably considered better to see the light of day as songs.
I’ll lay my cards on the table; I can’t decipher exactly what ‘Pale Fire’ is about. It’s a euphemism for something that is holding her back, while she vacillates between inertia (“Moments of nothing”) and frenzy (“A wall of sound”). (Bipolarisation?)
There is more of the former than the latter (“I am a church bell/That tells of the hour”). (The repetitive passing of time).
She’s confused and “Can’t see through this pale fire”. That could be a reference to the impregnability of social norms, to a movement – political, radical perhaps – that she can’t help get over the line. Influencing a vote for a Prime Minister in an election; to change laws related to feminist concerns, attitudes to trans people, the potential is endless.
I even toyed with the idea the song referenced Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire, in which some of the characters are so mysterious and translucent you could begin to doubt if they are real.
You and I could spend all night discussing it so let’s turn our attention to how she puts it across. Here there is more certainty.
It’s almost like a demonstration or an uprising as it grows in intensity from a relatively anaemic opening with simple chords and common time beat as layers of piano and strings and backing vocals are added, then frittering away into almost an air of desperation towards the end.
I might be completely off beam with that interpretation but ultimately, as I’ve often argued one way the talent of a songwriter can be measured is by his or her ability to create images in the mind of the listener and she is more than capable of doing that.
And in that sense alone she is right up there with the Smiths, Harveys and Calvis of this world.
The album ‘Lighthouse of Glass’ is set for release on April 11th.
Find her on:
Website: https://www.sofiahardig.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sofiahardigmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofiahardig
Photo Credit: Jessica Nettelblad.
