Interview with Ida Wenøe: ‘It’s about not closing your heart to what’s out there’

Copenhagen-based folk singer Ida Wenøe’s latest single, ‘One Step’, was released on Wednesday (26 August) and is a gritty reflection of her struggles in lockdown.

The song marks the first track from the former Danish Music Award nominee’s forthcoming third album, due in March 2021.

‘Like many people, when the world closed down, I struggled in the beginning,’ she said. ‘I saw all these stories in places like social media where everyone seemed to be fine when I was really struggling and couldn’t write anything. Then when I talked to my friends doing music, I saw that many of them felt the same. I tried to force myself, push myself to write something but I couldn’t do it. The reality is that a lot of people acted as if they were coping but they weren’t. It was such a relief to realise that I wasn’t the only one not coping. I felt that I wasn’t enough.’

‘It captured that feeling of emptiness’

However, once Wenøe stepped back from it and took the pressure off herself, the music started to come back. “It felt as if the song (‘One Step’) had been hiding in there,’ she said. ‘You just have to be patient. It captured that feeling of emptiness and empty space and death. You were hearing every day how many people had died but it was also about the death of creativity.’

The lyrics sum it up beautifully:

‘I’ve been walking in the dark,

And I’m trying so hard not to fall

Been a funny time this year

And I’m waiting for it to be clear

We’re not heading anywhere 

And the room where we used to meet

Is empty. Death. Silent.’

She recorded the song at home and it marks her first foray into self-production due to lockdown. ‘One Step’ was then mixed in Portland, Oregon by Grammy nominated Tucker Martine (First Aid Kit, Sufjan Stevens, Neko Case, Bill Frisell) and mastered by Dave McNair (Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Beck).

‘It’s about being open to how relationships can change you‘

Many of her songs delve into love and relationships and how they leave their mark on you. Two songs in particular, feel like a natural pairing, ‘Change Me A Little’, in which she sings about how love can leave its mark in a good way and ‘Another Kind Of Love’, which looks at the negative side of it. I tell her that I’ve always viewed them as a deliberate pair, best listened to together. ‘I never considered that but it’s really true,’ she said. ‘With ‘Change Me A Little’, I wanted to write a song about what love is and what it can be but also what friendships can be. It’s about being open to how relationships can change you. You get stuck in your view of what you are, which can limit you a lot. Really it’s about how other people can leave a trace, how you can be moved by them. It’s about not closing your heart to what’s out there.’

‘Another Kind Of Love’ basically tells the opposite story, according to Wenøe: ‘It’s about the experience of opening up your heart to someone where it feels true and beautiful, just to end up being disappointed and hurt and then realizing that the work and energy you put into ‘love’ shouldn’t be wasted on someone who doesn’t deserve it but, rather, directed towards yourself. Therefore, in a way, it’s a tragic love story turned into a love tribute to yourself.’ 

While she has an obvious appreciation of Americana, her sound is laced with English undertones: the kind of sound Edward Woodward might have heard downstairs in the local inn had The Wicker Man been filmed in a remote Danish village, while Sarah Lund scoured for clues in THAT jumper. Her songs are both sonically pure and grimy; there’s a shared loneliness that makes you feel that you’re not on your own as well as an honesty to the songwriting that pulls you in.

Next single ‘has more of a country feel’

Towards the end of the year, she will release another track – ‘Johanna’ – from next year’s album: ‘It has more of a country feel,’ she said. ‘It’s not based on a real life Johanna. It’s about a witch from the old days, with some undertones of feminism. The question is, is it a good witch or a bad witch? [laughs].’

Wenøe’s debut album Time of Ghosts (2017) created a lot of noise, resulting in national radio coverage in the UK and Denmark as well as shows in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, the US, England and Germany and a Danish Music Award nomination for ‘Folk Songwriter of the Year’. Her second album The Things We Don’t Know Yet, co-produced by Esben Svane in Copenhagen, was released in April 2019.

Collaborations with US artists such as country star Matt The Electrician, rock group The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Canadian country singer Nick Doneff have also helped bring her to a wider audience.

She is inspired by New Zealand-based folk singer Aldous Harding, citing her album Hand Habits and song ‘The Barrel’ (from her 2019 album Designer) as two of her favourites. ‘She has a folky background with a modern, edgy sound,’ she said. ‘You can still hear the tradition in the background but it’s really modern, too.’

Wenøe is also a big fan of Nick Drake and Patti Smith: ‘I would have loved to collaborate with Nick Drake, I think he would have been very shy, though! Patti is amazing, she has such a sexy voice and she’s such a good writer. I’d love to hear inspirational words from her – and her stories. I’d be so starstruck!’

(Photo: Magnus Knudsen)