Interview with Magnolia Red: ‘The main idea was to make a rootsy album where anything could happen’

Ålesund, Norway-based Americana band, Magnolia Red, brought out their first full-length album, Ancient River, last year, a guitar-driven offering with thoughtful, heartfelt tracks about broken dreams and relationships that stand the test of time. This year, they are hoping to bring out a new EP.

The band comprises Frank Bjørdal (vocals and guitars), Roy-Jostein Fiskerstrand (guitars and vocals), Kristian Blø Olsen (pedal/lap steel guitars and vocals), Eyvinn Magnus Solberg (bass and vocals) and Kim André Engeset (drums). Fiskerstrand admits that they struggled to pick a name: ‘It’s hard to find a good name that’s not taken but our name hints at a colour, kind of like Deep Purple. It’s enigmatic, when you hear it, you don’t know what music we’ll play.’

When they set out to make Ancient River, they didn’t want to impose any constraints: ‘We had a kind of plan as to how we wanted it to sound but then things happen in the studio,’ Bjørdal said. ‘The main idea was to make a rootsy album where anything could happen, to be experimental.’

‘Never Let Me Go’, one of the catchiest songs on the album, includes lyrics written by Øyvind Nybø, a friend of theirs, who also wrote the lyrics to two other tracks on the album, ‘Everybody’s Sound‘ and ‘Jericho’. ‘Actually, ‘Never Let Me Go’ almost didn’t make it,’ Fiskerstrand laughed. ‘We were disappointed with the initial mix. It needed some changes, it was too slow.’ Bjørdal jumps in: ‘According to Øyvind, it’s a story about human relations; two individuals having different views of the same thing; one thinks everything is fine and cannot see why the other wants to change things up. It’s fragments from various observations, more than one coherent story.’

One of the most powerful tracks on the album is ‘Ancient River’, a beautiful yet melancholic song that interweaves several stories of people and their lives by a river, including that of a widower who walks along the riverbank and cries: ‘It’s based on stories from my hometown, Sjøholt, and the river that runs through it,’ Bjørdal explained. ‘The stories are part fact, part fiction and the river can be seen as a symbol of the never ending stream of shattered dreams and souls that get lost on the way through life.’

However, other tracks are more upbeat and hopeful, including ‘Loving Kind’ and ‘Heart Street’. Essentially, ‘Heart Street’ – a very Springsteen-like track – is about hope, in whatever form that takes and the feeling that something is about to change for the better. The song originally came out of the driving intro guitar riff, which fosters a sense of hopeful expectation. ‘Loving Kind’ is a very guitar-driven track with warm harmonies and bass work, which was written by Bjørdal for his wife: ‘I wrote ‘Loving Kind’ as a thank you to my wife Sigrid for staying with me through the ups and down over the years and questioning where I would be without her; the difficulties of finding real love, a love that lasts and only grows stronger as time passes. And as much in life, coincidences and luck play a big part, so to find the “one”, can, as we all know, be really hard,’ he said.

‘Collectively, we’ll try and craft a song into something good’

‘Frank contributes the most music and lyrics, he’s the most productive out of us,’ Fiskerstrand laughed. ‘Collectively, we’ll try and craft a song into something good.’

Magnolia Red describe themselves as being ‘the result of such a musical giants cauldron, strongly influenced by the diverse and harsh Norwegian North West, mountains, storms and silence are reflected in a dynamic and varied musical universe that is described as both recognizable and different at the same time’.

Freedom to create without limitations, and unity over individualism are the core values that were laid out when the four original members started Magnolia Red in January 2017. In mid-2020, original drummer Ronny Blomvik was replaced by Kim André Engeset, and Kristian Blø Olsen was added to the line-up on pedal and lap steel guitars, further expanding the band’s soundscape.

Interestingly, their sound has evolved a lot since their self-titled debut EP in 2018, which was noticeably less guitar-driven than their recent songs. ‘It’s not a conscious thing, it’s just organic,’ Bjørdal said. ‘We do songs quite quickly to see which ones we like. We initially had about 25 songs and only 10 of those ended up on Ancient River. Some of them will likely make it onto another full-length album, hopefully next year, but we also have a lot of other new songs which we are eager to present.’

They’re all Springsteen fans. Fiskerstrand cites The Band and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers as some of his bigger influences, whereas Bjørdal is a big fan of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. ‘We’re all about taking influences and blending them together to see what comes out!,’ Fiskerstrand said. ‘Deep down, there are a lot of other influences too. Frank and Kim have played in various blues bands and my background involves more classic rock like (Black) Sabbath, (Led) Zeppelin and (Deep) Purple.’ One of Fiskerstrand’s all-time favourite Norwegian bands is Motorpsycho, and Engeset currently is currently listening to Norwegian band Mighty Magnolias: ‘We’re not very far apart, musically,’ he said. Discussing the Norwegian music scene, they also cite folk band Darling West, folk singer Malin Petersen, indie pop band Highasakite and pop star, Sigrid.

Bands even make their way into their dreams and Engeset recounts a particularly funny one: ‘I dreamed I was drumming with The Stones and my mind went blank and I didn’t know what to do next!’