Petrus Nordh is an artist from Gothenburg, Sweden who has a hard grooving current sound that contains traces of new pop, retro funk and old soul. Using a guitar tuning of his own invention, he’s playing both guitar and bass at the same time and later adding vocals, keyboard and percussion. He writes about the things that haunts him like the fear of failure, stress and a longing for a calm state of mind. His EPs ”Too Free EP” and ”Break In Half” was released in 2017 and now for 2018 he’s releasing a new single every month of the year.
Blank Piece Of Paper is the second single of 2018 from Swedish “Loner Funk” musician Petrus Nordh.
Using a guitar tuning of his own invention, he’s playing both guitar and bass at the same time and later adding vocals, keyboard and percussion. Its syncopated, latin tinged funk groove is mainly influenced by D’Angelo, Charlie Hunter and Sly & The Family Stone while the lyrics deal with the creative process and realizing nothing will be done if you don’t just start!
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Petrus about challenges, motivations, the new release and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Gothenburg, Sweden where I’ve lived most of my life. The music I make is groove focused and meant to make you bob your head and press replay.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
When I started out as a singer-songwriter I used to play much more ballad type songs and i kind of grew tired of it, for me, a ballad or two in between more rhythmic songs are way more effective and fun to perform. My guitar tuning also makes groove based music interesting to play since I play some funky sort of counterpoint usually, kind of like bass and guitar at the same time. I try to blend this kind of guitar playing with pop songs basically, to hopefully make something personal, unique and enjoyable.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
I focused more on melodies when writing this song and the latin influenced percussion is sort of new for me. I also wanted to make sure that I can make the song justice to some degree when performing live, playing bass lines and guitar lines simultaneously while singing. A couple of tracks from my EP ”Break In Half” are virtually impossible to play live ”correctly” as long as I don’t hire a much bigger band!
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age?
A challenge for me is getting on peoples radars, being heard, this continually makes me step up my game regarding songwriting, productivity and online presence. These are in fact some of the reasons why I wrote and recorded this song, it’s the second song I have released so far this year and it’s a part of challenge a friend and I am doing. We’ve decided to each release/publish something every month of the year, I’m recoding songs and he’s writing short stories. It really helps to have that kind of motivation and hopefully my increased output will mean more exposure.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
I’m mostly active on my Facebook page and all my music is out on all the regular streaming services, online music stores as well as Bandcamp. Connect with me there and you’ll be notified when I’m releasing more music.
- www.facebook.com/PetrusNordh1
- https://open.spotify.com/album/1DASk2J4F3GVxzhmqJpDT4
- http://soundcloud.com/petrusnordh
- https://petrusnordh.bandcamp.com
Anything else before we sign off?
I just want to say thank you so much for having me and for your support!
