Posted on February 24, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

Only Niko Knows

Another little star from Bergen’ Sky. Falling in love with Princess Niko‘ songs was preatty easy. Smart and intimate lyrics on evocative and elaborate melodies, with istant classics such as “Lost becomes forever“, “Polycotton Drama” and “The Broken Paper-Heart Club”, I started to loop each of his tunes trying to keep on catching the gist of his tiny intimate word. Quite a while after having seen him playing bass for “Soda Fountain Rag” in Italy, here it is back againg for a little interview.

Mark Zonda: When did you become aware that you had become an artist and who were your musical and fictional models?

Niko: In all these years of making music in Princess Niko, I can’t say that I ever felt like an artist, nor am I one. I still feel my music is under development, and all my ideas and songs are like microscopic ladders to the stars, or where I want to take my music one day. I am proud of my songs and do like them very much, but in my opinion, I’d have to create a self-claimed masterpiece before I can ever feel like an artist of any kind. If you have just started to try to write a book and only got 1/15th of the book written, you wouldn’t call yourself a writer without feeling like a phony.My musical/fictional models – I am still heavily influenced and inspired by an unmentionable band I constantly listened to during my high school years. But it’s no longer the music itself that inspires me; it’s my interpretation of the music at that time, the scenery it created in my mind and the notion of a truth/pureness that I no longer hear in this band. If you make a balloon-zebra animal to a kid, he doesn’t see it like a balloon, he sees it as a magical wonderful zebra that’s real. This thing has always been something unreachable that I’ve been searching for in my music. So in other words, my fictional model is a zebra shaped balloon.

Mark Zonda: There’s a cinamatographic taste on the arrangement of your songs. In which movie would you like to see a Princess Niko song?

Niko: I’m happy to hear that! I would like to see a song of mine in a depressing high school movie about this suicidal misfit kid who falls in love with someone who’s a bit nice to him, but mainly unreachable(anyone in the world besides Molly Ringwald). It also includes some adorable high school-ball dancing and kissing-scenes and a dress up party where the kid dresses up like a zebra and cut his wrists in a filled bathtub on the top of a car. Starring a young and very sedated John Cusack on anti-anti-depressive. My song would be playing when he’s daydreaming about the high school ball, where he dances around with many other zebras(people in disguises), being like, the happiest moment of the movie. I would also like to have my music in a documentary about zebras. I like zebras.

Mark Zonda: How do you think a zebra would see Princess Niko?

Niko: I think a zebra would consider giving up his/hers ‘I don’t want to be (pet)friends with anyone but zebras’-nonsense and become the best friend for my fictional character.

Mark Zonda: Have you ever heard the Australian band called The Zebras?

Niko: Never. I don’t think I’m going to check it out. Sometimes other people’s ideas collide too much with mine, and makes living less fun.

Mark Zonda: Is there any Norwegian director who would be able to shoot an indie version of Donnie Darko?

Niko: God, I hope not. Oh no! Did the movie I mention sound like Donnie Darko? I can’t stand that movie. Ok, instead of zebra costumes, people just paint black and white stripes in their faces, and Molly Ringwald can be in it anyway. The movie will also be filmed with an overused vhs-cassette so there’s these charming pitch-variations in sound and two constantly annoying whitegrey lines on the top of the screen to make it feel authentic.

Mark Zonda: Making pop songs come true: have you developed a precise method or there’s still space for creativity while building a song?

Niko: I’ve developed different creative approaches and learned these funny cliché elements that I often try to implement in the songs, but in no way does a precise method work – I’ve tried. Complete randomness is the best thing in the world for me to stay interested and to make something I like. When a random great moment happens and I’m prepared enough to take advantage of it, I usually laugh out loud and start flattering myself in a whispering voice. So to answer your questions more concise: No, yes.

Mark Zonda: Don’t ask me why, but I think of you as Cornelius proxi for Cloudberry Records. Is there any japanese pop artist that you like or has inspired you?

Niko: No. Not yet. What is a proxi?

Mark Zonda: A proxi is the closest substitute of an original thing that can’t be at hand in the moment you need it or a copy you use to preserve the original safe. Such as the copy of a key. Id est: Elvis Costello in the past has been a proxi for John Lennon in the writing process with Paul McCartney. Which artist would you like to write a song with?

Niko: Oh, I see. I never liked the word substitute. She’s maybe not an artist yet, but I would like to write songs with my sister, Wendy. Wendy’s very smart and got great taste in what’s cool and fun. She’s good in whatever she’s doing, but unfortunately she’s a very busy person. I believe she would have been a great songwriter to write with. She’d be my Asher or Usher.

Mark Zonda: Can an artist really own a song? Which is the best version of Halleluja you ever listened to?

Niko: Can! I guess it’s been easier for artists to be the sole owners of both the songs and the recordings, as people in the last decade have gotten aware of how to record themselves at home. And it’s also tear-droppingly nice with many of the indiepop-labels that their main goals are seemingly to be messengers of music they love and won’t screw you over. I’m not that into labels and these things, so I’m afraid I’m perhaps stating something obvious and outdated. The best version of Halleluja.. Being as far off from all the cover versions concerning sound, I prefer the original. All the covers are just another example of people taking something nice and turning it into an ugly reflection of itself. Not that the song is that good anyway, but seeing how things and people are, I think it would be justified that if I were to make something I myself would call a masterpiece, I’d never let anyone else listen to it and keep it safe to myself as the most wonderful secret.

Mark Zonda: What’s the point in writing a song?

Niko: For me it’s to make myself happy. It’s also something I feel is natural in my every-day to do. What’s the point of me writing a song other than my own happiness? I believe that I got the ability to one day create something super, and if I decide to share it that day, then I’m sure at least a couple of people would find some joy in it. And of course, like everyone I would also like to get some sort of acknowledgement and success, and to be able to make a living out of it, but this is not the reason I write a song – It’s what I think about after writing it.

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