Norwegian pop singer Dagny spent years trying to get that coveted, but hard come by, “big break” onto the music scene. After finishing school, she worked to fund a desire to travel. She interailed around Europe and did a coast-to-coast trip across the US, before ending up in London.
Based in the English capital, she spent years gigging there and everywhere else, from her home country of Norway to Austria and Thailand. Unfortunately, she never reaped the rewards she was looking for at the time.
Eventually, around 2016, she decided to go to university in Norway and change paths a little, but not before releasing one more EP. The popularity of one single released from the EP took Dagny completely by surprise.
“It was just as I had planned to go back to school in Norway, then we did this final EP I was going to release. One of the songs was called Backbeat. When it was released everything exploded overnight,” Dagny recalls.
When it was released, it was like, what happens now? We had no idea. Even having worked for years, I was completely unprepared for it
“It’s really strange, as we were releasing it, Apple Music called to say they wanted to premiere it. Suddenly, we were getting calls from Universal offices in New York and Los Angeles. We were flown out.
“We didn’t have the art work ready. We had no idea what we were doing basically. When it was released, it was like, what happens now? We had no idea. Even having worked for years, I was completely unprepared for it. I had another steep learning curve after that and the rest has been such a journey ever since.”
An acoustic version of Backbeat ended up featuring on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Dagny did half a year of university online, before deciding to fully dedicate her time to grabbing this opportunity in the music business.
It also definitely didn’t turn out to be her last EP. Recently Dagny released her debut album, Strangers/Lovers, on her own record label, Little Daggers Records. Having complete control over the album was something she very much enjoyed.
Music in the blood
Dagny grew up in Tromsø, a city in the north of Norway. She is in Oslo when she takes this call. To illustrate how far she is from her native city, she explains that the distance between Tromsø and Oslo is the same as that between Oslo and Rome!
Music is something Dagny has been exposed to from a young age. Her mother is a singer and her father is a guitarist.
Focusing mostly on jazz and bossa nova (a style of samba), their music is very different to hers. However, this hasn’t stopped their influence creeping in.
As a kid you dream about all the stuff that’s not there in front of you and music was always right there in front of me, I guess
“Recently we’ve discovered, despite the fact that our music is so different, I think I have definitely been more influenced by their style of music than I think. Some of the songs on the record that I’ve just released, you can see there’s a little bit of their influence,” Dagny says. “I think without really realising it, their style of music has definitely affected what I’m naturally drawn to.”
Interestingly, Dagny feels she came around to the idea of a career in music quite late, at around 16, because it was something she was always exposed to.
“As a kid you dream about all the stuff that’s not there in front of you and music was always right there in front of me, I guess. So, it just took a moment for me to discover that I wanted to do music as well. What kicked that off actually was song writing. It wasn’t that I wanted to necessarily perform and be a singer, I wanted to song write.”
Song writing is something that has stood to Dagny. Her song, Love You Like That, was the inspiration for Katy Perry’s 2019 hit, Never Really Over. Katy Perry contacted Dagny to say her song provided inspiration and she was delighted to be credited on the track.
Languages
As a child, Dagny wrote poems in Norwegian, but when she began song writing as a teenager, she wrote in English.
“It’s probably because we grew up with music from the UK and the US. Everything I listened to was in English, so it never felt natural to me to write music in Norwegian and I never have. I think sometimes that’s the charm when you’re Norwegian and you try to speak another language, sometimes you come up with a nice, unique metaphor.”
Our job is based around getting people together and having fun. Hugging and singing and having beers. You don’t really get that in a lot of other areas
Dagny is not a stranger to Irish music either. As well as playing her own gigs here, she supported Picture This for five nights in the 3Area and also warmed up for The Coronas previously.
When possible, like very many, Dagny is looking forward to getting back out playing shows, helping to bring a bit of light hearted fun to everyone.
“Our job is based around getting people together and having fun. Hugging and singing and having beers. You don’t really get that in a lot of other areas.”