Moddi, aka Pål Moddi Knutsen, is a twenty three year old singer songwriter from the remote northern Norwegian island of Senja. His music perfectly captures the essence of his native environment: The long dark nights, the Aurora Borealis and the midnight sun. His music is at times elegantly simple and eminently accessible leaving people to draw comparisons with Damian Rice, but you can’t help but feel there is more to Moddi than this simple (and unfair) comparison.
Whilst Moddi’s songwriting style can at times have a sparse, solitary feel – which must be a reflection of his early years growing up in a village of just over one hundred inhabitants – his sublime folk-edged melodies never leaves the listener forlorn.
“I have always been writing in the middle of the night, often without even seeing my own hands. The first songs came to life in the school dormitory’s showers, the only place I could hide away after everyone else had gone to sleep”
As a schoolboy he showed his musical eclecticism at an early age, playing the piano; the trumpet in the school’s marching band; bass guitar in a rock band as well as spending a little time as a rapper. At 18, utilising his mother’s old forgotten accordion – saved from the cellar at home – a stolen mandolin and a beaten up sea-blue guitar with two broken frets he performed his first ever gig.
In 2006, a friend invited him to record a demo in his bedroom studio and a run of 20 discs were produced. Copies of which eventually found their way to local radio and festivals which in turn led ultimately to interest from by:Larm. Later that year a split, white vinyl 12″ was produced together with fellow Norwegian, Einar Stray.
After moving to the capital, Moddi spent 2009 writing songs and rehearsing and in September he took his band to Reykjavik, where together with producer, Valgeir Sigurdsson (Bjork, Kate Nash etc) he recorded what would become his debut album, ‘Floriography’
Download: Moddi’s – ‘Magpie Eggs’
‘Floriography’ will be released in the UK on April 18th.
