Oslo, Norway based Frøkedal nears closer to forthcoming sophomore effort ‘How We Made It’, today releasing the album’s summer-ready lead cut ‘Treehouse’. The track is breezy, though no less brutal – as the opening line may suggest – with a visually inspired lyric that details a mischievous plot to tear down a tree-topped kingdom.
“Treehouse was inspired by a six year old kid who tore his older brother’s treehouse to pieces without knowing he was being watched,” singer/songwriter Anne Lise Frøkedal explains. “Even if it seems meaningless and silly, the joyful mischief of it feels strangely familiar.”
“This idea – or this way of behaving – kind of translates to everyone at some point. Sometimes it just feels better to tear stuff up. Or maybe, tearing stuff down for others feels better than building up your own,” she says. “You’re doing something and you know you’re gonna get in trouble for it but it’s better somehow – you just want to be part of the game.”
The track follows Frøkedal’s Pitchfork-praised single ‘I Don’t Care’ (“a cheeky, mid-tempo breakup song that shifts between the defiant detachment and hot-headed resentment”); joining previous singles, and fellow album cuts, 'Stranger’, ‘Cracks’ and ‘Believe’.
Far from the acoustic sensibilities of her earlier material, new album ‘How We Made It’ – released August 31 via Propeller Recordings – signals an arguably more “mature” sound, combining full band with folk-leaning string sections. Though the instrumental approach feels more expansive and fully fledged, the album is thematically inspired Frøkedal's more "immature" personal traits, by her own admission – detailing “unfiltered, impulsive thoughts and actions fuelled by everything from fear, love and deep passion to red hot anger.”
“When I started writing this new material, I was picturing different ages or stages in our lives when our vision gets a little blurred,” she says. “I wanted the songs (and the characters) to channel these critical moments when decisions are dominated by emotion and not necessarily by logic.”
‘How We Made It’ serves a worthy successor to Frøkedal’s Norwegian Grammy-nominated debut LP of 2016, Hold On Dreamer’, with her cumulative catalogue celebrated by the likes of The New Yorker, The Fader, The Sunday Times, The Independent, DIY Magazine, CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit, Q Magazine and many more.
