About Garness
When Garness held their release-concert September 22nd last year, the Soria Moria theatre in Oslo was filled to the brim with exited fans. This night was the Grande Finale of a five year long history towards the creation of the new record. The journey started with a visit to The Rocky Mountains, then brought them further to song writing sessions and recording in the “city of country” - Nashville, where they got to work with well-respected and distinguished producers and managers. However, the turning point of the story should eventually come back in Norway, in a small living room in Oslo, where the girls equipped with a Mac, a microphone and a sound card created The Good or Better Side of Things. This record is Garness' contribute to make a world filled with worries into a slightly lighter place, put together with a spicy melody feeling, a spot of stubbornness, a sprinkle of self-irony, and a huge portion of sisterly love.
The duo GARNESS consists of the two twin sisters Ingelin Reigstad Norheim and Hildegunn Garnes Reigstad (b.1984). The girls grew up in a home filled with music on Holsnøy outside Bergen, where the piano play could be heard through the walls in the late hours. They wrote their first songs at the age of 5, inspired by both dad and grandmother. Nineteen years later, and with hundreds of stage performances on their record, the debut album finally arrived. “Playful, melodious and original”, “a record to settle down with” and “pop-rock that challenge you without being exasperating”, are some of the critiques published in the Norwegian media.
The girls know a thing or two about being knocked over by disappointments, and have learned how to crawl forward in ascent. Above all, have they learned, what most others who want to gain a livelihood in the music industry sooner or later has to acknowledge, that there is no easy way to success. To reach your goals requires hard work and discipline. To learn to live in the balance between dreaming, yearning and enjoying, whilst you dare to attack the challenges you are facing without suppressing or running away from them is a lifelong project, which also characterizes their lyrics. The identical twins both acknowledge forces in their personality that can threaten to get the upper hand; an extreme perfectionism and a tendency towards pessimism. To write songs is also about getting to know your self a bit more, and the girls are of an understanding that when you are genuine and honest about life in your lyrics, you can also start communicating on a level where the listener and the artist meet as “old mates”.
It is exactly this meeting with the audience the duo like the most of being artists. Since 2003 the girls have gone all out on the music business. This has involved innumerable concerts and performances in Norway, but also Denmark, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Austria. When the girls are on stage, you will be impressed by their natural charm, presence, talented plunking and shaking on all kinds of string instruments and percussion things, and not at least the genuine vocal ensemble that influences their music. The duo likes variation in their performances, from calm settings where the voices only are accompanied by simple guitar play, to expressions that sparkles with a whole band in their back.
In the time ahead, concert bookings and promotion of the debut album are still a part of their programme, but sooner or later the girls need again to step into the creative mode and think of song materials for the follow-up. It will be exiting to see what direction Garness' expression will move into. The rumour says that Garness wish to give room for more “creak and tousle” on their next project. One thing is certain: the twins will not go solo right away...
Garness during the recording of Sweet forgotten dreams a late winter night in their living room studio at Torshov, Oslo. Photography: Torjus Vierli