OH LAND: The Exploration Of A Rising Pop Star

I have constant creative energy; being in a slump or “dry spell” would be unusual for me; however, singer, songwriter, and performer Oh Land has hit a re-inspiration button close to home. It’s been said more than once that art is often derived from great pain, and from personal experience, this is true. In the case of this emerging Denmark pop artist, this declaration is harrowingly real. “It wasn’t until my injury that I started making music in my bedroom. When I finally played it for my friends and family, they were like ‘why haven’t you done this before?”

A slipped disc and spinal fracture was caused in her lower lumbar from training as a ballet dancer; a physical damage that took two years to repair – much like my own. “You start so young as a dancer and push your body so hard…it was very tough”. Oh Land says, “Music was the thing that allowed me to still dance and be alive without moving my body. It became my savior in a way”. In her video Sun Of A Gun, her dancing genes are visibly easy to pin-point.

I also started making music in my bedroom, (when nothing else seems more futuristic than the quiet sanctuary of your thoughts all day and all night long.) I began using my voice/vocalization to inspire choreographic movement, rather than being influenced by traditional records. When listening to pre-recorded sound, my disabled body was unable to fulfill the atmosphere I was hearing and feeling physically; I figured out that if I danced to my own voice, my own breath, the default peer pressure was removed.

I thought, “How cool is this? How absolutely original, for no one could possibly produce this sound…I’m the only one. And no one could produce this movement with this sound”. I felt like a giddy 12 year old, realizing the phenomena of clashing two forms of artistic expression in one present moment.