Jenny Hval

Born :

July 11, 1980

When I write stuff that's provocative, I want people to think about that, too. I'm in between a pop musician and an artist in that way. I want people to be part of the music as they listen, but I also want them to think: What was that?

artist writing thinking

I disagree very strongly with people saying "that battle is over." If you've started a battle, I don't think it ever ends. The illusion that it's ended can reverse any good results that have come from it.

battle people thinking

When I was growing up, I would try to sing out of key very consciously. I was probably afraid of trying too hard to do something beautiful, and then I just wasn't good enough. But I've learned that I was also on the outside - wanting more challenge by living in that more conventional world.

growing-up keys beautiful

Health is so important now, it's ridiculous - the body has become frightening, this thing that will kill you if you don't keep really healthy. The body is the enemy now.

healthy important enemy

I'm not trying to be a solution or create a freer, utopian world. I think my music dreams of it, though.

dream trying thinking

I'm obsessed with voices in film. I have this memory of how people say words, even on the most intensely stupid reality TV show.

stupid memories reality

I'm constantly reading and trying to enlighten myself to how the world works in its silent ways to make everything seem normal when it's actually incredibly discriminating.

reading trying world

On an emotional level, I don't want to be a guide. I want people to hear things and experience them their own way.

levels emotional people

I've never been good at being nostalgic, and I've never been able to focus on sound without having a voice that's very here-and-now.

voice focus sound

The body should not just be something you see. It's also the inside of it. It's frightening and abstract and much more than pretty or not pretty. The shape of it is boring.

boring shapes body

I've always been so interested in the way the body feels when singing or being on stage, or being in the audience for that matter. It doesn't have to be the typical "rock" experience. It can be so much more.

typical rocks singing

When you're outside of genre, you can expose more vulnerability. by Jenny Hval

When you're outside of genre, you can expose more vulnerability.

vulnerability genre

I'm always going back and forth between wanting to do stuff that's abstract and stuff that's just telling everybody to listen.

back-and-forth abstract stuff

Norway's a very gender-aware country, and we're very liberal. There are lots of women's voices being heard here compared to many other countries.

norway voice country

I'm inspired by that rawness in very direct communication. My work is not meant to keep people happy or give them an escape.

communication giving people

Norway is pretty forward thinking in terms of gender equality, but we don't seem to practice it as well as we think. I'm constantly thinking: How much power have we really gained? We have to keep fighting to even keep what we've fought for already.

fighting practice thinking

There's a great relationship between pop music and the way the body could be seen from the inside - when I was singing or listening to music I would change shape in my head, becoming all kinds of things and people. Music is a way of making your body.

singing listening people

Gym is a center of capitalist breakdown, and everything is focuse... by Jenny Hval

Gym is a center of capitalist breakdown, and everything is focused on the individual.

breakdown capitalist individual

I'm not in any way trying to make statements that are not also invaded by emotions and abstract ideas that I don't really understand myself. It's more interesting when I can do that.

trying ideas interesting

Soft things are terrifying. They're the real signals of death. Images of strength can never be that terrifying. It's the images of weakness that are a real apocalypse.

apocalypse weakness real