Tuva Syvertsen’s “hangover hit” was created by real drunkenness – Kultur

She is 15 minutes late for the interview and has coffee in a jam jar.

– Busy morning?
– No, not particularly, but there are a lot of things during the day, says Tuva.

At the beginning of April, she will co-chair the Spellemannprisen 2024.

– I’m looking forward to it, assa. Has not been a presenter before. Gonna get my joviality going a bit now, hehe.

At the same time, the band, Valkyrien Allstars, is working on the sequel to the album “Slutte å byne” (2020). It will arrive during the autumn, but is not finished.

It is a lot of stuff to be landed. Lyrics, messages, songs.

– We have a lot of ideas floating around, so now we need to get hold of them – get them down and place everything where it belongs.

They have some catching up to do. The “Slutte å byne” record was very well received.

“This looks suspiciously like a masterpiece”, Tor Hammerø wrote in Nettavisen and rolled a six. “The author takes his hat off to you, troll tongue,” wrote Tore Renberg in Klassekampen.

“Slutte å byne” won the spelling bee award in the vice class.

The record’s most popular song (the title track “Slutte å byne”) came as a result of one of Tuva Syvertsen’s worst days.

The story behind it hangover anthem “Stop drinking”

It happened in 2017. The band ended a longer Norwegian tour during Folkemusikveka in Ål in Hallingdal. It developed into a (according to Tuva) heeled feast. Nachspielet was on top of the Chinese restaurant in the village. There was heavy drinking – people stood and rocked on the edge of the roof while peeing on the ground.

– That nobody died, I hardly understand. It was way down, ass.

The next day I woke up somewhere in the hotel – heavily dazed.

Drunkenness
Headache.
Where is the fiddle?
Bus by train…
F¤*#!

– And when I walked out of the hotel door… Well, that puff down. We’re talking doomsday weather.

She ended up on a full bus. Bag, fiddle (she found it!), hungover, exhausted and repentant.

– I don’t remember if I had done something wrong or not, but I did genuine drunkenness I had to get it out of your system.

And out it came. Tuva raised her mace and hammered down everything she wanted to stop, while the bus wound its way down highway 7, along the Hallingdalsvassdraget – back home to the capital.

Must stop being so out
Stop being so mean-spirited
Stop being such a jerk
Honest
Stop being so goddamn goddamn
Stop flirting
Stop feeling

… and so on. (She will end up with about 39 things in this song.)

A couple of days later, she took the quit list to the rehearsal room. Together with Martin (drums) and Erik (guitar), they began to work out the song “Slutte å byne”.

The song is kind of split in two.

First half: Everything to be peeled away from life.
Second half: A little more that needs to go away, but with increasing positive buoyancy & everything that needs to be done in in life.

It became a hit, a day-after anthem and a song the band never gets tired of playing live.

– It’s especially fun when I see ladies in the audience singing along to the lyrics “stop being a useless pussy”, says Tuva and laughs.

The lyrics of the Valkyrie Allstars are often quite… direct. Tuva is concerned that it should be understandable and sober. (“A low center of gravity is important.”)

– I have to be able to say the phrases I sing. It has to make sense even without music, if you understand?

“I’m going to stop being a useless cunt” works without music. It does.

A new audience emerged

Ever since their debut album in 2007, the Valkyrie Allstars have had a varied, not very large, but persistent audience. Here is a fun picture from the first time they appeared on Norwegian TV screens: