Insight Interview: Inuuro

Following on from their debut EP release ‘Passage’ on Insight Music, Norwegian trio Inuuro share words on their production style, collaborating as a trio and their journey into the cosmos.

We are delighted to present an Insight Interview with the trio, where we delve deeper into their musical background and current production style, giving us the opportunity to get to know them better!

Inuuro, it’s great to have you here! Please tell us a little about yourself.

Thanks for having us! Inuuro consists of three childhood friends from Norway. Alexander (the one writing), Ludvig and Oskar. We are originally from a coastal city named Stavanger in the south of Norway, but we are spread all over the country as we speak. Both Ludvig and Oskar work in IT, while I work in higher education. We started Inuuro in 2012, and we still keep at it as a great way to stay in touch and work with our passion, which namely is music.

Can you remember some of your earliest musical memories? What does music mean to you?

We all have very different experiences in that regard, so it is difficult to pinpoint a very specific memory. Music for us represents friendship and passion. We use music to stay in touch, and we have so many shared experiences working creatively with each other from our earlier days, and these experiences still affects us to this day in our everyday life. I think we all have a lot of creativity that needs some release, and music helps in that regard.

“‘Passage’ is meant to represent travel. Every track in this EP represents traveling from a different perspective.”

Where do you draw your musical inspiration from?

Inuuro has always been genre crossing, as we draw inspiration from ambient, chillwave, deep house, post-rock etc. Some of our shared favourite artists are Tycho, Teen daze, Mura Masa, Solar Fields and Blue Sky Black Death. We also draw a lot of inspiration from field recordings of nature and deep space.

How does the creative process begin as a trio? Do all members contribute to the production of every song?

We are all independent producers, so we do both create stuff independently and as a group. We do all share in the creative process of every track, as we have different strengths and viewpoints that all culminates in a product we proudly can present as Inuuro. It is interesting to see how similar our creative process has become over time, and this all falls down to those hundreds of hours of shared experiences through our youths after school just creating and having fun.

What is the musical culture like for those of us who don’t reside in Norway?

That is a very difficult question to answer (and I do not think necessarily we are the best persons to answer that question either). We would say it is quite varied, and there is something for everyone to enjoy. The ambient scene is maybe a bit small in some way, so we hope that more artists join the roster going forward (but again, we could be very wrong, so apologies in advance to everyone that really felt that statement to the core)

Can you provide a description of your most recent EP, ‘Passage? Did you explore any new elements or venture into a different musical territory compared to your previous works?

‘Passage‘ is meant to represent travel. Every track in this EP represents traveling from a different perspective. ‘Andromeda Rover’ represents the deep unknowns of the galaxy, and to some degree I would say that scenes from the movie interstellar certainly played a part in the visual inspiration for the track. We don’t quite know what’s out there, and that’s what makes this form of traveling interesting. It’s more a voyage of the imagination to some degree, as we continue to imagine what’s out there.

I personally visited Mount San Jacinto in 2018 in a trip to states. It’s quite a fascinating place with beautiful landscapes in California, and while I played around with some new synths I immediately discovered some flutes that for some reason took me back to Mount San Jacinto. So the track ‘Mount San Jacinto’ represents a personal passage in some way, or personal travel. A way to both honor and encapsulate the feeling I had when I visited back in 2018.

‘Return Home’ might have more of a coastal inspiration, as it draws from travel by ship. I actually envisioned a poor family from the west coast of Norway in the 1800s, and how someone desperately wishes for the safe return of their loved ones out at sea. There is a darker tone in that track that I really like, and we really got to stretch melodies to their limits for that very specific ‘drone’ sound that we like. I also think that we pushed some personal boundaries when it comes to sound design on this EP, as we really tried to reach new heights in our soundscapes (hopefully).

“It is interesting to see how similar our creative process has become over time, and this all falls down to those hundreds of hours of shared experiences through our youths after school just creating and having fun.:

Is there a single from the EP you’re most proud of?

We love all of the tracks as they all tell their own story. We hope that everyone that listens to our EP find their own favourite. I would maybe add that ‘Return Home’ tells such a strong audio-visual story for me, so that might just stick out as a personal favourite in some sense. It’s not often our creative process starts out with such a vivid visual image as that track did, so it’s quite fascinating to see that we as producers actually can put visual imagination to life through our music.

What music are you currently enjoying at the moment?

We thought that we all could recommend one artist each. We are currently listening to Jaguar Sun , Pocket and Solar Fields. Small shoutout to the Norwegian artist Tremolo that we discovered through Insight Music.

Any words of wisdom for new producers looking to release their own music?

Inuuro has not taken over the world (yet..haha), so we might not have all best answers. We would certainly say that playing around with different genres could evolve your sound to new heights. We have always played around / released in different spheres, and we continue to do so. In that way we keep our sound “fresh” in some way (maybe), and we draw inspiration from each genre that all culminates into Inuuro. But again, everyone have their own journey, so just keep at it. The most important thing is to work on is your sound, and everyone has one, so we wish you all the luck in the world.

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Big thank you to Inuuro for the lovely interview! We’d love for you to show thanks to the artist by supporting them on the following platforms:

Soundcloud | Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook