A conversation with Brimheim

“Being alive is hard!” says Brimheim. And she is probably right. Through her music, the brave Danish singer opens up about her fears and insecurities and precisely that may be one of the reasons why her songs seems to be connecting with people so well. Her ever present existential crisis has given birth to a beautiful world of music where weeping guitars and deep, intimate vocals make time stand still.

Copenhagen based musician and songwriter Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff chose Brimheim (home of the breaking waves) as her stage name as an homage to her Faroese roots. At the beginning of June she happened to be in Berlin together with Rebecca Lou and GRETA and I had the opportunity to spend some minutes with her at the office of Better Things, the PR Agency that organized together with the label W.A.S. Entertainment, a showcase with the three artists based in Copenhagen signed to the Danish label. This is the conversation we had back then.

If you had to situate a beginning in your relationship with music, where would you place it or what would be your first memory of it?

Brimheim: “My mom is a musician and she had a little home studio in our apartment in Copenhagen when I was growing up and she would like to scream in there and fuck around with stuff and it was always very encouraging. But the first musical experience I had with her, where I really felt some kind of special resonance was when she taught me to do a harmony voice on a Christmas hymn. I just remember feeling that it was so magical to do that just with voices. Then when I got a little bit older, when I was around twelve, I started being a bit more rebellious and I discovered more guitar based rock music, and I just felt that really fed my soul. There's just a certain kind of expressionism and liberty within rock music that just really spoke to me as a young teenager. And then I've pursued music ever since. Got a guitar and started playing songs.”

With the live music scene still in a daze after almost two blank years, have you noticed any changes between before and after this forced hiatus?

Brimheim: “It's a little bit hard for me to say because I started my professional career in 2020, so at the height of everything and I've just been waiting to get out there. So I don't really have much of a before and after sense, at least as a professional musician. So, for me, I'm just really excited that now I get to play shows and get to go to the festivals. With that said, though, there have been a little bit of issues cause people are acting a little bit differently now. For example, they don't buy show tickets in advance. They'll just, like, show up if they figure out on the day that they wanna go. And that's, of course, a little bit of a challenge when you're trying to market a product and see how people are going to want this. But, I mean, I've been fortunate that there's been a good turnout for me this year.”

In 2022 Brimheim released her debut album ‘can’t hate myself into a different shape’, a very personal collection of songs very easy to connect with because the struggles she sings about can be anyone’s struggles. The lyrics can be anxious, filled with confusion and vulnerability, but the sadness is always accompanied by humor and hope. You openly talk about your vulnerabilities which is brave but also scary. Is writing from such a personal place healing or cathartic and doesn’t exposing yourself so much scare you?

Brimheim: “Yeah, absolutely. I think writing and doing music has become sort of a necessity for me. I use it very therapeutically and of course, I've had vulnerability hangovers from sharing through the music some of these things that might be a little bit taboo to talk about, but at the same time I feel like music is the perfect vessel to hold those things because in my songs I might have words or parts of it that are metaphorical or outright fabrication. So it creates this poetic filtration of those really raw, real human struggles. But because music is the vessel, it becomes sort of a universalizing thing. And for that reason, I feel like I connect on a deep level to people through that, especially when I perform live.”

That’s very true and it can be a great example for a lot of people out there struggling, to see that an artist feels like them and is not afraid to be open about it. Especially in these times where the exposure and impact of social media is overwhelming and very rarely shows real lives.

Brimheim: “It's so true. And I think about this often and in some ways I'm no better myself in my social media channels because it's a marketing tool and I use it to market my music. But everything looks so glossy and perfect and that's just not the reality of being a human being. There are things that are mundane, there are things that are ugly, there are things that are terrible. And then, of course, there's also really joyful and beautiful things. But it becomes a very, very narrow slice of people's lives that we see and compare ourselves to. So I really want to be an antidote to that through the music that I make.”

And speaking about mental health, how did these two past years influence both you and your music?

Brimheim: “I think this whole lockdown period a couple of years ago especially, it was such a reset button or a time to really pause and reflect because we were all forced to. And that can be really hard. That can be rough because you're filling your life in your day to day, like in the before times with stuff to maybe make you not think about all the crap you have to deal with inside. And all of a sudden there was no room to do that. I think that's also why that was the period in which I wrote the songs for the album, that it was really a time to look inward. And that, of course, that has influenced a lot of culture that has come out of these couple of years.”

And now that we are talking about the album, I have to say that I really like the cover. It’s very simple but very powerful. Who's behind it? 

Brimheim: “Me, it's all my artwork. I think I always had this vision of my first album featuring my own drawings. That's like a way I unwind often. I just draw these silly little things and I think it fits the vibe. It's very kind of honest.” 

You are in Berlin today because of the so-called CPH x BLN showcase that you’re playing at together with GRETA and Rebecca Lou at Privatclub. A great up-and-coming artists based in Copenhagen, signed to the Danish label W.A.S. Entertainment. And precisely W.A.S. seems to be very human and committed to authenticity. How has it been working with them and which role are they playing in your career?

Brimheim: “Oh, I mean, great. They've been such a facilitator for my career, which is going really well. So I'm really forever grateful for that and for being able to be a place of community for its artists.  So I really do appreciate that a lot.”

To start finishing, festnoise is about music but especially about music festivals so in this regard I always like to ask what your experience with festivals is. 

Brimheim: “I love festivals. They've been such a formative experience for me growing up. From when I was 16 to 26, I think I went every year to Roskilde Festival and for even longer to the G! Festival in the Faroe Islands, which is a really incredible and underrated festival. So I feel like it's such a space for an exploration of freedom, being someone totally free that you're not in your everyday life and it's just fair game. And there's like a lot of love and joy and expression connected to that. So as a festival goer, that was a major part of my youth.” 

And as an artist, where have you had the chance to play and what is the festival that you dream to play at?

Brimheim: “As a performer I played my first big festival last weekend, a festival called Heartland Festival in Denmark which is a little bit bougie or uppity but I think that was just perfect for me. I was playing at the same time as another really popular Danish band and I thought that of course everybody's going to go to that show so I didn't know what to expect. But then the stage was in this little forested area right by the lake and had a beautiful light installation. I also had the perfect time slot because I started playing while the sun was still up and the set ended when the sun had set. So I was watching the sunset as I was playing in this beautiful area and the audience was the most attentive and engaged audience I think I've ever played for maybe with one sole exception. So I can't wait to do more. I'm playing Roskilde's Festival for the first time in a few days and of course that's a big one for me because that's been such a staple of my youth. And then I'm playing Iceland Airwaves which has also been a dream of mine since I was 14 years old. I'm so fortunate, I feel so lucky in life.”

Learn more about Brimheim by visiting her official website, following her on Instagram or listening to her music on Spotify.