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The new album - You Gotta Get Ready
Nordgarden is back with his fourth album “You Gotta Get Ready”.

After over three years out on the road and an endless line of gigs and tours all over Europe and the US the emigrated songwriter originally from Hamar, Norway is back with a solid album, with roots that clutch deeply into the history of American music embracing warmly the styles of country, blues and folk. Along the coasts of California and the North East he has found his way back to his musical roots once setting on a rainy day in June 1993 witnessing for his first time Bruce Springsteen preaching the gospel of rock and roll.

The album.

On “You Gotta Get Ready” we find a matured Nordgarden whom is more self assured, standing on his own two feet expressing his proper thoughts and opinions. Ten years has passed since he was discovered in Florence, Italy by Paolo Benvegnu, one of Italys most important contemporary artists and producers. And those 10 years have evolved Nordgarden into an independent and modern artist taking the DIY-concept all the way. The album is a journey through ten songs where the will and the desire to overcome the troubles and obstacles of daily life play a main part. There is a fighting spirit and an attitude that call out: “I will not be giving up!” Nordgarden insists on overcoming and arising from the battle as a better man and a more conscious man. On songs like Schiphol Blues and They´re Building, They´re Building Nordgarden is observing the world from the windowpane of a buss or an airport and he acknowledges that it is not running as perfectly or as smooth as it should. In the title track and in Keep It Shining on the Inside he gets up from his seat, clinches his fist and urges to improve the state of things. In songs like Leaving and Some Work on You we get to know a caring Nordgarden that empathetically observes his friends struggling to find a meaning, affronting the despair of love and the hardships of daily life. The journey ends with the slow ballad Carousel on the Loose that softly and rocking accompanies the protagonist in the dark and the cold of the night, on the late bus on his way home from work. He is fought, he is wrought, but he knows that there will come a better day.

The making of the album.

The idea of the album sees the light of day in the Summer of 2010 when Nordgarden is on tour in Sicily with his friend and multi instrumentalist Fabio Genco. In a common love for the band Calexico and the songwriter Andrew Bird they agree to work together on the new songs in Gencos studio in Marsala, Sicily. They record the first five songs with acoustic and classic guitars, double bass and brushes and make a decisive fundament for the rest of the album. After a few weeks in Sicily and another tour in the Netherlands Nordgarden goes home to his apartment in Oslo where he continues to elaborate the songs and the arrangements with all kinds of key and string instruments and a vast participation from his local musician friends. The last pieces of the work and the mix come together in Nordgardens new home by the Sea in the little fishing village of Acitrezza, Sicily where it all started.

Artist Biography.

Since his childhood Nordgarden has been a devoted fan of Bruce Springsteen. During a concert at Valle Hovin, Oslo in 1993 after almost four hours of rock´n roll the revelation was complete and Norgarden was determined that music would also be his path. With the years the inspiration and influences have come with several bands and artist, but his main input has coherently been songwriters like Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams and Paul Curreri – where the lyrics, the story, the melody and the communication of the song plays the deepest of importance.
The musical path of Nordgarden initially takes direction at Sunnhordland Folkehogskule on the West Coast of Norway, where he studies music and classic guitar for a year. After another year in Oslo working in a kinder garden he decides to leave it all and to search for some adventure elsewhere. A new Italian acquaintance that he met at a Motorpsycho gig in Oslo invites him to Bologna, Italy. The invitation is irresistible and in early 2000 Nordgarden moves South to the city of Bologna where he makes his living by playing on the streets and in the tiny student bars and cafes around town. But the word is on the street of this new, Norwegian guy with this great voice and one day Paolo Benvengu calls him up from Florence; he eagerly wants to produce Nordgardens debut album. Another irresistible invitation and Nordgarden decides to head for Florence and the heart of the renaissance. After a long and intensely hot Summer and five weeks in a studio without air conditioning the record is nailed and is released on the Italian indie label Stoutmusic. The Italian press responds enthusiastically and Nordgarden is finally ready to go on the road to spread the word. The peak of that Summer of 2003 is his performance at the Main Stage at Arezzo Wave in front of a good six thousand people.

In 2005, after having moved back to Oslo Nordgarden must undergo an operation to remove a cyst from his vocal chords that hinders him from singing and performing for a whole year. The result is an even more hungry and expressive Nordgarden. He records and releases A Brighter Kind Of Blue in May 2006 – a fully acoustic album where his voice is warmer, more profound and more agile than ever. Stein Ostbo at VG, Norways biggest newspaper exclaims “The closest a new Norwegian songwriter has come the timeless qualities of Ryan Adams”. The album receives great reviews in several countries on the continent and Nordgarden expands his horizon touring this time all over Europe.

In 2008 Nordgarden recedes from the endless touring and heads back to Oslo once again to record his third album The Path Of Love. It is recorded in the studio of Audun Borrmann and Even Ormestad of Jaga Jazzist (having recorded the likes of Thom Hell, Thomas Dybdahl and Jonas Alaska). It is a more arranged album than his previous work and it has a full and rich sound of layers of keys, strings and brass. This is the first release on Nordgardens own DIY label GDN Records. Nordgarden once again receives ovations from the press and this time he sets his eyes on crossing the Atlantic to the land of milk and honey. He finds himself in the US to discover and see for himself the places of his dreams and he finally gets to play in the historical venues of East and Greenwich Village in NYC. The trip goes further on to California, through the Promised Land as his first great hero Bruce Springsteen once sang “I ain´t a boy, no I´m a man and I believe in the Promised Land”.