Do a lot of kids who start off being interested in artists like pianist McCoy Tyner before getting into Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam? Surely it isn’t common.
That trajectory defines Norwegian guitar monster Hedvig Mollestad and is the key to understanding her. Mollestad’s eponymously named trio drops its new LP, Bees in the Bonnet, on May 9th. It’s a heady blend of jazz-seasoned riffs that evoke something akin to Tony Williams Lifetime meets Rush, with the early ‘90s tone and attitude of Mollestad’s Seattle influences.
It all started via her flugelhorn-playing father. “He brought music into the room, and he also brought me to concerts since I was a little girl. And I think one of the first jazz concerts I remember was with Carla Bley. It was at a big festival just outside of where I come from, where my father comes from, actually, Molde. I don’t remember that much of the music. But I remember we were sitting on the balcony, and I was looking down at that hair and the fingers. And it was a big band.”
Despite being named for Mollestad, however, the trio is a collaboration, and includes bass player Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad.
We talked to her on Zoom about how she got to this point musically and the process that led to the album. We also found out the answer to the million-dollar question: If the Hedvig Mollestad Trio became a quartet, who would be its fourth member?
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In listening to the records, I assumed that you had started off interested in rock, and, at some point, branched out into jazz. But the trio is an instrumental rock band. Or, at least, I assume you would consider the music rock?
It’s really hard to pin it into one genre, because genres are evolving as the world is. And they will not look the same as they did 50 years ago, even though it has something that reminds us of what it used to be. But coming from a jazz background, I cherish very much just the art of playing an instrument. I think that’s why we are an instrumental band. I had been listening to jazz music, and you didn’t have to have a vocalist in your band to be a jazz band. But the trio, what is it? We started out as a jazz band. We tried to play jazz. And we did not succeed.
How did you not succeed at playing jazz? Close enough for jazz, right? There’s no wrong notes in jazz!
If you try to play like Jim Hall, you know, if you try to play smooth and beautiful and melodic and with the detailed richness that he has, and you play the songs that he played, “Darn That Dream” and all that beautiful kind of mellow stuff, you find out you can’t be Jim Hall. You can be something that reminds you of it at best. And that was the music that I really loved. It was hard for me to kind of realize that I’m not able to play this. This is not what I’m going to play. I had some other songs that I had written that made it to the first record, like “Doom’s Lair.” When we took out the standards and started to play original songs that I had written, we approached the music differently. In the years before we started the trio, I had been exposed to, like, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top. And newer stuff like Rush and The Mars Volta, even.
Improvisation is a key element of any great jazz group. How much of your songwriting process and live shows rely on improvised jamming?
I think it used to be more. We were a lot more hardcore on being able just to put in a song that was not on the set list, extend the solos, and make transitions that were not planned as much. And I think now we are more building a structure that is kind of very well-prepared. It’s more prepared, at least than it used to be. But it may be just because it feels like we have more experience than we did five years ago. All the solos are improvised, and the length may vary. Actually, “See See Bop” and “Golden Griffin” are open. But for the others, at least the two, kind of more open-structured songs on this new record, “Bob’s Your Giddy Aunt” and “Apocalypse Slow,” those are more open and could start in any kind of way. It could be a drum solo or it could be a bass solo.
That’s jazz.
That’s jazz. I think that’s more an idea or a kind of ideological way of being present together.
What’s the songwriting process like? Do you create a riff, write the arrangement, and show it to the band? Or is it more that you’ve got a skeleton and everybody sort of woodsheds it?
That has been different, too, throughout our eight records. In the beginning, I wrote most of the material, and then we had some things we arranged together. And for the next record, I encouraged them to bring material to the sessions. I think for the third record, we actually had a stop in our tour to stay at a cabin in Germany, and just write music. Everyone was in their room trying to create material we could record. That has been important in kind of developing the chemistry between us. And also, it’s much more inspiring as well to play—or it can be very inspiring to play—other people’s ideas and kind of make them sound like your own. But for this record, everyone’s been very busy. So, for this session, I had written most of the material. But when you meet and try to play stuff, things don’t necessarily work the way you thought they would. And the others have brilliant ideas to how to make kind of it even sharper or just more inspiring.
If someone said “Hey, here’s a million-dollar recording contract and you can do this, live the dream, but you have to add a second guitarist that’s well-known for drawing power,” who would you add and become a quartet?
That’s an insane question. I think I have the answer at least for now, but I’m just going to take you through a couple of alternatives.
Perfect.
I used to love John McLaughlin so much. And I still think that the playing he did in the sixties and the seventies is some of the best guitar work ever done on this planet. I think it was more fury and kind of a volcanic approach to playing guitar and less control. And now it’s more controlled with lots of fantastic technique. And so, I think if it was in the sixties, I would choose him. And, of course, Terje Rypdal is one of my fantastic inspirational heroes, but I think that would maybe we sound a little bit too much alike. So, I would think of a creative force that could kind of be something other than me, but still kind of be related. I think one of the great guitarists of our times is Nels Cline. So that would be amazing. And also Hans Magnus Ryan of Motorpsycho. But as maybe a creative force and someone that seems to be a nice person to work with, and could be both heavy and a poet on the guitar, I’d say Alex Lifeson.
I can hear it. What’s your favorite Rush album?
I think it’s really hard to say because there’s something about the Rush albums. Some of them have songs that I really, really love and others I dislike. One of my favorite Rush tracks is “YYZ.” I also like the early stuff, “Fly by Night” and “La Villa Strangiato.” But Exit Stage Left would be my favorite Rush album. And, of course, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures. And they are inspiring as a working trio as well, in addition to their musical development.
Sometimes the second song of a concert or a record is underrated. Everybody knows you gotta come in strong with the opening number. But you’ve got something if you can keep that going for that second number. Rush excels at that approach, both live and on their albums, including the ones you named. And you pull that off on Bees in the Bonnet with “See See Bop” and “Golden Griffin.” The riffs for those songs are catchier than a lot of vocal melodies, a statement I think would surprise a lot of people. How do you write something that’s catchier than a lot of instrumentals, that’s catchier than a lot of vocal hooks?
Well, I don’t try to make it catchy. But I guess when I’ve been listening to these bands that I love so much, I’ve been mostly listening to the guitar. I also played in a prog metal band, El Doomo & the Born Electric. When we started that band, it was instrumental. It was just the riffs. It was like The Mars Volta. Or, you know, the long stuff that Rush also does. Just fantastic riffs that are so fascinating to listen to. But with the trio, we don’t have any vocals, so it’s important to make stuff that is fun to play. It’s got to be fun to play. And it’s got to be kind of a little bit catchy, but also have to be a little bit hard to make it sound really good, because we’re going to play it so many times. And the third thing is it’s got to be fun. And you have to be able to take your audience into it, because if they’re not there, it’s no fun to play. It has to remind you of the good stuff. Something for people to both dig into and rock out to.
