The Basement Tapes

Lars Fredrik Frøislie fought off the blues by giving his imagination free rein: he dreamed of the last battle of the Norse gods, a place in the sun, cosmic omens, and the stark beauty of a Norwegian winter. Now Wobbler's mastermind talks to Prog about singing in his native tongue and staying sane with his solo album, Fire Fortellinger.

- David West

"That was scary, man. Really," says Lars Fredrik Frøislie. As the keyboard wizard of Norway's brilliant Wobbler, composer for film and TV, and a producer, Frøislie is a seasoned, accomplished musician. But with his solo debut Fire Fortellinger, he not only plays everything but the bass himself, he sings too. "I've only done backing vocals before," says Frøislie. "Just to release a solo album under my name is scary. I had no idea what people would think so it's rather frightening. It's a completely different thing to a band where I'm hiding in the back. Here I am really in the front."

Fire Fortellinger, or 'Four Stories', was born from the restrictions of lockdown. With nowhere to go and temporarily detached from his Wobbler bandmates, Frøislie started making music! his home basement studio. It was, he says, "to keep my sanity." Working alone was a contrast to Wobbler's creative process, but that's what Frøislie wanted.

"In a band it's very democratic," he says, "and for the last three albums, we've jammed and worked off each other. You present one riff and then another... how about this? And it can take forever, for good or bad, but on this solo project, I wanted to make it spontaneously and quickly, not ponder too much, just go with my gut feelings." Initially, Frøislie started with no greater intent than to put down some ideas he could develop at a later date.