OUT NOW -ACROSS ALL DOWNLOAD AND STREAMING PLATFORMS
HM Johnsen an indie rock singer-songwriter from Norway who in recent years
has embarked on an incredible personal musical journey: from blues, to rock
to his epiphany moving into indie rock. Although still in his early 20's, he is already an accomplished guitarist, singer, writer and composer who has recorded his music and played concerts all over the world. The culmination of this musical journey is embodied in his latest release, the E.P 'Serenity', Out Now.
For HM Johnsen growing up, the guitar was his closest friend and music washis first love. As a kid he delighted in exploring all genres of music first falling in love with rock and metal before moving into a more Blues & Rock style. By 2017 he had released his debut Blues Rock album 'Chased' -an album entirely funded by his own small local community in Western Norway and mastered in the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London UK. It was such a fantastic coup for a young artist, the national broadcaster of Norway decided to cover his journey and broadcast the story of this young and talented musician following his dream. Then things got a little crazy: Johnsen was very quickly signed up with a Blues/ Rock management company. In 2018 he won the title 'Norwegian Blues Union Artist of the year'- a title which brought with it over 50 concerts in both Norway, Germany and America. A fantastic opportunity - but for this young artist things were increasingly speeding out of his control.
At the end of 2018 he and his band were completely exhausted at the
never-ending rounds of gigging, travelling and having to work at their day
jobs too. It was all too much, too soon. Not only that, Johnsen felt like
his musical direction was still evolving and he wanted to explore new areas
of music. It was then he had his fateful epiphany. He dropped everything
and moved to Berlin for over a month with his girlfriend (now wife) to
pursue a new artistic direction. This changed everything, Berlin being the
perfect muse for his musical exploration! He says 'I have never ever been
so musically productive and inspired in my life I wrote the whole E.P. in 2
weeks! I was so inspired by the city, the culture, the free-spirit people in
Berlin, just everything was inspiring.' When he got home, Johnsen was lucky
to get some amazing musicians on board with his new sound: Idar Rolland:
Drums, Judah John Kubendran: Bass, Ole Markus Bråthen: Keys and EirikGrønner: Producer. Two singles followed in 2019 : Synergy and Walk This Road and two in 2020: Serenity -the title track to the E.P - and Stay Within Range.
Now he is delighted to bring to the world the Serenity E.P. -he feels it has
changed him, not only as a musician, but also personally. He says 'I feel
that I have gained a lot of personality and experience writing and living
out the process of this E.P.'. The culmination of his musical journey is full
of ambient guitars and pianos mixed together, underscored with strong lyrics
and powerful catchy choruses: a real brew of rich musical flavours, as he
says himself: 'The inspiration for this E.P. is from my generalised view on
our modern world and comprises of a modern form of Jazz and Rock and
underneath, a main genre of pop.' HM Johnsen now confidently knows who he is, and the exciting musical direction in which he is heading.
