With hard-hitting lyrics in the bag, Sliteneliten will soon be heading to Denmark to play at one of Europe’s biggest festivals. The six young women refer to themselves as an activist band that wants to change the world. Nothing less. They sing about everything from anti-capitalism, psychiatry services, maternity services, women’s struggle and six-hour day, to environmental protection, district politics and better conditions for farmers. – There are a lot of radical young people around the country who don’t have a “hus band”, says bassist Maria Refsland. She went out on a limb and promised the others “gold and green forests” and many gigs if they started a band. And it has worked. After the second album came in 2023, big festivals started knocking on the door. – We believe that music can strengthen people who are in a struggle, and make people persevere longer. For us who grew up with a culture of irony, it is so good to embrace the innermost, says vocalist Synneva Gjelland. Also purely visually, they stand out in the pop market. There are no traces of retouched, mysterious or eroticized band photos. Rather, the six band members pose in everyday clothes with big smiles, in good light and without filters, preferably on a farm with a goat or seven. Better with a goat in your lap than ten neoliberalists on the roof. The tired little one at a photo shoot in the goat barn at the agricultural school in Aurland in Sogn, where several of the band members have gone. Photo: Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid – Missing political music With their political lyrics, the band almost single-handedly goes against the grain of the music industry. Today, lyrics are mostly about personal feelings. A study of commercial music from the last 40 years shows that pop lyrics have become simpler, more repetitive and more self-absorbed. The texts of Sliteneliten are, on the contrary, wordy, argumentative, and contain words such as “food security”, “long-term space”, “raise-lower desk”, “neoliberal” and “double standard”. – We have been told that we are not exactly very clever in terms of PR by giving the songs titles such as “Long-term goals” and “Me kan’kje sei nei te da som e better”, says Refsland. Countercurrent and decentralized: The members of Sliteneliten come from Voss, Flekkefjord, Notodden, Inderøy, Levanger and Oslo. Here in a rowing boat in Etne. Photo: Ragnhild Nelvik Bruseth Nevertheless, Sliteneliten has now been invited to play at the Roskilde festival in Denmark, something that is high on the wish list of many Norwegian artists and bands. On the poster this year you will find, among other things, megastars such as Doja Cat, Foo Fighters, 21 Savage and Aurora. – It was a completely surreal, unreal email to receive, says flautist Silje Strøm about Roskilde contacting them. Around 100,000 spectators visit Roskilde during the four days the festival lasts. The tired little one will play on one of the so-called warm-up days, on 30 June. Two days before, they release a new song about peace. – Will they make politics music “great again”? – Yes, of course! That is perhaps the most important thing about this band. We miss political music! With songs marked by seriousness, they sing about what is important to the individual, nature and society. – I think many people stay away from politics because it becomes so serious and heavy and hopeless to create change. It is therefore a privilege to be able to help make political engagement something fun, says Gjelland. “…with collective power, Sliteneliten sings out his message, so that it is impossible not to get carried away”, writes Roskilde on his website. – But will the Danes understand Vossål? – Maybe we should print out a sheet with the texts on it? Because the texts are important. Sliteneliten Sliteneliten started practicing together in 2019. The band name is a nod to Sylvi Listhaug, who at the time talked about all kinds of elites, including the feminist elite and the cultural elite. The model for Slitenelite is the seventies vice-group Amtmandens døtre, who in the LP “Reis kjerringa” from 1975 took up the women’s struggle, abortion rights and class struggle – they then took the initiative to create AKKS, where Slitenelite has a practice room today. – Better a protest than a club Both albums by Sliteneliten come with booklets with lyrics and chords for the songs. Here, everything is arranged for sing-alongs with the acoustic guitar. – If we have to choose, we would rather play at a protest than at a club in the big city. But we do not lock ourselves into any party political position. We are more concerned with the prevailing ideology and the spirit of the times, says Refsland, who writes many of the texts. It began with questions such as “Why should we close down local hospitals?”, “Why should we dump mining waste in the fjord?”, “Why should we extract oil when it destroys the climate?”, “Why should we profit from welfare” and “Why can’t the developing country debt be written off?” – You feel completely powerless from all these questions, but then you discover that it is the capitalist system that generates the problem. The right has tried to overthrow the “individual”, while people associate the left with the “collective”. But we want a value that is good for you and me and our friends. Therefore, we will fight for a new, more human-friendly economic system. Sliteneliten consists of (from left): Maria Refsland, bass and vocals; Synneva Gjelland, vocals and guitar, etc.; Thea Kvam, drums; Ylva Gulpinar, guitar; Inga Haugdahl Solberg, violin and vocals and Silje Strøm, flute. Photo: Xin Li / news – What we are doing is a kind of utopian or anarchist project, says fiddler Inga Haugdahl Solberg. Despite the heartfelt and unironic fighting spirit, there is a lot of humor and self-irony in the lyrics. From ‘Job til meg’Structured, practical, outgoing, initiative, reliable, efficient, independent, accurate, positive – I don’t recognize myself in anything But I want to do a good job, so if you’re not picky Hire me without winning the being From ‘Snill’ Have you heard of a lady called Linn She writes about our neoliberal mind About the world now win and disappear And that’s why there’s a lot of ink in my journal You think that it’s either elle, oh That it’s the achievement that tell, oh But pls don’t worry and compete with me I wish everything will go well for you From ‘Clay pigeons in a cage’ Yes, in psychiatry there is no longer a long-term place Determined by people who themselves mostly live in palaces But even in the palace, then you can it’s going to get ugly But if you dare Tor Mikkel Wara you live safely Not enough free game in the forest They had to shoot more So throw us out on the street In luminous clothes From ‘Eat dei rike’ Yes, Gunnhild Stordalen, you are hereby invited 6 o’clock tonight will be then dinner at my place Eco-friendly yes, of course it’s that Dress code, you, you just came as normal Petter with an apple in his mouth has just been served …From ‘Boneupprør’ Food doesn’t actually come in a vacuum pack, or on a stick There’s someone who work so that you don’t have to jump your paws yourself You must have milk, flour and butter to make waffles And someone who milks, cheeks, and swings pitchforks So now there is a threat to peasant revolt From the ‘Capitalist crusher’ Come to earn a living after the race to the bottom of the privilege ladder It’s clear, it’s real But it’s a good strategy, it’s a good strategy, it’s a good strategy, it’s the real enemy It’s the real enemy LOOK UP LOOK UP WE WILL CRUSH THE CAPITAL Odelsjenter The members of Slitenelite are between 27 and 32 years. Both vocalist Synneva and drummer Thea Kvam are high school girls and intend to farm, and both of them and flutist Silje Strøm have agronomy training. – The nice thing about a garden is that you have a lot of space, among other things for a practice room, says Gjelland. There is an old prayer house in the yard of her yard. In it, they will now furnish the studio. Because when she has taken over the farm with the dairy cows, it’s not just traveling to practice. With Jesus at your back in the fight against capitalism? The tired little one in the prayer house that stands in the yard of vocalist Synneva Gjelland, Fv: Silje Strøm, Synneva Gjelland, Inga Haugdahl Solberg, Thea Kvam and Ylva Gulpinar. Bassist Maria Refsland takes the picture. Photo: Maria Refsland Several of the six members are queer. In the song “Den lesbiske dalen” lesbians and close friends are normal. But everyone can participate, regardless of orientation and gender expression. As long as they don’t make you sick. – Some of us are perhaps more “personality weird”. We are in favor of a broad definition of “queer”, after all, it is a movement that is about everyone being allowed to be themselves, and being allowed to be with whoever they want, says Gjelland. – Our project is about visualizing the strange, says Silje Strøm. Flute and violin punk Music reporter in Bergens Tidende Ellisiv Sunde Myrva is impressed by what Sliteneliten has achieved, and that they will now be playing in Roskilde. – The first days of Roskilde have become a festival in themselves in recent years. – Being booked there shows that Sliteneliten stands out, not only in a Norwegian context, but in the Nordic context. And that there is a lot to shout and rhyme about, which Roskilde believes a world-class audience should listen to, says Sunde Myrva. – Many bands come out with a good debut album, but then they lose touch with ordinary life and start flying helicopters between festivals. Then the good lyrics disappear, says bassist Maria Refsland (TV). Photo: Xin Li / news – We actually wanted to make a punk band, says bassist Refsland. But when the instruments were brought to the table, they had to reconsider the punk plan: Silje plays the flute and Inga the violin. Five out of six have a past as cultural school children, and Synneva has gone to a folk high school with a vison line in Sweden. Therefore, the genre vicepunk was created. It may sound clunky. But here there are also lovely harmonies and clever musical references: “Matpakkespisesangen” by Knudsen & Ludvigsen appears when it comes to the conditions of food producers, and “I went for a walk” when it comes to decommissioned bed posts in psychiatry. The hawk’s throat cow-cow in the trailing minor version – you’d rather not meet this hawk on the trail. – It should sound a bit raw and natural. At first we had a rule that no one was allowed to have more than one effects pedal. Now there are certainly some of us who have three … but we don’t want to sound artificial. Motstraum’s political lyrics and hard-hitting troubadour accompaniment have brought the women of Sliteneliten to the Roskilde festival. They will play on the first day of the Roskilde festival. Photo: Xin Li A bigger movement What if they become big and people learn the Sliteneliten songs and sing all-song in the Vossa dialect? Will they be able to maintain their integrity? There is no cause for concern, the band believes. – There is probably little danger of us becoming so huge, and right from the start we have been good at jacking each other down, says Refsland. – Divanykke is quickly beaten down! For example, we hardly get travel expenses covered when we play concerts, we pray and rig our own equipment, and are more than happy to play in a hidden village house for young environmental activists, if we are asked! The members of Sliteneliten live in various places in Norway, but mostly meet for rehearsals and concerts, here on the stage at Blå in Oslo in March 2023. Photo: Maja Holand The band members believe it is important to maintain their political foundations. – We remind ourselves of what it is actually about. We would like to keep doing this until we are old, like our great example, the deputy group Amtmandens døtre. They will have a reunion this year, when several of them turn seventy, and we get to play at their concert! And they agree on language choice. Singing in English is not relevant. – We want “small goals”, aiming to conquer Denmark and Sweden! – But if many people come to like us – our songs and lyrics – on our premise, then it probably indicates that there is something bigger going on. A bigger movement. It would have been fantastic, says fiddler Haugdahl Solberg. 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Slitenelite sings for political fighting spirit and commitment – Culture
