Raging Lines is the main personal project of Sondre Thomassen Thorvik, an aspiring young musician from Norway who has managed to catch our attention with his post-punk/indie rock songs. His latest release, the single “Let Me Have This Moment” has lingered in my mind for many days now! Enchanted by Sondre’s dark melodies, I got in touch with him, and he gave some really interesting answers. Read the lines that follow and stream the songs of Raging Lines now!
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Sondre, can you tell us a little about your musical journey? How did you first get into making music?
I almost never went through the weekends of my childhood without there being some kind of music playing in the background. While I was primarily focused on other things as a child, the melodies and the emotions of the music contributed a lot to the warm and adventurous environment I remember from that time. The music my parents put on are some of the same tunes I like to listen to today. Some of the melodies were so stuck in my head that I could hum them for several hours until it became too much for the others. I didn’t even notice that I was doing it. Sometimes when my parents were vacuuming the house, I would hum to the sound of the vacuum or use it as a drone tone for melodies.
When I was six, I started guitar lessons, but they didn’t provide me with the same musical connection, so I quit. It wasn’t until I was about eleven that I picked up the guitar for good. I started playing bass because I was really into ’80s music like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. The power of those simple bass lines got me hooked, and it was also a good place to start because they were easy to learn and play. When I was thirteen, I started playing the electric guitar as well, after listening to bands like Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. I almost always learned the bass and guitar parts by listening and playing along with the songs. I didn’t like to search up the tabs unless I needed them. Buried in the dense rock mixes, the guitar and bass melodies could sometimes be hard to separate from the rest of the music, so I used to plug out the aux cable halfway so only one of the channels was playing.
I also played in some bands when I was young as an activity beside school, but we only played covers of other people’s songs. We played a lot on stage, and it was a good way for me to practice performing in front of other people.
After a period of listening to and playing some of Yngwie Malmsteen’s music, I got into classical music. I learned to compose different types of classical music with MuseScore by listening to famous composers. Like the music production of the ’80s, a lot of the classical music has this dense sound quality with a lot of emotion that I liked. I started to play the piano and composed short pieces for the piano as well as for other types of instruments. By learning guitar by ear and composing various types of music, I got good at music theory and writing music by notation but never at reading music.
I studied guitar and music in high school, and a lot of the ear training and theory was really easy because I had done it a lot before. The classical musicians were confused
about why I could know all the theory and write music in many different styles but not play by notation. I found a lot of the musical ignorance in high school to be the most difficult thing to deal with as a student. Even though I learned a lot during this time, working together with other musicians made it difficult to evolve beyond the things I already knew.
I had a fantastic guitar teacher in high school. On paper, he might seem a little unreliable, but he was the one teacher in that school who really made me a better musician. He didn’t show up on time, didn’t give me homework, and didn’t make me learn all of these tedious jazz standards. He was one of the few who didn’t care for the sound of high school jazz and funk. In our lessons, we would just play together and improvise over simple chords. The goal wasn’t to play the most difficult solos or improvise over difficult progressions, but to make the guitar sing and compose organic musical lines.
At the end of high school, my guitar teacher showed me how to produce music. I had composed and written songs but never recorded anything. He showed me the program Pro Tools, which is the program I ended up using. Finally, I could use all the musical knowledge for something and create something other than the simple MIDI sounds with MuseScore.
Producing music has been a very fun but difficult journey. When I started, I had never produced anything before. I kind of knew how an EQ worked, but there was a lot of trial and error. I would boost the bass and treble and cut out all the mids because that was what a lot of mixers on YouTube told me to do. Sounds that would have been completely fine without any adjusting, I would ruin by adding too many plug-ins without knowing what they all did.
I would get a great sound sometimes without knowing why. And one of those songs is my first single, “Too Dramatic, Too Paralyzed.” There are a lot of “wrong” things about it from a producer’s point of view, but it has this cool energy about it and is why it became my first single. A lot of the reverbs are in mono, and I had not yet learned how to use compressors, so distorting everything became the way I glued the instruments together.
I don’t mix music in this way anymore, but when I need that edge or experimental vibe, I like to go back to the production of songs like “Too Dramatic, Too Paralyzed” to see if I can reuse some of the plugin combinations or tracking methods.
After the release of my first single, I had a period of not getting the mix right. I got better at understanding plugins, but I couldn’t get that impact in the sound quality. I think the main reason for this was overproducing a lot of elements. Making the details sound right made me forget about the bigger issues, like making a vocal actually sound right and organic.
As far as I know, you are a master’s student at the University of Oslo, focusing on music production and composition. How are you going with your studies? How much do you think these studies will help you with your music endeavors?
I’m studying for a master’s in musicology right now. I did take lectures in production in my bachelor’s years, but now we are more focused on the academic aspects of music. It is interesting, but I do miss making music and sharing it in front of a class. I could study just production somewhere else, but I have come this far with musicology, and it is a lot less expensive than other places.
I’m not working on any production aspect for my master’s. I had plans to do so, but I couldn’t find a good enough idea for it. Rather than trying out something within production, I chose to do research on ex-students with a degree in music and if and how they got a job in music. I haven’t started the project, but it’s a very promising and doable idea.
I think I can learn a lot about how I can use this degree during my research. There isn’t a lot of information about this that I know of, and I hope I can expand my network within researching the music industry.
I have listened only to one song of yours, the single “Let Me Have This Moment.” Have you previously released any other songs? If yes, which ones?
I released my first single, “Too Dramatic, Too Paralyzed,” in 2022. This single was a very post-punk influenced song, and I was really inspired by Joy Division at that time. It is fast with a lot of energy.
Earlier in 2024, I released my second single, “You Stay Away.” It was actually made around the same time as my first but didn’t get around to finishing it because of other songs. This is a slower track where I used a lot of reverb on my voice. It is probably too much reverb from a producer’s point of view, but it gives the song its uniqueness. The vocals in the verses and choruses were recorded in 2022, and the vocals on the last part were recorded in 2024. It’s very strange to have vocals recorded over two years apart, but it also shows how my voice has developed through the years.
Your music blends elements of post-punk, dark indie rock, and even trip-hop. What are some of your biggest influences, and how have they shaped your sound?
I have always shifted between many different types of music. And I don’t think too much about how the music would fit in this world. My main focus is to do what I think sounds the best. Of course, when I get a good idea, I will think about in what direction the song should develop, but the sense of style comes by itself most of the time. There is often a melody, a rhythm, or a sense of mood that guides me in one direction.
There are so many big influences that it would be wrong to just mention a few. It doesn’t necessarily have to be just music that has influenced me. Sometimes it is just a feeling of a song that inspires me to go in a new direction. And it’s often not the song itself but the way it gets to me when I listen to it.
You cite artists like Joy Division, Massive Attack, and Johnny Cash as inspirations. What is it about these artists that resonate with you the most?
These artists have that emotional x-factor about them. It is the relationship between the vocal and the other instruments that create that feeling.
I think of music as multiple lines coexisting with one another. They all move at different speeds but seem to catch up with one another in parts of the song to make sense. Musical contrasts are really important to me. If something moves fast, something else has to move slower to create that emotional depth.
With the song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division, you can clearly hear that relationship between the vocal and the rest of the band. The song gives me the feeling of sitting in a car on a highway. Inside the car, everything stays still, while in reality, we are traveling at great speeds. The vocal in this song kind of floats on top of the rest of the band, creating different dimensions within the song.
How did you come up with the name Raging Lines? Does it have a special meaning?
The name Raging Lines was inspired by my way of thinking of music as lines. When I first started to produce music, I liked to look at the waveforms in the DAW as I listened through what I had created. These lines looked like they were raging through the tracks and mirroring the energy of my own playing.
“Let Me Have This Moment” has a very introspective and haunting feel. What was the inspiration behind the song?
The song “Let Me Have This Moment” started as an experimental track that I created as an apprentice at the contemporary music festival in Oslo, Ultima. I got the fun job of making short tracks for the promotion of the 2024 festival, but this one was too “commercial” for them to use. The original track was way more experimental than what you can hear in the song, but the idea was too great not to use.
The main element that I kept was the washy snare drum part that I created by hitting my guitar through a ring modulator effect and then compressing it a ton. There is also a Vietnamese mouth harp in the background that added more experimental depth to the rhythm track.
To make the drum loop more in line with my musical style, I added a bass part consisting of two melodies. The first melody is the octave harmonics of the D and G string on the bass, and the other melody is a deeper bass sound playing around those harmonics. This creates the contrast between a constant and a variable, thus creating harmonies with just the bass by itself. Bass is a great way to make harmonies if you know how to do it right. I don’t like the sound of playing chords with it like you would do with a guitar, but through the constant/variable method.
What does your songwriting process look like? Do you start with lyrics, a melody, or an instrumental idea first?
The songwriting process is different from song to song, but it almost always starts with one of the main hooks. It can be a bass line, drum loop, guitar riff, but almost never lyrics. It’s important for me that the music connects with me on an emotional level, and lyrics are not that important in the process.
You play all the instruments on this track—how do you approach the challenge of crafting a song entirely by yourself?
It is actually easier to write and play everything by myself. I know what I want, and it’s nice to be in complete control of something. Inviting others to make decisions would only make things more difficult.
Recording is the thing that takes the longest when working alone, and I sometimes wish that I could just export all my ideas into Pro Tools. But sometimes the recording itself can be the most important moment when it comes to writing songs. When playing something wrong or improvising over a forgotten part, it might turn out cooler than how it was supposed to sound.
The challenge of writing on my own is that I only have myself to reflect with when it comes to ideas. I have played around with ideas with others before, and though I often position myself as in charge of the writing, I add on to what others play. I might pick out the elements that do sound great from their playing and combine them into something that I think is perfect. I kind of try to replicate this process when writing alone by improvising over a drum loop and editing the recording afterwards, but this process is much more productive and giving with other people.
Your music has an esoteric, cinematic quality. Do you visualize certain imagery or emotions when you compose?
I think my method of creating space and dynamics might have something to do with the cinematic quality. I always try to connect the music with my emotions. If it doesn’t feel right, then I need to make big changes that convince me to keep working on the project and not just throw it away. For me, a good song needs to have a strong quality that is memorable, but also a development that actually turns it into a song worth listening to. It’s okay to turn a good idea into a simple song, but you limit its impact if you, for example, make it last longer than it needs to. You have to treat the music based on the idea’s quality of impact. If you just repeat a hook to cure the song of its lack of development, then be honest with yourself and make it a short piece.
With “Let Me Have This Moment” I always tried to add something new in each part of the song where I felt things needed to change. The first chorus is less dense than the last two because I wanted to keep the flame burning just a little brighter as the song developed, to keep my listeners engaged. After the first chorus, I added a low-cut filter on the drum bus so my listeners would have a couple of bars of rest before the next verse. The bridge, after the second chorus, keeps the beat going but drags you away from the crowded landscape of melodies and harmonies and into an empty field where those musical senses can breathe. It’s easy to put things down in words after I made the song, but when I write, it’s all about how my musical senses engage and how well they reflect the effort of the initial intention.
Lyrically, your music explores deep emotions and inner struggles. Do you write from personal experience, or do you draw inspiration from other sources like literature, films, or history?
I almost never think about what the lyrics should be about. I choose my words by their sound when sung, and then I create meaning or a story based on the first verse or chorus that I write. Because of this, my lyrics often come out as a bit vague and dark, but it fits my music in the sense that people can interpret it in a way that fits them or their life story.
I would base my inspiration on a little bit of everything in my life, but “Let Me Have This Moment” isn’t based on my life. Some parts might be, but the story is fictional.
The production of “Let Me Have This Moment” is very clear and immersive. How important is the production aspect in shaping your overall sound?
The production is everything for me. A good production can really help where the songwriting is lacking and ruin a great song if you aren’t careful. Production for me is about making a song come alive. When I’m writing a song, I know straight away how I want to produce it, but I always experiment through the process. And that is how I make it come alive. With the song “Let Me Have This Moment,” I experiment with ring modulators to make usual sounds become something new, but in a way that makes sense. It’s about finding the right balance between boredom and craziness.
Many post-punk and indie artists use music as a means of self-expression and therapy. Would you say that music plays a similar role for you?
In a world where I always have to be careful with the words I choose, music is my way of completely being myself. Though I don’t often consider my music as a method of therapy, it is a way for me to disconnect from the world around me. Having something other than just work or school to focus on is important for me. Making music gives me the confidence that I am actually able to create something of meaning. I want to create things that I can be proud of for the rest of my life and to be able to share them with my future children or grandchildren.
If you had to describe the essence of Raging Lines in just three words, what would they be?
I would say: music in lines.
“Let Me Have This Moment” is an incredible introduction to your work. What can we expect next from Raging Lines? Is there an EP or full-length album in the works?
I am never sure what my next song will be. The style always changes, and I’m not sure how I can put all of these different styles together in one EP. But I guess it is possible. It doesn’t have to be a concept album to be an album. It’s also a question of how I can combine different production qualities one after another. Some of my songs have way more bass or treble than the next one, and this might make the listening experience a bit strange. I could always master the songs to be more similar, but this might negatively affect the songs in question. I guess I just have to accept the fact that my EP will be a varied mix of textures. But this might also be what makes the EP interesting to listen to. If too many of the songs sound the same, it might not interest my listeners who like some of my other styles of music.
Do you have plans to collaborate with other musicians or producers in the future?
Yes, I would like to collaborate, but only when I find the right people. I haven’t met a lot of people who share my same taste in music and work ethic. There are many important factors that we will have to share to have a healthy musical relationship. I’m also used to being very independent, which might be problematic for others. If I don’t feel like the project we are working on is moving in the right direction, I lose interest and it becomes more like a task than actually creating art.
However, if we are creating something that is a product of equal contribution, I become more open to the music going in many different directions. So if I’m going to do projects with other people, it will have to be a product of equal contribution for me to be satisfied with the process.
Would you like to bring Raging Lines to a live audience? Are there any plans for live shows?
I would very much like to play more live. It’s difficult when it’s just me involved in a music project that needs more people on stage to play the songs. In a perfect world, I would like a drummer, bassist, second guitarist, and keyboard player. I could settle for fewer people, but then I’m sacrificing important elements of the songs. The recorded productions of my songs are the most important thing for me.
I want to give my audience a rewarding experience when I perform. Because of the experimental complexity in some of my songs, this might be difficult. I know a lot of bands play differently on stage because of issues like this, and they make it work, but I want my songs to be as similar to the recording as possible.
As an emerging artist, what has been the most rewarding and the most challenging part of your musical journey so far?
The most challenging part has been promotion. I mostly use Instagram, but there are so many other artists to compete with. It has in many ways become a game of getting more followers and likes. People follow you and then unfollow you when you follow them back. It’s really confusing and makes the process less motivating sometimes. The key to success seems to be to have more success, but how do you obtain it then? And then comes the question if success is the most important thing when it comes to music. Isn’t just the music itself the important thing?
Which are your music dreams?
I don’t find it difficult to find a reason to do music because it’s a lot of fun. But when it comes to my dreams, I’m not so sure what those could be. My main objective is to keep making music and see what comes out of it. It’s not about getting famous, but about making something I can be proud of for the rest of my life. I would like to pursue music as a way of living. It doesn’t have to be by just being an artist, but also as a producer or something like that.
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