MØ has had a busy past few years. With heavy touring, a debut EP and LP, and a collaboration with Diplo all acting as feathers in her proverbial cap, Karen Marie Ørsted is riding a wave of indie pop prominence and making the most of it. Now, if only we could pronounce her name...
“It’s only Danes who can say it right,” she told me during a chat before her performance at the Paradise on September 24. She expressed the sentiment that its pronunciation didn’t matter- in the age of the internet and its driving influence on how music is digested in 2014, how it reads is more important.
Ørsted has always stuck to this identity-based approach. After beginning her career in Denmark, it has been the proliferation of music through the internet that has helped her achieve fame across Europe first, and now stateside. While such a meteoric rise could have been overwhelming, the amount of poise that she exhibits is astonishing, and it was no more evident than when she absolutely lit up the Paradise with her fiery, slick pop. MØ opened up with “Maiden,” an apt choice, considering her moniker’s rough translation to the word.
“You want to communicate - you want people to feel the same feelings that you feel and in that way feel connected with people. It’s a way of feeling close at a bigger level at some point. It must means so much to me… It means everything to me,” she mused when reflecting on the rapidly spreading reaction to her music online. It was clear that she meant it as she couldn’t hold back a smile from the cheers after the first chorus.
MØ’s backing screen had a nonstop assortment of flashing images, using them to establish subliminal themes during songs. Among the list of things flashed on the screen, all in black and white to begin, were pianos, cars, telephone poles, violins, mountains, long stretches of empty road, leather jackets, ringing bells, and of course, Diplo’s name during the next song, “XXX 88”. The collaboration between the two artists is one of her more notable tracks, and the venue erupted as soon as the opening warble slid from the speakers. When asked about her dream collaboration after the success of the song, she gave no hesitation in dropping Kim Gordon's name.
Ørsted owns the stage when she’s on it, and even when she’s not. As a former professional orienteering runner, she darted around the space absolutely effortlessly. During “Slow Love,” she made her way onto the balcony stairs and sat on the bannister and finished most of the song there. In a nod to her desire to intimately connect with the people listening to her music, she made her way into the middle of the crowd for the first time during “Pilgrim” and just danced with everyone in the vicinity as she sang.
Ørsted is backed by phenomenal instrumental talent. Drums blended with electronic beats, and even accentuated them throughout the night with electronic drum pads sharing a space in the kit. Florescent guitar hooks shone through the venue, and they rounded out bangers like “Walk This Way” and “Waste of Time,” and slower offerings like “Never Wanna Know,” during which Ørsted pushed the limits of her register.
A cover of The Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll Be There” made its way into the encore, and unsurprisingly, Ørsted had listed the group as a formative influence.
“That was the first time I heard music talking directly to me. This is my biggest passion, this is my dream. I discovered that music was my way of expressing myself and we all need to express ourselves. And music, through my childhood and my teen years was my way of gaining confidence. That was my way of expressing my feelings that I was worth something.”
During the show, Ørsted put the themes of youth, restless pursuit, and a lack of satisfaction into an audial tapestry that fused skilled instrumentation, vigorous beats, and her own prodigious presence. I asked her about those very themes and if she had any advice for people who feel like they haven't quite found their groove.
"Well they shouldn’t feel like it’s an abnormal thing. I mean, that’s just life. They should be happy that they’re not satisfied. I mean it. Because you know if you’re satisfied then there’s nothing to fight for and if there’s nothing to fight for then you get bored and you get sad. So it’s good that you search. If you don’t search then there’s nothing to live for. You always evolve, otherwise you get bored.”
