– I wanted to expand my knowledge, competence and network in music production

Name: Frida Feline Nilsen

Age: 27

Studied: Music Production and Recording (MPR) at Faculty of Performing Arts

Frida finished her year at MPR in 2018. An education for people who has a special interest for music production, recording and sound technology.

Why did you want to study music production and recording at UiS?

I chose this to learn the polarity of electronic music production, in which I have a bachelor's degree. I wanted to expand my knowledge, competence and network within the field of music production, so that I could also record live musicians and not only work digitally with vst-instruments, which is very common for producers who only make electronic music. The aim was to broden my horizons so that I wasn't limited to just working with digital synths etc.

What is your profession today?

I run and manage Aural Art Productions, a company that focuses on creating audiovisual art such as soundscapes, multigenre music and art short films. My sound studio is located at Tou Scene. I also work as a freelancer in the music and film industry and take on various assignments in which I have expertise.

In addition to this, I'm also an environmental worker and in recent years I've had an exciting collaboration with Godalen vgs. 1-2 days a week I offer a unique creative program in my studio for selected students with mental difficulties and who have struggles with school. Together we create a relationship through music, film and art, and the pupils get to feel a sense of mastery and inspiration.

What do you like most about your job?

What I like best about my job is that I'm the boss of my everyday life and can choose for myself which projects I want to undertake. I appreciate the freedom of being able to choose for myself what time of the day I will work and when I want holidays and time off. At the same time, I love that I get to work creatively both alone and together with other like-minded people. A combination of solo work and collaboration with others is most rewarding for me. Too much of one or the other can be overwhelming in its own way.

What part of your studies have you benefited the most from in your working life?

The collaboration with classical musicians from the faculty has benefited me the most at work. It opened up so many doors for me, both in terms of networking, but also in the experience as a producer. The technical knowledge I learned has also been very useful.

What do you remember the most from your time at UiS?

What I remember best from my studies are all the opportunities I had right in front of me. The school had the equipment and a wide network and I had good ideas, will, dicipline and courage. I remember that I mainly focused on inplementing my own music projects/recording sessions in collaboration with skilled classical musicians and sound technicians from the faculty. Such a collaboration increased my competence on several levels and it was a great way to become aware of my strenghts and weaknesses in a collaboration with musicians who had a diffetenr musical background then me. We found creative ways to communicate, even though we didn't speak the same language.

Do you have any advice to future students?

1. Take advantage of the opportunities, equipment and network what the faculty offers while you have access to all of this. The possibilities quickly become limited when you are no longer a student.
2. Rather spend a little more time completing your artistic projects in high quality than publishing your art prematurely, before it lives up to its full potential. Just because the consumer society has suggested that you publish things frequently on social media in order to keep your place in the spotlight, it does not mean that this is the best for art. Quality over quantity is my motto. Create your own expression/signature over several years, don't copy someone else, but rather use other artists and musicians as inspiration to develop your own expressions.
3. Throughout your life you create your own reality. Don't give up when you face adversity or your applications/inquiries are turned down. Use adversity as a resource for execution. Invite your friends and acquaintanxes to take part in your creative projects, regardless of whether there are funds in the project or not. The worst you can get in response is a no and this can result in things taking longer than you had in mind during the planning phase. But that's perfectly fine, as long as you don't give up when the going get tough. Good things take time to make!