“These days I feel somewhat in control of what I choose to believe”
Nina Kinert released the album Romantic and the EP In Twos in 2018 and was awarded Composer of the year at the Independent Manifest gala in Sweden that same year. Her new album Religious – her first release since 2021’s Wild, Wild Geese – tells personal stories about growing up within the Pentecostal Church Community in Sweden, while simultaneously exploring her attraction to both nature and the supernatural.
Romantic was my album of the year in 2018, and still affects how I search for new music today. I’m pretty much always on the lookout for ‘the next Nina’; to discover an artist about whom I was previously unaware, but that goes on to have a huge significance in my life. So to say I was happy that she agreed to an interview is somewhat of an understatement.
Religious tells stories about you growing up in the Pentecostal Church, and also explores your attraction to spiritual mystique and the supernatural. Were these attractions you felt as a child, or did they come later?
I’ve always felt open to different possibilities, and maybe seen that as a result of my childhood within the church. As if it gave me an understanding of belief – no matter what the belief relies on. But when I was a child I thought everything needed to be categorised, divided into good or evil. That’s not how I see it now.
Listening to Religious is a conflicting experience, as although it comes across as broadly critical of the church, it employs many of the instruments and song structures you might associate with ‘religious’ music. As a child, were you drawn to the musical aspects of your religious upbringing?
100% yes! But the musical aspects were drawn from many different places within the church “theme”.
On this album I have very consciously tried to explore the church room sonically. The reverbs and the organs has never been more important. It was also important for me to build a sort of static choir. I really wanted them to be as mechanical as possible to play around with the image of bodies basically being just a vessel for someone else to use. I also remember thinking ”how come everyone can sing this good??” in church, like, it was really rare to be a tone deaf christian.
Also, my grandfather was a quite famous, well, at least within the community, pianist and composer and the music in church was very much a part of all family gatherings as well. It was a natural choice for me to apply to the school choir which meant singing a lot of psalms and stuff in school as well, in a otherwise very secularized curriculum. I think I wouldn’t be making music if it wasn’t for psalms. That music has been something very safe for me, something very attached within somewhere.
BUT I must not forget the horrible musicals that were set up for us kids to be part of. Always the scenes where moral dilemmas find their resolution by meeting the “cool dude” Jesus. A bunch of kids – white, upper class, stiff-legged, pre-puberty – trying to do different “hip-hop hands” while reciting stuff from the bible… Out of this world to say the least. Estranged and awkward. I haven’t really explored these musical soundscapes much, but me and Anton, my co-producer who has similar experiences growing up, got very close many times to using what we call the “hillsong-drumkit” while recording. You know, behind plexi glass, sturdy as fuck, compressed to hell. It would have been fun to play around with that.
You describe the fear of constantly being watched as a child, “by someone or something that can hear your every thought”, which must have been an incredibly intense feeling to have so young. Do you think this is still something that affects you now?
I do. It affects me to look back on things, and sometimes the grown-up-me need to explain in retrospect to the kid-me what was actually going on. Sometimes I need to forgive the kid-me for making weird decisions because of different fears I had. And at times I still feel watched… But these days I feel somewhat in control of what I choose to believe. Like if I have a notion like that I can make that feeling of a presence a good one. A fun one.
Were there parts of your upbringing that you actually think were positive, and should potentially be adopted into more secular settings around nurturing and education?
I do think that religion is a very natural thing. I think rituals are necessary and comforting. I think it’s important to care for your soul.
You describe the songs on Religious as describing “a truth that is mine”. I’ve become slightly obsessed with how the definition of ‘truth’ has evolved, especially in the last few years. How would you define your truth, in as much as it’s different to an opinion, or experience?
The ”truth that is mine” is basically about me talking about things the way I remember them. It’s a disclaimer.
Maybe I think truth is a gut feeling. That’s what makes it important, but in the hands of power it can become very dangerous of course. I’d like to say that my ”truth” now a days are very much defined by not being defined. I’d also like to say that it’s about acceptance, that it’s seamless and fluid. At the same time I can’t deny that it’s probably still very defined by how I grew up. I will probably never be able to shake that off completely.
On the song Baptized at Fourteen, your 7 daughter repeats the phrase ”They will say the truth is what will set you free. Shall it really?”. Do you see the concept of an ‘ultimate truth’ as dictated by many religions as a part of the problem with them?
Yes, is the short answer. The longer answer would probably revolve around religion not being un-political. One can think it should be un-political, but how could it ever?
How did having a daughter affect your relationship with music, and songwriting in particular?
I have two daughters. Their arrival, in many aspects of the word, has made it clear for me what is important and how I connect with others and myself. Not saying I’ve become good at it since becoming a mom, but I guess what I really wish to give them are ways to understand what your soul needs. To me it’s making music, writing, experiencing art and letting myself be in awe of it.
You have a strong connection with nature, something that’s explored on many of your releases. What do you think people have lost by being increasingly disconnected from nature, and how do you manage to retain a strong bond between yourself and the natural world?
Wow, I don’t know! This summer, me and my girls buried a dead mouse we found. It had drowned in a bucket that got filled with rain water during the night. It was as if it’s eyes were looking at us asking us for help. It was so sad. Burying it made us all feel better. Like we were part mouse or something, or just the fact that we had a ritual that made us feel connected to both eachother, the mouse, the ground. But also like we were saying sorry for putting that bucket there of course. Again, I think a lot about connecting, relationships. Of compromising. In all relationships we need compromise. Feels like we forget that in our relationship with nature.
It feels that with Religious now, and Romantic beforehand, your albums have been centred around a very personal, strongly felt theme. Any idea where your next album will take you?
Who knows, maybe I’ll just continue making albums that begin with the letter R – Romantic, Religious, ridiculous, revenge, rave, rage? Rashes!? I did grow up with atopic eczema (hence the song Chapped Lips). No but really, I think I wanna go further and explore the church room more- organs, vocals, harmonies, harps – how it all sounds in different valves.
Thank you Nina!
Religious is out now on all platforms
The Predatory Wasp 