On his new single ‘I Don’t Bend’ Ståle Jan has crafted a chaotic, poppy masterpiece, but how he did it might surprise you.
Ståle Jan – I Don’t Bend
Ståle Jan – a pioneering indie-rock artist from Norway- fuses traditional songwriting practices with bold, forward-thinking initiatives and technologies.
Let me preface this review with the following statement – I normally avoid AI at all costs. But the more and more it becomes integrated and ingrained into our society and the world in which we inhabit, the harder it will be to do so. So, today, I’m dipping my toe in. As it also seems that Ståle Jan is.
So, right off the bat, let’s get this out of the way. The vocals are human. The lyrics are human. The melody is human. The samples are human. The instrumentation is electronic – something that humans have been doing for decades. So nothing new there. But the way in which the elements are fused – technology and humanity beating as one heart – is really quite breathtaking, and some of the software that Ståle has used to concoct the piece sounds really quite astonishing.
Anyway, enough about how it was made. What about how it sounds? Well, it sounds like a combination of Paramore, Billie Eilish, Pixies, Mark Ronson and Olivia Rodgridgo, but also – crucially – kind of like nothing you’ve ever heard before. Which we suppose is really the point of introducing new practices to age-old arts. To push things forward.
Lyrically, it feels like a fight song. A call to arms. A mantra for those who get knocked down but who get up again. An anthem for those who won’t take it lying down. What your own personal “it” may be can vary wildly – from oppression to ostracisation to anxiety to depression – but Ståle Jan is there to help you on your way.
In the words of the Oslo-based artist, “it’s a defiant modern rock anthem built on driving guitars and high-voltage production, for anyone who refuses to bow to pressure, noise, or manufactured truth.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
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Words by Greg Hancock
