Getting to know you
Band name:
PEEL
Number of members:
3 (Pim, Seb and Frikk)
Hometown:
Aarnes outside Oslo in Norway
Year formed:
Early 2000’s
Genre(s):
Alt.rock, though it’s hard to label us. We are a band with people from three different generations and we listen to basically everything and cover every genre there is from the history of rock (pop).
We pride ourselves in not acknowledging the existence of “guilty pleasures”, so you will find about anything and everything on our playlists, CD or vinyl collections. And this of course is printed in our music; classic rock, metal, classic “beatlesque” pop, alternative, indie…
At a PEEL gig you’ll find all kinds of people from the age of 18 to 70.
Latest release:
“Modern Age Family Business”
Influences:
Life; music, literature, art, movies, love/hate, human behaviour, philosophy.
How did the band come together?
The first PEEL line up was part of the alternative scene.
In fact the first line WAS the alternative scene in Aarnes, a god forsaken small town outside of Oslo!
What is your proudest moment to date?
There are actually a couple of moments that we are proud of; getting our first self-financed single “Comes Down…OK” play-listed on national radio; our first record deal with the biggest (at the time) indie label in Europe after we had been turned down by basically every major record company in our home country; play-listings on MTV, radio airplay and chart placements, even though it’s sort of stupid, it made us kind of proud.
You’ve got to remember, we come from a small town where we were the weirdos and the guys “likely not to make anything out or lives”
What are the biggest challenges of being in an independent band?
For us it is getting airplay, playlistings, press and gigs in Norway. We have an audience outside Norway, though not big enough for us to tour as of now. Maybe that’ll change, hopefully it will.
What are your views on the impact of streaming on bands?
On one hand, it’s democratic. You can release a song from a bedroom in Norway and someone in Argentina can connect with it the same day. For a band like PEEL, that global reach is real. We’ve seen listeners abroad respond deeply to the lyrics, sometimes more than at home. That simply wouldn’t have happened 20 years ago. But, let’s be honest: financially, streaming has hollowed out the middle class of musicians. It rewards volume, trends, and playlist compliance. It pushes artists toward shorter songs, faster hooks, and constant output. Depth, patience, and artistic development don’t fit neatly into an algorithm. There’s also a psychological shift. Music used to feel like something you owned, something you committed to. Now it’s the background.
That said, the system is what it is – streaming is just the delivery system. If anything, streaming has exposed who’s in it for the art and who’s in it for the metrics. What really is gonna fuck music and art up is AI; that shit is creepy because it eliminates the real human connection by imitating emotions.
What’s next for the band?
We are gonna release a new single on the 20th march called “Heaven from Here” which we are pretty psyched about. We have planned at least four releases this year and that is something we very much look forward to.
Release that you love
Artist: David Bowie
Genre: Rock, Pop, Artrock, Electronica, Glam
Country: England
Release: Scary Monsters, which has two absolute classic singles “Fashion” and “Ashes to Ashes”. David is one of the most influential and important artists across 5 decades. He released a masterpiece, Black Star, just prior to his death. A genius and in many ways a renaissance man.
Thank you for taking the time to share your favourite bands with SonicAbuse
