Sol Heilo, Norway
Sol Heilo: London is trouble

Inspired by the British capital, Sol Heilo wrote „London is Trouble" on her tour through Europe. With the song the Norwegian singer shows that that the bad times are as much a part of life as the good ones.

I consider myself a „happy at heart“ sort of human being. I feel I was born happy. On the flipside, I found myself in a dark valley for several years while I was touring with Katzenjammer. Lone roads led to my solo album “Skinhorse Playground” an it was on a particularly lonesome day I found myself writing the song London is Trouble. It trails the downside of life on the road and took shape at London’s iconic, but now defunct, 12 Bar Club, following a bout of retail therapy on Denmark Street. I remember I was in the bar an had just bought myself a new guitar – a 1961 Gibon LG-O – almost to fill my soul with something. It’s about how gray and dull London can be when you have no joy in your heart, an the ever-fleeting glow of late nights and early mornings.
 

I have written almost all of my songs while touring Europe. They are inspired by the vibe from the different cities, people and emoticons that I experienced. All these emotions culminated in one all-consuming state of mind; loneliness. I found myself surrounded day and night by people; my band and crew, daily new acquaintances on the yet another venue to play, the audience, people in the street, other bands on the road. I had hardly a second literally alone but I have never in my life been lonelier. One thing is to be alone in your room and feel lonely, another is to be surrounded by a lot of people an d yet feel like the loneliest person on the planet. That is a different sort of solitude. Like walking the streets of London with hundreds of people passing by. It feels like as if the sun is mockingly shining down on the funeral procession, well knowing that it’s not the right time to excel with its joyous rays.

My relationship to Europe is filed with some kind of sweet melancholy. The place whre my heart was broken, not by some boy, but by people I loved, by being met by myself in the door every day not able to escape and learning the hard way that people yout trust can be very cruel. The beautiful continent filled wth fresh impressions, exciting impulses, wonderful people and new ideas, highly inspiring. The place where I felt my soul left my body and blind and hollow groping in the dark trying to find it again. My deliverance from the darkness was my songs. I had to talk to someone and that someone became my writing book. In some weird wy I got kind of addicted to disaster. I felt wonderful when I wrote and the second I closed my book and faced reality, the drug evaporated. And disaster was what made me write. Disaster made me write “London is Trouble” an I am nothing but grateful that I went through this period in my life. I played a part in creating who I am, the happy soul that has been walking the valley of darkness.