On a Thursday morning in July, Berit Dybing is enjoying a day-off between recording sessions in London when she sits down with me at a coffee shop, with only one screen (and an ocean) between us. A Minnesota-native, the 23-year-old studied popular music in England and stayed there after graduating in 2020 —up until her visa expired in December. Following months of video chats and writing over Zoom, she finally was able to make her way back to the United Kingdom, even if just for the summer to work on music with her friends, and has been trying to make the most of it. Come September, it’s back to Minneapolis, where she’s been based even since she returned to the United States.



That day, as we chat, it has only been a few days since the singer-songwriter released, on July 14th, her third song, Feels So Easy. The tune is easy on the ears, indeed, if one may say so. It describes a happy, easy-going first date, setting very clearly the scene and putting words on the feelings that come with it. It sounds like summer, and looks like it in the music video.



Check out the official video for Feels So Easy, followed down below with the interview where Ber tells us about the song, her forthcoming EP and how she “say(s) ‘sorry’ like it’s a talent”:



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Feels So Easy is that kind of song about going out with someone after a long time being single, but at the same time, it could just as easily relate to going out for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Did you write it with that in mind?



Ber – It totally could, right? I love that you said that, thank you. I actually wrote that in April 2021. It happened not so long after we had been working on Bad for Me, and thinking about releasing that, too. So it was all kind of a really big period, but uh… I wrote that over Zoom, and it’s actually about a <a href="https://hingeapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010797253-What-is-Hinge-" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hinge</a> date that I went on to, kind of, get out of this funk that I was in. Because I was really just spending time by myself, right? Then things in America started opening back up again so there were more people out and about. So the lyrics literally spill out the details of the date, which is really funny. We went to this park, and it was just so fun to see people running around and having a nice time. And it just felt really easy to slip back into this&#8230; like, “oh yeah, the world’s gonna be normal, I’m gonna feel normal again.” So I ended up writing the song the next day. I like that there is a little bit of a parallel with coming out of the pandemic (laughs). That’s really funny, and super true. It felt so good to feel a little, yeah (laughs).



How did the recording process go? Were you able to go to a studio?



No. I actually have a microphone —well, a whole set-up in my basement, where I hang out. So I recorded all of the vocals myself and sent them back and forth to my producer,<a href="https://www.instagram.com/hotdennis_/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Brandon (Hill)</a>, until we were kind of happy with it. He’s been in the UK and I was in the States, so we worked on different time zones. He’s so incredible. He works really quickly and is a super talented guy. He actually ended up producing the entire EP that I’m currently working on. And we actually wrote the song with another artist, Hazel English —she’s incredible—, during a two-hour Zoom session that we had. It went really fast. It’s a short song, it’s a sweet song. The lyrics are really literal. Like “sunset, bad beer, we’re in the park.” I know that it’s not much, but it feels nice. It just teleports me back there every time I hear it. And then it was fun because I knew exactly what I needed to do for the music video. I just went and recreated the date that this boy and I went on (laughs).



Where did you film it?



We filmed it in Powderhorn Park, in Minneapolis. We broke out the dad cam. We biked around the neighborhood for the start of it, and then, eventually, we just kind of managed to get to the park and set up a picnic on the hill that I talk about in the second verse. It’s really funny. It felt very obvious, and just… to the point.



This is your second release ever, and your second release in the span of two months. Is that the schedule you’re going for? Monthly releases?



It might be, yeah (chuckles). That’s my plan. I’m going to try and release something every month. I would like to do that up until the full EP is then completed. So there’s 5 tracks&#8230;



Does that mean that the EP is coming in the fall?



I don’t want to make any promises, but that’s the plan, yes. We’re releasing it independently, which is really cool. It’s just been fun to learn about the process as much as possible, and then connect with people. Like I’m the one responding to messages, working on the visuals&#8230; It feels like it’s something that’s coming from me. So I feel lucky to be able to do that right now. And my managers are amazing. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them, that’s for sure. They’ve been virtually holding my hand for a long time. There’s a lot to learn. I didn’t know how hard it was to release music. There’s so much that goes into it. It’s a lot of work, I’m tired but happy at the same time.



Was that the plan? Did you want to release music independently? Or did you initially want to get signed, but then… life happened and your perspective changed?



Let’s be real —of course, I wanted to be signed right away when I was first starting to write. But I’m actually so glad that we waited because we have been shopping around for a long time, and I’ve been learning more about myself as a writer through that whole process. I wouldn’t have been ready to sign anything, or even release anything before we started putting out stuff independently.



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I think there are different paths people can take, and it works differently for everyone —every single artist in the game, every songwriter. There’s no right way to do it. I’ve been really lucky to have had some support from a lot of different platforms. Like Spotify that put Feels So Easy <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CRmqec8Hzf5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in five of their editorial playlists</a>. If you would have told me a year ago that I’d be putting out music, and that it would be next to some of my favorite artists’ songs or in my favorite playlist, I would’ve been like: “No, that’s not– that’s not real.” So it’s really cool that people just got behind it right away because I know that’s not “typical” for someone who just started to release stuff so I feel really lucky, but at the same time, I am working really hard, and I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time.



And do you think of yourself as more of an artist who writes happy songs or sad songs? Because prior to this release, both songs you shared at once —Bad for Me and Worrying— are quite sad, so it’s hard to tell for now. Do you tend to write more about the sad things in life or the happy moments?



I love this question. I think it’s… (pauses) Oh boy. I think it’s a lot harder to write a happy song just because you really want to get it right, and have it feel really happy. Um&#8230; I have definitely written more sad songs than I have happy songs. But speaking of the ones that I’m releasing this year, the majority of them are quite fun and happy, and I’m really excited about that. But I will say that I use writing as a form of therapy; it helps me process a lot of emotions and get them out. So a lot of my songs are very sad, but I love them. They feel like a piece of me. It feels real. So&#8230; I don’t know, I think I’m probably a bit of a sad girl, I really do. But I’m gonna mask it and say that I’m a happy person. So I’m putting out happy songs for that reason (chuckles). The next two are definitely really silly, I’ll say that. They might even surprise people&#8230; (laughs)



Going back to the tracks that you’ve released so far. In Bad for Me, there’s a lyric that, personally, caught my ear in particular – you might have already guessed the one I’m referring to because it feels like it’s meant to stand out. You sing: “I have a habit / I say ‘sorry’ like it’s a talent.” Is it real? Are you actually like that in life?



Am I like that? Yes, yeah! When I wrote that lyric, I was like: “That’s the best lyric I will ever write because it is something I would tattoo on my body.” It is a name tag for me. I have it down to the core, being from Minnesota and all. We have this thing called<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_nice" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> “Minnesota nice”</a> —everybody else’s inconveniences are always our own, too. So we take that on. I mean, I say “sorry” for things I didn’t even do. And the context of that line, too.This song is really just about how I found myself constantly making up excuses and finding ways to take the blame for whatever was going on in the situation, right? So I was just… kind of self-sabotaging a little bit. But I do, I say “sorry” like it’s a talent, for sure. It’s probably the most commonly used word in my vocabulary. If someone bumps into me, I’m the first person to say “sorry”. So… yeah. (smiles) I think taking something as simple as that, and then putting so much weight on it, it’s kind of just giving an ode to that. And I think it is really relatable, I know a lot of people that are like that, too.



I think that, maybe, when one’s used to being so polite, in some cases, apologizing for everything and anything can become the “default settings”, in a way.



And on accident, too! It just… becomes ingrained. It’s a habit, right? You’re like “oh, sorry.” A lot of people do that in London, too. I’m just walking around on the street, and yeah. You hear it all over the place.



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Back to songwriting… What are your influences? Who do you listen to?



I listen to a lot of different stuff, but when I say that, really, I mean I listen to a lot of different pop artists. I grew up listening to 70s music because that’s what my parents played in the kitchen. And then, there’s always been like… Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac. I feel like that’s at the root of a lot of stuff that I have written recently.



Some of my favorite artists that I really look up to at the minute are <a href="https://popgoesthemusic.fr/tag/lennon-stella" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lennon Stella</a>, <a href="https://popgoesthemusic.fr/tag/jp-saxe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JP Saxe</a> —his new album is insane, I’ve had it on repeat. The <a href="https://popgoesthemusic.fr/tag/adam-melchor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adam Melchor</a> album, as well. Everything he puts out, every collaboration he has with any artist&#8230; If I could work with anybody, it would be Adam Melchor. It’d be like a dream.



I spent some time in Norway and I have quite rich Norwegian roots in my family, heritage-wise. Before I moved to England, I rinsed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/01/scandipop-mabel-zhala-seinabo-sey" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scandipop</a>. There’s a lot of really cool sonic songwriting that comes out of the Scandinavian countries that I’ve always kind of brought in as references in my sessions.



There are one-off songs here and there that just hit me in the chest and stay there forever. In 2020, my most listened to song was <a href="https://youtu.be/eVwyvMVPd8U" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Supercuts, by Jeremy Zucker</a>. It got me through a lot, actually. That song was like a therapy song. And then I feel really lucky to have so many cool British influences that I get to work with in general, so a lot of that kind of moves through, and it’s fun.



And how did your sound come together?



Actually, the sound of the stuff that I&#8217;m releasing right now is something that Brandon and I fell into on accident. We’ve been working together for two years, and we’re also really close friends. We just share a lot of music with each other, and we’ve written and tried a lot of different things. And when I moved back to America and we started writing on Zoom all the time, the sound just fell into our laps a little bit. He’s super consistent, and I just shifted the focus on writing songs that I didn’t think other people would necessarily want to hear, but that I would want to hear. Then, those are the ones that we ended up all falling in love with and releasing.



It’s this really therapeutic thing. And a song like Feels So Easy, when I hear it I get transported back to the whole day: I was just having fun for once in a dark part of my life. I’ve listened to it every time I needed to remind myself that you’re allowed to get into something every once in a while, and let things come as they do. And I loved writing that with my friends, too. I have some really talented friends, that I will talk about for ages if you let me. They worked on the EP, as well. And so, it also feels like a big warm hug from all of them. It’s like— it feels quite selfish to do that for yourself, but I think when there’s so much honesty… Personally, I relate to things that I feel are really honest. Like JP Saxe, in his album, he says so many things in a way that I’ve never heard said before, and it feels like it’s coming from his heart. I think that’s really cool. I want to make music that feels like I’m doing that.



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You can also check out Ber’s newest release:



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