I had the pleasure of interviewing Nora Lindkvist, mostly known as Non Tiq, who is a very talented musician from Sweden. Her music is a perfect combination of electronica and pop with personal darkness and enchanting melodies. I found out more about her album which is set to be released in 2013 as well as what she likes to do in her free time. Read the interview below to find out more about this lovely artist.

Melisa Baykent: Hello! First of all do you think you could introduce yourself and how you got involved with music?

Non Tiq: Hello! My name is Nora, but my artist name is Non Tiq. I’m from Sweden and I like music, coffee, big feelings and dogs! I started singing in a choir when I was little, and then my dad taught me how to play the piano. When I was about 13-14 my brother and I started to write some music together, but it was mostly him writing and me wanting to be like him. I went to a music program in my senior year of high school and studied jazz piano. I told everyone that I loved it, but I secretly hated it. I didn’t like practising very much, which isn’t very good if you are to become a jazz pianist (which was my goal back then). I lost my passion for music at that point. After a personal tragedy, I quit the program and my family moved to the south of Sweden. One day I went into a music store and bought a guitar. From that day on all I wanted to do was to write songs, and so I did. When I moved to Stockholm I met Karol (Karol Machata, producer) and we started to hang out and make music together.

MB: Would you say your style and sound have changed and progressed from when you released your debut single, Quiet, about two years ago?

NT:Well, it’s fair to say that the sound has developed. Actually I can’t really say when or where that happened. All I know is that we did a lot of things wrong after we released Quiet. First of all, the project Non Tiq was born really fast and I basically didn’t have any songs at that point. So I wrote a lot of songs really fast. Some of them were good, but many were really bad. It all went too fast. I had to make myself some time to breathe or whatever. And then things started to go right. And the sound just grew out of that process I think. It was darker, warmer and less perfect.

NT: I wanted Love Machine to sound very much like a live take. Like an angry girl suddenly stepping out on a stage screaming out her pain over a failed relationship. Like me haha. But then we have also worked a lot on making it a rhythmic song. For example there’s a lot of really simple and repetitive guitars that create a certain rhythm. Maybe people think that that’s boring but I love it. I like creating rhythms with other instruments than drums.

NT: Oh my god. People are so talented here! And there’s so many people who make music. I think that that’s amazing. At the same time, I think that the Swedish music industry in itself has a lot of issues. When musicians are getting depressed because of the pressure from the environment I think that something’s wrong. We should be better at taking care of eachother.

NT: That’s correct! Finally! It’s probably going to be named “17”. The album will be really poetic but at the same time fierce. People will recognize the sound from “Love Machine”, but some songs have a rougher side to them. And some are softer. There will be electronic elements, but with more focus on guitars, piano and rhythms than on “Quiet”.

NT: Right now I’m actually listening to a lot of folk music. Going home on the subway I put on some nice folk songs and day dream that I’m up North. Nordic is a really good Swedish folk band!

MB: Besides making music what else do you enjoy doing?

NT:I spend a lot of time with my dog. She’s an angry but really funny Jack Russell Terrier. We take long walks in the woods, which is the most relaxing thing I know. I’m also a journalist student, and therefore a real news junkie. I read a lot of news. Apart from that I like hanging out with friends and drink red wine and dance ugly.

NT:To finish and release the album. And to play more live gigs, hopefully outside of Sweden!

NT: Can’t up with one actually…. I think that people write the songs they write, because of who they are. So I think it’s impossible to wish that I had written another person’s song. Even though there are thousands of great songs, they are not mine. But of course, if I had written “Rolling In The Deep” I probably wouldn’t be sitting in my worn out, dirty jeans eating noodles right now. Money is nice. But it’s not my goal with music.And I like my dirty jeans.

NT: I would love to play a big show in Mexico. Then I could eat lots of delicious Mexican food and also visit my brother who lives there. Plus, the Mexican people seem really cool.