Universe is a song that I have mixed feelings about. The song has surely become great and is a beautiful song as it is but it has become so different from what it was supposed to be that I have almost lost the feeling of ownership to it.
The song started out as the Norwegian song «I reggenet» (In the rain) as a piano-driven song with a clear melody line that is repeated all through the song. After I started to consider it for inclusion on the EP and to be recorded I changed the title to «In the rain» and then again to «Universe» when the song had been chosen for the EP. I have several instrumental demos for it, the first ones just with piano hook, verses and chorus melody and one version with a bridge part that was created later on.
I really liked this song, which is why I chose the song to be recorded in the first place. However, after I submitted it to the EP producer for it to be worked on it ended up being changed completely. I have to admit that I don´t remember why the producer changed it so much around but I have accepted the changes. The reason I accepted it even if it took a totally new direction is that I heard that the song sounded really great but in total honesty I felt like I started to lose my grip on the song completely. In addition, a little while before we were going to leave to Mjøndalen to record the EP, the vocalist noticed that she thought the hook and chorus melody line (which are the same) sounded similar to another song she had heard before and suggested that we changed a little on the melody line there to avoid plagiarism. I agreed to doing so but I was not very happy about it because I felt that I lost even more of the song that I had already done. And to be honest I am not certain that people would have noticed that similarity to that other song but I decided to go along with it just to be sure.
All this together «Universe» to me is the song in this whole project that I am least enthusiastic about. I think the song itself is great but I almost don´t feel like it´s my song anymore. On this track I feel like mostly just a lyric writer while the rest of the song is the producer´s. Of course there are parts of the song that still has my influence but it feels that way and that was never the intent with the project. So no matter how good the song turned out «Universe» for me is very bitter-sweet and in retrospect I wish I had chosen another song.
Universe ended up as track number 5 on the «Summer EP» released in 2022.
«Universe» was recorded Friday 23th July 2021 at Norsk Lydstudio in Mjøndalen, Norway. We started the recording session for the song at 12:15 PM and worked on it until 14:45 PM.