Axel says, “I wrote ‘Indefinite’ about merely putting yourself into someone else's shoes and how important it is to keep listening and learning no matter how defined your opinion is. I feel like we often think we need to protect our own, protect what we've learned, and protect what we've earned, and it can make us narrow-minded and unwilling to evolve if it goes against what we've lived with and learned in the past. I wrote this song about seeing the light that's on the other side and doing the hard thing to fight your limited mind to get further.”
As if forming aural clouds from the natural elements around him, the music gathers acoustic guitar, piano, and warm electronics across the twelve songs that make up the album. “It’s just quiet,” Axel explains. “There are so many times where the silence is so still. In Reykjavík, we have a lot of emotional and mental space. My path to the studio and running trail is just by the ocean, so I’m always by the sea, hence the title. When I moved back in late 2018, I felt settled. I wasn’t looking for anything anymore. I finally appreciate home and see the beauty in it.” He needed to leave to reach this realization. Born and raised in the tiny Northern fishing village of Húsavík, Axel recorded his first EP Forest Fires, it was here where the songs were written under the influence of everything from Bon Iver to Bombay Bicycle Club, generating over 40 million streams on the title track. With its success, Axel left Húsavík and signed to a major record label in the Netherlands. At 19 years old, he moved into his first apartment and “felt so isolated.” He admits, “I was supposed to be in a music mecca, but I never left the apartment.” So, he traded Amsterdam for the British seaside town of Brighton where he recorded his Youthful Hearts EP. Living in Brighton gave Axel “the clarity to move to Iceland.” Axel returned to Iceland and chose to plant roots in Reykjavík.
Tapping into the D.I.Y. spirit of his earliest recordings, but with a sense of refinement and newfound wisdom, Axel carefully assembled the album with producer Ian Grimble (1975, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Daughter, Bear’s Den, Mumford & Sons). He incorporated brass on nearly every tune, adding a robust organic energy to the tracks. Simultaneously, he chronicled his personal and musical growth. “The ultimate goal was to bind together my old way of writing songs with what I’ve learned and made it sound like one collective,” he elaborates. “Some of these ideas go back to my bedroom in Húsavík, but many of them are fresh and new. I pictured myself on a journey.”
