IN Kelly and the Art of the Bedtime Voice Memo on Under the Birch Tree
IN Kelly and the Art of the Bedtime Voice Memo on Under the Birch Tree
A Bravo Papa Frontman Goes Solo with a Ten-Track Album Built at Home in Nesodden
IN Kelly is a name built for export, and Under the Birch Tree is an album built at home. The Norwegian musician started its ten songs on an acoustic guitar. He finished them in Nesodden with programmed drums and synths, somewhere between 80s rock, 90s rock and alternative pop.
IN Kelly opens the album with Sleepwalker. That track now sits in the playlist below, among this desk’s bedroom and lo-fi pop picks, and IN Kelly’s artist profile holds the wider coverage. Under the Birch Tree reached AltPop.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Put it on before you read on.
The name has a story of its own. He decided early that his Norwegian name would be hard to pronounce abroad. So he took Kelly for its matching first letter, then added IN for International Name, as he explained to Music Arena GH. Behind the persona is Kjetil Rønningen, frontman of the Oslo band Bravo Papa. His first band, Mars University, started in Holmestrand in 2003. Bravo Papa followed in 2009 and released five studio albums before he went solo.
Under the Birch Tree arrived on 12 April 2024 as his first solo album. Three of its songs also came out as singles: Sleepwalker, Thought I Was Your Sidekick and Back to Rome. It runs ten tracks and just under 42 minutes. Two years on, the album is still finding listeners. That makes this a good moment to look at how it was put together.
The dreaming runs deeper than the method. Reviewing the album, Music for All heard the stretch between sleep and waking as its loose central theme. Even so, he prefers to keep the lyrics open to interpretation.
IN Kelly Built Under the Birch Tree From Phone Memos, Programmed Drums and Layered Guitars
The songs started small. After his daughter was born in the spring of 2023, melodies kept arriving while he played acoustic guitar for her. He recorded each one on his phone before it could slip away, he told Punk Head. Sleepwalker was the first song he assembled from those fragments, and one section of it arrived later, in the shower.
The electronic layer came next. He programmed the drums on an Ableton Push and experimented with synth sounds. Extra guitar parts and backing vocals often turned up afterwards, on walks or just before sleep. Plastic Magazine described the result on Sleepwalker. A bass synth pulses under the snap of electronic drums. Clean electric and acoustic guitars are strummed brightly over the top.
From there, the album keeps changing its instrumentation. Home to My Honeycomb is the first acoustic turn, with real drums under an indie folk arrangement. In the Right keeps the acoustic guitar in front but sets it against lightly synthesised drums. Will You Do It For the World? is led by piano. Synth feedback, hiss and spacey noise keep interrupting it.
The second half widens further. Back to Rome is tight post-punk with gothic guitars and discreet classical keyboard beds. She Can’t Reach You puts an acoustic guitar over an almost danceable beat. Something New borrows a jazz and bossa nova rhythm. After that, Ducks and Drakes darkens the mood with horns, or a simulation of them, far back in the mix. Finally, The World Might Listen gathers every element: a simple acoustic base, clean electric guitar, lightly synthesised drums and synths. The closing pair are also the longest tracks, at close to six minutes and six and a half.
Home Production Gives Under the Birch Tree the Lo-Fi Edge of 90s Bedroom Indie
Every part of the record comes from one person. Music for All reported that Rønningen composed, played, sang, recorded and produced the whole album himself. It also heard an organic production in which each instrument can be picked out. He also records a song as soon as it is finished. In his view, a long gap between writing and recording can drain the energy that made it work.
Berlin On Air heard the result clearly on Sleepwalker. Its review described a lo-fi character that recalls classic 90s indie and bedroom recordings. Even so, the track still sounds current, set over a quick but minimal electronic beat. The same review picked out a hazy, washed-out guitar tone carrying dreamy harmonies. It also praised a voice distinctive enough to lead the melody.
Necessary Outlet placed the song between decades. It heard 80s phrasing in the vocal line, the melancholy of mid-90s alternative rock and a British new wave sensibility. It also noted a swirling synth line cut by a buzzy bass lead and crisp percussion. Meanwhile, the chorus carries the pull of a commercial pop song. That is a fair map of how 80s rock, 90s rock and alternative pop meet across Under the Birch Tree.
Where to Hear IN Kelly, and Why Fans of The Cure and The Smiths Should Take Note
IN Kelly names The Smiths, The Cure and The Strokes among his main inspirations. The album carries that lineage lightly. Fans of The Cure will recognise the pairing of a bright pop arrangement with a wistful lyric. Robert Smith struck that balance on Just Like Heaven in 1987. Listeners raised on The Smiths will know the jangling riff Johnny Marr built for This Charming Man in 1983. Under his electric guitar sat layers of acoustic. In the same way, IN Kelly stacks clean electric and acoustic guitars, even with a programmed beat underneath.
Sleepwalker travelled well in early 2024. Plastic Magazine, Punk Head, Berlin On Air and Necessary Outlet all covered it that February. So did IGGY Magazine and Music Arena GH. Music for All then reviewed the album days after its release. It has kept finding new ears since.
AltPop.News’s curator team:
“Our favourite piece of staging here is a small one. The official Sleepwalker video lives on the Bravo Papa YouTube channel. The solo record grew up next door to the band, not in opposition to it.”
The full album plays in the Spotify player near the top of this page. The Sleepwalker video sits further up as well. Under the Birch Tree is also on Apple Music. Follow IN Kelly on Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. His official page sits on the Bravo Papa site.
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