Behind The Tracks: HRADA - The Girl And The Raconteur (Single) (2021)

On August 20 th 2021, Hrada release their second single The Girl and the Raconteur. This specific release date is not a mere coincidence. August 20 th 2021 marks three years since Greta Thunberg started striking from school for the climate.

“The Girl and the Raconteur” is a song highly inspired by the Thunberg/Ernman family and their book ‘Our House Is on Fire’ and Greta Thunberg’s exemplary and extraordinary leadership. As long as the world doesn’t treat the climate crisis as what it actually is; a crisis, we can’t just sit back and do nothing. We hope this song will be an inspiration for people all over the world to put pressure to power, vote for green parties and solutions and stand up against the unjustified actions of the current political leaders of the world”. Says Peter Espevoll, the former frontman of Extol and now part of the newly formed outfit Hrada. This release sets yet another coordinate on the unventured Hrada map, hoping to showcase the variety in expression and what you can expect from Hrada going into the future; the unexpected.

When it came to finding the right aesthetics for this song, the bleak subject matter taken into consideration, Peter and Åsmund from Hrada dug up some old skeletons, so to speak. “In the process of developing this concept, a lot of different musical components found their way into the song. Everything from the troubled pumpkin king himself; Jack Skellington to the notoriously and unfairly chastised but absolutely marvelous gothic musical ‘Which Witch!’ by fellow Norwegians Ingrid Bjørnov and Benedicte Adrian…

…the basic idea for the unconventional rhythmic verses actually stems from a distant memory of watching my then one year old daughter dancing to a German children song somewhere on the dark universe of children’s videos online. The song had this amazing rhythmic phrasing that was absolutely infectious.”

Peter believes that music is one of the truly unique ways of reaching deep into the heart and soul of people. He elaborates:

“As seasoned songwriters we feel an urge to write songs and lyrics that can have some sort of positive impact on the listener. The climate crisis is the biggest threat mankind have faced, at least in modern history, and it is something that we in Hrada are very concerned about. It is easy to get discomforted by the grim science, inconvenience and the inaction from the political leaders and industry leaders. We’ve personally come to realize over the years that we are up against a dire crisis and we need to treat it accordingly. Witnessing the force and potency of the grass-root movement that for example Greta Thunberg has inspired, we see a glimpse of hope that we might actually move towards change in how we as humans decide to treat the earth and thus ourselves and everything that live here. We are a part of this grass-root movement and we invite anyone and everyone to join! We all need to take action. We all need to do something. Hopefully, The Girl and the Raconteur might just be that spark in someones heart…”

The Girl and the Raconteur will be out on all major streaming platforms on August 20 th . Hradawould also like to announce that both “The Girl and the Raconteur” and the debut single “Gospel Oak” will be included in the upcoming full-length album “Mirrorland”, set to be released late 2021.