I was born on the 25th of July, 1996, a few minutes after my sister, Monica. My mum decided to give birth to a natural environment, thus Monica and I were born in the sea, in the Arctic circle, in a small town of Finnmark, Northern Norway, which is called Kirkenes and is very close to the Finnish as well as the Russian borders. We used to live in a village, Elvenes, located about 5 kilometres away from the Russian borders and our house was built on a bay, Kongsgambukta (Bukta means bay in Norwegian), as shown in the photo above. My background is multicultural, as my mother, Niki, has a Russian origin and my dad, Thomas, has Greek and Romanian ancestors. However, my roots again trace back to Norway, as my great-grandmother from my mother's side was from Nordkapp and also my dad's surname is Sorensen. Furthermore, both parents of mine were born in Kirkenes and here's where their other 4 children were born too.
Apart from Monica, I've got two older siblings: a brother and a sister. Daniel is 15 years older than me and Johanna 8 years and a half older. This makes Monica and me the lastborns of the family, as we were the last ones to get out of our mother's belly. However, I believe that above everyone I was always closer to Johanna, and we have still remained as such. We have many similar traits in our character and she can clearly understand the way I'm thinking. But anyway we have strong bonds as a family, although we live very far from each other.
My father had studied history and ethnology and in a way, this fact has made a huge impact on me. My mother wanted to become an evolutionary biologist and she indeed studied biology at university. However, both of them eventually pursued a career in acting and have performed at shows at the theatre. My mum had very long blonde hair and many people thought she looked like someone between Meryl Streep and Loreena McKennitt. When she ceased to dye it, she looked more like a granny, telling stories at her grandchildren around the fireplace. My dad had long blonde hair tied in a ponytail. He used to narrate stories to me, which came from all over the world, when I was young. He had travelled to many exotic countries and because of that I had removed every bit of racism from myself, since a very early age.
Both parents of mine were as well excellent musicians. Thus, I had a good perception about music, since I was almost 2 years old. My mum had me sit in her laps and she was teaching me the piano keys, by ear at the beginning. I think that Daniel and Johanna did the same with her, even though Daniel is the only of us, who became devoted mainly to film music. Monica was the only one who didn't want to learn to play the piano. On the contrary, she started violin lessons at a local music school, when she was 5. Now as far as Johanna is concerned, she really liked singing, apart from playing the piano. She had a very loud voice and always in a good shape, so I was always excited to listen to her singing. Furthermore, I learnt to play the accordion by my father and later at school, I learnt to play the harp. I started to experiment along with the piano keys, when I was 2, however I was 4 when I systematically started lessons with Kati, my mum's sister. Kati was a piano and music teacher in Kirkenes High School and Junior High, while at the meantime she was working at a mini market at the centre. She really looks like mum, though she's much older and has a bit shorter hair. My mum has also two younger sisters: Lina, who is a psychologist and lives in Oslo, so I've seen her very few times (four years ago I met for the first time my cousin, Astraea, because she was a fan of the band) and Maija, who is a comedian and has also appeared with my parents at the theatre.
Kirkenes is a small town, but nothing prevents it from being multicultural. To start with, it borders with Inari, Finland westwards and Murmansk, Russia eastwards, where my mum comes from. That means, people were speaking Norwegian, Kainu/Kven (a Finnish dialect), Russian, as well as Sámi, as it was located near Lapland and the place itself was as well the Norwegian part of Lapland. This fact always impressed me and gave me inspiration in order to want to learn about other cultures of the planet. Since a very young age I liked to learn about things that were happening around me. I suppose that this is related to my background, which consisted of a wealthy education. I could read since a very young age, since the presents I used to receive consisted mainly of books. My parents were those, who were usually buying me many books. And when I grew up a little bit, they used to buy me children's books about science and history. I believe, indeed, that this is the main reason why I started to wonder about many aspects of life and about the world around me.
The village, which I grew up in, was very small and almost 25 kilometres away from the centre. What is true about Finnmark and in general about Lapland (all of three countries) is that, even though a signboard in the street may write the name of a town, that doesn't mean that town extends to 2 or 3 kilometres. You might have been driving for 50 kilometres and still be in Kirkenes. And you encounter about five houses every ten kilometres. However, towns are subcategorised in 'villages', which are named after the bay or the lake (Finnmark consists of countless lakes). Then again, there are very few houses, exactly because Northern Norway as well as Northern Finland are underpopulated, with no highways. So, our house was located, as I said, in Kongsgambukta, in Elvenes village, at the northernest part of Norway, because then it was Russia. In fact, the opposite side of Elvenesfjorden lake is in Russia.
I believe I'm very fortunate to live in such a place. Most people consider that the biggest gift is to dwell in a city centre. They think they can have anything they want: caféterias, shopping centres, libraries... On the other hand, I believe you can surely find all this stuff in a less urban place, as well, however you shall not find a huge department store, but a small clothes shop, where you can also buy whatever you like. Very often, we like doing big things in big places, only because we want to prove how important our selves are. We think that the most crucial things in life are found in big cities and that only the elderly and the conservative ones still reside in villages. However, I agree with the words of one of my favourite authors, Henry David Thoreau in his book Walden, where what he says in summary is: Live a simple life. All this valuable stuff is not necessary to your survival. And he has right! Personally, I assume I have not become corrupted, exactly because I never left the countryside. I don't mean that people who live in the city have a dirty mind (as, unfortunately, part of the elderly of the village still believes). I'm only under the impression that they are prone to overconsumption and acquisition of more and more goods, that in fact they don't need at all. Life at the village is simpler and more meaningful. You don't acquire more than you have and you become more broad-minded. Human relations are more bonded, as everybody knows you at the village, and you are not an unknown person walking around unknown people. And of course relations are genuine, when you are an artist, as in the village you are not perceived as a 'famous', but as a girl who they knew since she was a baby.
Furthermore, I learnt to observe the world around me: the lakes, the mountains, the soil etc., id est things that urban people have to be taught in biology and geography lessons at school. For instance, I never needed to be taught that one shouldn't water the leaves of the flowers during daytime, because the sun will burn them (something that we never even learnt in Biology). What I mean to say is that all these things made me start to wonder about how and why, since a very young age. I needed desperately to get an answer about anything. As a person, I have much less anxiety than a woman in my age, who lives in a city and rushes everyday at the station to catch the metro, which is usually crowded with people and she is of course late to her work. I bring forth this example, in order to show that city people are always busy and in a constant hurry to reach a place on time. I even thought once to move to Oslo, because it was impossible for me in such an age to live still at the village. However, I failed! I was living at a friend's place, at the beginning, thus she was hosting me, because I wasn't sure if I'd eventually move to Oslo and I just wanted to give it a try. Five days later, though, I freaked out by the city's hustle and bustle, even though Oslo is really beautiful, and so I went back home to my village. And then again, I live in more remote places, because every house I own (apart from one) is located within urban design, but outside of a community, remotely, in the middle of nowhere, near to fields and nature. The main reason why I decided not to reside in a community was the fact that, as we all know, there's too much gossiping going in villages and I didn't have any lust to find spooks outside of my house, watching anything I do and transfer it to everybody. Nowadays I can proudly say that I reside in six different addresses: i) Gweedore, Ireland ii) Kirkenes, Norway iii) Yorkshire, UK iv) Lakselv, Norway v) Cefalonia, Greece and vi) Annandale, Sidney, which is the only house I own, which is located in a city centre (for it came to me as a heir) and I'm often joking saying it's my 'summer cottage'.
Anyway, I'm under the impression that I've talked too much about urban in contrast to rural life and this is not my point. But all I want to say is that Kirkenes is really beautiful. Of course, most people know it because of the Northern Lights view (Aurora Borealis), the Snow Hotel and the Soviet Monument. However, if you want to visit a place for tourism, then Kirkenes would be the most unsuitable place for you. But if you want to go somewhere, in order to feel the breath of nature and need some peace, then you are welcome to our village. In general, Norway is such a place starting from the most northern parts, that the most southwards you travel, more places you can encounter which are densely populated and industrialised. Anyway, every summer I organise tour guidances in Finnmark, that consists of camping, trekking and rowing in lakes and rivers.
The fact that I live in such a place played a major role in the forming of my personality. I was always a reserved and quiet girl, hiding behind my dreams and thoughts. It seemed like I was a very scared person, but the truth is that, as a typical Scandinavian, I was keeping my feelings sheltered at the lowest part of my heart and I never let any stroke of them spill out. My faint smile and my gentle way of talking were the only parts of myself anyone could learn about. Furthermore, there wasn't anyone I could talk to. Until school, the only one I could play with was Monica, as my other two siblings had to wait for me to grow a little bit older, so they could deal with me in a somewhat more essential way. However for me Johanna was the most important person in the family and I would trust her even more than our parents.
We were living in a two storey house in Kirkenes and the second floor was inhabited by my mother's parents, grandma Kristi and grandpa Lauri. My grandfather was one of my greatest influences in my later life. He had travelled to thousands of countries. He used to hold me in his laps, my own 'nest', and was talking to me about his journeys in the Caribbean Sea and the coasts of Africa. He had met many notable people e.g. presidents, politicians, Poets who had dedicated Poems to him etc. Any person who had met him had thought of him one of the most generous people in the globe. A few years ago, I came across some naval journals and memoirs of his from the navy and after the approval of every relative on my mum's side, I published them. I lost my grandfather, when I was 19 years old. During that time, we had finished touring our second album and we would start working on the third one. The next album, Kansi (Kansi means Quarterdeck in Finnish) was about old ships and captains' life and in general about dangers as well as the beauty of travelling in the vast Ocean. Kansi's booklet also contained a Poem in Finnish and Russian, which I'd personally written for my granfather, but in general the whole album was dedicated to his memory.
This is what my life was about until I turned 6 years old. Then my family and I moved to another country, where I started school. We returned to Norway six years later, where I went to Junior High in Kirkenes.
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