Small Artist Interview: Agnes Hartwich
a conversation with Agnes Hartwich about being an alternative artist in Denmark, fan culture and her debut album SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL <3
Agnes Hartwich is an exciting name on the alternative music scene in Denmark, who takes inspiration from the tumblr 2014 era. She has gotten the attention of teenage girls, who see themselves in her raw songwriting and catchy songs. I got the chance to talk to Agnes about being an alternative artist in Denmark, fan culture and her debut album SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL. The album came out in June of this year and is equally sexy and fun as it is gut-wrenchingly introspective. It captures being a Gen Z who has grown up on tumblr in all its messiness - relationship struggles, finding your sense of self and mental health.
Musical inspirations
I asked Agnes Hartwich about what music has inspired her to be the artist she is today: “As a depressed and aggressive teenager I felt very seen in the Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey wave on tumblr in 2014, which was super toxic, but very musically inspiring.” Agnes describes feeling seen sound-wise as well as in the lyrics, specifically in Arctic Monkeys' iconic record AM, a new and fresh alternative pop/rock sound at the time. In high school, she started to write her own songs as a way to cope with her depression. Using songwriting as an outlet to deal with the pain, with no plan of doing music as a career.
The album title for Agnes Hartwich’s debut album SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL is a reference to the song I Want It All on AM, and was even a part of Agnes’s tumblr username “spaceagecountrygirl99” back in 2014.
“The title was obvious to me, since it represents so much of what this record is, sonically as well as lyrically. I’m obsessed with the idea of contrast and extremes both emotionally within myself and in my music. The futuristic, electronic and aggressive, longside soft, acoustic and traditional pop-songwriting. Both represented in the title and on the record.”
The title also works as an homage to her favourite band Arctic Monkeys, who inspired her to start making music. As we are talking about this, she points to a white guitar on the wall. “The guitar hanging over there is the one Alex Turner plays in the I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor music video. I saw that music video and was like "okay I'm going to get a guitar” and that's really what started it for me.”
Making a living as a small artist
Currently, Agnes is working to grow her audience on Tik Tok by sharing her daily life as a small artist. It’s no secret that it's hard to make a living from music, and Agnes shows on social media that music is not her only source of income, sometimes picking up shifts in a bar to make some extra money. Before launching her artist project, Agnes spent a year creating a savings account, not spending money on anything other than rent and necessities, to be able to take a year off and do music if and when she needed to.
The savings account was beneficial when she was invited to support the prominent Danish pop band Scarlet Pleasure after releasing her first single. Scarlet Pleasure are most well known worldwide for their song What A Life, which features in the Oscar winning film Another Round. The savings account also made it possible to not work on the side this past winter, when she was recording SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL.
"I wanted to make sure that I would never be in a situation where I had to turn down an opportunity to pay my rent. I know how privileged that is, but I’m proud of myself for being smart about money from the very beginning.”
The power of fangirls
Something that drew me to Agnes Hartwich’s music was seeing her small but loyal fanbase, who refer to themselves as Hartwitches. A group of girls that dress up for shows, sing every word and make Tik Toks to spread their love of her music. Whenever I see an artist with a loyal fanbase of teenage girls, I trust that the music is good. Teenage girls know what makes them feel something and are excited about music in a way I believe a lot of critics are jaded from, because they need to obtain this objective and professional image. The girls know how to have fun and understand how to shine a light on music that is new and fresh, which SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL is a great example of.
The fans have always been Agnes' main priority and it shows. She is great at nurturing her community and puts a lot of thought into the fan experience. For her first-ever concert at Ideal Bar in Copenhagen, she made merch, including "day one" badges that she created by hand. All of the merch sold out before the show started, and gave the fans a feeling of togetherness from the start. She says that the special thing about having such a small fanbase is knowing them all and feeling supported.
”I know every single person, I recognize them when they come to my concerts. That feeling of having to get up on stage being fucking nervous and then seeing your girls in the crowd and you're like, okay it's fine, I’ve got my girls and if something goes wrong, I know they have my back.”
On social media, Agnes is honest about the fact that she is not famous enough to have a headliner concert yet, because SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL doesn’t have the amount of hype that would be necessary to afford it. By encouraging the fans to make content and share her music, she makes it a group effort to grow her artist project and eventually have a concert. The reason she does all of this is because she understands what it’s like to be a fangirl.
"I was a huge fangirl myself as a teenager, and I still am, you know the vibe where I used to camp out in front of venues. I skipped school to listen to Lana Del Rey's new record just to lie down and feel zen.”
Another fan project Agnes did was arranging group chats in each city, for her fans to meet each other if they had no one to come to the concert with. “It was so heartwarming for me to show up to my concert and then see like 10 young girls who didn’t know each other beforehand, wait outside the venue together. I think they’re all so brave and cool for doing that. My hope is that they make a new friend or even just have a really good night at the show.”
“When I was younger I met some of my best friends through music. I remember sitting on the train and listening to the music on the way there, hyping eachother up for the show. I just love that so much.”
When asked how it feels to have young girls look up to her and see themselves in her music. Agnes says it’s great but tough when it’s a really dark song and a lot of young girls can relate to it. She wants to be a role model and show an example of the fact that it can get better, and that your mental health struggles don’t define you: “You can have anxiety and feel very terrible, but still have a lot of confidence in some moments. It is important to me to show that it can coexist.”
Agnes also says that she writes more confident songs to make herself feel confident and channel a certain energy. For example, her song Cult Leader, a song about being the one in charge in a relationship, she says: "When I write a song like Cult Leader, I can't help but tap into that energy and attitude when I perform it. It's impossible for me to go on stage and be introverted and sad while singing Cult Leader, I can't do that.”
Agnes tells me that one of the best things is when the girls tap into this energy as well. They sometimes send her videos after getting ready and tell her they just listened to her songs. "That is one of the best things when some of those girls, I mean I know them quite well by now and I also know all their struggles and then sometimes when I get a message that is like “I just listened to Space Age Country Girl and I was really feeling myself” and then they send a video in hot makeup…I think that's actually the coolest thing for me, that some young teenage girls use a silly song I've made and just had fun with in the studio to feel confident.”
The making of SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL
Agnes Hartwich writes songs on guitar in her apartment, whilst she is biking she also often starts to come up with lyrics and melodies as her mind wanders. The songs are built around lyrics and melodies that most often come spontaneously and find their meaning later. When writing Agnes takes a feeling and puts it into a concept, for example in Fuckboy Ballad she sings about how she can sometimes treat people who she is romantically involved with badly and kind of act like the stereotypical fuckboy. The song revolves around the concept of being a fuckboy. Similarly with Cult Leader, a song about being the dominant person in a relationship is made into the concept of cult leader and golden retriever and explores that dynamic.
Agnes wrote the song Cult Leader over a hip hop beat whilst biking and listening to the Danish rapper Tessa’s album. She brought these lyrics to the studio to work with her producer for the first time, and describes this as one of her most fun memories writing SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL.
“I remember saying to my producer “I have these fucked up lyrics about being a cult leader who dominates a man. I really want a crazy guitar riff that makes the crowd jump" and then we made the song in about 2 hours. After that it was like 12pm and we went for a beer and were like "well what are we going to do now" because it had just gone so fast…I love being in the studio on the days where the energy and inspiration just flows and everyone is just hyped.”
Some songs on the record are deeply personal, dealing with themes of loneliness, depression and relationship struggles. When asked what song was the most challenging to create, Agnes says that the closing track It's only getting worse took a lot for her to write on an emotional level. It captures the feeling of waking up day after day, feeling worse than the day before, and thinking that your mental health is never going to get better. The first verse of the song captures it well:
“woke up today with that feeling again
I fear that it won't ever change
Been spiraling for days
I've been circling the drain
I fear that i'm going insane
I'm going insane
I'm going insane”
Agnes also tells me that all of It’s only getting worse is her favourite lyrics she has ever written, because it was a personal breakthrough and the most honest song she’s ever written. It’s straight to the point in a way that's different to her more conceptual songs, like Cult Leader and Fuckboy Ballad.
“It was the first time I started crying in the studio in front of my producer because I think it was so intense, it was difficult on an emotional level. It is also just vulnerable to have to record music with others that is so personal because you are really on the line and you also have to perform at the same time, both in your delivery - vocals, and in your songwriting.”
Agnes also loves her funnier lyrics where her humour gets to shine, for example in Cult Leader where she sings “I'm his Cult Leader, He's a Golden Retriever” and “I'm eating while he's cooking and cleaning”. The humour is a massive strength of this album. The songs are fun to sing along to and perfect to listen to when you’re getting ready, and I imagine even more fun live.
A night to remember
When asked about her best experience in her career she highlights her release concert for SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL as the best night of her musical journey. A concert in a small club in Copenhagen full of fans, family and collaborators: “I felt so much love and so much hype and I felt that these people got my back…It was just such a calm and safe environment and it was so cool to play my new music for the first time to these people who deserved to hear it first.” The venue was small enough that she could speak to everyone who came, and there was an after party where everyone could celebrate the album together.
The fans had also dressed up and knew every single word to the songs: “Cult Leader didn't do as well as I’d hoped for commercially. I think it was a fucking bop but it wasn't received very well by the industry, but then at my release concert I saw that every single bitch in that room knew every single word and they just screamed every word to the whole song which is not easy to remember and the lyrics are pretty fast, I was lowkey impressed…That's what matters the most, that my fans have really listened to it.”
"It was so cool and it was fun because it was really like the smallest concert I've ever done. It was just inside a nightclub and I was on the floor with the crowd and there was just a feeling that we are all in this together. I cried a lot during that concert as well because I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude.”
Dreams for the future
The dream is to be able to set up a concert in Copenhagen, and eventually a tour. “My biggest dream is to be able to play as many shows as possible. Playing live is what gives me my drive and is the ultimate joy. When I create the songs in the studio it’s always with the intention of being able to create a great live show later on. There is nothing more fulfilling than playing my songs to people who care and love my music. My audience makes me feel so seen. Playing live can be emotionally intimate in many ways, but also just so freaking fun!!”
We also talked about how Agnes’ music has international appeal, and Agnes can see how her fans stem from a more international fan culture. In Denmark, the dominant genre is currently pop music that is sung in Danish, not alternative music. The culture is, as Scandinavian culture is known for, quite laid back and it often takes a bit more to acquire a loud and energetic concert experience.
"What I see in my fans is that they tap into a slightly more international fan culture, which I think we lack in Denmark. They listen to the lyrics and they dress up and wear green and eyeliner in a way that I think is super fun and super inspiring and they take on all of these little gimmicks that I come up with”. For example there is a scream in the background of Cult Leader, at the end of the song, that the fans decided to scream at the show without Agnes telling them to. The fans come up with parts of the show and understand that it is for them and that their energy is what makes the show exciting: “Those girls are the fucking music industry and they are fans in a way that I think is super cool to be a part of.”
Agnes Hartwich has achieved a lot of big milestones already, as an alternative artist in Denmark. For example playing Roskilde Festival, the biggest festival in Northern Europe and having her songs played on the radio. For the future Agnes has her eye on the UK, where she feels her music would shine and there is a much larger market. “Maybe my music is too niche to get a large audience in Denmark. Maybe I need to aim for a wider market. I would love to release my next music abroad.”
A music recommendation
Since indie pop diaries is all about recommending music that I love and am excited about, I asked Agnes to recommend something that she has been listening to lately. “I’ve been listening to an artist called Sophie May a lot. She is a singer songwriter who takes inspiration from the 50's and 60's and I think she is one of the best lyricists I have heard in my generation. She is perfect for that kind of moody autumnal vibe, to watch the leaves fall and listen to her music. A track called Some Italian Mountain is so fucking cool, it’s a very escapist track. I really dig that at the moment.”
The main thing Agnes Hartwich is working on is supporting and growing her fanbase and in 2025, she’s going to start working on her next album. Take this as your reminder to support small artists where you live, and of course to listen to SPACE AGE COUNTRY GIRL. You have power as a fan to uplift the art that you believe in. Share it with your friends, buy the merch if you can and show your support on social media.
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