Ida Maria: Live at Rolling Stone

Norway's hottest punk-rock export and Breaking artist Ida Maria recently popped by the Rolling Stone studios to perform four songs and tell Rock Daily about the stories behind a handful of tracks off her acclaimed debut, Fortress Round My Heart. In our first installment of Ida, she presents stripped-down, acoustic versions of two of her biggest singles, "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" (above) and "Keep Me Warm" (below).

" 'Keep Me Warm' and 'Naked' are both about love," Maria tells Rolling Stone. "But 'Keep Me Warm' is more about friendship." But even love songs sound tough in Maria's Nico-meets-Chrissie Hynde voice, and tales of drunken nights and one-night stands pepper her lyrics. "I had been writing songs for three days and I didn't bother to get dressed or shower, I was just sitting there in my underwear with a guitar. That was how I came up with it," she says of writing "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked. (Watch the song's official video here.)

Now that she's found success in Europe and is cracking the States, Maria finds it difficult to pen songs in her native tongue. "I've been writing a couple songs in Norwegian, but I've been writing in English most of the time, so it's very hard. I have English rhymes in my head but not rhymes in Norwegian," Maria says.

(Check out part two of Ida Maria's RS set here.)

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter