Odd Martin
"...he is one of those who have been here from the start." - Aurora
Before the Aurora-river rose from an eenie-minie-stream to a more stready growing brook, there was another spring of water flowing on the east coast of Norway; Odd Martin Skålnes (O. Martin). Ten years older than Aurora, O. Martin was already having a rising career as an artist at the time he teamed up with Aurora and Magnus. As an up-and-coming music producer and band member playing guitar and bass, and doing vocals, O. Martin had a huge impact on Aurora’s career during her first years. In this newsletter, I will tell you a little more about him. First, a quote from Aurora:1
What does Odd Martin mean to you, Aurora?
A lot, a lot. I mean, he is one of those who have been here from the start. Even when I was... I started when I was 16. We recorded the first song that we released and became “Urørt of the week” a year after it was finished. So he has been very important when it comes to both the production of the album and for how we convert the songs so that they can be played live with five people in the band.
Odd Martin’s background and music career
Odd Martin was born the 10th of July 1986 in Kopervik, Karmøy, on the west coast of Norway. As a kid he was into soccer, but his interest for the ball dropped around age 11, when he started to write his first songs. Later, in junior high, he formed the band “Airfloat” which his father signed up to participate in a local song contest called “Talentlokalen” with their song “Put it on the shelf”.2 Sadly, I can’t find that song online.
The 20th of February 2014, Aurora performed for the first time with a full band, if you look away from various school projects. This was at Nabovarsel minifestival in Bergen, and Odd Martin was one of the prime members alongside Magnus and Silja Sol.
Odd Martin was by Aurora’s side through all of the first very important sessions and events in the beginning of her career. I guess you have seen them all, but I like to mention:
… Just to mention a few…
It was Geir Luedy, Auroras manager, who first reached out to Odd Martin. He offered O. Martin a job as sound producer in “Lydverket” in Bergen. Later, he was introduced to Aurora, and he has co-written, played in her band and co-produced lots of her songs that were recorded during Aurora’s first years.3
I’m not a virtuoso, but I have an overview of several instruments. I master the actual songwriting part, and I have a love for a good melody.
Why has Aurora become so popular?
She’s an intense communicator. Aurora is good at shutting the world out and, in a charismatic way, manages to convey what matters most to the audience. It was wonderful to play to sold-out venues in American cities I’d only heard of, and people were crying at the sight of her. And she has some quirky sides she doesn’t try to hide. She’s an eccentric.
I’m not going to list all the songs O. Martin has co-written, recorded an co-produced, but he was deeply involved in “All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend” and “Infections Of A Different Kind - Step 1”, and it doesn’t end there... If you are interested, there’s an extended overview at the Aurora Fandom Wiki.
By the end of the year 2016, Odd Martin decided to step out of the Aurora-river and follow his own path as an artist - now under the name O.Martin. He has released two album under that name. The latest one, “Limitensions” was actually out this spring:
The last live show Odd Martin attended with Aurora was played the 18th of December 2016 in Drammen, Norway4 - My youth hometown, actually 😊.
He was still working with some sound production alongside Aurora towards the “A Different Kind Of Human - Step II”-album, but he wasn’t playing live with her anymore. Not until he surprised everyone and appeared at the Christine Radiofestival 2020.
Upstream Odd Martin’s musical journey
As I will show you below, Odd Martin Skålnes didn’t just appear out of nowhere as a producer and musician. His musical development grew through years playing with local bands, experimentations and collaborations. These groups became the tributaries that led him toward the Aurora-river. All of the descriptions below are translations of texts written by Rogalyd.no:
Saikoeple was a teenage band from Kopervik. In their days of glory they were extremely popular among local youth and inspired many “kidz” to play catchy pop/rock. The band was founded in Odd Martin Skålnes’ basement together with Anders Borgenvik. Later, Knut Leikvoll Melvær and Helge Ditlevsen joined them.5
Haugesund Popensemble was formed in autumn 2004 and has made a big name for itself in its hometown. They kept it going until 2007.
With lyrics in dialect and catchy songs, they have laid a good foundation for a future career. In May 2005, the band held a release party for their self-financed and self-titled mini-album with 500 paying spectators in attendance. The mini-album received great reviews in the local press and sold out the entire first edition of 1000 copies.6
The Alexandria Quartet was a Bergen-based rock band with members from Karmøy and Haugesund. Formed in 2005, the quartet consisted of Odd Martin Skålnes (vocals, guitar, keys), Chris Holm (bass), Øystein Braut (guitar), and Kim Åge Furuhaug (drums). They played more than 80 concerts, including by:Larm and shows in England where they supported the world-famous band “Travis”. some of their songs received regular radio play. The band took a break in 2011.7
Strange Hellos was started as a studio project in the autumn of 2015 by Odd Martin Skålnes, Birgitta Alida Hole, Fredrik Vogsborg and Even Kjellby. Big sound, catchy melodies, dreamy vocals and dirty guitars are the main focus when Strange Hellos come together to create music, a kind of new power-pop with delightful references to, among others, Teenage Fanclub and Cocteau Twins. After a few months of experimenting, they released their first single, “Broken Teenage Heart”, on May 20, 2016, on Diamond Club. Strange Hellos made their live debut during KlubbØya on August 9 the same year at Tilt.8
NRK P3 named “Broken Teenage Heart” as the fourth best song of the year in December 2016.9
October 2023, Odd Martin was interviewed by the NRK radioshow “Stjernepose”. He said that he kind of fell into the role as a sound producer, though he was interested in the production stage already as a teenager. He remember checking the backside of his LP’s to see who had produced them. Working with Aurora gave him a lot of experience with this side of music creation. He states that Aurora was completely without experience when they met, and her reference points were Enya and Leonard Cohen. Figuring out how Aurora wanted her music to sound was a fun challenge for O.Martin.
Fun fact: Back then she didn’t want any snares in her recorded music.
Further on… Odd Martin hasn’t only been working with Aurora. He has also done some co-writing and music production alongside artists like Sigrid, Slutface, DePresno, Bo Milli and Hanna Storm, just to name a few. O. Martin is no small name in the Norwegian music business.10
There’s no doubt that Odd Martin Skålnes had a huge impact on Auroras career. She has always surrounded herself with great musicians. She still does, but I hope that Odd Martin’s guitar and backing vocals will appear once in a while in the future as well.
Words from the community
After posting this newsletter Andreas Höglund found more information and added it in the comments below. This was so interesting, I figured it should be added into this article:
Aurora was warm up act for an Odd Martin live performance at least once, must have been in 2013.11
The biggest [show] was maybe warming up for a Norwegian artist called Odd Martin, who is now in my band. But at that time, I warmed up for him, and then I did a few event shows, like opening up for a new library and I was doing some songs on piano. It was a very strange and exciting year.
The “band” formed on Jan 16th 2014, so ~1 month before the Nabovarsel festival. Aurora said it in this March 12th 2014 radio interview, probably her first “live” (non-text) interview12
Odd Martin almost quit music and went to architect school before he was assigned to Aurora, according to this Aug 11th 2016 radio interview.13
Odd Martin: It was a bit like... the whole thing was a bit special, because in 2013 I had actually thought that:”ok, now I’m not going to work with music, now I’m going to be an architect.”
And so I was sort of on... applying for an architect’s base in Bergen and so on... went to interviews and stuff like that.
And then I had just recorded my solo record, and Geir Luedy liked it then, who is the manager of Aurora.
Aurora: And we too, we really liked it.
Odd Martin: Yes, and then he asked me if I wanted to start working in the studio, and then everything just happened, and then nothing ever happened about this architect stuff. It was... it was a bit like...
Aurora: Luckily. Looking back at everything.
Odd Martin: Yes.
Interviewer: You have actually saved Martin of going completely wrong in life. Thank you very much, Aurora.
Aurora: I need Martin in the music industry.
Interviewer: Yes, we do.
He also mentions the architect thing in a much more recent radio interview at NRK “Selskapssjuk” from Nov 13th 2024 (Norwegian):14
https://radio.nrk.no/serie/selskapssjuk/sesong/202411/MUHR24022824#t=1h26m16s
Last time I released an album (2012-13 probably), I actually started making that album with: ‘Ok, now I’m probably not going to work with music anymore’.
I had applied for BAS (Bergen Architect School), and thought like: “Ok, now I’m going to do something different from now on in life”, was the plan.
I was going to make one last solo album, and that process then suddenly made things roll again, and Geir Luedy, Aurora and Sigrids manager, he called me just after the album released, I had been in the studio working on it.
He said: “Maybe you can work with some other artists and perform a bit”.
And he called me and asked if I wanted to work with Aurora, and this was before she was known, she was like 16 I think.
Then we started writing songs together and I tried doing stuff, that I didn’t quite know how to do, and that turned out to be a good thing,
- You didn’t go to Bergen Architect School then?
No, I didn’t. I did not get in either, I went to an interview. It was a bit like it was “meant to be”, all this things in a way.
Final words
Yep - this is all for now. I guess I could have found a lot more interesting information about this great musician from Kopervik, like his releationship with the band Travis, and the fact that he has done some music production in the same studio Beatles recorded their music… There are a lot of articles speaking of his live performances, and his latest album was well received. I just hope I sparked some interest out there to find out more about this fabulous guy for yourself.
For those of you who are curious about my quit-smoking-program: I’m doing fine. I am still going strong to down the number of cigarettes a day, and 3 is the goal for this week. If all goes well I might be smoke-free when I send my next letter you. Until then:
Have a day 💚
Rune
Note!
I often mention the Aurora-river when writing about her journey. Here’s what I mean by that:
Related posts
Rob For. 2016. AURORA & Odd Martin - Quote 283: „ We’ve worked our way up slowly, but surely … “ (2016-08-11) YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryw1yS2aoS0
Grov, Unni S. 2003. Odd Martin Skålnes/Airfloat. NRK. Retrieved 6th of October 2025 from https://www.nrk.no/rogaland/odd-martin-skalnes_airfloat-1.223307
Jacobsen, Roar E. 6th of May 2016. Odd Martin Skålnes er mannen bak popkometen Aurora Aksnes. Haugesund Avis. Retrieved 6th of October 2025 from https://www.h-avis.no/musikk/kultur/puls/mannen-bak-aurora/s/5-62-255925
Karlsen, Marie S. 21.12.2016. “Tre av fire i bandet til Aurora gir seg”. Bergensavisen BA. Retrieved 6th of October 2025 from https://www.ba.no/pulsen/aurora/musikk/tre-av-fire-i-bandet-til-aurora-gir-seg/s/5-8-485142
Rogalyd about “Saikoeple”: https://www.rogalyd.no/artist/saikoeple
Rogalyd about “Haugesund Popensemble”: https://www.rogalyd.no/artist/haugesund-popensemble
Rogalyd about “The Alexandria Quartet”: https://www.rogalyd.no/artist/the-alexandria-quartet
Strange Hellos on YouTube. Text from caption translated to English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlH5kBsuYeY&list=RDUlH5kBsuYeY
Odd Martin on Instagram, 2016: https://www.instagram.com/p/BOErQ6RDcm1/
Stjernepose. 9.10.2023. “Superprodusent Odd Martin Skålnes ukens hovedgjest”. NRK Radio. Retrieved 6th of October 2025 from https://radio.nrk.no/serie/stjernepose/sesong/202310/MUHR22020123
YouTube: Aurora one her love of heavy metal and Leonard Cohen: Https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/11/02/500266764/guest-dj-aurora-on-her-love-of-heavy-metal-and-leonard-cohen
Aurora Videos on YouTube: Aurora - NRK P3 Urørt - Radio interview 2014-03-12 (Eng Subs) + clips with other mentions of Aurora: Https://youtu.be/zwbHVWn2_so&t=253s
Aurora Videos on YouTube: Aurora - Radio102.no Interview 2016-08-11 (Eng Subs) - Sildajazz - Haugesund Norway: Https://youtu.be/SELzQ_8jApc&t=216s
NRK Radio Selskapsjuk: https://radio.nrk.no/serie/selskapssjuk/sesong/202411/MUHR24022824#t=1h26m16s
 | A guest post by
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Very nice article.
Here is a few extra small bits of info:
Aurora was warm up act for an Odd Martin live performance at least once, must have been in 2013:
https://youtu.be/pp9vXVbTow8&t=1240s
https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/11/02/500266764/guest-dj-aurora-on-her-love-of-heavy-metal-and-leonard-cohen
"The biggest [show] was maybe warming up for a Norwegian artist called Odd Martin, who is now in my band. But at that time, I warmed up for him, and then I did a few event shows, like opening up for a new library and I was doing some songs on piano. It was a very strange and exciting year.
The "band" formed on Jan 16th 2014, so ~1 month before the Nabovarsel festival. Aurora said it in this March 12th 2014 radio interview, probably her first "live" (non-text) interview (CC for Subs):
https://youtu.be/zwbHVWn2_so&t=253s
Odd Martin almost quit music and went to architect school before he was assigned to Aurora, according to this Aug 11th 2016 radio interview (CC for Subs):
https://youtu.be/SELzQ_8jApc&t=216s
Odd Martin: It was a bit like... the whole thing was a bit special, because in 2013 I had actually thought that:"ok, now I'm not going to work with music, now I'm going to be an architect."
And so I was sort of on... applying for an architect's base in Bergen and so on... went to interviews and stuff like that.
And then I had just recorded my solo record, and Geir Luedy liked it then, who is the manager of Aurora.
Aurora: And we too, we really liked it.
Odd Martin: Yes, and then he asked me if I wanted to start working in the studio, and then everything just happened, and then nothing ever happened about this architect stuff. It was... it was a bit like...
Aurora: Luckily. Looking back at everything.
Odd Martin: Yes.
Interviewer: You have actually saved Martin of going completely wrong in life. Thank you very much, Aurora.
Aurora: I need Martin in the music industry.
Interviewer: Yes, we do.