Artist Of The Week // IDA LAURBERG
Canvassing music for her unspoken feelings, Ida Laurberg gets honest in Personal Letters.

Photo: Jeppe Klausen
Danish songstress Ida Laurberg claims to have ‘never written a happy song’, but the sweeping intensity of her emotions brings an irresistible charge and magnetism to her tracks. Her heart and authenticity shines through her personal style of songwriting, and she treats you like a confidante, spilling built-up tension and leaving no holds between you. Backed by a brooding pop sound, it drives the track through urgent electronics and propulsive guitars to create a dark thrill.
In Personal Letters, she dishes out on thoughts that would normally be unspoken, thoughts that are built upon a foundation of frustration and feeling restricted. Opening with striking clarity, the main motif rings out in solo before echoing effects cocoon around it, cementing the melancholy of the track. Her exposed vocals in the first verse hints at vulnerability, before a full-textured chorus provides a shield for her to express herself fearlessly.
Explaining more of the track, Ida shares:
‘Personal Letters’ is about my frustration of not having the nerve to confront people in my life when they do something that hurts me – which ends up in me getting hurt and having my boundaries overstepped time after time. Instead, I keep up finding myself perform angry monologues with myself in the shower in the mornings. That’s ‘Personal Letters’.
Feeling stirred by the track, we got to know Ida further by chatting with her about her musical development and inspirations.
What’s a motto you live by?
I have a motto but it definitely doesn’t sound that great in English… In Danish it’s “Går det, så går det. Og går det ikke, så går det nok alligevel”, and it roughly translates to: “If it works out then it works out. And if it doesn’t, it’ll probably work out anyway.” I have really bad anxiety, so I try to remind myself that whatever I may be worrying about, it’ll all work out in the end.
If your sound had a colour, what colour would it be?
It’s really hard to pick just one colour, because I think most artists can agree that every song has a different colour. But if I had to choose one, it would be blue because I’ve always had a thing for everything melancholic, and that’s definitely the one thing you can find in all of my songs.
If you could set Personal Letters to a TV show or movie, what would it be the soundtrack for?
I honestly don’t know. I want to say “Euphoria” and I know it’s a longshot, but it’s just one of my favorite shows and soundtracks ever.
How did starting out as an independent artist influence your development as a musician?
It has both been great and really hard. It’s given me a lot of freedom to explore different genres and figure out who I am as an artist and just as a person. But it’s a lot of work. You have to work a little harder for everything. And it’s been super weird suddenly working with a label, and having a lot more people share their opinions about something that’s actually quite personal. I’m very happy I got to start independently, because I got to actually have fun with music and explore it without any intense pressure.
What’s been the most unexpected difference between being signed and unsigned?
There isn’t really anything that’s different that I didn’t already know or expect. So, to be completely honest… Free concert tickets lol
You claim you’ve ‘never written a happy song’, what would inspire you to write one?
There are so many things in my life that could have inspired me to write a happy song, but it always ends up sounding suuuper cheesy. And I think that’s because I’m just not very good at it, since I’ve never practiced writing that type of song. And as I said, I’ve always loved melancholic music, so I don’t think happy sounding songs would fit in in my universe. And honestly, when I’m finally happy I don’t take time to sit by the piano and write, I try to go out and have fun.
And finally, slightly cliché but what does music mean to you?
I think Personal Letters describes exactly what music means to me. There’s a lot of things that are super difficult to talk about whether it’s mental health, heartbreak, or disagreements between friends. So sitting down and writing a song about it instead, or just listening to a song that describes exactly how you feel is very therapeutic.