Kindred North: A New Melodic Horizon — An Interview with Andreas Nergård

Kindred North: A New Melodic Horizon — An Interview with Andreas Nergård

There’s a new melodic force rising out of Scandinavia, forged by two longtime collaborators finally stepping into a shared spotlight. Kindred North — the AOR‑driven partnership between Norwegian songwriter/drummer Andreas Nergård and Swedish vocalist/guitarist Andi Kravljaca (Seventh Wonder, Hydra) — releases their self‑titled debut on August 21st via Pride & Joy Music.

Though the band is new, the creative chemistry behind it spans more than fifteen years of working together in Nergard. With Kindred North, the duo embraces their love of classic AOR, melodic rock, and modern metal production, crafting a sound that feels both nostalgic and forward‑thinking.

I caught up with Andreas to talk about the origins of Kindred North, the making of the album, collaborations with major names like Daniel Flores and Simone Mularoni, memories of Tony Mills, and reflections on his musical journey.

We’re here with Andreas Nergård from Kindred North. Tell me a little about Kindred North — how long the band has been together, and where you’re based.
Kindred North is actually a brand‑new thing. This is our first album. Andi is Swedish and I’m Norwegian, and we’ve been working together in my other project, Nergard, for the past fifteen or sixteen years. So we’ve known each other for a long time, but we never actually wrote music together until now.

Both of us share a love for AOR and melodic rock, so we figured, “Why don’t we just write an album and see what happens?”

Andi has worked with so many bands — Hydra, Seventh Wonder, and more. How did you first meet? You mentioned this collaboration has been going on for quite a while.
The first time Andi popped up on my radar was when I was reviewing albums for a Norwegian‑American web radio station called Metal Express Radio. That was way back in 2007 or 2008. I got a promo disc from his band Silent Call, and I was completely blown away by his vocals.

A few years later, when I started Nergard, I contacted him — and the rest is history. We’ve been working together ever since.

Since you’ve both worked together in Nergard for years, what made you decide to transition into Kindred North instead of just making another Nergard album?
Nergard has moved more toward symphonic metal. We used to do some AOR‑oriented tracks a long time ago, but I wanted to separate the sounds. Andi and I have a shared love for all those amazing bands from the ’80s and that classic AOR vibe.

Also, Nergard is more of an ego project for me. Kindred North is a true collaboration — we both write, and we both have a final say in the end product.

You worked with some pretty big names on this album. Let’s talk about two of them. First, Daniel Flores of Find Me — how did he become involved?
That was through Andi. Daniel handled all the vocal recording sessions. I don’t know him personally, but Andi has worked with him through projects like Find Me and Hydra, so that’s how he came into the picture.

And then there’s Simone Mularoni of DGM. How did that collaboration happen?
I first discovered Simone when I heard one of Michael Romeo’s albums — I think it was War of the Worlds Part II. The mix was insanely good, so I started using him for Nergard. He mixed a live EP for us a few years back and a single after that.

He does a lot of AOR‑oriented work, and I wanted a high‑class, modern, metal‑ish production for Kindred North. So he was the natural choice.

Let’s talk about a few of the songs. I won’t go through all of them, but let’s start with the opener, “A Guiding Heart.” Tell me about that one and the inspiration behind it.
“A Guiding Heart” was originally meant to be a Nergard track a long time ago — I think I wrote part of it in 2016. But then Nergard went in a heavier direction, so the song ended up on ice for years.

When we started Kindred North, it resurfaced about three years ago. Andi helped me finish the lyrics. The song was developed during a period when I was very inspired by Thirty Seconds to Mars — not exactly AOR, but that’s where the initial spark came from.

I always make a rough demo and send it to Andi, and he puts his mark on it with his guitars. He brings a lot of different influences — he uses a seven‑string, and he comes from a background in djent and progressive metal. So both that song and the entire album get a lot of their identity from his guitar work. We’re not copying the ’80s; we’re blending our influences into something new.

Let’s move on to “Natural High.” Tell me a little about that one.
“Natural High” is another song that was partly developed a long time ago — I think it goes back to around 2013. I was in a pop group at the time and wanted to write a high‑energy song, something in the vein of Take On Me from the ’80s. But the band disbanded before I could finish it.

When we were wrapping up the Kindred North album, we realized we were missing a few songs, so I resurfaced that old idea. All I really had was a keyboard riff for the chorus. Writing the lyrics on top of it was a complete nightmare, but the song eventually became this blend of pop and Andi’s heavier, djent‑ish guitar work — especially with his seven‑string.

That pop foundation is probably why we chose it as the first single. It’s upbeat, energetic, and short — around three minutes. It just felt right.

Two more. “If This Is Love” — tell me about that one.
That’s probably the heaviest track on the album, along with the third single we’re releasing in a couple of days. It has more of a Whitesnake vibe. I wanted a guitar‑driven song with a riff similar to “Bad Boys” from Whitesnake’s 1987 album. It turned out even heavier.

There are very few keyboards on this one — it’s one of the rougher songs on the album. It’s not among my personal favorites at the moment, but it gives the album a harder edge and contrasts nicely with the more keyboard‑dominated, cheesy AOR stuff.

Since you mentioned it, let’s talk about the third single. What is it, and what inspired it?
The third single is a song called “Lose Control.” What we wanted to achieve was a blend of Winger and Whitesnake. The song originated from a writing session I did in 2019. I was originally going to write it with Tony Mills from Shy and TNT.

At the time, we knew Tony was going to die from terminal cancer. He wanted to keep writing music for as long as he could. I laid down the foundation for the song in maybe a day, but then he became very ill, and two weeks later he was gone.

So this track was put on ice for a few years, waiting for the right moment. Tony was supposed to write the lyrics and vocal melodies, so when he passed, I felt very empty and couldn’t finish it. I had the chorus, but nothing else. Eventually I sent it to Andi and asked him to write the verses and pre‑chorus.

Musically, it’s very Winger‑inspired — early ’90s stuff — and the midsection into the guitar solo has that Whitesnake Still of the Night feel. It’s pretty clear where our inspirations lie on this one.

I always like to go to the end of the album and see what’s happening there. The final track is “It’s Hard to Say Goodbye,” which feels appropriate. Tell me about that one.
The meaning of the song is very personal. I wrote it right after a breakup, so it’s a heartfelt track.

The chorus was the first thing written — the melody came easily. I struggled with the verses, and to be honest, I’m still not completely satisfied with them, but I couldn’t spend any more time on it. It was a difficult song to write emotionally.

It’s a classic power ballad. Andi did some beautiful guitar work — not just heavy chord hacking, but lots of clean guitars blended with keyboards. It has a nice mix of textures.

We wanted a song that faded out with a long, epic guitar solo, so it felt appropriate to place it at the end of the album.

Has Kindred North ever played live, or is that something you’d like to do more of?
We haven’t done any shows yet. I would actually love to, but it’s a matter of making the schedules work. I’m a touring musician — that’s how I make my living — so I’m usually out playing all over Norway on Fridays and Saturdays. Those are the days you’d normally play shows with any band.

We’d like to do some shows at some point, but the schedule has to line up. And with your own music — especially this kind of music — you don’t really make money unless you’re already quite popular. Kindred North is a brand‑new band. It takes time to build something from scratch.

We’ll know more once the album is out and we see if there’s interest. The promotional campaign is starting now, and we’re doing a lot of interviews, which is inspiring. Hopefully we’ll do some live shows in the coming year. We’ll see.

Hopefully so. Did Nergard ever do any live shows?
We did — maybe once every three or four years. And it was always a new lineup. It was kind of a nightmare to run because we used so many guest singers. I was the only one who was there for almost every show.

The basic lineup was from my hometown, and we used to fly in the singers. But we never had proper time to rehearse with them. That made things difficult. You always have high shoulders when you can’t run through the live show properly with everyone and feel like everything is 100% in place, if you know what I mean.

Let’s talk about a few anniversaries. We’re going back to 2015 — so I’m cheating a little and calling these ten‑year anniversaries even though it’s really eleven. A Bit Closer to Heaven by Nergard was released in 2015. Looking back now, what do you think of it in retrospect?
I’m usually the biggest critic of my early work. But every release — every album, every single — has more or less led to Kindred North, which is the first album I consider a ten out of ten, both musically and production‑wise.

A Bit Closer to Heaven was produced by me with very little experience. Another guy mixed it, but I had to put everything together myself. There are some very strong songs on it — maybe fifty percent — but the album was extremely diverse in its sound.

The closing song, the ballad “When All I See Is You,” is something that would fit more on a Roxette album than a metal album. The metal press gave me a lot of flack for that. I write a lot of cheesy ballads, obviously.

Looking back, I would probably have focused more on one direction if I did it again. But making that album helped me figure out where I wanted to take Nergard. Eventually I started writing pure symphonic metal instead of blending AOR, pop, and all the genres I like. I had to separate the projects.

So you could say A Bit Closer to Heaven led me to start developing Kindred North. I wanted to write AOR and pop‑leaning songs, but they didn’t fit into Nergard. I needed another project.

In my book, A Bit Closer to Heaven is a six out of ten. There are good songs, but it’s too diverse. Still, I’m happy we made it — and happy for the experience I gained from it.

Another album released in 2015 was Over My Dead Body by Tony Mills, who we talked about earlier. When you look back on your experience working with Tony on that album, what comes to mind now in retrospect?
I have to say — you’ve done your homework. Not many people know I actually played on that album. Over My Dead Body was quite an extraordinary experience. I was twenty‑four or twenty‑five when I recorded the drums, and I grew up as a huge fan of Tony Mills, both from his time in Shy and TNT. So getting the chance to work with him was surreal.

The album also featured amazing artists — Paul Sabu, even Robert Säll, and Neil Kernon, who mixed Operation: Mindcrime and some of the Shy material. There’s a lot of AOR history wrapped into that record. The songwriting was strong. I didn’t take part in that part of it, but recording drums for such a diverse album was really interesting.

Tony was aiming for a conceptual album in the style of Operation: Mindcrime. It was a fascinating time, and I gained a lot of experience from working on it. I did that album right after A Bit Closer to Heaven. If the order had been reversed, maybe A Bit Closer to Heaven would have turned out differently.

Tony was a great guy — a very talented songwriter with an incredible ability to write hooks, especially for AOR. I haven’t listened to Over My Dead Body in a while. Maybe I’ll give it a spin tonight.

Makes me want to give it a spin too — it’s been a while. Are you currently involved with any other bands or projects? You hinted earlier that you are.
es. I actually make my living playing in a cover band called Melody Market. It’s a very popular band in Norway, and we tour all year round — Fridays, Saturdays, the whole thing. We don’t write original music, but we make our own arrangements of popular songs from artists like Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, and various Norwegian acts.

That work pays for all my other projects, like Kindred North and Nergard. Those are the two main bands I’m involved with. Nergard has been under the radar for a few years now — who knows when it will resurface. I’ve been writing a lot of music for it. I have sketches for two albums, but it needs to feel right before I dive back in.

Right now, Kindred North will take all my time. We want to promote it properly, and both Andi and I are very inspired these days. I think we’ll write the follow‑up pretty soon. I’ve already started working on ideas.

And last question — do you have any messages for your fans here in the States who’ve been following you since the Nergard days?
The only message I have is: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who listens to the music, finds it interesting, and takes the time to support us — whether that’s buying the records or sending messages about what the songs mean to them.

That makes all the time, the blood, sweat, tears, and empty bank accounts worth it. It’s incredibly inspiring when someone buys an album or reaches out to say a song meant something to them. That’s the greatest compliment you can get as a songwriter.

When people like the music, it makes me creative. Then it’s worth doing.

In Conclusion

Kindred North’s debut is more than a new chapter — it’s the culmination of years of friendship, shared influences, and artistic evolution. Andreas Nergård and Andi Kravljaca have crafted an album that honors the past while carving out a fresh melodic identity. With powerful songwriting, modern production, and heartfelt performances, Kindred North stands poised to make a strong impact when their self‑titled album arrives on August 21st via Pride & Joy Music.

For fans of Nergard, AOR, melodic rock, and emotionally charged songwriting, this is a release worth watching — and a band worth following as they begin their next journey.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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