Set the House on Fire is the name of my second album, although I never really intended to make one. After my first, Floriography, I felt completely drained. More that two hundred and fifty concerts had worn the melodies out. Every day of touring was a routine. I was tired.

I took a break – a long one. Inbetween the trees of Telemark, as far away from both the continent and the salt sea as I could get, I found peace of mind. And with that the music came back again. In the basement of the dorm I found a concrete shower with galactic sound. There I made my first song in over two years. I has to learn how to write again. Slowly, almost unnoticably, the melodies came floating, one by one. I scribbled the pages of my diary black. Every place, every day, every thought got its own song.

House by the Sea is one of those songs, written just two days before that year in Telemark came to an end.