Steinar Karlsen on SoundBetter

A Norwegian guitarist, nominated for the Norwegian grammy awards twice plays guitarsolos lika a melting pot of Freddy King, Peter Green and David Gilmour. Karlsen is the right choice for adding tasteful blues power to your recording.

Hi everyone!

Steinar here, living outside Bergen at the west coast of Norway. I have been a pro guitar player in the style of blues and rock for 20 years now. As an experienced songwriter I do my work with respect for the song and arrangement. I record through Fender or Vox amps. My main guitars are a hollowbody Epiphone guitar or a Danelectro lipstic guitar. I can also record Barritone guitar for you.

During my career I have toured and recorded over 20 albums contributing as both a guitar player and a songwriter. Two of the albums was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy Awards. I have played concerts with blues legends like Louisiana Red and Hubert Sumlin. And since 2011 I have released seven instrumental guitar albums.

I do my recordings in a small studio containing a perfect blend of digital and analog equipment. DAW: Pro Tools. Microphones: Beyerdynamic m160 and/or Heil sound PR30B for the amp. Soundcard: Universal Audio Apollo.

My philosophy is to keep the recording chain good but simple. It gives me more time to focus on the music.

Tell me about your project. I´d love to record guitar for you!

Send me a note through the contact button above.

6 Reviews - 1 Repeat Client

Endorse Steinar Karlsen

by Sergio Wagner
Verified (Client)
Second time working with Steinar, again beautiful music. He was very open and let me play my stuff for his music, amazing, really easy and nice vibe. I highly recommend him, hope to continue making more music!
by Sergio Wagner
Verified (Client)
Great pleasure to meet Steinar, first work was excellent, beautiful music. Looking forward to the next chapter. Highly recommended!
by Eric Downing
Verified
Steinar once again provided a fantastic set of guitar solos! Clean recordings and easy to mix.
by Eric D.
Verified
Steinar did a wonderful job with a couple of guitar solo parts I was having trouble with. He knew exactly what the song needed and responded quickly. The parts were recorded perfectly, hardly had to do any eq'ing once I added these tracks to the mix! A pleasure to work with!
by Chris Leidhecker
Verified (Client)
Excellent remote session with Steinar! Very collaborative, very knowledgable, and he had a great track for me to work with. I really appreciate his willingness to let me explore ideas. Looking forward to more!
by Martyn Barker
Verified (Client)
It was such a pleasure to work on Steinar`s track! I loved the soul, melody and atmosphere of his piece. This gave me inspiration to add my Drums with a deep retro sound accompanied by my atmospheric percussion.It was also a joy be allowed so much space to add my ideas.

Interview with Steinar Karlsen

Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: It´s so inspiring to receive so many different songs that inspire me to play like I never thought I could.
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: It is always good to keep the arrangements simple. Not all instruments need to play all the time. A good tip for making a good chorus even more powerful is to take a way some of the instruments on the verse. There should be place for every instrument in the song to shine without beating the others.
Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?
A: Work on your song just the way you want it to sound and I will do guitar parts that I think work with your song.
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I´m a blues and rock guitarist with one foot in the sixties and the other one in 2019.
Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?
A: Blake Mills. A wonderful musician and very good songwriter.
Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: I´ve been recording a new guitar instrumental album this summer. I´m in the last phase of the recording process and the release is scheduled to early next year.
Q: What's your typical work process?
A: I start with listening to the song outside the studio. Often I do listen to it 10-20 times before I pick up the guitar and jam along. If I got time I record som sketches before I do the recording. This process makes the ideas grow and I often end up with a totally different recording than I first planned.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: I like to fill in like I am having a conversation with the music that is already there. If a part is not as strong as I wish I make some guitar arrangements to help that part of the song live more. In addition to the guitar I sometimes as bonus record som organ, melotron or other instruments to make parts of the song shine extra.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: I´m very inspired by T-Bone Burnett, Jeff Lynne and Dan Auerbach
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: My studio setup is very simple. I usually record my amps with beyerdynamic m160 and for the room I use the Microphoneparts T-12. I record through some Studio Projects preamps or direct into my Universal Audio Apollo card. I got more inputs and mics If I need, but this is the basic recording setup for electric guitar. I use Pro Tools for recording.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: I usually do solos, rythm guitar and fills, I often arrange and repeat the fills so they become a part of the songs arrangement.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Working with song dynamics. Making the parts more different from each other.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Though I am a blues guitar player I usually work most on pop and rock music. And that is fun. Someone once said "The blues had a baby and they called it rock n roll".
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Well as long as there is electricity I would bring my record player, an electric toothbrush, a tremolo pedal, Epiphone Sorento guitar and my Tandberg reel to reel(I use it as an amp).