“That concert was, actually, tied to me and Herman becoming friends,” Avery Nevins ’25 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger, reflecting back on the March 1 Pause concert collaboration between the St. Olaf campus bands her.man and noslo.
“Really that show, and us becoming friends, is essentially the same event,” Nevins said.
The bands her.man and noslo. met at one another’s respective concerts at the Contented Cow. After her.man performed on stage in November 2024, Nevins addressed Herman Hjorthaug ’27 with the idea to collaborate in the Lion’s Pause on campus in the spring semester. This first concert occurred shortly after her.man became a band.
During the final layover from Norway in August 2024, Sahib Rognan ’27 and Hjorthaug created a bucket list, of which starting a band and playing a concert were amongst those ideas. In just two months, Hjorthaug and Rognan brought together their friends, Leif Olson ’27, Ada Vanderbilt ’27, Amelia Wise ’27, Meredith Ivory ’27, Ben Quist ’27, Tony Smith ’27, and Isaac Kitange ’27, and created her.man. Just one year earlier, noslo. formed in the late summer of 2023.
Mark Jesmes ’23 and Jake Olson ’24 were close friends, and Henry Specker ’23 and Peter Carlen ’22 knew each other well, Nevins recounted. Nevins knew Olson through modern dance classes, and Specker and Nevins played jazz music with one another. With all of the connections, the band noslo. came to be.
The concert on May 1 included a set played by her.man, another by noslo., then a collaboration between the two bands on stage.
“[It was] phenomenal. Ridiculous. Crazy?” Hjorthaug said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger, looking back at the performance. The audience reached around 400 students.
“It’s cool how this whole project is made possible by students,” Hjorthaug said. The Pause technicians, the concert board, and Pause workers all collaborated with the two bands to bring together the night, which created a nearly completely student-run production.
“We can only do so much on stage, and without a great team, we could never have stood on that stage without others behind the scenes,” Hjorthaug said.
In looking towards the future, the bands hold different directions. Nevins is determined to continue playing concerts to cap off his chapter of noslo. before graduating in May 2025. Three of the band members currently live together, while continuing to practice and write songs. The band has around 14-17 original songs, which can be found on Spotify under their band name.
With the new beginning of her.man, new projects for spring 2026 are underway.
“We want to do more original stuff and continue playing concerts in the Pause. All the students there are fun and [we want to] just keep playing music for our friends,” Hjorthaug said.
“That’s the best thing you can do,” Hjorthaug said. “Playing music I love, with people I love, for people I love.”
