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Morten Kærup playing electric guitar, black and white

Morten Kærup

Musician · Producer · Creative communities

I work at the crossroads of music, creative development and communities — from the rough melody hummed into a phone to the finished track that is ready to go out and live, and everything in between: the offbeat attempts, the creative meetings and the courage to follow an idea through.

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Music[22]

Selected projects

Kadie Elder live: the singer in silhouette against stage lights and smoke

Kadie Elder

Producer, guitar, keys · 2013 — 2016

Danish electropop duo with an international audience. Roskilde Festival 2013 and a music video with over 19 million views.
I Think You're Awesome on stage, six musicians in front of a green curtain

I Think You're Awesome

Guitar, banjo · 2011 — present

A musical free space where jazz meets indie, folk music and offbeat ideas. I Think You're Awesome creates playful, melodic and adventurous indie jazz, where the shared musical universe of six musicians keeps finding new paths.
Kites and Komets live on stage

Kites and Komets

Guitar · from 2011

Won KarriereKanonen, DR's talent competition, and has played Smukfest, Reeperbahn Festival and SPOT Festival, among others.
Astrid Cordes singing on stage in purple stage light, the guitarist in the background

Astrid Cordes

Guitar · live

Astrid Cordes writes songs about life's many phases – close, shifting and with a raw edge. Indie pop meets indie rock in a soundscape of guitar pedals, analogue keyboards and drums you can feel in your chest.

I was part of the studio work and today I play guitar in her live band. On stage it is about carrying the songs: giving them room to breathe and letting the raw nerve come through.

Videos

Open on YouTube ↗
Morten Kærup playing guitar, black-and-white image

About me

I am a musician, producer and certified coach with a broad musical background and a particular interest in creativity and artistic development. Over the years I have worked with a range of musical expressions, from jazz and indie to electronic pop and alternative music.

About me

I am a musician, producer and certified coach with a broad musical background and a particular interest in creativity and artistic development. Over the years I have worked with a range of musical expressions, from jazz and indie to electronic pop and alternative music. I play guitar and banjo in the jazz ensemble I Think You're Awesome and was previously a producer and musician in the electropop duo Kadie Elder. Through my projects I have released music, collaborated with other musicians and played festivals both in Denmark and abroad.

Since 2014 I have helped develop Musikbunkeren in Gentofte, where I work with musical communities, teaching and creative learning environments for young people. I have also helped develop teaching programmes at Skaberskolen and within music production. Alongside my musical and educational work I have trained as a coach with Sofia Manning.

I am interested in what makes creativity flourish, how ideas develop, and what it takes to bring them to life. My approach is built on a combination of musical experience, professional curiosity and coaching. I am interested both in the artistic craft and the person behind the music, and in the interplay between the two in developing a personal and meaningful artistic expression.
Kadie Elder

Kadie Elder

Electropop · Producer, guitar, keys

2013Roskilde Festival
19M+views · the music video

Kadie Elder was a Danish electropop duo. With the single First Time He Kissed a Boy the duo found an international audience, not least in the LGBT+ community, where the song had a particular impact.

The music reached far beyond Denmark and built an engaged audience in Brazil, the USA, England and Mexico, among other places. The duo's YouTube channel reached 80,000 followers, and the music video for the debut single has passed 19 million views.

Kadie Elder played both SPOT Festival and Roskilde Festival in 2013. First Time He Kissed a Boy went into rotation on P3 and P4, while the follow-up Kids on the Moon was chosen as “Ugens Kanon” (Pick of the Week) on P3/P6 and was likewise played on P4.

I was part of the duo as producer, guitarist and keyboard player, and contributed to the musical development of the releases with composition, melodies, arrangements, instrumentation and production.

Production

The debut EP B O Y was produced in collaboration between Søren Vestergaard, Lasse Lyngbo, David Mørup, Lasse Baunkilde and Morten Kærup Thusgaard.

Mastering: Anders Schumann.

Kadie Elder on YouTube YouTube ↗
I Think You're Awesome

I Think You're Awesome

Jazz sextet · Guitar and banjo

2011Member since
2018Nominated · DMA Jazz
8Releases

Since 2011 I have been part of the Danish jazz sextet I Think You're Awesome as guitarist and banjo player. The band moves through a musical landscape where the improvisational freedom of jazz meets melodic songwriting, indie and alternative soundscapes.

Over the years the band has developed a distinctive musical expression and collaborated with, among others, Aarhus Jazz Orchestra and Taïga String Quartet. This has led to a number of album releases and concerts, both in Denmark and internationally. I Think You're Awesome has also been nominated for a Danish Music Award Jazz.

I Think You're Awesome · Greece
ithinkyoureawesome.dk Website ↗
Kites and Komets

Kites and Komets

Guitar · The live band and The Art of Affection

2011KarriereKanonen, P3
2012–13Smukfest · Reeperbahn Festival · SPOT Festival

Kites and Komets has been part of the Danish music scene since 2011, when the band won KarriereKanonen, DR's talent competition, on P3.

On the album The Art of Affection the project moves into a personal and reflective musical world, where love, dreams, family life and the passing of time are recurring themes.

The album draws on simpler songwriting, where the guitar and vocals are allowed to take centre stage. This creates a warm, melodic, guitar-driven pop universe with room for both the intimate and the grand.

I was involved with Kites and Komets as a guitarist, both on stage as part of the live band and in the studio, where I played guitar on The Art of Affection.

kitesandkomets.dk Website ↗
Musikbunkeren

Musikbunkeren

Musikbunkeren – music, community and youth governance

Musikbunkeren was founded in 2014 with the vision of creating a creative music community for young people. Since then, the raw Cold War bunker has developed into a living music community with rehearsal rooms, studios and a venue.

I have helped build and develop Musikbunkeren from the ground up, both as team coordinator and music professional. My work ranges widely, from developing facilities, activities and music offerings to concerts, workshops, teaching and individual musical sparring.

A central part of my work has been developing a culture of co-creation, where the young people take active ownership and help shape both the activities and the community. A place where ideas are taken seriously, and where there is room to experiment and grow.

For me, Musikbunkeren is an example of what can emerge when music, creativity and community go hand in hand. A place where young people not only develop their music, but also experience that their ideas have value and that they can create change themselves.

Musikbunkeren, graphic with the text Musik Bunker in yellow on a black background
musikbunkeren.dk Website ↗Artistic Production Programme ↗Career Coaching Programme ↗
Skaberskolen

Skaberskolen

2020–25Co-developer, teacher and mentor

Skaberskolen – creativity, immersion and artistic development

Skaberskolen is a creative learning programme for young music makers, focused on the creative process rather than the finished product. Here participants get room to explore their creativity, experiment with ideas and build trust in their own artistic intuition and way of working.

I helped develop Skaberskolen from the first cohort and turn the underlying idea into a concrete learning programme. My work included concept development, planning the teaching and building a learning environment that supports creative exploration and artistic immersion.

A central idea behind Skaberskolen is that creativity requires the freedom to investigate and experiment without knowing the result in advance. It is about shifting focus from performance and the fear of failing to curiosity, courage and the desire to create.

skaberskolen.dk Website ↗
Artistic Production

Artistic Production

Artistic Production – music production and artistic identity

Artistic Production is a teaching programme at Musikbunkeren that I developed myself. Here young musicians work on exploring and developing their personal musical expression through sound, production and artistic choices.

The programme builds on ideas and methods about creativity and artistic processes, inspired among others by Rick Rubin and Julia Cameron. With a focus on both musical craft and creative exploration, participants gain tools to develop their ideas and strengthen their own artistic identity.

Artistic Production on musikbunkeren.dk Programme ↗
Career coaching

Career coaching

Career coaching – personal and artistic development

Building a career in music is about more than talent and ambition. It also takes the ability to navigate doubt, expectations and uncertainty, and to find a direction that makes sense both personally and artistically.

With my background as a musician and producer and my training as a certified coach, I offer career coaching to musicians who want to develop and create a more conscious direction in their musical lives.

In the coaching programmes I start from the individual and work with the challenges, ambitions and possibilities that matter to them. Through conversation, reflection and concrete coaching tools, I help create clarity, strengthen the capacity to act and turn thoughts and ambitions into concrete steps.

My own experience from the music industry gives me a deep understanding of the creative, personal and practical conditions that come with a life as a musician. I combine industry understanding with a coaching approach where the goal is not to hand over a ready-made recipe, but to help the individual find their own way.

Career Coaching on musikbunkeren.dk Programme ↗
Astrid Cordes

Astrid Cordes

Guitar · live

Astrid Cordes writes songs about life's many phases – close, shifting and with a raw edge. Indie pop meets indie rock in a soundscape of guitar pedals, analogue keyboards and drums you can feel in your chest.

I was part of the studio work and today I play guitar in her live band. On stage it is about carrying the songs: giving them room to breathe and letting the raw nerve come through.

astridcordes.com Website ↗