A Bravo Papa Frontman Goes Solo with Acoustic Roots, Electric Guitars and a Britpop Chorus
The song started on an acoustic guitar and grew in the recording: electric guitar parts, then piano and string sounds, all stacked around a chorus built for singing back. Thought I Was Your Sidekick is the work of IN Kelly, the solo project of Norwegian musician Kjetil Rønningen. The single arrived on 6 March 2024 as the second taste of his debut solo album Under the Birch Tree.
IN Kelly’s single sits in the playlist below, and the rest of his coverage is gathered on his artist profile. Thought I Was Your Sidekick reached RockRevival.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Hit play, then keep reading for the records behind it.
The Guitar Pop Lineage IN Kelly Draws On, From 1980s Jangle to Britpop Drama
The song belongs to a long line of guitar pop. It runs from the chiming records The Smiths and The Cure made in the 1980s to the glam-edged Suede records of the 1990s. Then The Strokes stripped it back down at the turn of the 2000s. Rønningen names The Smiths, The Cure and The Strokes as core influences, and for this single he adds two more. In an interview with York Calling, he said he can hear Suede singer Brett Anderson in the chorus. The verse, he added, reminds him of early Coldplay.
That lineage never left the catalogue. Each generation of guitar players rediscovers the jangle, the drama and the big, simple chorus. What has changed is who makes it. Today, one person at home often tracks this sound instead of a band in a rehearsal room, and Thought I Was Your Sidekick is a clear case in point.
Where IN Kelly Fits, a Norwegian Band Frontman Tracking Every Part Alone in Nesodden
Rønningen is best known as the frontman of Bravo Papa, the Oslo indie rock and post-punk band Plastic Magazine profiled when he went solo. The band has released five albums since 2009, most recently Photographic Memoirs in June 2023. The name is practical. According to his interview with Music Arena GH, Kelly shares his real name’s first letter and travels better outside Norway, while IN stands for International Name.
The album came together fast. Rønningen became a father in spring 2023, and melodies arrived as he played acoustic guitar at home. As he told The Punk Head, he caught the ideas on his phone and shaped them into songs. He then wrote, recorded and mastered the whole record in about seven months, much of it while his daughter slept. According to We Write About Music, he played every instrument himself and produced the single at home in Nesodden. Drums came from programming on Ableton Push, with synth plugins alongside the guitars.
For IN Kelly, Thought I Was Your Sidekick is the most direct song in that set. Rønningen picked it as a single because it felt like a pop song, with a more commercial pull than the rest of the album. He calls it laidback yet close to a singalong, with a slightly conflicted identity. The lyric began with the title. From there he built a story around two characters, and he left room for listeners to read it their own way.
The single sits between two moods. The debut solo single Sleepwalker, out a month earlier, leaned on synths and drum programming. Meanwhile, the third single, Back to Rome, landed on 12 April 2024, the same day as the album, and leaned harder on post-punk guitar.
Who Stands Next to IN Kelly on Sidekick, From Suede and Early Coldplay to The Strokes
Start with Suede. Their early 1990s records paired Brett Anderson’s theatrical vocal with bright, dramatic guitar. That is the register Rønningen hears in his own chorus. Early Coldplay is the other half of the picture. Their 2000 debut Parachutes leaned on quiet, acoustic-led verses. The verse here follows a similar plan before the electric guitars lift it.
The Smiths and The Cure set the tone underneath. Both bands proved that a jangling guitar line and a melancholy lyric could still carry a pop hook, and IN Kelly keeps that balance. The Strokes add the attitude. Their clipped, economical guitar parts showed a generation how little a rock song needs, and Rønningen’s arrangement never crowds the vocal.
So who is it for? First, listeners who grew up on 80s and 90s guitar pop and still want a chorus they can sing. It also suits anyone who follows Norwegian indie and wants to hear what a band frontman does with no band in the room. Put it next to the older records and it holds its own, because it borrows the shape of that music rather than the sound of any one album.
From the RockRevival.News Curator Team: “Thought I Was Your Sidekick shows what one player can get out of a home setup when the song comes first. The acoustic bones are still audible under every electric part, which keeps the chorus honest.”
Hear Thought I Was Your Sidekick and Follow IN Kelly on Every Platform
Stream the album on Spotify or the single on Apple Music, then follow IN Kelly here:
- Streaming: Spotify and Apple Music
- Video: YouTube for the Sleepwalker clip
- Social: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook
- Home base: the official site
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