| Five years ago, Sondre Lerche was a misfit. An uncommonly reflective 16-year-old, he spent much of his time in his bedroom in Bergen, Norway, poring over records that were made before he was born – Burt Bacharach’s complexly orchestrated ballads; Steely Dan’s droll jazz-rock odes to 1970s excess. Hearing Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model for the first time was, he says, "a totally new world." He had been playing guitar since he was eight years old, and was already developing his stage presence at a nightclub where his older sister worked, despite being too young to be lawfully allowed inside. At 17, he signed to Virgin Records. Before his 20th birthday, his debut, Faces Down, entered Norway’s albums chart at No. 2, eventually becoming a gold seller. And then he won his country’s equivalent of a Grammy for Best New Artist.
To say that Sondre Lerche (pronounced Sond-ray Lur-kay) has been leading a charmed life would be an understatement. But the former misfit had rarely been so conscious of this as late last summer, when he received a personal invitation from Costello to be his opening act for three Canadian dates. So great was the elder statesman’s enthusiasm for the boy wonder that he insisted Lerche be added to the mini-tour’s final stop, at the 2003 Calgary Folk Festival – much to the disruption of the event’s organizers.
"Costello is where he is simply because he never stopped making great records," Lerche enthuses, over the phone from Norway. "He makes very different records that different people like, but there’s always been a general enthusiasm from the audience towards his records. Strange enough, that seems to be very rare lately."
The two artists’ mutual-appreciation society is understandable. Both have an intense appreciation of, and talent for, pop songs that are a cut above – sophisticated melodies, clever wordplay, and as little or as much embellishment as is needed. Faces Down proved that the student had learned well from his chosen masters (and at an alarmingly young age). His just-released follow-up, Two Way Monologue (Astralwerks/EMI), confirms that Lerche has also handily sidestepped the dreaded sophomore slump. But although he makes it sound effortless, the songwriter says the creation of his new album was "very difficult and very different."
"I think the difficult thing with this record is that Faces Down was all about the rush of inspiration and creativity that comes along with discovering these things for the first time. It’s all about my discovery, when I was 16, in managing – finally – to write the songs that I felt I had inside of me. It’s like falling in love. At that time, the songs I wrote just came kind of unconsciously – they just popped out of me. But, obviously, at that point I didn’t know if other people would appreciate it the way I appreciated making it.
"All that changes when you’re making (the second) record. To me, it was a lot of hard work just disciplining myself, sitting down to write these songs, because nothing came for free in the way it did last time. This time, I had to search for them myself because, in a way, my preview time was over, and if I wanted to continue evolving, it was all down to how focused I could remain when I wrote the music."
The most immediately recognizable difference of Two Way Monologue is its simplicity. The often densely-produced Faces Down was written and recorded under the influence of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and orchestral-pop progeny like the High Llamas. As so often happens to artists who tour extensively, Lerche decided that his second album should reflect the stripped-back, straightforward sound of his touring band.
"I thought that it would be nice if the performance of the band – the bass, the drums, the guitar and the voice – was the centre of each song," he explains. "Faces Down is so much more production-based, the arrangements are just packed with ideas and it’s all very colourful. This time I wanted to make the songs swing, to make it a bit looser."
Whether Lerche is conscious of it or not, this comparatively direct approach might place him in better standing for a breakthrough in North America, where the Eurocentric touches that characterized his debut have always been a tough sell. If the enthusiastic responses to last year’s solo support slots for Costello, Ed Harcourt, Liz Phair and Jason Mraz are any indication, Lerche has the songs, the natural charm, and – it can’t be discounted – the physical features to win over the masses. All he needs now is the right exposure.
"It’ll be really interesting to see if it communicates with the people who liked Faces Down and if it touches anybody new," he says. "I’ve made no compromises, so I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, and, therefore, I want people to hear the music."
He then pauses briefly before adding: "And, you know, my mother likes the record. I like the record. My sister – she wouldn’t say this – but she told my grandmother that she likes the record. So I’m happy." |
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.