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Sondre Lerche: Meditating on the curse of being in love

(JP/DON)Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche has been praised by critics for crafting a new vocabulary for pop music over the course of 13 years and seven studio albums

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, January 25, 2015

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Sondre Lerche: Meditating on the curse of being in love (JP/DON) (JP/DON)

(JP/DON)

Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche has been praised by critics for crafting a new vocabulary for pop music over the course of 13 years and seven studio albums. But the 32 year old is not counting.

'€œI don'€™t feel old; I don'€™t feel like a veteran. I feel like I'€™m just getting started,'€ Lerche says. '€œBut things move so fast in our time, so maybe that'€™s made me one. But I don'€™t think too much about it. I just do it.'€

After his first studio album, Faces Down, in 2001, Lerche spent the ensuing decade finding his own sound.

Under his own label, Lerche experimented with jazz, new wave and punk, jumping from style to style on his next five albums to give listeners different experiences. The songs, however, always sounded distinctly like Sondre Lerche.

His eclectic sense brought him to Jakarta to perform at the annual '€œJazz Goes to Campus'€ series at the University of Indonesia in Depok, West Java, in November.

 '€œTo me, my music is the most natural thing. Some people said it'€™s too complicated, others said it'€™s too easy. But it'€™s always melodic,'€ the Brooklyn resident told The Jakarta Post. '€œI like a certain kind of harmony '€” and it just has to feel right to me. That'€™s the feeling I know; but how it sounds to other people, I have no idea.'€

Those who have listened to his latest album, Please, however, would agree that it was unlike anything he'€™s done before: accessible, experimental and with the feel of listening to a live show.

The album '€” recorded over nearly three years at six studios in Norway and the US '€” contains colorful, up-tempo music. Although he was divorcing his wife of eight years while making the album, Please, is no self-pitying eulogy. It is cathartic.

'€œI was going through a difficult time and I was trying to articulate what was happening. Songwriting is like sorting your thoughts or cleaning up your house. This album comes from that,'€ Lerche said. '€œThe record represents both where I come from and where I am, Bergen and Brooklyn. It has the best of both worlds.'€

Most of the songs on the album, however, are laden with anger, frustration and even bitterness.

'€œLucky Guy'€, for example, is about cherishing past love; while '€œLegends'€ has the same idea, but with bitter tone as heard in the chorus: '€œNow we'€™ll never know what legends we were meant to be/just dumb as you and dumb as me.'€

'€œSentimentalist'€ took the longest time to write '€” going through five iterations that, according to Lerche, did not serve the melody well.

'€œI'€™d been working on the song for many, many years to the point I'€™ve given up on it. I usually make the music and put on lyrics later. I knew it'€™s a good melody and I thought it needed something very special and emotional.'€

Lerche took a look at the track again when making Please. This time, he only needed 30 minutes to write the lyrics.

'€œIt was on last Christmas [2013], when I was trying to sort out my thoughts on my specific experience. '€˜Sentimentalist'€™ was something that just happened, thankfully.'€

Lerche, who always avoids cliches in his lyrics, said that making a good song is elusive.

'€œI make 50 songs for every record, but I chose not to share the rest because I don'€™t feel right about them. I'€™m looking for motivation to share them with the world, regardless of how popular or unpopular the music is.'€

The introverted part of Lerche prefers to be alone at home working on his guitar or sometimes at the studio, while the outgoing personality of the performer always wants to be on stage.

'€œIt'€™s amazing to be able to travel around the world and see that the same music communicates in so many different ways with different people,'€ Lerche said. '€œIt'€™s very strange. At some places, it seems as something very intimate and some places you just want to dance to it.

'€œThe great thing about whenever I perform in Indonesia, here people always sing along. When I play in America, they only sing along to a couple of songs. Because there are many words and the melodies are sometimes difficult. The first time I played here, I was just shocked that they could sing along to all those difficult songs. I take that as a great honor, really.'€

Traveling and interacting with fans are a way to keep things interesting, he says.

'€œI cannot travel all over the world playing the same songs over and over again. There has to be new ideas for me. There has to be something exciting and that is experimentation,'€ Lerche said. '€œTo me, music is change. It will not exist without experimentation, which is finding new ways of expressing something very personal.'€

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