When 20-year old Norwegian Thomas Dybdahl released his two first EPs ‘Bird’ and ‘John Wayne’ in 2000-2001 he appeared as nothing but a small blip on the musical radar in Norway. Interest was piqued somewhat by the single ‘Love’s Lost’, but it wasn’t until his debut album “…That Great October Sound” in 2002 that he got people’s attention for real. With a dogmatic one-microphone-only approach, a soulful tenor voice, an intimate acoustic sound and good songs he soon found his way onto the airwaves in Norway. What followed was a slew of great reviews, awards and a growing fan base all over the world.
Having the status as a musician’s musician, he was quickly discovered by a host of other artist like Elvis Costello, Jamie Cullum and taste makers like LA’s indie radio station KCRW and one of his early fans was Grammy award winning music producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Tracy Chapman). The two worked together on Thomas’ albums ‘What’s Left Is Forever’ (2013) and ‘All These Things’ (2018) which were both Grammy nominated. Latest album ‘FEVER’ was released in 2020 to glowing reviews.
Now Dybdahl releases another strong addition to his discography. His Brand-new single Hvis Eg Spør is somewhat a departure from his earlier work, mixing English lyrics with his own Norwegian language, Dybdahl creates a contrast both lyrically and musically. “While messing around in the studio and trying to come up with a melody for what was to become ‘Hvis Eg Spør’ I suddenly found myself singing in both English and Norwegian, switching back and forth. The words just kind of rolled off the tongue and felt as natural as anything. It felt fresh and exciting and I thought the two combined really well. After listening through a couple of times I didn’t even give it a second thought.”
“The song is truly a one off single, as it’s a little bit of a departure in both vibe and sound for me. I tried to combine my love of scoring movies with more traditional songwriting, as well as finding a nice way to combine the more digital and cold sounds with very acoustic and warm instruments. It’s a way of complimenting the two languages sung in the song; The very melodic and smooth English versus the more staccato and ‘harsher’ sounding Norwegian.”
“The song was recorded in our studio here in Stavanger with my studio mates Håvard Rosenberg (producer of Fever) and Tonning Helgø Meling. Longtime collaborator and friend Silje Salomonsen also contributed with her beautiful voice on backing vocals.”
Listen to Thomas Dybdahl's new Hvis Eg Spør HERE.