Sondre Lerche

Genre-hopping Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche has drawn comparisons to Elliot Smith and Cat Stevens, but his diverse range of interests and influences mean that his heartfelt melodic pop songs have wandered off on many different musical tangents over the years. Raised in the suburbs of the west coast city of Bergen, his early inspiration came from hearing his mother's a-ha records and watching hours of MTV as a child, before his sister started working at local music venues and sneaking in her under-age 14-year-old brother and letting him perform. He was soon writing his own songs and was mentored by producer HP Gundersen, who introduced him to Brazilian bossa nova, psychedelic '60s bands and a whole host of new sounds.

Landing a deal with Virgin Norway in 2000, his debut 'Faces Down' led to him touring the US as support for his early heroes a-ha and later with Elvis Costello, and he showed that he was more than just a standard acoustic, folk strummer with the delicate jazz swagger of 'Duper Sessions' in 2006, the spikey indie rock storm of 'Phantom Punch' in 2007 and the wistful guitar pop of 'Heartbeat Radio' in 2009. He also wrote the original soundtrack to Steve Carell's comedy movie 'Dan in Real Life', which included a duet with Regina Spektor, and released live album 'Bootlegs', before his divorce from model Mona Fastwold inspired the deeply personal, slightly stranded 'Please' in 2014. Yet another change of direction saw him take on dance floor, synth-pop sounds and jerky new wave licks on 'Pleasure' in 2017, his most acclaimed album to date.