Sondre Lerche's Big Break

12/03/08 3:09pm

by Scott Bryson (CHARTattack)

At the age of 26 and already five albums into his career, singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche is reportedly John Mayer-big in his native Norway.

Lerche hasn't had a mainstream breakthrough in North America yet, but he reached new heights of visibility a year ago when he composed the soundtrack to the Steve Carell flick, Dan In Real Life.

CHARTattack discussed the movie biz, new albums and American politics with Lerche while he was hard at work in New York City.

CHARTattack: What are you doing on this side of the ocean?
Sondre Lerche: I'm more or less based in New York now. I spend most of my time here. I've been going back and forth between Bergen [Norway] and New York, working on a new record.

I noticed on your website that you were keeping a close eye on the American election.
Yes, it's hard not to when you're here so much.

And everything turned out the way you'd hoped?
Yes, it really did. I can't hide the fact that I'm very happy with the outcome. And I guess most of the world is as well.

It's also evident from the diary style of your website that you like to keep in touch with friends and fans. Why did you decide to be so accessible?
Sometimes I wonder. When I started putting out records and my label told me I needed a website, I thought that would be cool. But just as a fan, I always thought it was a waste of space when I would go to my favourite artist's website and there was nothing on it but a bio and a picture... I always thought that was disappointing.

So, it was my decision that if I was to have a website, I just wanted to use it as a way of reaching out to people who are interested in my music, in a way beyond just having a glossy picture and a bragging bio. So, I just started writing about music that I liked and things that happened.

It was a fun way, also, for me to document this weird thing that happened to me. I was 18 or 19 years old when I started. I went straight from school to being a full-time musician, writing songs and touring. I feel blessed that I'm able to still do that, but it's a really unusual profession to have, and I thought that would be something to write about and have fun with.

Can you give any hints about the direction your new album will be taking?
To me, it sort of sums up all of the elements from all of my records and maybe adds some. The last two records I did — Phantom Punch, and the Duper Sessions record, and even the Dan In Real Life soundtrack — they were all mostly small ensembles. If there was a band, it was just drums, bass and guitar. An album like Phantom Punch has a lot of energy, but I just want to focus on the interplay between band members.

Since it's your latest release, I wanted to ask you about the Dan In Real Life soundtrack. How did you get involved with it?
It was just a lucky break, really. The director of the film [Peter Hedges] — when he was writing the script — came across my music and became a fan, and he reached out to me and said that he thought that I was the only guy who could score his film. He managed to convince all of the producers and the studio behind the film that they should give me a shot. And he also convinced me that I should do it, even though I've never done anything like it before.

Were you writing the songs as the movie was being made, or did you put them together after seeing a finished product?
He contacted me so early in the process that I had the chance to be a part of the writing process, the casting, the preparing, the shooting and then on the set. I was there for all of that... He managed to engage me in all of the parts of the process and I wrote songs up until the very end.

By the time he was test-screening the film, we had almost all of my original music in there already. And that's usually, from what I hear, when they bring in the composer.

You actually got to appear in the movie too, right?
Yes, Peter wanted to sneak me in. That was my big break as an actor. Sadly, I was hidden behind some of the credits, but I somehow managed to worm my way in. It was a lot of fun, but it was a surreal experience.