Singer, guitarist and songwriter born at the 5th of September 1982 from Bergen (Norway). At an age of 8 he started playing guitar and wrote his first song "Locust Girl" at an age of 14. Soon he got discovered, got signed at Virgin Records (Norway) and released his debut album in 2000.
Faces Down was a hit in Norway and received critical praise in Europe and the United States ? Rolling Stone Magazine placed it in their top 50 albums of 2002. He toured in America and Europe. The songs from Faces Down had been completed before winter 2000 but postponed for release until Lerche fulfilled several academic requirements. In the interim, he was named Best New Act at the Norwegian Grammys (Spellemannprisen) and performed locally in support of major acts such as Beth Orton. Faces Down was officially released in Norway in September 2001 and gradually throughout all of Europe. Lerche toured with various acts, including a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share the stage with his long-time idols, a-ha, in Oslo. Autumn 2002 saw the release of Faces Down in America and Lerche's first major tour of the United States. He released the live/studio collection Don't Be Shallow EP the following year. In 2003, he toured with another one of his musical heroes, Elvis Costello (they toured together once again in 2005).
In 2004 his second album was released, Two Way Monologue, also produced by Gundersen. Rolling Stone gave it a good review, yet had the following comment about the lyrics:
His weakness is his words. Lerche clearly puts effort into his poetry, but the results are often vague, and at worst they suggest a nonsensical translation of what might have been eloquent in the singer's native tongue.[1]
The album displayed more of Lerche's ability to span many different styles?from pop-like and upbeat tracks to more mellow (or melodic) tunes.
Sondre Lerche-Nevernes Havn.jpg
On February 27, 2006, Duper Sessions was released. It is a jazz album recorded in the fall of 2005 with his band the Faces Down and pianist Erik Halvorsen at Duper Studios in Bergen.
His February 2007 release, Phantom Punch, is a rock album with a more aggressive sound than his previous work. Lerche and the Faces Down recorded and mixed the album in Los Angeles in April and May 2006, with producer Tony Hoffer.
He also composed the musical score of the movie Dan in Real Life, which was released in October, 2007. In 2009 he released Heartbeat Radio.
From Wikipedia:Sondre Lerche (Norwegian pronunciation: [?sondr? ?lærk?]; born September 5, 1982) is a Norwegian singer, guitarist, and songwriter.