Henric de la Cour interview: ‘It won’t be 6 years until the next one’
Henric de la Cour
(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Birds Will Sing For You press release. Photos by Tarjei Krogh) Out now is Henric de La Cour‘s long-awaited fourth album ‘My Bones, Your Ashes’, accompanied by several singles and a Scandinavian club tour.
During the fall of 2024, Henric de la Cour marked his return with single ‘Hey You, Hell No’ – a whopping six years after his last album ‘Gimme Daggers’ was released. He’s taken these years to do some soul searching and have come out on the other side in a partially new suit. Still present are all those elements that fans have come to love ever since they first came in contact with the now legendary vocalist, especially in connection with the breakthrough of his iconic Swedish indie pop band Yvonne in the 90’s: grandness, desperation and pop music carefully balancing on a knife’s edge between the darkest of indie and most fragile of synth-pop.
Above all this, we find that his recent music is carved from a distilled sound. The soundscape is more spacious. The lyrics more precise. The production – like previous albums, were created in a
collaboration with Rikard Lind – explore rooms that have not been explored before. Henric de la Cour says a lot more, with a lot less, and the authenticity is a constant presence throughout all the songs. The scale is larger than before – take ‘Interlude‘ for example, where de la Cour sings over a majestic backdrop that – by the end – blossoms into a redemptive string section, or take Dead Hank’ which delivers crushing synth riffs throughout the whole song. These contrasting elements are tied together by de la Cours characteristic voice.
Henric de la Cour has during his soon-to-be 30-year career released three albums as a solo artist, two as a member in Strip Music and four as a frontman in Yvonne. He has been portrayed in the documentary ‘Henric de la Cour’ which had a long run on Swedish television, and he has toured frequently all over Europe – just recently on a fall tour supporting Kite on their big Europe tour.
I attended Henric’s gig in Oslo in February (when Bérèche You warmed up the audience), and we had a quick chat about some questions by e-mail the following week.
Henric de la Cour, live Goldie, Oslo (kroghx.com)
Table of contents
- 1 S-L: How has the new Henric de la Cour album been received so far?
- 2 S-L: How does the album differ from the previous Henric de la Cour albums?
- 3 S-L: Any change in your music due to influences, your collaborations, a changing world, life in general…?
- 4 S-L: I saw your gig in Oslo, an excellent performance – how did you and Rikard like the gig yourself?
- 5 S-L: What’s up in the near future for Henric de la Cour?
S-L: How has the new Henric de la Cour album been received so far?
Henric de La Cour: The album has been very well received by both critics, fans and people that does not have any relation to my music before this album. I am very grateful.
S-L: How does the album differ from the previous Henric de la Cour albums?
HdlC: When Rikard and I started recording this we made up rules we had to follow; to keep it simple, no unnecessary sounds, to be precise and consistent. We wrote closer to 40 songs and picked the 10 best. But it took us the better part of six years to finish it.
S-L: Any change in your music due to influences, your collaborations, a changing world, life in general…?
HdlC: No, not really. But this time we wrote the major part of the songs together in a way we have not done before. Rikard is quite brilliant and has a great ear when it comes to sounds.
S-L: I saw your gig in Oslo, an excellent performance – how did you and Rikard like the gig yourself?
HdlC: It was more than ok, we had a really good time on stage. People seemed pleased with the show. A bigger crowd than I had expected.
S-L: What’s up in the near future for Henric de la Cour?
HdlC: We will be playing some festivals this summer and we plan to release new music later this year. It will not take another six years. But right now we will see where this album takes us.
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Check out ‘My Bones, Your Ashes’ on Spotify
and enjoy latest single ‘Dead Hank’!
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