Thomas Dybdahl announces new album 'Fever'

After working with renowned producers and session musicians in some of the best studios in the world over the last years, Thomas Dybdahl returns to his own studio 1micadventure in Stavanger to find a new, fresh sound on coming album 'FEVER'. 'FEVER' was produced, recorded, written and performed by Thomas together with his long-time studio partner and hip hop producer Håvard Rosenberg in their own studio by the sea on the west coast of Norway.

What was first meant to be just a single, quickly turned into an EP and eventually an album as they were on too much of a creative roll to stop. “It’s one thing you learn after a while in any creative endeavour; if you’re in a good flow, do whatever you can to stay in it for as long as possible, because when it’s over you might not find it again for a long time. It’s a precious commodity”. The pairing of urban/hip hop producer Håvard Rosenberg and Dybdahl’s more melancholy musical style might not seem the obvious one on paper, but the two share a deep rooted love for soul and funk music and quickly found an expression that they felt gave a nod to inspirations from the past, but also felt fresh and like it belonged in the world now.

“We would listen to everything that gave us a kick. Anything from classic artists like Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, Serge Gainsbourgh, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Bobby Gentry and Sly to newer soul artists like D’Angelo, Raphael Saadiq and Michael Kiwanuka was blasted to get the creative juices flowing. Our setup and goal was simple enough: we wanted to make a soulful guitar record that didn’t feel like a guitar record and that sounded both old and fresh at the same time. With good writing and a beat that would make you dance, preferably.”

The signature acoustic guitar was scrapped early and never touched again for the duration of the album as it didn’t seem to sit in any of the songs this time around. Instead the setup used was an old beat up Telecaster played through a Tandberg 4 track tape recorder, a P-bass, drums and vocals. Almost everything on the album is played by Thomas himself and was a result of wanting to be in complete control, but also of being able to work fast, instinctively and free flowing without fear of going down the wrong path and wasting anyone’s precious studio time. “It gave us a great sense of freedom to do everything on the record by ourselves. We never had to worry about wasting anyone’s time but our own. And we were quite happy to do that! I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented people over the years and weather it’s watching Larry Klein talk about how and why he wants to follow a particular direction on a song or watching Dean Parks play guitar to mould perfectly into the track there was always a voice in my head saying “remember this, you might need it later”. So just hopefully I’ve learned from working with these talented people and have been able to bring some of this experience into the production and writing on this record. I’m incredibly proud of what we have made and despite being quite a departure from what people might normally associate me with I think it might be my most personal album yet. I can’t wait to let it loose in the world!”

Having the status as a “musician’s musician”, Thomas Dybdahl 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). Thomas has also worked as a producer, songwriter and as a front man in the band The National Bank, as well as guesting with other acts ranging from Morcheeba to French singer Melanie Pain all the way to folk icon Judy Collins.

Thomas Dybdahl announces new album 'FEVER' - Out on March 13! Listen to his latest single '45' over here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb9r27Jlaj8