Artist: The Little Hands of Asphalt
Title: No Reception / Drinking Song
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika080SG2
Release date: 6th February 2020
Bandcamp | Spotify
Two more brand new songs from The Little Hands of Asphalt; which can only mean the second of the series of singles from the forthcoming album. And one with a very special guest vocalist, Elizabeth Morris of Allo Darlin’ & Elva.
The full length record, Half Empty, will be released digitally in five parts, before being released on vinyl on March 27 on Fika Recordings and the Norwegian label Furuberget. These songs are the first release from Little Hands of Asphalt since 2012. And the band picks up the thread where they left off; low-key pearls with hints of indie and Americana, but primarily classic, timeless pop.
The Little Hands of Asphalt are Sjur Lyseid's solo project, whom released two records and a couple of EPs in the period 2009-2012. Floors, from 2012, received critical acclaim in Lyseid’s home of Norway, and was voted the sixth best record of the year in the Norwegian national newspaper VG. Press praised Lyseid's melodic qualities; and was been frequently highlighted as one of Norway's sharpest songwriters in English. The band toured most major festivals in Norway, and a lot on the continent. Since then, the project has been quiet, and Lyseid has primarily worked as a producer and songwriter for other artists at this Six Feet Over studios in Oslo. Now he's back in front of the glass, with what may be the project's strongest songs ever.
Lyseid introduces the second pair of tracks:
No Reception
Two summers ago, I was going to play my first Little Hands of Asphalt concert in years. I’d been asked to play at this festival called Indiefjord several times, and at this point I had already written a couple of the new songs, so I finally said yes. It's a strange, yet beautiful and fascinating festival, purely dedicated to indiepop, with a mix of international and (very) local audiences, in a remote location in the depth of a Norwegian fjord. Budgets were almost nonexistent, so I would travel and play by myself. Me and my friend Kenneth, who was traveling as a regular festival-goer, had to go west over the mountains to the immensely scenic festival location. So the festival had arranged for us to get a ride from some stranger. In an old hatchback with no aircon (it was a hot summer day), the driver chain smoking and blasting obscure indiepop songs I’d never heard of through the tiny speakers in the car doors. After that trip I was so sick of indiepop. Still, when I got back I wrote No Reception, arguably the most indiepop-sounding song of my songwriting career. Go figure. When you've got an indiepop song, whom other do you ask to contribute than indie darling (sic) Elizabeth Morris? Recorded in her basement in her now native Moss, with a crying toddler (or two) upstairs, her performance is really what turned this song from a good - but admittedly a bit bland pop song - to something quite magical. This song, though being based on a real experience, is also full of lies half-truths, as usual. I wasn’t even there when the Burning Hell played (spot the reference?). But like I seem to always do, at least I managed to cram in a song about driving, or touring, or the two combined. But ultimately about life and love, I guess.
Drinking Song
I'm going to take a minute and talk about collaboration. So much on this record has been of my own doing, I've played, produced, recorded and mixed most of it on my own. However, it would not have been half (!) of what it is without its collaborators, both in a musical and inspirational sense. Music making, in many ways, is at its best as a tribal, communal experience. I've been so lucky as to have all these great people help me out on this, and their contribution is invaluable. I mentioned Elizabeth. Tonje Tafjord sings and plays the flute on this one, and she also sings on a couple of other songs. The amazing Nils Martin Larsen is responsible for a lot of the almost orchestral passages on this album, playing every instrument I told him too, and has maybe been the one person most instrumental (heh) to realizing the sounds in my head.
One of my favorite songwriters Morten Myklebust helped me with filtering lyrics and song structures, he also sang and played a lot. Pål Angelskår was perhaps my main motivator, both in beginning to write and as someone I would run songs and lyrics by throughout the process. Eivind Almhjell, my long time friend and band mate, of course contributed his guitar playing and musical genius to this as well. My neighbor Morten Kvam turned out to be one of Norway's best bass players. When Morten was away for one of the studio dates, we met the incredible Rudi Simmons at a party, and he joined as a bass player and backing vocalist on one day's notice. Jørgen Nordby and Eirik Kirkemyr lent their beautiful, individual drumming styles selflessly to the songs where they sound their best. Øyvind Røsrud Gundersen mixed the song I couldn't make work. And Espen Høydalsvik mastered the whole thing effortlessly.
I borrowed some old microphones from Rune Berg, he also gave great feedback on a few of my mixes. My old producer Kenneth Ishak recorded the guitar and some percussion on Foreverest, he also lent me some mic's.
Jørgen Nordby took the cover and press photos, Luke Murphy-Wearmouth and Tom Ashton helped me with the artwork and design.
Consider this a giant thank you to all of you. And all of you; the people who continued to listen and encouraged me to do more through all these years. Thanks, friends!
Drinking Song is a small song about friendships gone sour, for whatever reason. A big shout out to Aleksander Johansen for being the (musical) inspiration for this song. Just imagine his voice in your head while listening, add some ambience, and this could easily have been a Psyence Fiction-song.
“It’s pretty great – very much in the Fika style of indie pop – and I’ll make sure to check out the album on launch.” A Song At A Time