THE STORY
Part One - The beginning
Part Two - Into open waters with "Kyst" (not finished yet)
Part Three - Keeping the trees together by themselves (coming soon)
Part Four - The discovery & new collaborations (coming soon)
So the story goes . . .
Back
in 1995 the two friends Katrine Stochholm and Henriette Sennenvaldt got
the idea to form a band while on a bike ride. They had tried writing songs
in English, but that didn't work for them, so they tried putting some
of Henriette's Danish poems together with Katrine's piano tunes. While
writing they soon figured they needed more instruments.
- The songs made us think of violin, cello and accordian, because they
have very sensitive qualities. And they are in some way closer tied to
reality, Henriette said in a 1998 interview.
The band
also had to find a name. Around that time they had a song called "Under
Byen" - Below the city - and figured it would be a good name.
- It somehow gives the notion of things going on beneath it all. And it
has a good ring. I also think the lyrics tie to this city and my life
in it. Like the buildings in it and the waters outside it, Henriette has
said.
Nils have added that the well-known local writer Svend
Åge Madsen might have inspired them a bit too with his writings
about "de underjordiske" - the subterraneans - a people living
somewhere. . . below the city.
The band didn't play
more liveshows then, but kept writing new songs and rehearsing them.
In October
of 1997 they went into the studio and recorded three songs which they
released on the self-financed "Puma" EP. Nineteen minutes that
easily showed the talent and vision of this emerging band. The lyrics
had several animal references and it was clear that the band wasn't afraid
of being poetic - neither with words or sounds.
These recordings took place around the same time as the band was finding
its permanent members. Budtz and Rørkenfelt left the band and in
came Nils Gröndahl and Myrtha Wolf on violin and cello respectively.
The Puma EP
Once the
cd was out the band landed another show. This was at Æsken - a small
venue in a loft in central Aarhus. Henriette recollects the experience
of this then seven-member band with a laugh.
- It was the smallest stage in the world and we stood their embarrasing
ourselves while some yelled 'pussy' and half of the audience left. It's
quite different today, she says.
In January of 1998 the band played at Musikcaféen
- also in Aarhus. This time the experience was different. The venue -
which holds more than a hundred people - was sold out. A big surprise
for the band.
Under Byen then applied for financial support for touring from the Danish
Rock Council (ROSA).
They did
not use the money for its intended purpose, though. Instead they recorded
the track "Veninde i vinden" at the famed local Feedback
Studio in Aarhus in April of 1998. This turned out to be a wise choice.
The cd was essentially just a promo and was never sold anywhere, but sent
to radio stations and record labels.
The "Veninde i vinden" single
After their
"first real gig" at Musikcaféen, as they called it, they
were hired to play at the Aarhus
Festival Week in August of 1998. On the strength of that one previous
show they were put on the big stage on the main square in central Aarhus.
A few eyebrows were raised at that event.
This was also the case at the annual local Spot 05 Festival for hopeful
young bands where the band played in October 1998. Sara Saxild replaced
Anders Præstegaard on bass at this concert and became the member
of the band. The show helped spread the rumour about this new exciting
band who played such enchanting music with Danish lyrics - a thing not
attuned to the current trend among new bands at the time.
The rumour also reached the ears of Steffen Brandt, leadsinger and songwriter
in the band TV-2 (who
have been a part of Danish popular music culture since the early 80s).
He and his band was just about start a new record label - Pladeselskabet
Have A Cigar. He therefore attended Under Byen's show at the local venue
Train on March 18, 1999 and reportedly proposed a record deal backstage
afterwards. The same show was also recorded by Danish
National Radio and broadcast later.
Around that
time the band figured it was time to record some more music. Being very
fond of the music of Swedish singer Stina
Nordenstam the band took a chance and contacted one of her collaborators
- the producer Manne Von Ahn Öberg who most notably worked with her
on the albums "Dynamite" and "People Are Strange".
- We never thought he would accept, but we aimed high and to our surprise
he said yes. This taught us that we should always aim high. If we should
fail it's not the end of the world. We will always have our music and
that is what matters, Henriette Sennenvaldt said in an interview in 2004.
So in March of 1999 the band travelled to the Atrium Studios in Stockholm
to record with Öberg. Here they made a three-track demo.
On May 28
the band performed in Rådhusparken, the park behind the Town Hall
in Aarhus, as part of the Cultural Night '99. Here they played two new
compositions made especially for the event. The titles of the two ten
minute pieces were "Englene sitrer / Gå ind i lyset" ("The
Angels Are Jittering / Walk Into The Light") and they were accompagnied
by changing coloured lights in the park's trees. The visual side of the
event was arranged by John
"Skæg" Hedegaard - the former Vildensky-member who
later became the Under Byen's light engineer on tour.
The songs were never performed again, but parts of them later became "Syng
hvide nat" and "Gå ind i lyset" on "Kyst".
With a record
deal in place the band could now embark on the journey of recording their
debut album. So in August and September of 1999 they returned to Stockholm
to record with Manne Von Ahn Öberg. The most notable different from
the early demos and previous live versions were that the new album tracks
were much slower than their "originals".
Just before this the "Veninde i vinden" single had reached the
ears of some radio hosts at the Danish National Radio who then got interested
in the band. So much that they interviewed them before the release of
"Kyst" and also during the recordings - even playing new and
not-quite-finished songs on the air.
In October that year "Gå Ind I Lyset" was released as
a one-track promo for radio use only and in November "Kyst"
was released to much critical acclaim. Most reviewers were astonished
and wrote that the album was "the sound of dreams", "the
most courages Danish album in ages" and "fascinating and mysterious"
- while still saying that it demanded the listener might have to put in
an effort to really get it.
Furthermore almost every newspaper and music magazine in Denmark interviewed
the band.
The band was nominated as Best Newcomer in the Danish grammy awards and
was in several of the newspaper's Best Of The Year top 10 polls at the
end of the year.
Kyst
In late
1999 composer Katrine Stochholm felt increasingly uncomfortable being
on stage playing live. So at the band's first performance outside Aarhus
they enlisted the help of pianist Thorbjørn Krogshede. He played
his first Under Byen show at Copenhagen
Jazzhouse in October 1999 - a show where someone described the audience
as being "dead quiet and attentive... no one even got up to get a
beer".
From then on Thorbjørn became a member of the band. Katrine still
played and plays live with the band on occasion, though. But mostly when
on hometurf in Aarhus.
To be continued. . .