Use Love (Wash Away Hate)

Beat based pop, pop based jazz or jazz based beats. LateBloomers music isn’t easily classified, but the following description might give a little pointer as to what is on the EP View, and what is on his latest album; Another View.

”View contains a bundle of pleasant jazz-tunes wrapped in smooth electronica, sexy beats and floating vocals. The songs are quite different and each one actually represent their own little genre within the straight part of jazz. We meet a lot of groove and odd electronic phenomenons in Tell Me A Story, while the opening song Dreaming (I’ve been waiting for you) is a light and jolly addition about longing, but happily enough of the type that gives hope. Several of the contributions on this EP contains fragments that can remind of the somewhat raw jazz-electronica we know from Portishead, while it still contains the pop-charm of The Notwist. The latter gives this record a silky smooth and easily digestible but distinctive stamp in the sense that the songs hit the listener well without having to use energy to like the result. Because liking the songs you do automatically. And if the volume is turned up close to maximum, you can actually have quite an intense dance night.” 5/6

Torkel Haugødegård, 14.9.2005 © Panorama Media about LateBloomer – View EP http://www.panorama.no/vis.php?kat=1&did=4468


LateBloomer started his career at the age of 3 with his mums eggslicer, a perfect little harp, as far as he was concerned. Then under the name of Harald. A tin drum with rubber skin and attached kettle lid was the next instrument, before mum bought a “real toy drum set” for 20 quid as a 12 year birthday present. But of course, this didn’t last. The plastic bass drum pedal broke, so he moved to the piano in the living room, and short after to his fathers old guitar. He didn’t get near the violin, as he had heard his father play, and it didn’t sound very good...

The first songs were created at the tender age of 13, and short after, his first band was a reality; El Toro. Numerous performances were held at schools, youth clubs and parties with Harald behind the drums. He thought the ultimate instrument to play was drums. Even though he had written all the songs and played both piano and guitar, he chose to sit behind the drum set. Maybe because he felt a bit protected behind the big cymbals? Possible. It took him at least many years before he dared to stand at the front of the stage and perform his own songs, without cymbal protection. El Toro became Emergency and in the end Indre Strid (Inner Struggle), before the brake up was a fact.

After secondary school, high school began, and so did what he probably would call his “solo career”. He had outgrown the band, he felt, and started releasing demos on his own. Yes, you could say he had had a nice band career until then, even though no one had heard about it... Several recordings emerged in the basement outside Oslo. Love songs to girlfriends. Philosophical tunes to the Universe. Little melodies from everyday life, and pompous prog pop compositions from...well. All of this continued quite hidden until a pal brought a demo to a record company, and they wanted to sign him big time! Not...

After three years as a drummer for the legendary Norwegian progrock band, Raastoff, it went on with music school in Hamar in one year, before serious musical studies were started in Oslo. Several years were spent at the institute of music at the university of Oslo, with block harmonizing, choral singing, big band arrangement, jazz singing and choir. He was accepted in, Schola Cantorum, the “semi professional” university choir for music students. Several tours were carried through to both Japan, Latvia and South-Africa, where he met a nice girl called Rene, but it didn’t come to anything more then hot letters for about a year...

After years of studies and a masters degree in his pocket, you should think that NOW!, yes NOW he will go for his music. But no. There were still a few years with pointless efforts, because he had to try to “work as a normal person” for a year, whereafter he just HAD to carry out this business idea, tour with his newly started jazz quartet HSQ (Harald Sandø Quartet), work on a cool project called Liquid, that unfortunately never got anywhere, THEN he had to start his own little music production company, Glamfish, followed by a release with the band Legotrip, before he could really start on his own music.

The name Sandh was taken, and about a year was spent behind the PC, synthesizing, programming, recording, discording, gitarfiddling, song crafting and idea spinning, before a virus came and took it all. Ooohh yesss... It took poor Harald one year to recover from the shock, before anti virus program was bought, and he went back to work... As you now might understand, he had gotten so old, that his girlfriend suggested he could take as an artist name, the name he started to use for himself; LateBloomer. As said, so done. After another year, he had something finished that was worthy a release; the ep View. And now he thought it was just as well with the virus; because it sounded much better now!

From then on there was no mercy. The ep was released in January 2005 on his own label, Glamfish, that housed both the Legotrip album, and a vinyl remix by Prins Thomas and Rune Lindbæk. There was a lot of air play and several interviews in both P3 and Radiorakel, live concert in P2 and a long article in Aftenposten, the oddly enough, the ep was quietly passed by by the Norwegian press, until there suddenly came a brilliant review in Panorama, 6 months after the release...! Value, the ep has at least had, when several record companies responded very positively at Midem, the big record business event in Cannes, France. So far songs are licensed to both Germany and Canada.