Highasakite

Highasakite is an indie pop and indie rock band originating from Norway. The band formed when vocalist and songwriter Ingrid Helene Håvik met drummer Trond Bersu whilst studying jazz at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory. In 2010, after just six months, the duo started working on their debut album. The album All That Floats Will Rain was released in 2012 via Riot Factory in Norway.

Highasakite
HIGHASAKITE 2018
Background information
Origin	Norway
Genres	Indie rock indie pop
Years active	2011–present
Labels	Propeller Recordings
Website	highasakite.no
Members	Ingrid Helene Håvik Trond Bersu
Past members	Øystein Skar Marte Eberson Kristoffer Lo

Biography

Vocalist Ingrid Håvik and drummer Trond Bersu met while Bersu was studying jazz at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory; after starting out as a duo, the two recruited Thomas Dahl, a producer, to help out on bass and guitar, and Øystein Skar joined the group to play synthesizer. After bonding they spent the next six months working on a debut album. Their debut album, All That Floats Will Rain, was released in Norway in February 2012 on the record label Riot Factory, and was produced by Juhani Silvola and Thomas Dahl. The album reached #16 on the Norwegian Albums Chart. After the album's release the band began to play live shows, adding Marte Eberson on synthesizer and Kristoffer Lo on guitar, percussion, flugabone, and tuba to extend their layered instrumentation, and flesh out their sound. Highasakite started out opening for other musical projects like Your Headlights Are On, PELbO and Sacred Harp.[1] The band later performed at many festivals in 2012, including Øyafestivalen and the Iceland Airwaves.

The band entered the studio with producer Kåre Christoffer Vestrheim to record their first full-length album. The album, Silent Treatment, was released in February 2014 and reached #1 on the Norwegian Albums Chart.[2] It was named the second best album of the year by Norwegian music critics in a list published by Dagsavisen.[3] The group toured extensively this year, mostly in Norway.[2] They also toured with the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men during their Europe tour. At the 2015 14th Annual Independent Music Awards, Highasakite was the winner in the "Pop Album" category for Silent Treatment. The band can today be proud of having the first album with 92 consecutive weeks (and counting) on the Norwegian Billboard "Topp 40" at VG-lista.[4]

The band released their debut album, All That Floats Will Rain, in 2012 to rave reviews; the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet gave the album a 6 on the dice, writing that "if you have lost faith in pop music, Highasakite is here to show you the light."[1] Their debut full-length album, Silent Treatment, was released in 2014 to equally rave reviews, with Dagbladet lauding it, and giving Highasakite their second consecutive 6/6 from the newspaper,[5] with Verdens Gang equally enthusiastic giving it a 5.[6] For the album, Highasakite won the "Pop Group of the Year Award" at the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards, Spellemannprisen; additionally Håvik was nominated in the categories "Composer of the Year" and "Writer of the Year", winning the former. The same year the band won the Bendiksen Award, an award and grant given to up-and-coming artists to help develop their talent, winning 100,000 Norwegian kroner.

Their third album, Camp Echo, was released on 20 May 2016. The first single from the album, "Someone Who'll Get it", released early 2016, received significant critical acclaim upon release, highlighting an anticipation for their third album.[7] As of December, the single has been played over 5,260,000 times on Spotify. The second single, "Golden Ticket", was released in April 2016.

On 2 December 2016 the band released the Acoustic Versions EP, consisting of four previous tracks from Camp Echo and Silent Treatment. The EP features band member Marte Eberson on the piano, and shows off lead singer Ingrid Helene Håvik's arrangement ability and powerful vocals.

Highasakite was one of several performers, alongside artists including Sting and Halsey, who played at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2016 on 11 December, performing songs "Golden Ticket" and "Lover, Where Do You Live?".

Their album Camp Echo was shortlisted by IMPALA (The Independent Music Companies Association) for the Album of the Year Award 2016, which rewards on a yearly basis the best album released on an independent European label.[8]

Highasakite released their first single of 2017, "5 Million Miles", on 21 April.[9] On 16 November 2018, the band announced their fourth studio album Uranium Heart,[10] produced by Bersu with all tracks written by Håvik. The album was later released on 1 February 2019, and in Spring 2019 the band embarked on an arena sized tour across Norway, [11] selling out a number of the dates.

In October 2019, the band released the first part of a two part mini album titled "The Bare Romantic", with first single "Can I Be Forgiven" reaching #26 on the Spotify Norway top 200.[12] The second part of the mini album, released 7 February 2020 contained the single "Under The Sun" which received a sync in the Norwegian film Tunnelen. [13]

In February 2020 Highasakite were nominated for the "Pop Group of the Year Award" at the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards,[14] Spellemannprisen; however the Award Ceremony has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Peak positions		Track list
		NOR [15]	AUS [16]
2012	All That Floats Will Rain	16	—	"Son of a Bitch" "Winners Don't Come Easy" "Indian Summer" "When You Have Gone" "In and Out of Weeks" "God Is a Banquet" "My Soldier" "Whatever That Means" "Everything Sank in You" "The Heron"
2014	Silent Treatment	1	90	"Lover, Where Do You Live?" "Since Last Wednesday" "Leaving No Traces" "Hiroshima" "My Only Crime" "I, the Hand Grenade" "Darth Vader" "Iran" "The Man on the Ferry" "Science & Blood Tests"
2016	Camp Echo	1	24	"My Name Is Liar" "Samurai Swords" "Someone Who'll Get It" "My Mind Is a Bad Neighborhood" "God Don't Leave Me" "I Am My Own Disease" "Golden Ticket" "Deep Sea Diver" "Chernobyl"
2019	Uranium Heart	4 [17]	—	"Too Early" "Revolution" "I Call Bullshit" "Mexico" "Mexico, Pt. 2" "Hail of Bullets" "Out of Order" "Egomaniac" "Uranium Heart" "Stick with You" "Outro"

Extended plays

Year	Album	Peak positions		Track list
		NOR	AUS
2016	Acoustic Versions	—	—	"Samurai Swords (Acoustic Versions)" "Golden Ticket (Acoustic Versions)" "Since Last Wednesday (Acoustic Versions)" "Leaving No Traces (Acoustic Versions)"
2019	The Bare Romantic, Part 1	—	—	"Can I Be Forgiven" "Through Tunnels and Towns" "Just A Small Quake" "Too Much To Handle"
2020	The Bare Romantic, Part 2	—	—	"The Bare Romantic" "Under The Sun" "All For Love" "Never Been Less Loved"

Singles

Year	Single	Peak position		Album
		NOR [18]	AUS [19]
2013	"Since Last Wednesday"	—	—	Silent Treatment
2016	"Someone Who'll Get It"	34[20]	100	Camp Echo[21]
	"Golden Ticket"	—	—
2017	"5 Million Miles"	—	—	Non-album single
2018	"Out of Order"	36 [22]	—	Uranium Heart
2019	"Free to Go"[23] (with Seeb)	14 [24]	—	Sad in Scandinavia
	"Can I Be Forgiven"	27 [25]	—	The Bare Romantic, Part 1
2020	"Under The Sun"	—	—	The Bare Romantic, Part 2
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released.

Awards and nominations

Year	Organization	Award	Work	Result
2014	GramArt	Bendiksen Award[26]	Highasakite	Won
2015	Spellemannprisen '14	Popgruppe (Pop Group)	Silent Treatment	Won
	IMPALA[27][8]	European Independent Album of the Year Award		Nominated
2016			Camp Echo	Nominated
2017	Spellemannprisen '16	Popgruppe (Pop Group)		Won
		Årets Musikkvideo (Music Video of the Year)	Golden Ticket	Nominated
2020	Spellemannprisen '19	Popgruppe (Pop Group)	Uranium Heart	Nominated

References

1. Pettersen, Julia (3 February 2012). "Avlys resten av musikkåret" [Cancel the rest of the year in music]. Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 24 April 2016.
2. Talseth, Thomas (14 February 2014). "Highasakite er årets albumvinnere". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian).
3. Rusdal, Espen Hågensen (12 December 2014). "Her er listene over den beste musikken i 2014". Dagsavisen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 13 November 2015.
4. Talseth, Thomas (13 November 2015). "Highasakite setter ny VG-listerekord". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 13 November 2015.
5. Falkenberg-Arell, Rannveig (3 February 2014). "Årets første norske sekserplate" [This year's first Norwegian six-record.]. Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 24 April 2016.
6. Bøe, Tor Martin (1 February 2014). "Skimrende, lys og tusen etasjer høy" [Shimmering, bright and one thousand stories high]. Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 24 April 2016.
7. "Singelanmeldelse: Highasakite: "Someone Who'll Get It" - Musikkanmeldelser". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). 28 January 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
8. "25 artists up for best independent album of the year in Europe". IMPALA. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
9. "The new single from Highasakite is a glossy pop reinvention". FEISTY. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
10. Murray, Robin. "Highasakite Announce New Album 'Uranium Heart'". Clash. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
11. "Highasakite Previous Live Shows". Bandsintown. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
12. "Spotify Chart: Norway Top 200". spotifycharts. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
13. "IMDB Tunnelen Film (2019)". IMDB. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
14. "Spellemann Pop Group 2019 Nominees". Spellemann. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
15. Steffen Hung. "Highasakite page". NorwegianCharts.com. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
16. Peaks in Australia:
    • All except noted: "australian-charts.com - Discography Highasakite". Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
    • Silent Treatment: "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 29 September 2014" (PDF) (1283). Pandora Archive. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
17. "VG-lista – Topp 40 Album uke 6, 2019". VG-lista. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
18. "Highasakite page". NorwegianCharts.com. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
19. Ryan, Gavin (12 March 2016). "ARIA Singles: Lukas Graham Spends 4th Week at No 1". Noise11. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
20. "VG-lista - Topp 20 Single uke 6, 2016". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 24 December 2016.
21. Day, Laurence (9 February 2016). "Highasakite announce second record Camp Echo". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
22. "VG-lista – Topp 20 Single uke 16, 2018". VG-lista. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
23. Murray, Robin (12 April 2019). "Seep pair up with Highasakite on 'Free To Go'". Clash. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
24. "VG-lista – Topp 20 Single uke 16, 2019". VG-lista. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
25. "VG-lista – Topp 20 Single uke 43, 2019". VG-lista. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
26. Østbø, Stein (20 May 2014). "Highasakite vant 100.000 kroner". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian).
27. "23 albums up for European Independent Album of the Year Award". IMPALA. 29 January 2015.

External links

• Official website