Erik Hassle
September 30, 2009 in Featured Artists by Digging Your Scene
Swedish cool-pop wunderkind Erik Hassle releases his brand new single ‘Hurtful’ through Island Records on October 26th. Having already spent over a year at the top of the Swedish chart it’s now the UK’s turn to sample a song that Popjustice has described as ‘a total modern masterpiece’.
Full of sweeping musical melodrama ‘Hurtful’ is an all-out heart rendering slice of modern angst-pop, perfect for the Twilight generation. It’s is an unexpurgated apologetic love letter that manages to be both deeply personal yet universal, and is destined to become one of the tracks of the 2009.
Erik Hassle – Hurtful:
A hugely talented performer, musician and songwriter with a truly exceptional voice.
21 year old Erik is already making waves here in the UK. His debut single ‘Don’t Bring Flowers’ was playlisted at Radio 1 and he is picking up plaudits from media and other artists alike. Marina and the Diamonds said in the NME of ‘Hurtful’ “It’s amazing. Classic Swedish pop with beautiful string arrangements, it’s just gorgeous”. Meanwhile the London Paper said ‘A listen to Erik Hassle will leave you blown away in your armchair. Hurtful is almost certainly a No1 Record’.
With a haircut garnering much attention, and rapidly becoming a trademark, Erik is the latest in a long line of genius Scandi pop artists to break in the UK. Live dates at Gold Dust night in East London have had fantastic reactions from audience and critics alike and Erik will be back for further shows in the UK later this year.
‘Hurtful’ showcases the powerful and emotive voice that Erik discovered as a child, encouraged by his music obsessive parents – his mother was a singer who performed on stage whilst pregnant with Erik, and his father ran a music studio and got Erik into his collection of Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett records from an early age. Erik grew up in a remote place, once voted ‘The Most Boring Town in Sweden’, and it was his early love of music that drove him to leave home on his own, aged 15, and move to Stockholm to study music.
Five years on and the debut album, ‘Pieces’ is ready to be released later in November 2009. A collection of incredibly powerful and dramatic songs, ‘Pieces’ is an album filled with sweeping melodies and grand romantic gestures destined to ensure that the Erik Hassle story is only just beginning…
This track gets better and better.
Great track. I’ve also seen him do a live acoustic version which was ace!
Just found this acoustic version
Feels like I discovered a treasure !
Saw him supporting Little Boots at the Picture House in Edinburgh.. as much as I like Little Boots, I think its a bad sign when your support act is better than you – Erik was awesome. Also met him, he was lovely!
I’m liking the song actually, I was a bit unsure at first but he has a good voice. Shall wait to see what he brings out next in the UK.
Worth pointing out that the release of Hurtful has gone back to February 8th 2010, so you have a little while longer to wait for it. The album will be out a couple of weeks later. He is also confirmed as tour support to Mika that month in the UK – awesome!