Sivert Hoyem goes solo in the UK

— Gayathri Sundaram contributed with this report

Doing stuff on your own is hard, especially when you have suffered the loss of someone close to you.

This is probably how Norwegian rock star Sivert Hoyem felt when he started going solo. Hoyem started his career as the frontman of famous alternative rock band Madrugada in 1999 and became a big success with them, after producing albums such as “The Deep End” and “Live at Trafalmore” –  the biggest selling album in Norway in 2005 . However, after the sudden death of their guitarist Robert Burås in 2007, the band decided to split in the next year after compiling their last album “Madrugada”.

Yet after all this, Sivert Hoyem has managed to make a name for himself after the launch of “Moon Landing” and has managed a successful UK tour, with Colour of Sound, as well as writing a new album. The Linc caught up with him during his last night of his UK tour at the London Cargo.

“It’s been an experience” Hoyem said, “more and more seem to be coming to the shows and it’s just getting better and better. I’ve been to places such as Kings Tut Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow before with my band before and it was brilliant to be back there. But Manchester the night before had to be the best night of my life — really good!”

Hoyem has mostly been performing songs from his latest album “Moon Landing”, which he recorded in a cabin in the Norwegian Mountains in 2009. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, as the band never approved of doing something like this. We always ended up in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles, but I always wanted to venture out and explore the countryside instead of sucking inspiration from urban cities,” Hoyem said.

As well as this, Hoyem has managed to get involved with TV Aksjonen, Norway’s yearly charity telethon. This year they have decided to give their proceedings to the Norwegian Refugee Council, which tries to help people running away from the war, and an issue that Hoyem feels incredibly strongly about.

“It’s one of the most important global issues as people are on the run and they need help. The more I found out about the NRC’s work, the more I wanted to support them as realised that when there’s trouble they are the first ones in and the last ones out. They are a serious organisation.”

He therefore decided to write a new song “Prisoner of the Road” in order to raise awareness for this charity. For this he collaborated with Erik Poppe, one of Norway’s most respected documentary filmmakers, in order to create a video for this year’s telethon.

Hoyem said: “Erik was great to work with because he had so much passion for the whole project. He had been to countries such as Congo and Afghanistan and knows what it’s like for people on the road, and therefore he really got me into the whole idea.” 

“Prisoner of the Road” is still available on iTunes and all proceedings will go to the Norwegian Refugee Council. This is his first experience in the UK as a soloist artist, after having toured here with Madrugada. However that doesn’t seem to be affecting him at all and he seems to want to do it all again.

“I’ll admit that it’s different without the band, but I’m getting used to it now, plus I have such a supportive group of people it has the same atmosphere as being in band. I consider myself incredibly lucky. After finishing my new album I want to tour some more and go to places I haven’t been before- and with all that hopefully return to the UK again.”