Way back in the seventies, Tim Stahl and John Guldberg met in a band called The Starbox Band. Soon they found that there was a special chemistry between them. They were always the ones left that kept on jamming when the band rehersal ended. After a disaster of a warm-up concert for The Kinks in Copenhagen, where people walked out on them, the band split up.
New technology came as a revolution to musicians in the mid-seventies, multitrack tape recorders, rhythm boxes and synthesizers. In a backyard downtown Copenhagen, John had set up a small studio where they began jamming together and tape recordings. Soon they realized they had created a new sound, a new way of making music.
The debut album "Laid Back" with their first number 1. hit "Maybe I'm Crazy" was released in 1981. The next single "Sunshine Reggae" was the summer hit of 1982 in Denmark. In 1983 it then went on to be a huge hit in Italy, and after several earlier attempts, that song began climbing up the German charts and finally reached number 1., selling more than 750.000 singles. Soon, "Sunshine Reggae" went number 1. in 22 countries around the world and so far sold more than 20 million copies, compilations included.
In USA however focus was on another song, "White Horse", which became a number 1. Dance track and a trendsetter for many other artists. When their US record company told them "don't come, people think you are black", Tim and John saw it as the biggest ackowledgement a musician could ever get and stayed away.
Today "White Horse" is known for being a benchmark cornerstone of the electronic music making in the eighties, having been sampled over and over again and becoming a true classic.
Another outstanding song is "Bakerman", a big hit in 1990 and known for the skydiver video by the world known Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. In 2001 they composed the music score for the Danish movie "Flyvende Farmor", for which they recieved a Robert (the Danish Oscar Award). That same year, they also showed a new artistic side when a succesful Laid Back paint exhibition took place in Copenhagen. On covers, posters and website their own artwork is a perfect link to their music. In live concerts they still improve on a growing reputation for their high musical standards. In 2004 they performed at the hip Bestival on the Isle of Wight, UK, and in 2005 the played e.g. at the Roskilde Festival, DK.
Laid Back is basically a very artistic band - not necessarily your "average Pop act". If one has to set a sonic trademark on them, it will have to be their minimal "less is more" style. The secret of Laid Back has always been to make the difficult easy and the complicatede simple.
Long time in the making, the new album "Happy Dreamer" "serves to fulfil a dream, a dream to produce the perfect Laid Back album - to cool down this busy world.
Laid Back have now an own record company, Brother Music! The first release is a controversial Dance-oriented track
recorded at the same session that yielded White Horse, but censored by their record company at the time This track has been resurrected A.D. 2010, in being the forerunner of more new material and features a graphic animation video clip eminently produced by Laid Back themselves on an artistic level, easily the most interesting clip of the year. Thus, the single
and 12" vinyl "Cocaine Cool" released and available as digital download via their own Brother Music label, and constituting a sort of implicit tribute to artists, producers and DJs that have appreciated (and sampled!) a groove such as White Horse.
In all ways, Laid Back live up to their name. They are rarely out of
their studio unless for live appearances now and then. Much of the promotional
emphasis has thus been focused on creative videos and later on also their
own cover design as well as live visuals.
Laid Back is more than music, words and visuals. it's a way of
thinking, a way of living.
