Erlend Ropstad’s career in music started in 2004 when recording his first ep with Big Bangs Øystein Greni as producer and drummer. The year after he participated in the Norwegian festival and musical confernce bylarm and got in touch with the label REC90.
The ep ”the magnetic tapes” from the Greni recordings was released the year after, with great reviews in Norway, England, Germany and other countries. Two of the songs made it in to the soundtrack of a very successful norwegian film, Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey).
During 2006, Erlend recorded his debut album in Grieghallen Studios, famous for it’s black metal recordings and The Kings Of Convenience (!)Davide Bertolini, who also produces the Kings Of Convenience joined Erlends band and recorded Bright Late Nights with him. That Album was released in 2007 and was voted among the best 10 Norwegian releases regardless of genre that year in 5 of the major newspapers in Norway.
The reception in Germany was even better then in Norway. In 2008 the german music magazine INTRO with a distribution of 300 000 copies claimed Erlend Ropstad was the number one act from Norway to look out for in the future, topping the list above way more established artists like Ane Brun and Eivind Aarseth.
Erlend has played more then 100 concerts since Bright Late Nights, as support for artists like The National Bank (NO), Thomas Dybdahl (NO), Teitur (FO) and Cracker (US), but also with his own band at festivals like The Quart festival (NO), Øya festival (NO), Eurosonic (NE), Rotterdam International Poetry Festival (NE) and Popkomm (DE). He has also made several gigs and tours by him self in Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain and Norway. His music has been playlisted on major radiochannels in Belgium, Germany and Norway, he has made several radio and tv performances in Norway and Holland, and some songs appears on movie soundtracks and compilation cd’s across Europe, such as on the Spanish award winning movie ”8 citas”.
After Eurosonic 2008, the Dutch newspaper AD wrote: ”The Norwegian singer Erlend Ropstad is a tremendous talent. He’s sighing like Damien Rice, snarling like Tom Waits and tearing as Eddie Vedder, shows Ropstad his one of the greates singers in Europe. And also his songs, about the resurrection of Winona Ryder, about womens lack of respect for the alphabetical order of a cd ceollection, hould be heard!”
His next album is due to be released in February 2010.
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