northern portrait

2011 Matinee Fanclub Poll Results

2012-01-26T11:13:00.001+01:00

Look at this!

Roman Holiday

2011-11-29T12:51:00.007+01:00

As you might have noticed we had to leave Caspar back in freezing cold Denmark, due to important work stuff. But here's Jesper, Michael and Stefan doing an acoustic version of Criminal Art Lovers:

Stefan and Michael playing an old favorite, The Beatles - She Loves You:

The fine art of improvisation

2011-08-03T16:27:00.003+02:00

Stefan did a little surprise show in the (very hot) merch tent at this years (fantastic) Indietracks Festival. There's a mighty fine review of it right here. Many thanks to the few of you who where able to catch the show, and a special thanks to everyone that sang along to this one:

Swedish TV debut

2011-05-21T10:06:00.002+02:00

It has recently come to our attention, that "When Goodness Falls" has made it on to a Swedish TV-programme.

Unfortunately this video is only available in Sweden, but here it is: http://svtplay.se/t/104061/mastarnas_mastare

The 2010 Matinée album of the year!

2011-01-20T16:13:00.001+01:00

+ top Matinée single of all time (again!). What can we say.. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

T-shirts available on Etsy.com

2011-01-17T14:27:00.003+01:00

Someone, yet unknown to us, has made some lovely Northern Portrait t-shirts that are currently available from Etsy.com. We think they're fabulous, and have our full support!

The Matinée Holiday Soirée!

2010-11-29T10:43:00.004+01:00

Celebrating the forthcoming holiday season, the final Matinée release of the year is a very special Christmas single called "The Matinée Holiday Soirée", and it is now available on Itunes, and for pre-order at Matinée.

The tracklisting is:

1. Math and Physics Club - It Must Be Christmas

2. Northern Portrait - Leave The Trees Alone

3. Strawberry Whiplash – Santa Needs A Holiday

4. Champagne Riot – Xmas Safari

5. Bubblegum Lemonade – White Noise Christmas.

And we're, again, delighted to be included on an EP with some of our personal Matinée favorites. A new favorite among these, is our very own bassplayer Caspar's other band, Champagne Riot - be sure to check out their holiday-hit "Xmas Safari" too, at the Matinée sounds page.

Behind the scenes of "Crazy"

2010-10-25T13:09:00.003+02:00

New set on Flickr.

Pre-order 'Life Returns To Normal' now!

2010-09-28T16:20:00.001+02:00

Our new single 'Life Returns To Normal' is now available for pre-ordering at the Matinée Recordings website: http://www.indiepages.com/matinee/catalog.html?id=076

The single is limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies pressed on stylish ultra clear vinyl and comes with a free MP3 download code.

Stefan alone in the UK

2010-09-04T13:48:00.004+02:00

Stefan will be singing some Northern Portrait songs on his own (including some brand new ones and perhaps a few covers) in London on Friday the 24th and in Nottingham on the 25th. And on the evening of the 25th he'll do a bit of DeeJaying in London as well, at Scared To Dance.

New video for: I give you two seconds to entertain me

2010-08-01T13:15:00.003+02:00

We have no idea who made this very cool video for "I give you two seconds to entertain me" but it is quite thrilling nonetheless.

New video for 'Crazy'

2010-07-16T10:23:00.001+02:00

Live @ Pop & Merguez

2010-07-06T16:17:00.000+02:00

Stefan comments on the World Cup

2010-07-06T14:58:00.003+02:00

Northern Portrait's very own Stefan Larsen has suddenly and unexpectedly become an international football expert alongside some quite fascinating people at Skysports.com. Read the article here.

Northern Portrait DJ-set @ Ideal Bar

2010-06-22T12:19:00.006+02:00

Northern Portrait will be doing a somewhat British inspired DJ-set at VEGA's Ideal Bar this thursday. We're on from around midnight till 2pm - See you there!

Northern Riot

2010-02-22T20:47:00.005+01:00

Stefan has contributed vocals, alongside Ulrika from Compute and Liechtenstein, on the latest pophit by NP's very own bassplayer Caspars duo, Champagne Riot - and it is entitled something as beautiful as Ingrid Bergman. It has just been made available for streaming on their very colourful myspace page, hope you'll enjoy it!

Microsonidos 2010

2010-02-22T08:59:00.000+01:00

The Candy Twins, part 2

2010-02-18T16:16:00.005+01:00

As mentioned in a friendly comment on this blog, The Candy Twins have now done an official studio recording of the excellent song "The Next Big Thing". We're absolutely delighted to be mentioned in a song so terribly catchy.

Live @ Buffalo Bar

2010-02-14T17:03:00.004+01:00

As you can probably see by this video, theres been a few changes; We're now fourpiece which means that Stefan is doing alot more guitar-playing than before, and Michael's got a haircut.
A big thanks to Baby Honey for having us, and an even bigger one to everyone who showed up and danced.

Northern Portrait interview for Isto é Música.

2010-01-24T14:35:00.004+01:00

Brazilian blog Isto é Música has brought an interview with Stefan, in Portugese. Here it is in English:

1) Why Northern Portrait?
I suppose the question goes for the name, which I honestly cannot remember. I think it had something to do with the portrait of 'Palle Sørensen' that we use on 'The Fallen Aristocracy' EP and on our myspace.

2) In the website and in the myspace the band said "Northern Portrait is a band who’s raison d’être is the making of sophisticated pop music". In your opinion, What is sophisticated pop music?
To me sophistication is about taste, refinement and complexity. Mainstream pop music of today is such a broad spectrum of things; sometimes good, but more often horrific - it's basically just a headline that covers everything that's in the charts. The complexity in chart pop is often ruined by the recipe type songwriting, you know: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, chorus, chorus, fade.
Our music is certainly pop, but just not the polished and radio-friendlyfied type, and only very few of our songs really have a chorus in the traditional sense. And I think that type of music demands a little bit more from the listener, a little bit more interest and sophistication: It's something you have to search for, and you can only find it, if you're very much aware of your own taste and so on. The reason why we label our music 'sophisticated pop music' is also because 'Indie' has been completely exploited to sell almost anything, so it really makes little or no sense using that term these days.

3) What's your favourite album of The Smiths?
If 'Hatful of Hollow' is on option, I'll go for that one, but I suppose it might not count as a real album. Perhaps 'Strangeways Here We Come' because of the pureness of the production, and the brilliance of all the songs (except Death at One's Elbow).

4) What is the second best new band from Denmark?
Unfortunately I'm not really that much into the current music scene in Denmark, but I must of course recommend our bass player Caspar's group 'Champagne Riot'. If we look back in time I really enjoy a Danish early 80's band called 'Kliché', a singer called 'Lars Hug', a group called 'Love Shop', and another group called 'Gangway'.

5) Who plays what instrument in the band?
Jesper Bonde: Guitar
Michael Sørensen: Drums
Caspar Bock: Bass
Stefan Larsen: Vocals and guitar

The first review!

2009-12-03T21:00:00.002+01:00

As previously Twitter'ed, we've recieved the first and very favourable review for Criminal Art Lovers: Here it is.

Caspar's mixtape for Warmer Climes

2009-11-28T15:25:00.004+01:00

Our dear bass player Caspar has made a superb mixtape for the Warmer Climes project. The rest of the band still hasn't been able to figure out what the project is all about, but you can read more about it here.

Hamburg w. The TVP's

2009-10-04T16:06:00.005+02:00

We just came back from two great gigs in Berlin and Hamburg, supporting the Television Personalities. We felt very priviledged, supporting Mr. Dan Treacy and his marvellous band. Thanks to Andreas for making it happen. Here's a few pictures from gig at Prinzenbar in Hamburg friday, where Stefan also joined the TVP's on stage, for a impromptu rendition of Like 1000 Violins.

Stefan with the TVP's:

More pictures on Flickr!

Live Footage from Berlin

2009-10-04T10:19:00.001+02:00

The Candy Twins

2009-09-08T12:37:00.003+02:00

Can you believe this? Our dear friends The Candy Twins apparently made us a tribute song, played it live in Leipzig and put it on their Myspace page, it's called "The Next Big Thing". We are so very honoured, and Stefan almost died from embarrasement.

Lille VEGA + The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

2009-08-03T17:21:00.004+02:00

More photos on Flickr. This was our first show in our own hometown Copenhagen. Lots of family and friends attending, and we had a great time even though the venue was extremely hot. Thanks to everyone in the audience and thanks to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, for letting us play with them. Remember to also check out the interview with Stefan at IndieMp3.co.uk.

Live Footage from Indietracks

2009-07-30T14:46:00.002+02:00

Two very different videos from our concert at Indietracks last weekend. Thanks for filming us, whoever you are..

Indietracks 2009

2009-07-28T18:10:00.003+02:00

This must have been the largest crowd for us so far. We where all a bit nervous before going on stage, but we had a great time once we got up there. All in all, we had a marvellous time at the Indietracks festival. We stayed all weekend in our brand new tent, and saw some great bands, had a few beers - and some of us even did some dancing. Thanks to the whole Indietracks team for putting together such a great festival, and a special thanks to Emma from The Pocketbooks for this picture.

Santa Barbara

2009-06-02T05:45:00.003+02:00

.. T last show on our West Coast tour, for this time. We've met so many lovely people along our way, and we've had such a lovely time in California. We hope to be back soon!

Next stop will be Indietracks and a few warm up shows (TBA!), in late July.

Oxnard

2009-05-30T20:17:00.004+02:00

Yes, last night we played in a scrapyard, in the middle of a strawberry field. It was a great night though. We played a decent gig, and did some dancing afterwards. Thanks to everyone who came. There are more photos on Flickr!

Los Angeles

2009-05-30T20:11:00.004+02:00

Los Angeles was lovely. We played at The Knitting Factory, which was right on Hollywood Blvd. So after doing soundchecks, we whent for a quick stroll down the walk of fame - where we discovered that Michael (drums) had exactly the same size hands + feet as Mr. Frank Sinatra! You can see some more photos from this great night on Flickr! And thanks to everyone who showed up.

Live Footage from Sacramento

2009-05-27T23:40:00.000+02:00

Sacramento

2009-05-27T20:47:00.004+02:00

Last night we played in Sacramento at the Old Ironsides, the oldest bar in Sacramento. And what a cool venue. The bar was great, and the crowd was dancing - can you really ask for more?

New photos on Flickr!

Live footage from San Francisco Popfest

2009-05-25T18:37:00.005+02:00

San Francisco

2009-05-24T18:08:00.003+02:00

We've been enjoying San Francisco for a few days now (and trying to adjust to new time zone as well). The concert yesterday was simply fantastic, the crowd was amazing and we got alot of good responses afterwards. Thank you so much to everyone who came and saw us.

We took a (very chilly) bus tour around town today - then we hopped off at Little Italy and had a delicious dinner, and a few glasses of red wine. More photos at Flickr.

Live at Gramaphone

2009-05-22T19:08:00.004+02:00

Sorry about the delay on posting this. We have just arrived in San Fransisco late last night.

Live at Gramaphone, London

2009-05-16T15:34:00.001+02:00

Live footage

2009-04-29T16:17:00.000+02:00

Thanks to our Swedish friends, we now have this great live footage from our concert in Hamburg, on the boat Hedi. The sound is a bit distorted - we reccomend you turn the volume down before viewing.

New pictures from Hamburg

2009-04-29T15:51:00.001+02:00

We've put up some new, and very exclusive pictures from our debut concert in Hamburg on Flickr, for your viewing pleasure.

Copenhagen - Hamburg

2009-04-29T14:32:00.000+02:00