skandinavian_Artists > Saybia

NEW SINGLE AND NEW TOUR

In August 2007 Saybia released their third album, Eyes On The Highway. It grabbed the Number 2 slot on the Danish album charts, topped only by an English opera singer. In the Netherlands, Eyes On The Highway, jumped directly into the charts at Number 6 to become the top international act on the Dutch list. The first single, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Angel,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" became a huge hit and stayed in the Top 5 of the airplay chart for 11 straight weeks, making it one of the biggest hits of 2007.

In the autumn of that year Saybia went on an extensive tour of Denmark and the rest of Europe where they dazzled their old and new fans with a new-found energy and an intense live show. After a tragic accident in December last year where vocalist Søren Huss lost his girlfriend, the band has taken a step back and will not be doing any interviews in the near future. The band is now focusing on the magic that brought them together and is keeping them together: Music. That\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s why we are proud to present the following:

Saybia is ready to release a third single, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Eyes On The Highway.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" They describe it as the perfect song for cruising along in a VW van with the windows rolled down on a warm summer day. According to the band, the song is about, \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"the sensation of sitting as a passenger in a car that is going way to fast, without having any idea of where it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s headed and the guy behind the wheel doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t answer any questions.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Eyes On The Highway\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is already receiving good airplay in Denmark and the song\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s strong repetitive chorus hammers the message home and will surely become one of the big live favourites during the upcoming tour.

A tour including a truly special concert in Copenhagen\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Tivoli Gardens, attracting 30,000 fans from Denmark and other countries. The concert took place Friday June 27 and a 22-man string section from the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra joined the band with special arrangements made just for this one evening.

The autumn tour will take Saybia through Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and concludes in the Copenhagen club Pumpehuset on November 6. Check the dates and cities under concerts.

Tickets are on sale now.


July 2008


Saybia
- back on the adventure trail

The flood of superlatives used to describe Saybia’s remarkable victories during the past three years fits the band and the flow of praise almost seems to have no end. The honour of receiving a “European Border Breaker Award” at the most recent Midem festival in Cannes cements the five musicians’ status as one of the most vibrant names in the Danish rock scene of the current decade.

The date is rapidly approaching when the band will once again put its VW bus into gear and head for the clouds with a new album tucked into the back. The first offering from the follow-up to the successful debut The Second You Sleep will spice the air waves some time in the next couple of months. The track will be a fine warm-up to the album which will hit retail when the rays of a late summer sun put the finishing touches on summer holidays.

The band - with all the creative juices flowing - recently returned to the homeland following two months of isolation in a studio situated on a quay in the medieval Swedish harbour town Visby on the island Gotland.

The album is more or less complete, though the next few months will be spent putting the finishing touches on the record.

This year’s Roskilde Festival will give fans an exclusive sneak preview when they will be able to experience live all the new songs from the upcoming album, before it hits the music shops.

P.S. The Second You Sleep has already sold 126,000 units at home. Outside Danish borders, the album has found its way into more than 160,000 record collections. The upcoming album will be released in Europe in late summer.

APRIL 2004



SAYBIA:
THESE ARE THE DAYS


In many ways it was a dream come true for Saybia when the band released its first album The Second You Sleep in 2002 and created quite a stir in Denmark. No other Danish rock band has logged such a major success on this side of the new millennium. The five musicians appreciated and valued this accomplishment, especially when they looked in the rear view mirror at the preceding nine years of toil and slim pickings.

There was, however a flip side to the coin. Success proved to be a formidable new companion for Saybia, five musicians who were also old friends. Some indefinable thing inside each of them died and their friendship began to wither. There was nothing left to talk about and nothing left to fight for. They were like five zombies, each isolated on his own island. ”From coast to coast / From flag to flag / Then it occurred to me / Were standing close now, to breaking up / From coast to coast / We wave our flags for nothing” (“Flags”).

Prior to that point, they endured an 18-month ordeal that no other Danish rock band has ever experienced before. One-year-and-a-half of endless tours in Scandinavia and Europe, along with a visit to the U.S. for performances at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas and in New York City.

But Saybia’s history did not begin on that day in January 2002 when the group released its debut album The Second You Sleep. In truth, it began in 1993. Five teenage friends began to play music together in the little seaside town of Nyborg around 130 km west of Copenhagen where the whole Danish music industry is based. The situation allowed the band to develop its music in a peaceful setting, far from the spotlights of the capital city and the hungry chops of record label talent scouts.

Up to 2001 Saybia had recorded and released several EPs on their own label, played every little corner of Denmark and drove three VW busses into the ground. All the while, they were building up a solid fan base. By the beginning of 2001 the record companies had got wind of this hard working band, who had now moved to Copenhagen. Søren Huss (vocals); Sebastian Sandstrøm (guitar); Jeppe Knudsen (bass); Jess Jensen (keyboards) and Palle Sørensen (drums) signed a contract with EMI in the spring of 2001 and that summer the band made its record debut with the company by releasing a six-track EP. Two of the singles “The Day After Tomorrow” and “Fool’s Corner” became instant hits, and the EP earned the honour of winning the Danish Music Award for Best Rock Album. At the gala awards ceremony in February 2002, the band beamed with pride as the coveted trophy was handed to them by Kylie Minogue, who was flown in for the event.

The debut album The Second You Sleep had just been released and Saybia entered the Official Hitlist in pole position, the first Danish rock band ever to debut with a number-one album. A platinum record arrived a month later and a year later Saybia had under its belt: triple platinum for 125,000 albums sold at home; platinum in Norway for sales of 60,000 records; and, sales of another 100,000 albums in Europe, Asia and South America. The single “The Second You Sleep” was
among the 50 most-played hits of 2003 on Dutch Radio3FM, and at MIDEM in Cannes, France in January 2004 Saybia received the European Border Breaker Award.

Success extracted a price and the five musicians were drained of energy. They forgot what it was like to be friends and none of them could spell the word communication or for that matter, even remember what it meant. ”Nothing seems to work behind these walls / Communication is breaking down / Empathy is nothing but a myth / So tell me who you really are” (“Flags”). The autumn of 2003 turned into a nightmare for the band members as they were unable to find their way out of the abyss. Each of the five was fully aware that every one of the others was in a bad state, but they still weren’t capable of discussing things or helping each other out. In an attempt to rediscover the old camaraderie, they purchased on old house just south of Copenhagen, refurbished it and converted it into a rehearsal studio/workshop. ”Do you remember? / The exact time we went dry on gasoline / Just the five of us / Against the rest of the world” (“Guardian Angel”). So, in desperation they made the hasty decision to tear two months out of their calendars and head to the Swedish island Gotland in an attempt to write and record some songs for a new album.

Away from family and friends, and without TV, movies, concerts and other distractions, they were forced to confront the situation – to take the bull by the horns and talk things through in a search for the lost chord of friendship. They fully understood this was a last-ditch effort: ”In the end we almost made it / At the point of no return” (“We Almost Made It”). It was a difficult, painful process, but along the way the vague forms of new songs began to appear. Søren Huss had time for reflection and put his thoughts into words. He wrote his way through the crisis, but Saybia’s problems weren’t solved just yet. Even though they left Gotland in mid-March 2004 with a nearly-finished album in their baggage, they still had a major task in front of them upon their return to Denmark. But by now all of them could see the light at the end of the tunnel and during the spring of 2004 they slowly re-forged the bonds of friendship, the joy of playing music and the belief in a common future.

The battles Saybia has fought bear relevance not only to a band, but also to most of the relationships in life. That’s another reason why the band’s music is so compelling. Everybody can relate to the lyrics, and many will find encouragement, hope and spiritual salve in Søren Huss’ words. He and the rest of Saybia have been in purgatory, but have climbed out wiser and richer in experience: ”Nothing has changed Im exactly the same / As before we went cruising in a high speed lane / I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m still dreaming of open sky open road / But grass is not greener on the other side / I know by now cause I walked the red carpet and died” (“Brilliant Sky”).

These Are The Days is Saybia’s second album and it’s a serious record, but then life is also a serious matter. That’s a fact the band has realised. ”I took a life for granted / Until it slipped right through my fingers” (“Stranded”). The five members of the band embrace a lot of powerful emotions on These Are The Days, as they have passed through a colossal stage of development, both as musicians and individuals, since the 2002 debut. It shows clearly in Søren Huss’ lyrics, which bear the scars of tough times and reveal a new depth, an element that was bubbling just under the surface on the band’s earlier songs. Musically, the band’s range stretches from melodic songs like ”Bent The Rules” and ”I Surrender,” to the 17-minute-long impressionistic closing number “Untitled.”

These Are The Days was produced by Sweden’s Andreas Ahlenius. The American talent Tchad Blake (Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson) mixed the record in the legendary Real World studios in Bath in the south of England.

When it came to the album cover, Saybia had just one photographer in mind: one that could capture and personify the spirit within the group; one that could depict vulnerability, desperation and re-birth. It was the star Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn, who’s know for working only with bands he likes. He’d never worked with a Danish band before, but he has seen Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, film director Lars von Trier (Dancer In The Dark, Dogville) and supermodel Helena Christensen through his lens. A meeting in London, where Corbijn got to listen to three demos, was all it took to convince the much-in-demand photographer to work with Saybia.

During an eight-hour-long session in the natural surroundings near the band’s house south of Copenhagen, he shot a series of pictures that capture the anguish and release contained in the new album The photos reveal the scars on the band’s psyche, but without blatantly exposing them.

These Are The Days contains 11 new songs, including the lead single ”Brilliant Sky.” The English film director Simon Ellis has shot a lovely, yet extremely trippy video for the song.

These Are The Days comes out on September13, 2004 in most European territories.

EMI Denmark
June 2004
SAYBIA: Awards, nominations and precious metal

Saybia (six- track EP) (July 2001)

P3 AWARD 2001 (National broadcaster Danmarks Radio) Best New Act
Danish Music Award 2002: Best Rock Album
Nominated for Danish Music Award 2002: Best New Act


The Second You Sleep (January 2002)

Platinum x 3 (Denmark)
Platinum (Norway)
Gold (Indonesia)

Danish Music Award 2003: Best Album
Danish Music Award 2003: Band of the Year
Danish Music Award 2003: Best Male Vocalist
Nominated for Danish Music Award 2003: Best Single (“The Second You Sleep”)
Nominated for Danish Music Award 2003: Best Rock Album
Nominated for Danish Music Award 2003: Best Songwriter (The Second You Sleep)

(TV station) ZULU-Award 2002: Best Album
ZULU-Award 2002: Best Vocalist
ZULU-Award 2002: Best New Act
Nominated for ZULU-Award 2002: Best Single (“The Second You Sleep”)

GAFFA (MAGAZINE) AWARD 2002: Best New Act
GAFFA AWARD 2002: Best Album

P3 AWARD 2002 (Danmarks Radio) (Artist of the Year)
P3 AWARD 2002 (Danmarks Radio) (Best Hit – popular vote: “The Second You Sleep”)

Nominated for MTV Europe Music Award 2002: Best Nordic Act

TJEKLISTEN (program on largest radio station, P3) 2002: Hit of the Year (“The Second You Sleep”)