Norway’s King Hüsky asks “do you feel happy?” as the past catches up with the metal idol-turned tender indie/folk bard. Norway’s reclusive folk-art-indie gem, King Hüsky – also known as Vidar Landa, guitarist Kvelertak, has returned with new single, “Wish I Had A Dog.” now out via Oslo indie label, Hype City, the track is the third to be lifted from his upcoming, self-titled debut album. King Hüsky’s nusic will appeal to fans of Real Estate, Belle and Sebastian and Teenage Fanclub

With no small amount humour, a coping technique for the naturally bookish and retiring singer-songwriter, Landa’s solo project takes him “from extravagant pyro to unpaid giro”, making short-term swaps of the extravagant, main stage escapism of his day job for sounds evocative of nature, rest and reflection. Simplicity counts and from the King Hüsky debut of Running, to more recent single, Lately I’ve Been Thinking Of Your Mother, Landa’s hunch for flowing melody, minimal production and distilled, wholesome emotion has proved that theory to be correct.

Open to comparison to Real Estate, Belle and Sebastian and Teenage Fanclub, each proponent of the acutely observational, painfully shy and awkwardly danceable, the release of Wish I Had A Dog works equally well as a chugging, carefully-crafted, low-lit kitchen dancefloor anthem as a moment of valuable reflection for the artist himself.

“This is the first King Hüsky song I wrote. It’s a catchy tune that has different meanings to me, and I hope the listener will find their own,” says Landa. “But I guess it revolves around the themes of who we were and what or who we became. I wanted it to have a simplistic production feel to it, with a drum-machine feel to the drum beat. I think we managed to capture that.”

Spanning five albums over two decades, Kvelertak (Norwegian for stranglehold), is a band established at the pinnacle of Scandinavian rock with a reputation that easily passes across international borders. As founder member, Landa continues to record and tour with the award-winning five-piece, whilst expressing that King Hüsky’s noble aim was originally an excuse to simply spend more time in the studio, writing and producing.

Whilst the entirety of the very first King Hüsky album veers from the pastoral and polite into faster, more fuzzed and frenetic sounds (not least the punky Bürn In Hell – with notable umlaut) much of the nine-track running order goes in for gently budding, heart-on-sleeve, documentarian songwriting.

Working closely with his partner and renowned singer-songwriter, Anne Lise Frøkedal, formerly of Norwegian indie-pop machine, Harry’s Gym and of the ongoing, I Was A King, the warmth heard throughout could easily be attributed to the sense of deep creative kinship and personal connection between the album’s musical contributors. That line-up is completed by drummer, Børge Fjordheim (Cloroform, Sivert Høyem) and friend, musician and actor, Arthur Berning.

King Hüsky

1. Heads Above Water
2. Change Of Heart
3. Label Night
4. Wish I Had a Dog
5. Lately I’ve Been Thinking of Your Mother
6. Bürn In Hell
7. Hurry Kane
8. Running
9. Waiting For A Chance

For pre-order King Hüsky HERE