Sivert Høyem

SIVERT HØYEM "DANCING HEADLIGHTS""In the mahogany ballroom You told me how you wanted to make love Downing your Long Island iced tea You said that you loved me" (Living it Strange)«it’s just a pop album. Not much to talk about, really — a handful of tightly arranged pop songs, organically recorded with my band, and mixed in the grandest fashion possible by Bjarne Stensli,» says Sivert Høyem.It’s weird to hear him talk about «pop». Pop music in 2024 means programmed beats, sampled sounds and autotune. Singer, songwriter and producer are very rarely the same person. Dancing Headlights is five guys live in studio, distorted guitars and hardly a digital tool in sight. Something further removed from the pop strategies of today is hard to imagine. «Pop holds a different meaning for me,» Sivert says. «When I was a kid, they were still playing The Beatles on the radio. The Eighties was a wonderful era for pop and rock music, and I was the right age to take it all in, not bothering too much about which ”tribe” I should belong to. Everything was permitted, and everything was also tried. «Today, I find it harder to find pop performers to identify with. Lana del Rey is one. She is timeless without being retro, and this is my ambition as well».Being of the right age, it’s easy to be reminded of the golden Eighties while listening to Sivert Høyem’s 2025 incarnation. The album opens with crashing waves and a couple of hot pop zingers. First is «Dancing Headlights», which could have been a s