Focus On Music: Erlend Oye

Erlend Øye is a Norwegian musician from Bergen, Norway best known for being part of the pop duo Kings of Convenience together with Eirik Glambek Bøe. He has released one solo album, Unrest in 2003 and a mix CD in the DJ-Kicks series in 2004. Furthermore he has released his second album of the band The Whitest Boy Alive.

He was born November 21st 1975 in Bergen and formed the band Skog together with some friends in the mid 1990s. He moved to London and played in the band Peachfuzz in 1997. When he was back home in Bergen for vacations he jammed with Bøe. They formed Kings of Convenience in 1998 and released their first album, Quiet Is The New Loud in 2001. Øye had become interested in electronic music and spent the next years in Berlin or travelling around the world, recording his solo album Unrest together with ten different electronica artists such as Metro Area, Prefuse 73 and Schneider TM, in ten different cities. This year also saw the next release by Kings of Convenience.

Erlend Øye’s most recent project is the band ‘The Whitest Boy Alive’. The band originally started off as an electronic band, but slowly developed into a band with no programmed elements. Erlend sings and plays guitar. The Whitest Boy Alive released a single (“Burning”) on 24 May 2006. Their debut album, Dreams has come out on 21 June 2006, via their record label bubbles. Their second album, Rules came out March 30, 2009.

Erlend currently lives in Bergen when not touring with The Whitest Boy Alive or Kings Of Convenience. He is involved in the Bergen music scene and spends time promoting local bands, and assists with booking at the annual Træna Festival in northern Norway.

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