Michael Learns to Rock (also known as MLTR) is a Danish pop/soft rock band that performs songs in English. Formed in 1988, the band has sold over 11 million records worldwide, mainly in Asia, and in addition, another 6 million or more paid downloads for their single "Take Me To Your Heart" which was awarded "most downloaded single of the year 2006".[1]
The band has recorded eight studio albums as well as a number of live
and greatest hits albums. The band's eighth studio album, Scandinavia, was released in 2012.
MLTR has won many awards and has earned Gold and Platinum status for
records in many countries, as well as the Gold Preis Award from RSH, Germany and "The Best Performing Act of the Year" at the SEA Grammy Awards in Singapore. The band has attributed its success in Asia to a clean-living image and to singing in English as a second language.[2]
During the peak of its popularity in the mid-1990s, MLTR was
described by critics as being "as good (if not better) a band as any
current big name group out of America or the UK."[3]
According to the band's record label releases, the sound is "the
perfect balance of a Scandinavian glow and the international pop song
that has been instrumental in forming the compelling sound of the band",[4] though the lead singer and songwriter, Jascha Richter, disagrees with this, maintaining that the music defies geographical categorization.[2]
The first single from Scandinavia, "Renovate My Life", was
released on iTunes on 9 June 2012, going on air in Denmark from 11 June.
The album release began on 11 June 2012, with the release of a music
video for "Any Way You Want It" on YouTube, as well as the digital
release of the album in India. The music video features different places
of Kathmandu valley and the capital city of Nepal, where the band performedd a concert in November 2011. The physical CD of Scandinavia was first released on 30 June 2012, in India by Virgin Records, by Warner Music during July in Southeast Asia, and by Sony Music on 3 September 2012 in Denmark.
The beginnings (1988–1992)
In 1988, singer and keyboard player Jascha Richter, intent upon putting together a band to perform his songs, joined with his high school friend and drummer Kåre Wanscher in Aarhus, Denmark.
Realizing the limitations of playing as a duo, they recruited the
guitarist Mikkel Lentz, who was then playing rock music with his group
the Rocking Studs. On 15 March 1988, their first night of practice and
still needing a fourth musician, they asked Søren Madsen, another
guitarist who was into Led Zeppelin, to join in on bass guitar.[2]
Although Madsen was not an obvious choice for a pop band, he was
invited on the basis that he had been part of the band Hip Hop that had
reached the final of the Danish competition to nominate a song to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Since Richter already had a number of original songs, eliminating the
need to jam, they were able to quickly record a demo tape intended to
be sent to the 'Rock Grand Prix' competition in their hometown Aarhus,
and had to hurriedly come up with a name before posting it; Richter
wrote as the name of the sender 'Michael Learns to Rock', partly
inspired by a line from his school English textbook and partly a because
they were a pop band taking part in a rock concert. In an interview,
Richter admitted that it was named after Michael Jackson: "Yeah, it was like Johnny Hates Jazz and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Sure, I've regretted calling ourselves this many times since, but we
were successful so quickly we had to stick with it and over time I got
used to it."[2]
On 22 May 1988, the quartet played their first public show in Aarhus
in 'Rock Grand Prix' at Aarhus's biggest venue, Ridehuset. As one of the
two winning teams, MLTR performed that summer at the Aarhus Outdoor
Festival on 20 June, but only 20 people turned up. The disappointment
was offset by a daily newspaper, Information, describing the
unknown group as "an immensely positive surprise". On 30 July 1988, the
group entered and won the city's famed annual talent shows 'We Have The
Stage – Do You Have The Music?' at Aarhus Musikhus.[5]
Jens Peter (J.P.) Andersen, a member of the contest jury as well as a promoter of Danmarks Smukkeste Festival (literally, "Denmark’s Most Beautiful Festival") at Skanderborg,
was impressed with the band's talent but somewhat annoyed at its lack
of professionalism. He later became the band's manager, at the band's
request.[5] Michael Learns to Rock continued playing live throughout Jutland
and recording material in order to attract the attention of Danish
record labels. One of these efforts included the band contributing four
tracks for the double album Secrets, a record organised by the
Danish Rock Council to create interest in four talented but 'secret' new
bands. They finally signed a record deal with the Danish label Medley
in January 1989.[6] However, the band did not release their first album, Michael Learns to Rock, until September 1991, backed by the American record label Impact Records and with much of the album including the first American single, "My Blue Angel", mixed and produced by the American producers Tony Peluso and Steve Barri.[7]
Although not making any headway at all in America despite airplay for
"My Blue Angel", a later single (the second in Denmark after "I Still
Carry On") from the album, "The Actor", topped the Danish chart and also did well in Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.[5]
In January 1992, the album topped the Danish charts, followed soon
after by success in Asia, selling 25,000 copies and earning gold status
in Indonesia alone.[6]
International breakthrough (1993–1999)
Encouraged by the performance of their first album, Michael Learns to Rock released a second album, Colours, in October 1993 which sold over 1.1 million records.[5] The album included the singles "Sleeping Child",
"25 Minutes" and "Out of the Blue". The band toured Asia for the first
time and at The Phoebus Concert Hall in Bangkok they played to their
largest audience until then of 12,000 people. The performance of this
album coupled with the band's live performances resulted in the band
receiving the 'The Best Performing Act of the Year' award in 1994 at SEA
Grammy Awards in Singapore for the performance of "25 Minutes",
followed by the 'Gold Preis' from the German radio station RSH (Radio
Schleswig-Holstein) in 1995 for radio hits such as "Wild Women'" and "25
Minutes".[6][8]
In August 1995, Michael Learns to Rock's third album Played on Pepper wa released, selling more than 1.2 million units.[5]
Tracks on this album included "That's Why (You Go Away)" and "Someday".
For the first time, the band recorded and produced the whole album
themselves.[9]
To promote the album, the group played 25 shows in ten countries. The
release of this album also increased the band's presence in hitherto
untapped markets like Brazil, South Africa, the UAE and eleven1 countries in the Far East, including Japan.[10]
To capitalize on the success of Played on Pepper and to curb piracy,[6] Michael Learns to Rock released the greatest hits album Paint My Love in October 1996, primarily in Asia. It sold 3.4 million copies.[5] The band was also chosen as the headliner for the 'Celebrate Hong Kong' concert on 6 July 1997, marking the transfer of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.[5] The album also topped the charts in South Africa.
The fourth studio album, Nothing to Lose,
was released in September 1997, and also sold more than 1.1 million
copies. In an incident that pointed towards Michael Learns to Rock's
popularity in Asia, 20,000 fake tickets had been sold (more than twice
the number of real ones) for a concert in Hanoi, Vietnam,
in December 1997 and while the concert was on, those outside with fake
tickets tried to break into the concert hall through the windows,
ceilings and doors, causing riot police to be summoned.[11][12] The band traveled to South Africa in January 1998, playing sell-out concerts in Johannesburg and Pretoria, consequently taking Nothing to Lose to the top of the charts in South Africa.[6]
Soon after, the band's members took a break to spend time with their
families and to develop projects on their own or in collaboration with
other performers. They also decided to rebrand the band under the
simpler name of MLTR.[13]
During the break, Richter wrote some new songs for the band, including
"Strange Foreign Beauty" which was added to the 1999 greatest hits album
Greatest Hits – Strange Foreign Beauty. In a process undertaken
by MLTR for the first time, the song was made by compiling the best
details from recordings of ideas made individually by the four members.
This album included their previous hits, either remixed or refined in
some way by notable international producers including Chris Lord-Alge (for "Someday", "Something You Should Know" etc.), Cutfather & Joe (for "Sleeping Child") and the Swedish producer Per Magnusson (for the MLTR top hit "The Actor'").[14][15]
This greatest hits album went to the top of the Danish sales charts
(the second MLTR album after their first album to do so), sold well in Sweden and Portugal, and logged sales of nearly a million copies.[6]
Regrouping and new releases (2000–2006)
In 2000, Soren Madsen decided to leave the group, to embark on a solo
career. The three remaining members set themselves the challenge of
pursuing a sound different from that of their previous albums and
produced the album Blue Night, which almost went platinum in Denmark and sold well in Asia,[3] with sales over one million. The following year a biography of MLTR, Something You Should Know
written by Poul Martin-Bonde, was published along with a few previously
unreleased recordings. The English translation of the book was called It Never Rains on Bali,[16] a reference to an incident that took place during the band's 1995 Bali concert, where a no-rain forecast proved wrong and the unexpected rain stopped the concert.[17]
After the release of Blue Night, the band took a prolonged break, with Richter working on his solo album Planet Blue.
The band later admitted that they even considered disbanding during
this time. They ultimately decided against it, following the success of
their greatest hits album releases, including 19 Love Songs / Love Ballads in 2002, which went to number 2[18] in Denmark.
In 2004, the band regrouped again, departing from the name MLTR, and using the original name for their sixth album called Michael Learns to Rock, released in Asia as Take Me to Your Heart. The album focused on the Asian market. The single "Take Me to Your Heart" was a remake of Jacky Cheung's "Goodbye Kiss" ("吻别"), and was popular in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan.
By the end of financial year 2006 alone, the single created a record
when it sold over 6 million paid downloads and was awarded the "Most
Downloaded Single of the Year 2006". MLTR sang an English and Chinese
duet of "Take Me to Your Heart" with the Chinese singer Hu Yanbin at a
2005 New Year's Party in Guangzhou, China. The band also duetted of the
song with the South Korean star Shin Hye-sung, lead vocalist of the famous boy band Shinhwa. This album has been one of the major successes of MLTR in Asia, especially China.[19]
Later career (2007–2011)
In 2007, MLTR performed at the Formula1 in Shanghai and The 6th Golden Eagle Award Ceremony.[3] Later in the year, MLTR released The Best of Michael Learns to Rock Live and in July toured Hong-Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia. Elsewhere, this album was released as The Live Musical Adventures of Michael Learns to Rock / I Walk This Road Alone, and featured live recordings from their Take Me to Your Heart Asian Tour, mainly from the September 2005 concerts in India.[2]
In November 2008, MLTR released their seventh studio album titled Eternity
under their own independent label, MLTR Music, in association with the
Danish label At:tack. Also, this album has the distinction of being the
first MLTR album to be produced solely by Mikkel Lentz. The band mention
on their website that the name is an indication of the fact that "the
band plan to make music for as long as they still find joy in the
process". Although the sales were slow (admittedly, according to the
band), the second single from the album "Sweetest Surprise" reached No. 1 in Thailand within a few weeks of release.[20]
In the following year, another track "It's Gonna Make Sense" gained
popularity in Asia after it was played as the farewell song on the
Philippine reality TV show Pinoy Big Brother. The promotion of the album took MLTR on the Eternity South East Asia Tour, the response to which, the band declare, has led them to consider playing more concerts abroad, especially South East Asia.[21]
Michael Learns to Rock completed touring their home-country Denmark,
having played unplugged concerts in February and March 2010 with fair
success. In June 2010, the band undertook a three-city promotional tour
of India playing shows at Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore to promote the latest album "Eternity". More Unplugged shows followed in Denmark in late 2010. The band also did a short promotional tour of China and Macau
from 27 September to 1 October 2010 for their upcoming China concerts
in December 2010 and to give a preview of their Chinese Tour Compilation
CD.[22] This was followed up with their first ever international Unplugged concerts at Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in December 2010. Also the track, Fairy Tale, an English cover version of a song originally performed by singer Li Jian, and later popularized by Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong, was released in conjunction with the CD release.[23] Following this, the band is scheduled to play another Unplugged tour in Denmark in spring 2011.
In a blog, dated 13 April 2010 on the band's website, the band
announced that they have started working on their next album. Over the
latter part of 2010 and throughout 2011, Michael Learns to Rock began
giving feelers about their next studio album on their official Facebook
page. The album which was till then not named, was set to be released on
11 August 2011 in Europe and Denmark, with releases following in other
territories around the same time, but was subsequently postponed to an
unspecified later date.[24] In a teaser Facebook update, the band revealed the name of one of the tracks to be Ice Breaker.[25] Elsewhere, in a note on his Facebook page, Jascha Richter had revealed the name of another song, Hanging On, from the forthcoming album.[26]
On 19 November 2011, Michael Learns To Rock unveiled the song Any Way You Want It
from the forthcoming album at a live concert in Kathmandu produced and
organized by ODC Network (P)LTD. The band also shot footage in and
around Kathmandu and during the performance of the song, to include it
on the music video for the same track. The video of the song was then
released formally on 11 June 2012 by the band on YouTube first, and soon
after started airing on TV in India and Nepal.
The studio album Scandinavia
was released on 11 June 2012 in India digitally by Virgin Records on
Nokia Music. Subsequently, release of the physical CD of album took
place in many Asian countries, namely India (30 June 2012), Malaysia (2
July), Singapore (4 July), Thailand (12 July), Korea (12 July), Taiwan
(13 July), Hong Kong (17 July), Philippines (19 July) and Indonesia (15
August), with the release in China to follow soon. The album is released
in Denmark by Sony Music Denmark on 3 September 2012. The album is also
available in Asia on iTunes.
As in the case of the previous album Eternity, the album Scandinavia has also been solely produced by Mikkel Lentz.
Eternal Love (2014)
In 2014, the group recorded "Eternal Love", the theme song of a Korean drama called Healer. The song was written by Lee Sang Joon, Denzil “DR” Remedios, and Ryan Jhun Sewon.[27]
Touring
As of September 2010, Michael Learns to Rock have played over 450 shows,[28]
including both large and small open-air & closed-hall stage
concerts, TV appearances, unplugged and sing-back gigs, over a period of
22 years. In total, MLTR have played in at least 21 countries and
territories which include Nepal, Denmark, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Africa, Switzerland, Bangladesh, UAE, Faroe Islands, Vietnam, Cambodia, Norway, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Sweden.[28] They have also traveled to Hollywood for recording part of their debut album, to Spain, Finland and Germany to attend interviews, and to the UK
to shoot a video. In Asia, MLTR are one of the few artists to have
played more than once in a country and to have still sustained an
audience turn-out comparable to that of their earlier appearances.[29]
Michael Learns to Rock were also the first international act to have
performed in Cambodia when they played a show (that was also televised
live) in front of 700 fans in CTN's Studio One in Phnom Penh in October 2005.[30] The alternative version of their live album called The Live Musical Adventures of Michael Learns to Rock-I Walk This Road Alone features 14 live audio recordings mostly from their September 2005 show at Shillong, India,[31] and a few video recordings from other live shows in Asia.
In various interviews, the band members have admitted that touring
and the response from fans to their concerts, among other reasons, keep
them together, in spite of the stresses associated with traveling. In a
recent interview Mikkel Lentz said, "The reason we stay together is
because it makes sense. Our fans come to our shows and we still enjoy
playing and travelling, so why should we stop? There is also the
pleasure of making music, even though sometimes things like television
shows or interviews can become a little boring."[31]
Kåre Wanscher has also said in an interview that the highest points of
their career have been when they were out touring Asia over the last few
years.[32]
MLTR toured China in December 2010, playing unplugged
concerts. The 2011 spring leg of the Danish tour started on 17 February
2011 and ended on 12 March 2011 with MLTR playing gigs in most of the
Danish cities and towns, many of which were sold out. MLTR then
completed their first full-production concert tour after their extended
unplugged stint by playing on 22 April 2011 at Penang, 24 April 2011 at
Kuala Lumpur and 30 April 2011 at Kuantan in Malaysia.
The Summer tour commenced on 11 August 2011 with the band playing in
Skanderborg, and later on 12 August 2011 at Aarhus and on 13 August at
Aabenraa.
The band played on 19 November 2011 for the first time ever in Kathmandu, Nepal at the Tudikhel Ground,[33]
as the headliners of Nepal Rocks, a music festival organized by Engage
Entertainment Solutions and ODC Networks to celebrate Nepal Tourism
Year.[34] Michael Learns To Rock are only the second internationally acclaimed band to play in Nepal, after the Canadian artist Bryan Adams did so earlier in the year.
The Band performed in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22 June 2012 for the first
time ever, in the process becoming one of the pioneers among
international artists to have performed in this country.
The band is the first to stream their 25th anniversary concert live
to a global audience, using the Subcell smartphone app. The concert was
broadcast live in sound and video from the Skanderborg Smukfest festival
in Denmark on 11 August 2013.[36]
Musical style and influences
Michael Learns to Rock follow a basic verse-chorus song-form
(which is typical of most pop songs) with lyrics comprising straight
forward and short-length phrasing incorporating very basic sentence
constructions. The verses consist of either one or two couplets and the
chorus often contrasts the verse melodically, rhythmically, and
harmonically, assuming a higher level of dynamics and activity. The
essence of this style followed invariably by MLTR is evident from Jascha
Richter's dead-pan response to a query in an interview as to what
constituted the elements of a good song: "You got to have a chorus and a
verse".[37] Many songs incorporate a bridge section following the second chorus section (most notably, 25 Minutes, That's Why (You Go Away), Someday, Paint My Love, Blue Night etc.). Many songs also contain instrumental solos, more commonly, guitar (e.g. Someday, That's Why (You Go Away), How Many Hours, The Actor, Something You Should Know, Breaking My Heart, Watch Your Back etc.) and sometimes the keyboard (e.g. Messages),
following the second chorus or following the bridge, in case the latter
is present. Vocal harmonies also constitute a common feature of their
songs.
Mikkel admits that they never really jam to come out with or develop
upon a song and most of MLTR's songs are written and composed by Jascha
Richter on the piano.[38]
According to Jascha, however, after he has written the song, Mikkel
takes the ideas further and makes it into a final production.[39] Mikkel Lentz insists that MLTR do not fit to any genre of music except for having a classic pop-sound.[40]
Further, he believes the secret behind MLTR's sustained music career is
the non-conformance to any musical trends, "We never tried to follow
trends. I think that's the reason we are still around. There's been trip
hop, grunge, pop. We never fitted into these trends. What seems to be
tough then is now our strength. They're just songs. The songs don't
belong to a musical wave."[38]
Michael Learns to Rock have cited their influences to be Supertramp, Elton John, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder,[31] the Eagles, Billy Joel, ABBA,[2] Bee Gees and 'all the bands that write good lyrics'[41] (as Mikkel Lentz puts it tongue-in-cheek). Lentz, however, denies the influence of Michael Jackson on their music.[42]
However, Jascha Richter reveals on his Facebook page in response to a
fan's query that Michael Jackson's music did influence their music,
especially the latter's Bad album which was released in the year preceding MLTR's formation. Also, Jascha Richter has cited Talk Talk, a-ha and Eurythmics
to be his influences. A-ha's international success, in spite of
originating from the small Scandinavian country of Norway, instilled the
self-belief in the MLTR members that even they, hailing from a
similarly small Scandinavian country (Denmark), could carve out a career
for themselves in international music.[43]
Despite being branded simplistic, easy-listening and sometimes, down-right cheesy, banal or even naive by many,[2]
Michael Learns to Rock are adamant that these are the very qualities of
their lyrics and music which have found favor with Asian music
listeners.[42]
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