Nicklas Sahl has turned many years of hard work into huge pop star levels of success in his homeland of Denmark. But the breakthrough has reminded him to hold on to his own dreams, and that is the central theme he explores on his new album ‘God Save The Dream’ which is out now. Listen HERE.
“It’s a classic story,” Nicklas Sahl explains. “You become successful, it happens a bit quick and then suddenly you find yourself in the middle of it all, a bit confused, having to find out what it really is you want to do about this dream.”
The album is launched alongside the new single ‘Don’t Mind’, which shows that dreams can be achieved in a variety of different ways. In this case it was a classic desire – the song was written when he was head over heels in love.
As he worked on the album, Nicklas Sahl went back to the source of his own dreams, and it reminded him why he loves to write and play music. The answers have seeped into the songs on the album ‘God Save the Dream’, both in terms of the music and lyrics. The title-track itself holds the key with its story of the boy, who played the guitar and suddenly found himself on a much bigger stage than what he had expected. As they boy was standing there, the hungry vultures came and started to consume him.
He says, “This song was written at a time, where I was fighting to save my dream. I had to remember, that I wasn’t doing this because of the stream count or the charts. It was important to me to be able to follow my own path. To not have so many opinions from others and to force myself to make some decisions about what actually matters to me.”
Hence, Nicklas Sahl dug deep into himself. Into the storyteller, who has the guts to both tell the honest stories and let the musical energy loose. The latter was expressed in the jam sessions Nicklas Sahl created with his regular co-writer and producer, Birk Storm. They rented a studio in Copenhagen for 14 days and got several musicians and chorists to join them to spark things up. As an extra wildcard the producer and songwriter Vasco (MØ, Terror Jr) took part in the creative process. The references were everything from the wildness in Clapton’s old band Cream to the ability of Jack Antonoff to gently push pop music a bit out of balance. First and foremost, the process had to be free and playful.
However, the best processes always hold some seriousness, and Nicklas Sahl consistently chose the songs that were the most personal to him. That were purest in their images and feelings. These were songs like the 1970s inspired ‘Noise’ with a big female choir, the tight pop song ‘Love Me Slow’ and the close to heart ‘Outside The Lines’. The first single ‘Stand Out Be Special’ became an actual portrait of the current generation, which in its own way circles about the theme of dreams:
“My feeling is that my generation has been conditioned to be ambitious. We were told that we can do anything, hence we dare to dream big, we want to work hard. But there is also a flipside as it creates a “straight-A” culture and social media keeps on getting more and more intense. It is a culture where we think that we must be perfect all the time. But everyone has bad days and can feel that it all is show and pretend,” Nicklas Sahl explains.
All in all there is one question that remains. What is it that Nicklas Sahl is dreaming of?
“It is by far the most extrovert music I have ever made, and it was made to be shared. My dream for this album is that it will gather people – whether that being at a party, in a bar or at my concerts. That I’ll leave up to people to decide, but the music has been made for being together, and I hope that the energy will make people wanna come out and hear the songs live.”
