I Was A King

The Norwegian group I Was a King fuse shoegaze, jangle pop, and power pop into one cohesive, melody-driven style whose core elements are bright, occasionally overloaded guitars alongside lush vocal layers. Early releases carried a heavier noise emphasis, most notably on their 2009 self-titled LP, yet the music gradually grew softer and more expansive, particularly once Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake began assisting in the studio on You Love It Here and Slow Century.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Frode Strømstad launched the project in Oslo during 2006. He first collaborated with Serena Maneesh’s Emil Nikolaisen on the lo-fi, uneven 2007 debut Losing Something Good for Something Better, which earned praise both at home in Scandinavia and among British critics. The 2009 follow-up, simply titled I Was a King, shifted toward shoegaze textures and again featured substantial input from Nikolaisen as well as appearances by Sufjan Stevens, Daniel Smith of Danielson Famile, and Gary Olson of Ladybug Transistor. On 2011’s Old Friends, Strømstad once more worked with Nikolaisen and Smith while adding co-vocalist and guitarist Anne Lise Frøkedal, whose presence quickly became central to the group’s identity.

A year afterward the band delivered the richly textured power-pop album You Love It Here, co-produced by Robyn Hitchcock and Norman Blake; both guests contributed playing and vocals, joined by bassist Ole Reidar Gudmestad—who later joined the core lineup—and drummer Patrick Berkery. Their fifth release, 2014’s Isle of Yours, marked their second Warner Bros. outing and introduced electronics alongside a contemporary guitar-pop approach; it proved to be their final recording before an extended hiatus. Returning in March 2019, they issued Slow Century, a Norman Blake-produced set steeped in classic jangle-pop traditions that also included guest guitar work from Jad Fair and appeared on the Coastal Town label.