Lorraine

Lorraine derive their moniker from the character of Marty McFly’s mother in the Back to the Future film series. The Bergen, Norway-based trio portray their music as an amalgam of earlier eras and times yet to come. In sonic terms this manifests as a dramatic take on the forward-leaning styles of two decades prior, aligning precisely with the sleek, synth-tinged rock that dominated the mid-2000s. Although their cited touchstones—New Order, Depeche Mode, the Smiths, the Stone Roses—form a commonplace roster for that period’s indie synth-rock acts, Lorraine integrate them convincingly. Their origin tale, however, follows a more conventional path: vocalist Ole Gunnar Gundersen and guitarist Anders Winsents first crossed paths in the late ’90s after skipping school on the same day and ending up seated back-to-back in a guitar shop, both performing “Stairway to Heaven.” Following a short-lived electro-metal project modeled on the Prodigy, the outgoing Gundersen and the reserved Winsents—who once earned a Scandinavian silver medal in speed walking—encountered keyboardist Paal Myran Haaland while he shouted drunkenly at a bus stop.

Still in their late teens, the three began tracking material in Haaland’s bedroom before relocating to an abandoned factory forty-five minutes from town. They abandoned high school to live there for a year, honing their approach across varied styles. Their first single appeared on the local indie Rec90 in 2003, followed a year later by the full-length Perfect Cure, whose expansive electro-rock sound set the early template. Over subsequent years Lorraine redirected their emphasis toward New Order- and Pet Shop Boys-inspired synth pop, issuing a run of well-received singles first on Norway’s Waterfall Records and, in the U.K., initially on indie Genepool before moving to Columbia. Among them were the Top 30 hit “I Feel It” in both territories, the Psychedelic Furs cover “Heaven,” and “Transatlantic Flight.” In 2007 the band exited Columbia for RCA, issuing the reworked B-side “Saved” that December.