Eva & The Heartmaker
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Eva & The Heartmaker

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Band Pop Rock

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Discography

Behind the Golden Frames (LP)
Let's Keep This Up Forever
Please! (Single)
Superhero (Single)

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Bio

EVA & THE HEARTMAKER

Music. Romance. Music. Marriage. Music and more music. Eva & Thomas might be the 21st century's answer to Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina, Paul & Linda, Womack & Womack, and Anita Skorgan & Jahn Teigen. Together they are Eva & The Heartmaker, a duo that is so ready to be stars that your eyes hurt. On September 1st they are releasing their album "Let’s Keep This Up Forever," and all their dreams will come true.

Eva Weel Skram grew up in Sogndal, Norway, with her folk singer dad, whose record collection she blames for her confusing dialect. In 2004 she moved to Oslo and met Thomas Stenersen from Bardufoss (also in Norway), a guitarist for hire who had played in a country music duo. Together they agreed to start a band, and Eva no longer had to sit at home tinkling the ivories with a bag full of songs. They married soon after.

Eva had some songs. Thomas had a studio. Recording their debut album, Behind Golden Frames, was a process of trial and error that saw Thomas tearing his hair out while Eva waited impatiently for a result. Secretly Eva was pretty impressed with what her husband managed to squeeze out of his thin guitar fingers. The album attracted a good deal of attention, mainly because of Eva's participation in Pop Idol, where in true rock and roll fashion she thumbed her nose at the other contestants by singing her own home-made songs. Fredrik Wandrup in (Norwegian newspaper) Dagbladet wrote: "This may be the start of something great." It turned out he was right.

The Norwegians were not the only ones who became aware of the charismatic duo. Air Chrysalis in Sweden offered them a publishing contract and the record was named album of the week by the Danish radio channel P4, where the song "Stupid Heart" was B-play listed. The popular Norwegian movie "Mars & Venus" contains two songs from Eva & The Heartmaker.

Inspired by groups like The Band, The Raconteurs, The Cardigans and The Beatles, and with a permanent band consisting of Alf Magne Hillestad (drums), Ingar Blix (bass), Lars Kvistum (Wurlitzer organ) and Anne Marte Nesdal (backing vocals/percussion/support person), they once again entered Thomas' studio, this time with songs that Eva and Thomas had written together. Their aim was to create a homogenous musical expression, based on the live sound they had worked out. It was to be a long and challenging process, with up to seven different recorded versions of some songs.

“Our first album was marked by many styles – a country song, a pop song, a rocker, etc. With this album we wanted to make it simple, with just drums, bass, guitar and a Wurlitzer organ. No fancy instruments, but a lot of backing vocals.” Thomas says.

“We rehearse a lot and the band has become an extended family, where the personalities of the individuals are more important than their professionalism as musicians. For instance, Anne Marte is a deaf-interpreter student; she had never played a note before she joined us.”, adds Eva.

But even a hard working band needs some luck and happy accidents. The radio show "Lutt" at NRK Sogn og Fjordane had followed Eva and her musical adventures with Thomas for a while. One day they called and asked: "Do you have any new music?"

“We weren't really ready at all, but we went for it,” Eva laughs.

Four days later, the song "Superhero" was A-play listed at NRK P3. A keen P3-journalist had listened to "Lutt" and went completely mushy over the song. It stayed on the list for 14 whole weeks.

“I had to hurry down to the studio to finish the final mix of "Superhero" in two hours. The whole thing went a bit faster than we had imagined, but we're not complaining,” Thomas smiles.

With a strong single on the radio, it wasn't long before the major record companies expressed their interest. The duo chose Sony Music, who they say were the most enthusiastic. “The keenest of them got us! We're used to doing everything on our own, but this time we felt that we needed somewhat more experienced people to release our album,” Eva says.

Another concert at (Norwegian music festival) by:Larm in late 2008 led to great reviews in both Aftenposten and the radio show NRK Lydverket, where Håkon Moslet gave them five out of six stars and compared Eva to a young Nina Persson from The Cardigans. This is a comparison Eva can live with. “We've never hidden the fact that we're making pure pop music. I grew up listening to Robyn, Spice Girls and Oasis, so the day "Superhero" was included on the new McMusic (a popular hits compilation album), I rejoiced for hours,” Eva laughs.

And there's more to rejoice. Their next single, "Please!” has also been play listed by P3, and album number two is finally finished. 10 pop gems collected in one place. Written, arranged and produced by the enterprising duo, who is never afraid to work hard to achieve their goals. Their goal is to play everywhere, to reach out to listeners and make them happy with the music they've made. With all that’s happe