Brickipedia News:Interview: Christoffer Høyer
 | by Soupperson1 August 18, 2016. Last updated August 20, 2016. |
I had the privilege to interview Christoffer Høyer (who wrote Dare to Believe) yesterday and this is how it went. My questions will be in pink to avoid confusion.
Dia Duit! (That's "hello" in Irish.) Thanks for allowing us to interview you.
Hi Belle, no problem. :-)
What was your relationship with the LEGO group when creating this song? Did you contact them or did they contact you? Was your work process different than a normal writing/production secession?
I did not have any relationship with the LEGO group. However, the animation film company, "JA Film" contacted me. They are the ones who made the animated Lego Elves films. I had worked with them a bit before. Also, they had made a little animated film to one of my songs, “One Of the Ones”. They knew that I am good at writing/producing and playing pop songs so they asked me to write and produce this new pop song for something called Lego Elves :-)
When did production on your first song for LEGO Elves start? How much information did LEGO give you about Elves as production started?
I think we started talking about the film, the universe surrounding the Elves world etc. around spring time 2014. They had been inspired by Monster High, which also used a song to sort of launch the whole universe and concept. I got the script for the first Elves movie “Unite the Magic”, which I read. Then, all of a sudden, they wanted me to come up with the chorus because they were shooting the scene where Emily is singing the Lullaby on board the ship. They wanted the Lullaby to be the chorus from the song (that had not been made yet). I was traveling and busy around that time and it was a bit pressed for time so they ended up partly using an old traditional song or something like that and Rune Christensen of Ja Film wrote the lyrics which also ended up as the lyrics for the real song…"earth moves the air…” The brief they gave me about the song was that they liked Selena Gomez’ “Come and Get It” - but that was mostly a brief to do with the nature theme - the nature kind of cool girl who is also a pop star etc.
I talked a lot to Rune Christensen of ja Film, who is the director of the movies. He wanted the structure of the song to be like a Duran Duran song where the beat in the verses is like you hear it: on 2 and 3 and and then it should get big an epic in the choruses. I came up with all the melody parts and sang the song myself on demoes that I sent back and forth to hear his comments. Initially, I was supposed to also write the lyrics. But since he had already written the chorus lyrics and since he was the middle guy between me and the creative department at Lego, he ended up just writing the lyrics. I think I might changed or added a few things but only details. In the beginning we had the line “I’ve seen the wonders of wonderland”, but Lego told us we must change that because they didn’t want any references to other adventure characters etc. and this might get people thinking of Alice in Wonderland….well, ok, we thought…so that’s why it was changed to “I’ve seen the wonders within this land”. Also, in the intro, initially I had added some jungle like drums. The Lego group felt it reminded them too much of Tarzan. So I had to change that :-) funny…
How many different songs did you create or was Dare to Believe the first and last?
At first I did a few shots at the Lullaby song but none of them were really any good. At that point, I was also a bit less aware of what they wanted…
What inspired the lyrics?
We were told that we must include all the four elements: Earth, air, fire and water (the sea) so we had that. The elements had to be mentioned all together in either a verse or a chorus. You could not split it out so that, say, two elements were referred to in the verse and then two in the chorus… It was all a question of introducing the world of Lego Elves and presenting and inviting girls to that universe, so to speak.
Do you have a favourite lyric from the song?
In vesre 3, I like the "we are the legend of five unified and we know” because there is the theme of repeating words rhythmically and it’s an elegant solution matching up five with unified, I think. Also, I like "this is the way we set the powers free” because I changed the rhythm of the way it is being sung. By the way, it is sung by a great Danish singer called Sara Grabow. I produced and recorded her and she did a very good job!
What's the story behind the music video? Did you get to chose the concept or did LEGO?
Ja Film originally wanted me and Sara to be part of the video, so that people could see the real real thing of the people who had actually produced, recorded and sung it. However, Ja Film ended up finding a girl who looked like Emily and the boys in the background are simply just holding the instruments. I don¨t think the girl can actually sing…I ended up not taking part as it would not make much sense since you can’t see the producer anyway… :-)
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Do you have plans to work with LEGO in the future? Did you work with them before this song?
I didn’t work with them prior but I would be happy to work with them again :-)
What projects are you currently working on?
Currently, I am producing an EP for a Danish artist called Fischer. His first single, “Bukker Under” will be released on September 15. I wrote and produced that with him and another Danish producer called Chief One. Other than that, I am composing music for some film projects. Also, I am working on my next solo album. My last one is called “Silent Songs About Things That Dont Happen”. I also just wrote and produced the title song for a Danish kids TV show called “Sovedyr på eventyr” for Danish Television (“Ramasjang" is the name of the TV channel". You can see more of what I do on www.hoyersongs.com
Today, I actually have a playing gig on a small island in Denmark called Skarø. We are being taken out be a small ferry to a castle…exciting! :-)
Do you have a favourite character from Elves? Mine is Ragana from Season 2, she's so unapologetically evil! :D
Perhaps that would be Emily, I guess...
Do you collect LEGO sets? How many do you own?
My son has a ton of Lego. I had a ton too when I was a kid :-)
Thanks for the interview!
You are welcome!
I would once again like to thank Christoffer Høyer for the interview. Be sure to check out www.hoyersongs.com!
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