22-year-old Danish singer-songwriter Nicklas Sahl has always made music his number one priority. Its magnetic pull first started at the age of just 4 when he stole his sister’s plastic toy guitar, and now his passion is paying off barely eighteen months into his career. His debut EP ‘Planets’ has exceeded 28 million streams at Spotify alone, driven largely by his domestic following. His first single ‘Hero’ was named Single of the Week on Danish national radio, while appearances on The X Factor and breakfast TV only added to his growing profile.
Building on that meteoric rise, Nicklas Sahl is now looking to go global with his new single ‘Four Walls’, which is out now on Parlophone.
‘Four Walls’ finds Nicklas fusing modern pop flourishes with the story-telling tradition of the singer-songwriter to create immediately addictive songs which engage both the head and the heart. Nicklas uses timeless songwriting as the focus for his utterly contemporary productions. There are echoes of the past and the present – Bon Iver and Francis and the Lights flashing back to James Taylor and Paul Simon – that alchemise into something instantly relatable.
“I’m trying to find a perfect balance,” says Nicklas. “To me, my biggest inspirations are artists that could really play and sing like they could in the old days. It’s about mixing that with what’s happening today.”
Nicklas Sahl was raised in the small town of Hadsten. The radio was his first inspiration, with Nicklas playing along on that stolen toy guitar in front of the neighbours. That grew throughout childhood, with him attending a music school at the age of seven and then three years later deciding that was something he wanted to dedicate his life to. By his mid-teens he was developing his artistry with the help of a producer and co-writers. He eventually moved to Copenhagen in search of a career in music, which was vital in getting his debut ‘Hero’ released.
The appeal of music was simple. As he explains, “If I wanted to tell people who I was as a person, I’d play them a song of mine. I felt like that was the way I could express myself, especially when I was younger. I was really shy and quiet. With my music I had this confidence, and that’s still the case now. That’s why I’m really comfortable with playing because that’s where I show people the real me.”
As for what’s next? “I’d love to travel with my music. The energy I get from seeing other people being moved by music is what it’s all about. The more people I can move, the better.”
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