Henrik “Hylle” Nielsen, a talented, veteran pop songwriter
based in Odense, Denmark, has won the SongwriterUniverse “Best Song Of The
Month” Contest for September, for his song “Crazy Like This.” Nielsen is
emerging as an in-demand writer who places his songs with other artists, after
a solid career leading his band Colourblind, and writing their chart hits.
Henrik "Hylle" Nielsen
“Crazy Like This” is a high-energy, modern pop-rock song,
which features female vocalist Christina Rombol. The highlight of the song is
it’s powerful chorus, which has a combination of rapid-fire lyrics and hooky
harmonies. Nielsen originally recorded a rough demo of this song (including
Rombol’s vocals), then keyboardist/programmer John Gordon adeptly produced the
full demo version, adding new music tracks.
Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, and he lived in several
cities in Denmark with his family, before settling in Odense (which is on the
big island of Funen). He started playing guitar when he was eight, and began
writing songs in the seventh grade. In high school, he fronted a rock band,
singing and playing acoustic & electric guitar. Nielsen later attended
Odense University, where he studied religion and history, while continuing to
write songs and perform live.
In 1996, Nielsen formed Colourblind, which was a five-member
band featuring a female, lead singer. Colourblind subsequently landed a deal
with Iceberg Records and Iceberg Publishing/EMI Music Publishing. The band released
two albums, and had two Top 10 hits in Denmark (which also received airplay in
Germany), including the #1 hit “Sentimental Fool.” However, when Colourblind
broke up in 2003, Nielsen decided to focus on writing songs for other artists.
He continued to receive good support from execs at EMI/Iceberg, who believed in
his potential as a pure songwriter.
Henrik "Hylle" Nielsen playing live onstage.
Nielsen has since written and placed songs with several
artists, and “Crazy Like This” could be one his most promising and marketable
songs to date. “[For this song] I had a hooky rhythm in my head, then I came up
with some words and created the melody,” explained Nielsen. “The lyric is about
two people (in a relationship) shouting at each other and doing crazy things.
They don’t really get it – that underneath they love each other and are very
close, even though they sometimes fight. So this couple may be ‘crazy like
this,’ but it’s in a good way.”
This song is an excellent demonstration of Nielsen’s skills
as a pop writer. “I’m having a lot of fun writing songs now,” he said.
“Overall, I’d like to further develop my songwriting and try to write great
songs, collaborate with other writers, get more songs placed, and establish
more contacts.”