MLTR comes back to Mumbai: Reconnecting with audiences here is fantastic!

Last Sunday, three generations of Mumbaikars gathered at a city mall, to listen to Michael Learns To Rock aka MLTR as they belted out That's Why You Go Away, Paint My Love, Sleeping Child, Someday, The Actor, 25 Minutes, Out Of The Blue, Take Me To Your Heart and other hits, as a part of their world tour. In an exclusive chat with Bombay Times, they spoke about their love for our country and how they keep coming back to India, because of their fans here.And that fan-love was evident at Sunday’s concert in the city.

When they first began performing in the late 80s, MLTR’s initial stage show had just 20 people in the audience. But their music was so good that soon enough those 20 went on to become 20 thousand and kept growing. In the last over three decades since the band was formed, the Scandinavian musicians have sold millions of records.
The three-piece band with Jascha Richter lead vocalist- keyboards- guitar- piano, Mikkel Lentz lead guitar- backing vocals- keyboards and Kåre Wanscher drums- percussion-backing vocals, are not one for messy beats or loops. This Danish ballad band is known for their memorable melodies and emo verses and if you’ve heard them over the years, you will agree that their music defies geographical categorization.

MLTR was one of the first global bands to perform in India, way back in 1996 and over the years they have come back to our country multiple times. However, Sunday’s concert was their second in Mumbai. Mikkel says, “We’ve only played one real concert before in Mumbai. What we love most of course are our fans and the people here. Just reconnecting with audiences is fantastic. I was downtown today with my son, and we stopped to eat. And someone came up and tapped my shoulder and said, “Hey, are you from Michael Learns to Rock? And he had these printed photos of the band he wanted me to sign. He was all prepared! And that was amazing… I wondered how he found me, and he said he had read that we were going to be performing in Mumbai and he thought he would take a chance! So it’s like reconnecting with fans who like our music.”

The band is excited to be back in our country. Their packed concerts in Northeast India and the fan-love, have left them astounded. Kare says, “It’s a great pleasure to be back in Mumbai. I like the samosas here! (laughs). It is more than wonderful for us to be back on the road after three years without traveling around, outside of Denmark. So, we have been very excited for this tour. We've been so far in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines before we came to India. And, we just did three shows in the Northeast of India that have really exceeded all our expectations for coming back on the road. So right now, we're just over-excited about being here. And can't wait to play around these bigger cities, in the south and western part of India. It's going to be fantastic.”

MLTR has been consistent with their music - their debut album released in 1991 and their latest album in 2018 while their most recent single released last year. Jascha says, “The last album we did was a while back (Still, 2018). I guess in the title the word ‘Still’ means that we are standing still (laughs)! But we don’t agree that we should not make any more music. We will make music when we have something to make. We were patient with the old songs, and we will do that now as well.” Talking about their latest song, Mikkel says, “The latest song we did was Children of the World, last year. It's a bit of a serious song, like a dedication to all the children of tomorrow. It's not about a man or woman or a relationship, it's about the world and the condition of the world. We have a concern about the way things are changing fast. We hope for the best and we expressed that in the song.” Despite being from a non-English speaking country, they stuck to only English songs in their albums for the last 30 years. However, recently Jascha did some Danish ones. “Through the pandemic I wrote and released some Danish songs, that was something I wanted to do.”