Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson was originally formed in Bodø, Norway in the fall of 2003. Morten was an experienced drummer. Tobben and Gjermund both had guitars. Audun bought a bass. They had a band and didn’t know what to call it. Tobben picked up the line “nude pictures of Florence Henderson” on a TV-show. Nude became youth and they had a name.

Rehearsing in a converted, yellow bomb shelter, YPOFH made songs about Geronimo, wedding lists, drugs, optimist sailing teams and driving all night. Some were poppy, some punkish, some long and dreamy, some just plain awful. Despite that, they were all recorded on a demo February 2004. Some came out ok. Some were still awful.

The song that came out the most ok was the long and dreamy “A list not to be read at your wedding”. The Pics figured they were onto something.

More long and dreamy songs were made, this time about sitting down in the grass, the open blue sky, the weight in everything, of knowing when to take your hat off and of not taking your sweater off at all. They made a record and called it “Unnoticeable in a tiny town, invisible in the city”. They recorded, produced, mixed and mastered it themselves in the yellow bomb shelter. They got signed.

That is to say, they formed a record label named How is Annie, and signed themselves.

The album was released May 21st 2005. "Newcomers of the year", some said. "Album of the year", others exaggerated. Flattering nonetheless, YPOFH played Storåsfestivalen outside Trondheim that summer with cello player Elling joining the band as member number five.

Consistency proved difficult, though. The band members left Bodø, moving each to his own. Still, meeting and rehearsing randomly, concerts were played throughout the fall and winter. February 2006 they did two gigs at By:larm in Tromsø. In the summer, they went abroad for their first mini-tour, playing three gigs in Denmark.

Lack of rehearsal left little opportunity to create new material. Two demo-tracks were recorded in Trondheim in December 2006. Two more demos were recorded in the summer of 2007.

Late 2007, things took a turn for the better, as drummer Morten moved to Oslo, there joining guitarists Tobben and Gjermund. Adding guitarists / noisemakers / keyboardists Øystein and Anders as band members number six and seven, and with bass-player Audun happy to travel south from Trondheim for rehearsals, the Pics are now back in style and better than ever. Playing a smashing comback show at Øyanatt august 2008, the Pics debuted several new songs, aiming to record their second album late 2008 or early 2009.


ypofh, September 4th 2008