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1
00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,000
Five minutes.
Five minutes, yes.
2
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:14,720
You're on tour, mostly with old songs.
Haven't recorded for a while.
3
00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,000
Might you be recording new songs soon?
4
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:22,280
I'd say yes.
I've already made a new a-ha record.
5
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:27,480
If we'd gone somewhere for
three months to make a record.
6
00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:33,720
Locked up and released after three months,
then I might have been a believer.
7
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,080
-No.
-You don't want to record anything new?
8
00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,760
-No.
-Why not?
9
00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:44,480
Because it's a hornets nest.
10
00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:49,160
In the end we just wanna bash
each other's brains out.
11
00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:25,880
After school there would be a few hours
before my parents came from work,
12
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:28,840
and it would be stereo on,
13
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,040
absolutely cranked.
14
00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:52,240
Anything you liked, you liked it because
you saw yourself in that part, that band.
15
00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,200
That was the big escape.
16
00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:05,640
My father was a musician
and audio technician at NRK.
17
00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:10,520
Trumpets in the front was
the big thing in Norway at the time.
18
00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:19,720
I remember how my father used to practice
with his foot on a stool.
19
00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,160
There were always instruments around.
20
00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:31,880
So I'd sit down with an instrument.
Try to find something. Combine sounds.
21
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,600
It's probably the first image
I have of something...
22
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:40,720
Something I felt an attraction to.
23
00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:49,240
Four years old, I tried out the piano.
Started making songs right away.
24
00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:55,840
Suddenly mom comes over to me with
slightly forced enthusiasm.
25
00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:00,160
I could tell immediately.
She thought it sounded "nice".
26
00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:06,680
Said I was going to get a piano teacher.
That was a huge mistake.
27
00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:18,680
I remember riding in the car, five years
old, leaning towards the driver's seat.
28
00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:23,320
Singing a typical Norwegian song
about spring.
29
00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,960
A song with a very wide tonal range.
30
00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,560
Suddenly I discovered I had wings.
31
00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,480
I had wings on which to sing.
32
00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:38,840
It was just a wonderful feeling.
33
00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,400
Yes, sir.
34
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,640
-Really? Do I need the jacket?
-No.
35
00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,760
Alright.
36
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,400
I've got it.
37
00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:00,000
I didn't listen to other people.
38
00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:06,960
I had my own, critical voice
that drowned out everything else.
39
00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:09,960
That's still how I am.
40
00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:15,560
I listen to other people, but every time
someone tries to give me advice...
41
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:21,000
Nobody has ever offered me any sensible,
practical advice about singing.
42
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:38,880
I'm extremely hard on myself.
It's absolutely devastating.
43
00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:45,400
But there's another concert
the day after tomorrow.
44
00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:47,480
And so on.
45
00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:52,800
As long as there are concerts left,
I can never let my guard down.
46
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,560
Heading home from school
I heard noise from a balcony.
47
00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,560
It was the first time
I actually noticed Pal.
48
00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:18,200
His friend had an organ, and Pal played
on drums made from cardboard rolls
49
00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:22,520
with some iffy plastic drumheads on.
50
00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,120
Playing a concert for whoever passed by.
51
00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:31,360
Even though Magne only lived
literally 50 yards down the road,
52
00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:35,160
I didn't see him until we were 13.
53
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:40,720
Only when I heard he had an amplifier,
we got a bit curious about each other.
54
00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,160
Pal and I had a very parallel
musical awakening.
55
00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:52,200
We started digging through music history.
Discovered the 60's.
56
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,640
A cousin of mine went to London.
57
00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:18,800
He returned with an album by Uriah Heep.
The sound was awesome.
58
00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,840
Musical expression way beyond
anything I'd heard before.
59
00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,960
I started singing Freddie Mercury stuff.
60
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:43,400
So he's certainly been an important
inspiration, something to strive for.
61
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:55,000
Pal and I raced to get the most
Jimi Hendrix records. Think I had 23.
62
00:09:55,160 --> 00:10:00,920
Certain bands can amaze you, but you can't
copy them. You don't have the same skills.
63
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:07,560
You can listen to the Beatles and so on.
It's too perfect to be really inspired by.
64
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:13,080
So when you get to Velvet Underground
and Joy Division, "Ah, I can do that."
65
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:32,880
I remember us lying on the grass,
talking about the future.
66
00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:36,480
Our bikes lying on the ground beside us.
67
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:41,120
I said, "When I grow up,
I'm gonna be a musician."
68
00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:46,000
Pal later talked about it as
a moment where he...
69
00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:51,960
To him it was a radical thought. His
parents were more focused on education.
70
00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:55,880
I was lucky because everyone around me
71
00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:00,320
thought of music as something
you took seriously.
72
00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:20,320
We were only fifteen.
I noticed Magne from day one.
73
00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:26,680
He'd brought a huge Jimi Hendrix poster.
Hung it up in the back of the classroom.
74
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:33,520
He was very charming, funny
and completely unafraid.
75
00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:39,800
He played in a band.
Pretty soon he wanted everyone to hear it.
76
00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:44,080
This need to show and share
has always been there.
77
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:50,320
I think the very first show we did
was me on drums, him on guitar.
78
00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,720
We played in his classroom.
That was our big first opening.
79
00:11:54,880 --> 00:12:00,040
Which was great, cause every time
I hit a drum solo, the girls screamed.
80
00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:04,280
I was like, "Yes, we've arrived!"
81
00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:10,760
I sang and played guitar
more or less until my voice broke.
82
00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:17,240
We tried with two guitars for a while.
But I felt that it didn't really gel.
83
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:22,840
And then I came up with the great idea
that he should change to keyboards.
84
00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:27,640
Well, it was traumatic.
I was a guitar player.
85
00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:34,400
It felt... pretty lousy.
86
00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:40,200
But I was right. He took to it like fish
to water. After a couple of rehearsals
87
00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:44,600
he came up with much more stuff
than he had on the guitar.
88
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,960
Well, it didn't feel like fish to water.
89
00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:55,680
I felt that I bent to his will.
90
00:12:55,840 --> 00:13:00,600
Because taking the fight would
be painful on some level.
91
00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:05,400
And it didn't come easy.
I had to change my mindset.
92
00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:11,040
Being a keyboard player
was never my dream.
93
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:14,680
But that was the result,
and we made it work.
94
00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:19,600
Alright, shall we try playing it through?
95
00:13:19,760 --> 00:13:25,640
Magne sort of felt like
Pal was his big brother.
96
00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:32,000
He wanted to impress Pal.
97
00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:38,400
He looked up to Pal, both because
he was, and still is, a bit older.
98
00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:44,280
But also because
of Pal's gift as a songwriter.
99
00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:48,760
Magne and Pal's relationship
was always very competitive,
100
00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:51,360
but also very productive.
101
00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,320
We were very close at the time.
102
00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,640
Pal and I were very much
in tune with each other, often.
103
00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:11,120
Bridges got started when Viggo Bondi
104
00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,640
and Qystein Jevanord
became part of the story.
105
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:19,360
We started to get ambitions.
This would be the band.
106
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:37,840
I was electrified the first time
I heard Pal and Magne's band.
107
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,760
Everything was there.
108
00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:44,680
They needed a singer.
I knew they had to discover me.
109
00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:49,760
I had discovered them.
I had to wait for them to discover me.
110
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,240
They came to listen to me at Club 7.
111
00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:01,800
They just sat there. I remember
how they sat there, just "attending".
112
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:07,160
I'd heard about Morten Harket.
Heard that he had a very good voice.
113
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:10,240
We were impressed, contacted him.
114
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:21,760
Magne and I were going the same way home.
Pal was going to Manglerud.
115
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:26,560
We got on a train, but for some reason
we had to walk part of the way.
116
00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:30,720
-It was late in the evening.
-It was a long walk.
117
00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:35,600
We talked a lot about music.
Started to talk about our families.
118
00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,360
His biological father, his birth father,
119
00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:43,400
had died in a plane crash outside Drammen.
120
00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:48,720
"Outside Drammen? When was that?
How old were you?"
121
00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,960
"I was there, saw that plane go down."
122
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:58,640
The crash is now being investigated.
The plane was heading for Linképing,
123
00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:03,200
where Bent Sglve's orchestra
was to hold a concert.
124
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:07,920
My brother was sitting by the window.
He spotted the Cessna.
125
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:13,440
"I think it's in trouble. They're going
down!" My father sees it too.
126
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:17,240
He turns the car around,
follows the plane.
127
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,400
We're close by when it happens.
128
00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:28,680
And Magne's father
is among those killed in the crash.
129
00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:33,240
So there was like...
130
00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:37,240
A strong sense of destiny
the first time we met.
131
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,520
Then he walks home in the night.
I go home.
132
00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:47,320
And I don't know if
I'll ever talk to him again.
133
00:16:56,880 --> 00:17:03,600
We were really backward at the time.
You had to be there to understand.
134
00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,800
Nothing had started yet.
We were the outskirts.
135
00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:12,320
Norway has always been dominated
by dancehall bands.
136
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:18,040
It's time Norwegian pop and rock bands
get the chance to shine.
137
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:23,040
Nobody had had any significant
international breakthrough.
138
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:29,040
And it wasn't just pop music.
Norway was still in a post-war state.
139
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:33,680
Hadn't begun to export football players
or anything else.
140
00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:38,840
How can we get out of Norway?
How can we not have to compete
141
00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,000
with music that we didn't see
any sort of relation to.
142
00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:46,960
There's nothing here that we listen to.
143
00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:52,080
We were only 15-16 years old when
the local newspaper interviewed us.
144
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:57,000
"We're gonna be international pop stars.
Norway's too small for us."
145
00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:02,120
He just wanted to get through high school
so he could go to London
146
00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,400
and make a living from music.
Nobody believed him.
147
00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:09,080
Nobody had done it before.
148
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:16,760
But Pal and I were the only ones
who really believed in that dream.
149
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:23,400
Magne called. "The two others are staying
here, Pal and I are going to England."
150
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,280
"You wanna come with us?"
151
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:30,440
"No, I made a deal with Arild.
We're going interrailing."
152
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,520
I said I couldn't join them
until after summer.
153
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:40,720
They left, thinking I didn't wanna come.
Don't know why they misunderstood me.
154
00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,920
To this day I still don't know
what they thought I meant.
155
00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:58,760
We went over, were planning
to start a band once we got there.
156
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,680
We were serious. No turning back.
157
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:04,960
We wouldn't return until we were stars.
158
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:54,680
The first thing we did when we got there,
was put in ads in Melody Maker and NME.
159
00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,480
We were looking for a harp player.
160
00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,400
There hadn't been
a front harpist in pop before.
161
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:06,280
But we actually found a guy
who played electric harp.
162
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:24,200
We went to a lot of the sort of
Camden clubs, saw a lot of cool bands.
163
00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:35,800
We discovered Soft Cell,
which I think was a big influence on us.
164
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:44,360
Mainly the first six months, we were
soaking in, like a learning process.
165
00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:51,000
Tried to ease my guilt from not doing
any university that my parents wanted.
166
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,680
We were in a bedsit in London,
hoping to show others our songs.
167
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:00,200
Pal whistling and playing guitar
while I played synth.
168
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:06,200
Everyone who had any sense could see
that this was going nowhere.
169
00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:12,520
We had to do something. I said we should
go home, get Morten to join the band.
170
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:23,720
I convinced the band to not return
to England at once, but stay in Norway.
171
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:29,280
To use Norway for the rest of the year.
We all had parents we could stay with.
172
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:33,280
It was the first time I'd
talked sense into someone.
173
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:37,880
I was like the oldest.
"This is how we have to do it."
174
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:42,080
The only reason not to was Pal's
huge embarrassment
175
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,720
at coming home without having made it.
176
00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,200
Music is saying things
that can't be said in a sentence.
177
00:21:54,360 --> 00:22:00,120
There's no way you can pinpoint that song,
get that vibe in a couple of lines.
178
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:06,000
I would get obsessed with one thing,
it would be all about that,
179
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,480
and nothing else matters.
180
00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,560
First it was all painting, but then
181
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,280
I got sidetracked
into music and it took over.
182
00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,640
My parents were very unhappy
183
00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:27,640
that I was dating this
out-of-work musician.
184
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:32,240
They thought that was terrible.
I didn't think they'd make it.
185
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:36,080
But Pal was so driven.
He's like this horse.
186
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:42,640
These horses where they put the blinders
on so they can't see. He had those on.
187
00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:48,080
He could only see two things in his life.
One of them, strongly, was music.
188
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,520
And the other was me.
189
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,840
It sounded like crap at first.
190
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:18,560
It didn't sound promising, to be polite.
It didn't have anything we wanted.
191
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:24,000
Character. Individuality.
Identity. Charm. Nada.
192
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,680
But we held on to the dream about...
193
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,600
That London was the place to be.
We had to go there.
194
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,920
We're listening to the radio,
watching every pop show on TV.
195
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:48,720
And got a bit scared. A lot of them were
very together. They looked like stars.
196
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:58,920
We could see that Morten looked great.
He had what a lead singer needed.
197
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:03,920
Had a great voice,
was a poser with attitude.
198
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:18,840
Morten constantly promoted the band.
He'd refine his image.
199
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:23,240
Changed his image almost
from one day to the next.
200
00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:34,440
A lot of stash. I was the least
stashed up, the most boring guy.
201
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:36,960
Morten was way over the top.
202
00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:41,760
Used house paint in his hair
when he ran out of hairspray.
203
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:46,720
Played around with his own image a lot,
ours too.
204
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:50,520
He gave Pal a pretty dramatic makeover.
205
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:56,160
He really dug in. Stripped him,
dressed him and put on make-up.
206
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,600
I was bowled over by their enthusiasm.
207
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:06,120
I hadn't heard a note,
hadn't heard a song, anything, but...
208
00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:10,560
They were very different to
a lot of the clients
209
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,840
that we'd been having from the punk era.
210
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,840
We booked Rendezvous Studios from
John Ratcliff with the money we had left.
211
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,600
He was the first one
who had enough faith in us to
212
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:25,520
put his money where
his mouth was.
213
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:31,200
I really wanted to be involved. I could
see the potential of the songwriting.
214
00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:36,840
The way Mags came up with so many
great tunes and great melodies
215
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,480
in addition to the songwriting of Pal.
216
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:45,320
Morten's voice on the top was
the icing on the cake.
217
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:51,120
After a while John got in touch with
Terry Slater, who'd been with EMI.
218
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:55,240
He wanted to show him who we were.
219
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,680
He'd signed up everyone
from Queen to Sex Pistols,
220
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:04,280
and he had a very sort of
old-school ear for tunes,
221
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,400
that I responded to.
222
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:25,520
Back then getting a recording deal
was the eye of the needle.
223
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,520
And Terry only told us the good news.
224
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,280
So we thought,
"Why are we at this point?"
225
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:38,360
Things were happening around the corner.
"You'll be so busy you'll miss this time."
226
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:43,680
So we were just sitting there hoping.
"When are we gonna get busy?"
227
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:48,480
You need real balls to get through it.
To keep believing.
228
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:52,760
Because most people don't.
Don't want to believe.
229
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:58,400
There were setbacks all the time.
But in letters and phone calls to home,
230
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,640
it was always about
new opportunities opening up.
231
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:08,040
If we landed a meeting with some
completely insignificant person,
232
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:12,240
it was painted as,
"This is the big break!"
233
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:16,480
We didn't have a plan B.
Because plan B...
234
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,120
You've already started doubting plan A.
235
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:25,240
We must have spent
at least two years thinking...
236
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:29,680
"Okay, that didn't work.
Remember that thing next week."
237
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,560
"Meeting this person.
He knows Elton John."
238
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:38,280
We could see it in the way we lived.
Started in Linden Gardens,
239
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:42,600
in Notting Hill Gate,
then it was Willesden Green.
240
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:48,600
We took a step down each time we moved.
Not because we didn't like the wallpaper.
241
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,960
We needed a place without wallpaper!
242
00:27:52,120 --> 00:27:57,000
We lived below the poverty line
for a while because we could,
243
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:01,480
because we wanted to,
because we felt we had to.
244
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:07,960
I mean, we had our moments with porridge.
I don't think we even thought about it.
245
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:12,120
We couldn't ask for more money.
So we lied.
246
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,280
We went to Decca. They turned us down.
247
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,360
And we celebrated since they'd
turned down The Beatles too.
248
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:25,560
I think it got sent to three,
four or five record companies.
249
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:31,040
Part of it was acting like more people
were interested than was the case.
250
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:36,640
I think Warner Brothers were
the only ones who believed in it.
251
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:52,880
The time after signing the contract
was frustrating. We made little progress.
252
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:58,320
The thing that took much longer than
getting a deal, was getting that producer.
253
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:03,080
You know, we had a hard enough time
figuring out what a producer did.
254
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,280
We ended up with Tony Mansfield.
255
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:13,000
He changed everything.
But he did really cool stuff.
256
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:16,640
He was a genius with computers.
257
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,040
Absolutely mind-blowing. It was cool.
258
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:32,080
I wrote the riff on Take On Me
at the age of 14-15 years.
259
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:05,840
Pal responded negatively.
It sounded "too commercial".
260
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:11,640
Called it The Juicy Fruit Song because
it reminded us of the commercial.
261
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,520
It took many different shapes.
262
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,880
We had a version of Take On Me
263
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:46,040
with like rooster-crowing
in the middle of it.
264
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:48,880
We thought it was brilliant.
265
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,360
In hindsight maybe it wasn't
what put us on the map.
266
00:30:55,520 --> 00:31:00,240
Coming to London, that's when
I really started to hate that chorus.
267
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,240
I think Terry said it.
He'd worked with Queen.
268
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,080
"If you have a falsetto, it's a hit."
269
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:21,560
And Morten had a wonderful falsetto.
So I thought that could be a cool thing.
270
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,880
Just to show off his range a bit.
271
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:30,520
Every song you have a verse,
then you want to hit that money note.
272
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,520
I thought it would be cool to instead
273
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:39,760
just start at the lowest note you can hit
and build your way up from there.
274
00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:04,440
They mostly stay in England,
the group that's become famous
275
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:11,280
before releasing a single song. You think
you can become superstars with some help
276
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,040
from your record company and manager?
-Yeah.
277
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,720
Tony Mansfield changed much
of what we were.
278
00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:35,240
I end up standing there all alone,
hips, shoulders, blue eyes.
279
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:47,400
I think they were worried we'd alienate
the female members of the audience.
280
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,320
They tried to make us look
a little extra macho.
281
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:57,000
Three terrified teenagers with loads of
semi-naked women bouncing about.
282
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:04,640
It came to a head with a version of
Take On Me that we feel isn't there.
283
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,800
Had we just wasted the opportunity, like?
284
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:35,680
We'd used up all our money. Interest
in the project was already waning.
285
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:38,800
The record company
was about to give up.
286
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:44,640
But there was a strong feeling in the band
that we could do it much better.
287
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:49,000
And ended up in studio with Alan Tarney.
288
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:54,240
A-ha's original demo of Take On Me
was the right approach.
289
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:59,080
So I just recreated that in the best way
I possibly could.
290
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,280
We finished Take On Me in one day.
291
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:08,920
And cause I was so busy with other things,
I didn't think what would happen to it.
292
00:34:09,080 --> 00:34:12,440
It was just another record.
That was that.
293
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:16,880
I was the one who fought
for that song in the band.
294
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:22,000
I was the one who really believed in it.
"This is a worldwide hit."
295
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:27,840
And I'd never thought like that.
Never thought, "Do we have a hit?"
296
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,680
I took the tape to
the record company, all alone.
297
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,800
Played it.
"This is how it has to be."
298
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:59,240
And our luck was that they'd just hired
a guy called Jeff Ayeroff.
299
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:05,160
I thought, "This isn't normal rock & roll
or pop music. This is something else."
300
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:09,560
A kind of synchronicity happens. I have
this animator in the back of my head.
301
00:35:09,720 --> 00:35:16,240
"Here's this band. Kind of interesting.
Who do I trust who's done videos for me,"
302
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:21,000
"has a fertile mind
and can technologically deal with this?"
303
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,200
"Steve Barron."
304
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:28,800
I met the guys, sat down
and talked about the concept.
305
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:33,200
I remember they were put in
some tiny little hostel.
306
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:37,560
Even though massive amounts
were being spent on the video.
307
00:35:37,720 --> 00:35:43,240
I remember thinking, even telling Morten,
"You'll look back at this, and think..."
308
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,240
"We were in that little place."
309
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:50,120
"If it worked out, we'd never be
in a place like that again."
310
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,640
I remember one time
we went to Venice Beach.
311
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:19,240
Then you really got the feeling. You'd
walk down that beach and hear the song.
312
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:23,400
Like from one transistor radio to another.
313
00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:27,560
No matter what channel you went to,
it would be there.
314
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:32,880
Late yesterday evening,
the Norwegian pop band a-ha
315
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,240
reached the top of
the pop chart in the US.
316
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:42,200
First one of the top records in the world
at the moment. No. 1 in five countries.
317
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,800
No. 2 in Britain. A-ha, Take On Me!
318
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:51,640
To the best of my knowledge, the first
Norwegian group to make it big worldwide.
319
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,160
We want a-ha!
320
00:37:17,240 --> 00:37:19,640
A-ha, Take On Me.
321
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,000
A-ha!
322
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,520
Manhattan, the heart of NYC.
323
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,760
Their schedule is packed,
but we get to meet two of them.
324
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:07,280
-Today you're in New York. And tomorrow?
-In Los Angeles.
325
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,120
And then go on a world tour?
326
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:15,720
We'll pop by Norway before going
to England, then Australia and Japan.
327
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,720
Suddenly we were going to Australia,
328
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,360
with thousands of people
at the airport at 3 a.m.
329
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:48,800
We had no idea that would happen. In
Japan, they had security on every floor.
330
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:56,680
I was singled out from the band
by the media.
331
00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,320
Flung out on my own.
332
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:05,800
Had to stand in a cascade
that never ended.
333
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:08,400
That I had to relate to.
334
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,560
We're not a band for the press.
335
00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:15,560
So I did very little band-related stuff
for a long time.
336
00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:21,240
Because there was nothing but
this eternal crescendo of noise.
337
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,600
Glasses? Jacket?
338
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:37,960
-Beautiful.
-Thank you.
339
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:40,680
Can I have a picture together?
340
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,680
Okay, thank you.
341
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,880
Danke schon.
342
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:53,760
Danke sehr.
343
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,120
Here comes Sebastian's...
344
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:11,800
Remedy.
345
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:17,640
One of the defences against...
The flu for example.
346
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:27,440
This is...
347
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:34,720
My cocoon when we're on the road.
I like it a lot better than flying.
348
00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:39,720
It's the only quiet place.
349
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:43,680
It's vital to me.
350
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:58,520
And all creatures,
people and animals,
351
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:04,280
spend a lot of time on restitution,
finding a private corner where they can
352
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,280
prepare to step out again.
353
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:12,200
To be yourself.
The way you feel you're composed.
354
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:14,920
You don't have many sanctuaries
355
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:19,800
when everyone knows who you are.
They're gone.
356
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:24,080
That's when a cocoon
like this becomes essential.
357
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:30,680
Yes.
358
00:43:35,720 --> 00:43:37,760
Here we go.
359
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:44,680
-Four of them.
-Four innocent victims.
360
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:52,200
-Hello.
-Hi.
361
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:56,720
-Hello.
-Hi. How are you?
362
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:00,600
-My name... is Alexandra.
-Alexandra?
363
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:06,120
I wish you a pleasant stay in Berlin.
364
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:09,240
Thank you.
365
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:14,360
-I'm a huge fan of you guys.
-Yeah.
366
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:17,800
-Are you sure?
-Yes!
367
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:22,640
I have presents for you.
From my home town, Potsdam.
368
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:26,720
It's near Berlin.
It's very near, Potsdam.
369
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:31,560
-It's for you.
-I got a heavier...
370
00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:35,880
-I wonder what that means.
-Like with our hotel rooms.
371
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:40,360
He gets the big one, I get the middle one,
Pal gets the small one.
372
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,920
The story of our life.
373
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:49,520
I think they view me as the least
intellectual. I get a big book to work on.
374
00:44:59,720 --> 00:45:04,520
In many ways it was comfy
that Morten got the attention.
375
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:10,440
Because Pal and I didn't really crave
the sort of attention that Morten got.
376
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:16,280
For me that was a heaven-send.
Cause I was... Social angst up to eleven.
377
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:22,720
So for me... The more they could take,
that was a good thing for me.
378
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:26,320
I didn't have a lot of ambitions
in that direction.
379
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:31,520
That wasn't my medium. That's not where
I could show people what I could do.
380
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,440
My first concert was
Echo & the Bunnymen.
381
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:39,560
And they stood the whole show
with their back against the audience.
382
00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:44,480
I thought it was fantastic. I should've
been in one of those bands.
383
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,880
But I ended up in one of the most visible.
384
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:53,120
Driven by videos and looks
and everything.
385
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:05,000
I got that part I never thought I would.
I thought I'd be in the dark
386
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:08,760
with a flashing light,
doing moody songs.
387
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:15,640
It took me about 25 years to figure out.
"How do I handle all this stuff?"
388
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:19,080
I'm very thinly skinned on
a lot of things.
389
00:46:19,240 --> 00:46:22,200
I never feel I can sort of relax.
390
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:25,960
It's almost like my brain...
391
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:30,880
It's... I move myself out of the thing.
If I'm doing an interview,
392
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:34,720
I'm sitting there watching myself,
wondering
393
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:38,040
what stupid things I'm gonna do next.
394
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:42,440
I can't be in the moment.
It's tiring, you know.
395
00:47:56,840 --> 00:48:02,360
On Scoundrel Days, we had a unique
production situation. We were on tour
396
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:05,760
while demos and so on were being made.
397
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:11,000
So we did a lot on our own
in different studios around the world.
398
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:14,360
Worked during soundchecks,
in hotel rooms...
399
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:19,640
We wanted a darker hue on this album.
And also a bit more ambitious
400
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:25,480
of what you put together. We had
Manhattan Skyline, two songs put together.
401
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:30,320
Same thing with Scoundrel Days.
October, which was a different colour.
402
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:36,280
There were a lot of ideas happening.
Too many, in a way.
403
00:48:36,440 --> 00:48:40,200
So it wasn't so clear-cut
who was in charge.
404
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:45,120
It wasn't me. It wasn't them, necessarily.
It was give and take.
405
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:51,120
So it wasn't so easy musically
to arrive at a finished recording.
406
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:58,040
Uh... Just one thing.
"You're hissing your s's like a snake."
407
00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:00,160
-Remember the tune?
-No.
408
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:17,560
Maybe it's better to leave that part
until the next verse?
409
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:24,200
That was a thing with Lauren. She was
shocked when I took her to the studio.
410
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,880
And I was the biggest pain in the ass,
411
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:32,160
bossy guy,
leaning over everybody's shoulder.
412
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:38,000
If I hear something in my head that I'm
trying to get, I have super-confidence.
413
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:43,320
Especially Pal, he wanted to go down
in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,
414
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:46,200
become a legend in the music business.
415
00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:50,400
And he was capable of it.
Nothing would stop him.
416
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:56,760
A-ha gave him the opportunity to make
these records that he wanted to make.
417
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,640
He was very powerful in the studio.
418
00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:03,520
Tremendous presence
in the studio, musically.
419
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:09,400
So he was, I suppose, dictating more
than anyone else the direction of a-ha.
420
00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:22,840
The way we worked, you had to have
a lot worked out beforehand.
421
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:27,920
Because it wasn't like a band on
the floor. You had to work it out
422
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:33,960
before you started, or the whole thing
would fall apart. That was my job.
423
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:39,480
That's not how I saw the situation.
We were all trying to take the wheel.
424
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:45,040
He says I was never a band leader?
I don't think that's accurate.
425
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:49,320
Instead of "can't you see",
try "plain for all to see".
426
00:50:49,480 --> 00:50:52,640
-"Plain..."?
-"Plain for all to see".
427
00:50:56,080 --> 00:50:59,120
"Any or anyone can see".
428
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:05,040
-Want a pen?
-Isn't it easier with just "anyone"?
429
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:07,280
"Anyone can see"?
430
00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:13,480
-Yay! Here we go again.
-Going again?
431
00:51:13,640 --> 00:51:15,480
Where's my coach?
432
00:51:22,360 --> 00:51:24,240
Very close.
433
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:28,720
I had a pretty neat tone there.
434
00:51:57,840 --> 00:51:59,920
Sounds a bit awkward.
435
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:23,400
One of the main conflicts
with the record company
436
00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:29,320
was that we insisted on releasing
Manhattan Skyline as a single.
437
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,400
We pointed to Bohemian Rhapsody.
438
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:36,800
It had to be possible to try out
songs in other formats.
439
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:41,160
But for us it was important
to release it as a single.
440
00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:45,040
It revealed musical ambitions
of the band that we
441
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:47,800
felt had been overlooked.
442
00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:50,800
That we weren't a cartoon band.
443
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:46,800
The result was that we lost the US.
444
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:52,120
And it haunted us for a long time.
We wanted to win back the US.
445
00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:59,720
Yeah. Wait a minute here.
446
00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:04,720
-Okay, I'm ready.
-Waste a couple of rounds. Are you ready?
447
00:54:04,880 --> 00:54:08,600
I'm ready. Let's just go.
I gotta get this thing.
448
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,560
That's good. Good.
449
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:19,840
Okay, last ones. I'm gonna have you
coming at my camera.
450
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,520
Come towards me, Morten.
Look at me, guys.
451
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,280
This is the final one.
Beautiful there. Go on.
452
00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:30,880
Can you just...
You looked away from me.
453
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,040
There, there, there!
Beautiful that.
454
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:41,120
I've gotta bring three guys together
that sometimes don't want to.
455
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:46,440
But sometimes they do wanna be together.
Then they don't wanna be together.
456
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:52,040
It's hard as a photographer when people
don't wanna be together in a picture.
457
00:54:57,160 --> 00:55:00,720
Smile! Can you do it one more time?
458
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:03,200
One more time! Come on.
459
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:09,040
I guess that's it. Alright.
Okay, I got it. Thank you!
460
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:45,400
I can't do this.
461
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:51,600
I'm just whining up there all the time.
I can't do this. There's no fucking break.
462
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:57,480
It's my voice at the same level
all the way. Don't tell me it sounds good.
463
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:04,120
We've been through this. This was
the first song everyone was pleased with.
464
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:08,480
That's bullshit, Lars.
My point remains exactly the same.
465
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:10,880
I can't sit here whining.
466
00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:16,880
I mean, that's why I don't want it.
Because it's high-range, no breaks.
467
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:22,120
My voice all the time. I'll drop out
because I'm so sick of my own voice.
468
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:27,560
-But...
-Is it the key?
469
00:56:27,720 --> 00:56:32,000
It's just me, me. All the time.
I don't think it sounds good.
470
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:35,040
I've no impulse to sing it.
471
00:56:35,200 --> 00:56:40,080
-That's not a very constructive statement.
-It is.
472
00:56:40,240 --> 00:56:44,360
No, Lars. Don't try to
gloss over my main point.
473
00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:50,000
Which is that I don't want to sing that
high throughout the song without a break.
474
00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:53,560
But the song hasn't changed for 30 years.
475
00:56:53,720 --> 00:56:59,520
-That's why I'm sceptical about doing it.
-I didn't know that.
476
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:06,720
I suggested lowering it an octave.
Constructive input.
477
00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:11,520
If Pal and the girls sing
"I don't wanna cry again..."
478
00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:17,680
-You come in at "Oh, but how..."
-Yeah, that's a big difference.
479
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:48,400
I think everyone who works with us
ends up exhausted from working with us.
480
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:54,000
And then there's a tug of war,
grinding of teeth,
481
00:57:54,160 --> 00:57:57,880
dirty looks and plenty of reluctance.
482
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:33,360
When we made the Bond song,
John Barry was the producer.
483
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:39,640
It turned out that he had to be included
as songwriter. We hadn't been informed.
484
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:43,880
There were a few chords in that song
I was particularly fond of
485
00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:47,240
that he wiped out
in the string arrangement.
486
00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:53,160
So we manipulated the 80-piece orchestra
to play another note than what he put in.
487
00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:55,560
I think it pissed him off.
488
00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:59,240
In one interview he called
them "Nazi Jugend".
489
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,560
I'm afraid so, yes.
490
00:59:02,720 --> 00:59:07,160
That's what he said to me.
So he felt it very strongly.
491
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,080
Right. Must we get into it?
492
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:15,840
He encountered a band that had
a great deal of self-confidence.
493
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:19,000
He was used to being the dictator,
I think.
494
00:59:19,160 --> 00:59:21,760
Our general rule was that
495
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:25,680
we simply ignored everything
that was said.
496
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:29,200
We nodded and smiled,
497
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:33,840
and fundamentally disagreed
about everything.
498
01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:57,520
With Stay On These Roads, I felt
I'd written an important song for a-ha.
499
01:00:57,680 --> 01:01:02,160
I ran off to Pal to show it to him.
500
01:01:02,320 --> 01:01:07,440
But he was busy on the phone.
By chance, Morten was sitting there.
501
01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:12,960
So I showed it to him first,
which was unusual in a-ha at the time.
502
01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:16,720
He asked me, "What would you do here?"
503
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:20,320
So I sang "sail on" or something.
504
01:01:28,720 --> 01:01:33,680
Then Pal comes in from the room
next door, clapping his hands.
505
01:01:33,840 --> 01:01:38,000
I sat up all night alone,
finishing the demo,
506
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:44,360
with full instrumentation, which was
used as it was when we recorded it.
507
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:49,640
On the third album
we tried to be more poppy.
508
01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:52,560
Thinking like we did in the start,
509
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:56,880
with stuff that didn't end up on
the first album, like Touchy.
510
01:01:57,040 --> 01:02:02,480
I think Pal convinced himself
that for commercial reasons,
511
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:08,440
we needed a smarter approach.
That's what he thought, I suspect.
512
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:11,800
We were told that we had "the disease".
513
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:15,280
"They'll destroy everything
they've created."
514
01:02:15,440 --> 01:02:20,640
"Because they're uncomfortable with
their image or how people see them."
515
01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:23,240
The first nail in the coffin.
516
01:02:34,880 --> 01:02:38,040
We wanted to write new hits.
517
01:02:38,200 --> 01:02:43,600
But we didn't necessarily want to
turn our backs on Scoundrel Days.
518
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:46,560
We wanted to hold on to our success.
519
01:02:51,080 --> 01:02:55,120
The songs are nice.
But the videos are horrible.
520
01:03:00,920 --> 01:03:07,000
People might have a different image
of what a-ha really is than I do.
521
01:03:07,600 --> 01:03:11,200
-Hi! We're a-ha!
-One more time.
522
01:03:12,120 --> 01:03:15,080
Hi there! We're a-ha!
523
01:03:15,720 --> 01:03:22,200
We ended up wrapped in packaging.
"Don't worry. It'll pass." We were wrong.
524
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:28,040
And we remained exposed in a way that
none of us could identify with at all.
525
01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:33,560
Were very naive about what we had
to protect, what was unique about us.
526
01:03:33,720 --> 01:03:36,240
We just went with the flow.
527
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:40,560
And it's nobody else's fault
that we became a teen band.
528
01:03:40,720 --> 01:03:46,240
We posed for all the shoots. No matter how
cheesy we thought it was, we turned up.
529
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:51,600
Let ourselves be photographed
in the most humiliating settings.
530
01:03:58,200 --> 01:04:02,400
What would a-ha have been
without Morten Harket's
531
01:04:02,560 --> 01:04:06,120
gorgeous body and handsome face?
532
01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:13,560
We would've avoided a lot of problems.
I mean, I'm born like this.
533
01:04:13,720 --> 01:04:15,880
I've never worked out.
534
01:04:16,040 --> 01:04:19,760
It's not easy to accept
that sort of attention.
535
01:04:19,920 --> 01:04:24,720
-Would you strip to the waist for me?
-Sure, if you did the same.
536
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:36,480
Anything else?
537
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:36,480
If we're gonna make it clear
to the record company,
538
01:05:36,640 --> 01:05:41,240
"Don't book us ever again to
that fucking Popcorn Magazine."
539
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:45,080
"This album will force you to think
differently about the band."
540
01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:10,720
The pendulum swung way over
in the opposite direction.
541
01:06:10,880 --> 01:06:16,200
We tried to become a band we weren't.
I was against it all the time.
542
01:06:37,880 --> 01:06:43,480
We were flirting with U2-ish stuff.
Were trying to show something different.
543
01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:49,880
But it comes from the wrong place, that's
the problem. It's not honest enough.
544
01:06:50,040 --> 01:06:53,800
Because there's
this dishonesty seeping in.
545
01:06:53,960 --> 01:06:58,120
Which is about what we shouldn't do.
546
01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:03,320
So a heavy hand guided everything
in the choice of songs,
547
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:06,920
in the development
and recording of the songs.
548
01:07:07,800 --> 01:07:13,360
I remember a different vibe. We were sick
of our teenybopper status at that point.
549
01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:20,240
Those albums challenged how the band was
perceived, gave us a much richer history.
550
01:07:20,840 --> 01:07:24,160
The 80's way of making albums
was on the way out.
551
01:07:24,320 --> 01:07:28,040
I really felt that that was
not gonna work.
552
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:36,680
Pal and I agreed on the direction for
East Of The Sun. After touring live,
553
01:07:36,840 --> 01:07:41,320
we wanted to get back to our roots
with a band in studio.
554
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:47,840
So we settled into the largest studio
in Abbey Road for several months.
555
01:08:15,520 --> 01:08:19,960
Lately I've learnt a lot
I should've learned a decade ago.
556
01:08:20,120 --> 01:08:22,920
We were naive in the beginning.
557
01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:29,120
-We thought we could just be famous first.
-It's given us lots of problems.
558
01:08:29,280 --> 01:08:32,560
We haven't steered our career
where we wanted.
559
01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:40,720
Is it possible to be more successful?
You even set a world record.
560
01:08:40,880 --> 01:08:44,800
-How many came to the concert in Rio?
-It was packed.
561
01:08:44,960 --> 01:08:48,600
Wasn't it almost 200,000?
How can you top that?
562
01:08:50,840 --> 01:08:54,000
-That's not what it's about.
-No?
563
01:08:54,160 --> 01:08:57,360
We feel we're just at the starting line.
564
01:08:57,520 --> 01:09:03,000
We want to leave a body of work we can
be proud of, that's worth something.
565
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:31,480
I'm rarely satisfied or feel at ease
with what I hear on stage.
566
01:09:31,640 --> 01:09:37,240
The playfulness that comes when
you feel at ease is very special.
567
01:09:37,400 --> 01:09:42,560
It's something I often miss on stage,
on tour, getting there.
568
01:09:45,400 --> 01:09:50,160
The guy who mixes what I hear...
569
01:09:51,560 --> 01:09:55,480
He gets two hours
of discontent every evening.
570
01:09:58,800 --> 01:10:02,760
I use a wide register,
and many acoustic criteria
571
01:10:02,920 --> 01:10:08,720
have to be met in order to actually
stay in touch with what you're doing.
572
01:10:08,880 --> 01:10:12,720
And I'm extremely demanding in that sense.
573
01:10:12,880 --> 01:10:17,040
Could we... take a break with that?
I need to focus here.
574
01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:44,960
He's got better at saying
"this was good".
575
01:10:45,120 --> 01:10:50,120
It used to be impossible for him
to be pleased with a concert.
576
01:10:50,280 --> 01:10:53,040
He was never happy.
And of course
577
01:10:53,200 --> 01:10:59,080
this drains the energy from
the people around him.
578
01:10:59,240 --> 01:11:05,440
I'm exhausted. Too many repetitions of
the same stuff. I'm howling all the time.
579
01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:09,000
So it's making me a century older.
580
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:16,440
That's when it starts to bite. It's not
good for your mind or your voice.
581
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:19,360
That's life for a singer.
582
01:11:20,040 --> 01:11:23,200
It's easy to say, "Relax, don't worry."
583
01:11:23,760 --> 01:11:28,240
It's like sending a downhill racer out
on the slope blindfolded.
584
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:32,680
If you don't have good sound,
it can easily go wrong.
585
01:11:43,240 --> 01:11:48,160
We've never performed our songs like this.
So it's all new.
586
01:11:48,320 --> 01:11:53,760
But people know the songs,
and that's what creates a connection.
587
01:11:53,920 --> 01:11:57,640
We have some catalogue stuff
we've rarely played.
588
01:11:57,800 --> 01:12:01,200
My worry is that it'll be too...
589
01:12:01,360 --> 01:12:07,680
That it's too nice and orderly, with lots
of neat transitions, that kinda stuff.
590
01:12:07,840 --> 01:12:12,000
-Stuff that makes me fall asleep.
-Like what?
591
01:12:12,160 --> 01:12:17,560
-It's a general problem.
-The arrangements are all so elaborate.
592
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:20,120
There's no...
593
01:12:20,920 --> 01:12:26,880
Yeah, I get the point. Know the feeling.
But I think much of it sounds okay.
594
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:32,520
Everything sounds okay. That's not it.
But maybe iron out the details.
595
01:12:32,680 --> 01:12:35,480
Can we just add Sox Of The Fox there?
596
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:38,400
-Your call.
-Before Memorial, yeah.
597
01:12:41,560 --> 01:12:45,000
Pal has a knack of getting his way.
598
01:12:45,160 --> 01:12:49,440
That doesn't work the same way
for Magne and me.
599
01:12:49,600 --> 01:12:54,320
And when I say "Magne and me",
it's because I mostly agree
600
01:12:54,480 --> 01:12:58,400
with Magne's reactions,
his understanding of things.
601
01:12:58,560 --> 01:13:04,040
That's how it's been through the years,
and still is. But not always.
602
01:13:05,680 --> 01:13:10,000
Pal has a great deal of unused material
603
01:13:10,160 --> 01:13:14,560
that he wants me to try out for starters.
604
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:19,240
But for that to happen, it really has to
605
01:13:19,400 --> 01:13:22,760
feel right for all of us.
606
01:13:22,920 --> 01:13:27,400
There won't be any a-ha album
until all three agree on it.
607
01:13:27,560 --> 01:13:30,880
No matter how many songs you've written.
608
01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:37,840
None of us have the right to use a-ha
as our personal playground.
609
01:14:17,960 --> 01:14:22,200
The conflict with Pal over
the early songwriting credits.
610
01:14:22,360 --> 01:14:25,200
That's the main obstacle.
611
01:14:26,320 --> 01:14:33,040
I've done a lot without being credited
based on how you define songwriting.
612
01:14:33,200 --> 01:14:37,960
If you say a song is what you sing
and play on an acoustic guitar,
613
01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:41,440
then my riff on Take On Me
doesn't count.
614
01:14:41,600 --> 01:14:45,000
There are different definitions.
That's Pal's.
615
01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:54,600
People nowadays write songs
in a different way.
616
01:14:54,760 --> 01:14:59,200
You have a guy saying,
"I wrote the bassline on this song."
617
01:14:59,360 --> 01:15:04,160
"I wrote this part. I wrote that part.
I added this. I'm a songwriter."
618
01:15:04,320 --> 01:15:07,440
That's not the type of song
I feel I'm writing.
619
01:15:07,600 --> 01:15:13,520
Like building a table. You can decorate it
with different cups, put a flower on it.
620
01:15:13,680 --> 01:15:16,560
But you still made a table.
Yeah, sure...
621
01:15:16,720 --> 01:15:23,320
If you came up with the legs so it doesn't
fall over, it's an important part of it.
622
01:15:23,480 --> 01:15:28,320
But if it's just decorating, you give it
to someone who'll decorate it differently.
623
01:15:28,480 --> 01:15:34,800
My contribution is constantly underrated.
It's not basslines or drum programming.
624
01:15:34,960 --> 01:15:38,120
It's about toplines, riffs,
625
01:15:38,280 --> 01:15:44,160
themes that are defining
and that change the song's character.
626
01:15:49,080 --> 01:15:53,280
In the very beginning,
Pal and Mags wrote the songs.
627
01:15:53,440 --> 01:15:56,000
Pal wrote more than Magne.
628
01:15:56,160 --> 01:16:00,880
And Pal was more forceful
in getting his stuff across.
629
01:16:01,040 --> 01:16:03,600
That was a source of friction.
630
01:16:03,760 --> 01:16:10,080
Anything he played that I loved,
I felt like I'd picked up and made happen.
631
01:16:10,240 --> 01:16:14,520
I can't think of one song
that we didn't record. Maybe one.
632
01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:20,360
There was a song called Trees Never Grow
On Sand. Morten didn't like the singing.
633
01:16:20,520 --> 01:16:25,360
He also wasn't writing
sort of lyrics back then.
634
01:16:25,520 --> 01:16:31,240
So I depended on him doing that
for my songs to be included.
635
01:16:31,400 --> 01:16:37,400
The result was always that all my songs
were cowritten, of course.
636
01:16:37,560 --> 01:16:41,920
But where I contributed
with musical themes and stuff
637
01:16:42,080 --> 01:16:45,520
on his songs, it wasn't always credited.
638
01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:54,160
I'm sure the story would've been different
if all three were credited, like in U2.
639
01:16:54,320 --> 01:16:58,200
Which worked very well for that band.
From day one
640
01:16:58,360 --> 01:17:02,120
they agreed to share it all equally.
641
01:17:02,280 --> 01:17:06,400
You're lucky to get the success you get.
It's such a joy.
642
01:17:06,560 --> 01:17:11,400
You're playing music
for thousands of people. Like, enjoy it!
643
01:17:11,560 --> 01:17:17,840
Kinda sinful not to really appreciate what
you have when you have so very much.
644
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:23,840
Those guys need a shrink all together.
Each one individually, and then as a band.
645
01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:27,360
Are you okay?
646
01:17:27,520 --> 01:17:29,640
We ok too!
647
01:18:18,880 --> 01:18:25,040
Pal always has plenty of stuff
going on musically, so I let go.
648
01:18:25,200 --> 01:18:29,160
Stopped caring.
649
01:18:29,320 --> 01:18:33,920
It ended like it often does with a-ha,
in a tug of war, bad vibes.
650
01:18:34,080 --> 01:18:40,000
I started to feel ready
to get out of a-ha altogether.
651
01:19:15,760 --> 01:19:20,240
I decided to move back to Norway.
Our first son had arrived.
652
01:19:20,400 --> 01:19:25,920
My wife was unhappy in London.
I told the others.
653
01:19:26,080 --> 01:19:31,040
"I'm moving back home.
I've got 18 months of national service."
654
01:19:31,200 --> 01:19:35,480
"And that basically means
no more a-ha for me."
655
01:19:35,640 --> 01:19:39,520
"We'll have to see
what happens after that."
656
01:20:24,800 --> 01:20:32,360
I think I needed to get out of the group
and get into my own creative stuff.
657
01:20:32,520 --> 01:20:36,400
Plus I've been an artist
at heart from the beginning.
658
01:20:36,560 --> 01:20:42,000
Just basically expressing myself
on napkins and envelopes on tour.
659
01:20:42,160 --> 01:20:45,040
And it started to raise its voice.
660
01:20:55,320 --> 01:21:01,760
When I started to take making
paintings seriously, for real,
661
01:21:01,920 --> 01:21:07,800
it was basically a reaction
to the machine a-ha had become.
662
01:21:07,960 --> 01:21:13,520
It was mainly very therapeutic for me
to do something on my own.
663
01:21:48,640 --> 01:21:53,200
Working with music and painting pictures
feels very similar.
664
01:21:53,360 --> 01:21:57,480
You want the same feeling,
want your hair to stand on end.
665
01:21:57,640 --> 01:22:00,280
That mood... Mood is everything.
666
01:22:16,800 --> 01:22:21,280
It was a huge relief for me to get
into the Wild Seed project.
667
01:22:21,440 --> 01:22:28,400
It's important to remember that in a-ha,
our roles became fixed after a while.
668
01:22:28,560 --> 01:22:34,400
Pal and Magne had played in bands together
since they were 10 or 12 years old.
669
01:22:34,560 --> 01:22:40,560
Carving out a place would demand
a pushiness that I simply don't have.
670
01:22:47,720 --> 01:22:53,680
Wild Seed was a huge success. It sold well
and won four Norwegian Grammy awards.
671
01:22:53,840 --> 01:22:59,720
That it never became a worldwide hit was
mostly down to coincidence and bad luck.
672
01:23:02,440 --> 01:23:06,560
Some record company person said,
"Yeah, that's good."
673
01:23:06,720 --> 01:23:11,560
"Then it's out before Morten's solo album.
Oh, I wasn't supposed to say that."
674
01:23:11,720 --> 01:23:14,880
I was like, "What's up with that?"
675
01:23:15,040 --> 01:23:20,800
I don't know who told him, how it was
communicated to him. It was news to me.
676
01:23:20,960 --> 01:23:25,000
I only found out ages later.
Like, many years later.
677
01:23:25,160 --> 01:23:27,120
I was pretty pissed off.
678
01:23:27,280 --> 01:23:33,320
You've been recording for almost a year,
preparing songs for the next album.
679
01:23:33,480 --> 01:23:36,880
Pal was very unhappy with my vocals.
680
01:23:37,040 --> 01:23:42,480
And I didn't feel at home on Memorial
Beach, the previous album. Not at all.
681
01:23:42,640 --> 01:23:47,400
I felt I was the wrong guy for Pal.
I thought like, "Feel free."
682
01:23:47,560 --> 01:23:50,280
"Find someone who does what you want."
683
01:23:51,120 --> 01:23:56,000
I felt it could've been handled better
so I didn't waste time on stuff
684
01:23:56,160 --> 01:23:58,560
that isn't gonna happen.
685
01:23:58,720 --> 01:24:04,040
That's when I started sort of
figuring out, "Time to do something else."
686
01:24:34,600 --> 01:24:37,480
It's never been my desire to be in a band.
687
01:24:37,640 --> 01:24:42,480
I'm in a band with him because
I was submerged in music.
688
01:24:42,640 --> 01:24:46,480
I had to come out on the other
side as a writer or die.
689
01:24:46,640 --> 01:24:52,760
I had to learn music or get divorced.
Because it was just 24/7 with him.
690
01:25:11,760 --> 01:25:15,680
But it's weird to suddenly
be in the middle.
691
01:25:15,840 --> 01:25:19,640
"What am I doing in the middle?
I should be over there!"
692
01:25:19,800 --> 01:25:22,480
Give me a hug.
693
01:25:22,640 --> 01:25:24,920
You did great.
694
01:25:27,720 --> 01:25:30,320
Nice. We should do it again.
695
01:25:52,320 --> 01:25:57,320
It's four years since their last show,
but now a-ha's back together.
696
01:25:57,480 --> 01:26:02,200
Even though we dropped out,
we never settled it.
697
01:26:02,360 --> 01:26:04,880
It's always been there.
698
01:26:05,040 --> 01:26:09,760
Unfinished business, like.
We never felt we were done.
699
01:26:09,920 --> 01:26:13,680
It would be natural to do it.
The question is when.
700
01:26:14,800 --> 01:26:18,360
There's this feeling of a common destiny.
701
01:26:19,440 --> 01:26:24,080
There are some good signals in what
we're working on now.
702
01:26:24,240 --> 01:26:30,160
There's a lot more potential, and as long
as there is, it's interesting to go on.
703
01:27:08,320 --> 01:27:14,680
Before the release of the new album,
Minor Earth Major Sky, there was a while
704
01:27:14,840 --> 01:27:18,720
where it felt like starting over.
705
01:27:18,880 --> 01:27:23,240
We went to New York, Magne and I,
and knocked off all the demos.
706
01:27:23,400 --> 01:27:27,880
Spent one day on each.
Morten's songs are cool on that one.
707
01:27:28,040 --> 01:27:32,320
Magne came up with
the fantastic I Wish I Cared,
708
01:27:32,480 --> 01:27:36,520
and other things I liked.
I thought that could be the first single.
709
01:27:36,680 --> 01:27:39,840
It felt like we found a common foothold.
710
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:45,280
That we had the same musical ambitions.
It felt like a functional band.
711
01:28:17,640 --> 01:28:21,120
For me, I was in my
probably best period ever
712
01:28:21,280 --> 01:28:26,000
with Summer Moved On. That got like
six out of six in the papers.
713
01:28:26,160 --> 01:28:31,000
People came out of the woodwork saying,
"I always liked a-ha."
714
01:28:31,160 --> 01:28:35,520
It seemed like every a-ha fan
had turned into a journalist,
715
01:28:35,680 --> 01:28:38,520
with a whole different appreciation.
716
01:28:38,680 --> 01:28:42,600
If you know anything about our band,
one band in particular
717
01:28:42,760 --> 01:28:45,560
shaped our path and our future.
718
01:28:45,720 --> 01:28:50,760
And that band happens to be
from Norway, and they're called a-ha.
719
01:28:50,920 --> 01:28:55,720
In the early 2000's, many major names
came out as a-ha fans.
720
01:28:55,880 --> 01:28:59,240
Coldplay were hard-core fans.
721
01:28:59,400 --> 01:29:03,880
U2, who stole unashamed from
The Sun Always Shines On TV
722
01:29:04,040 --> 01:29:08,640
on their Beautiful Day, said a-ha
was an underrated band.
723
01:29:08,800 --> 01:29:12,200
Oasis knew their a-ha.
Even Kanye West.
724
01:29:12,360 --> 01:29:15,240
They still have a huge influence.
725
01:29:15,400 --> 01:29:19,000
If you listen to Blinding Lights
by The Weeknd,
726
01:29:19,160 --> 01:29:22,560
both the drum beat and the synths
727
01:29:22,720 --> 01:29:28,680
are clearly, without a shred of doubt,
a tribute to Take On Me.
728
01:30:57,800 --> 01:30:59,960
From Terry Slater,
729
01:31:00,120 --> 01:31:04,600
our good old manager
who opened everything up to us.
730
01:31:07,440 --> 01:31:11,760
"FAME, like a wayward girl,
will still be coy"
731
01:31:11,920 --> 01:31:17,880
"To those who woo her
with too slavish knees,"
732
01:31:18,040 --> 01:31:20,680
This is by Keats.
733
01:31:20,840 --> 01:31:24,280
"But makes surrender to
some thoughtless boy,"
734
01:31:24,440 --> 01:31:29,160
"And dotes the more upon a heart at ease;
She is a Gipsey,"
735
01:31:29,320 --> 01:31:33,880
"will not speak to those who have not
learnt to be content without her;"
736
01:31:34,040 --> 01:31:37,560
"Ye Artists lovelorn! madmen that ye are!"
737
01:31:37,720 --> 01:31:41,400
"Make your best bow to her and bid adieu,"
738
01:31:41,560 --> 01:31:44,400
"Then, if she likes it,
she will follow you."
739
01:31:44,560 --> 01:31:47,520
He's absolutely right. Fuck fame.
740
01:31:50,840 --> 01:31:55,080
If you thirst for fame,
you can just forget it.
741
01:32:00,080 --> 01:32:05,800
Every album we make starts
with a honeymoon period
742
01:32:05,960 --> 01:32:09,400
where we go into it thinking
743
01:32:09,560 --> 01:32:13,720
we should come together in the studio,
see what happens.
744
01:32:13,880 --> 01:32:19,760
But pretty soon the problems
begin to manifest themselves.
745
01:32:19,920 --> 01:32:25,080
Two things that made everything difficult
was moving to different countries,
746
01:32:25,240 --> 01:32:27,360
and e-mail was invented.
747
01:32:27,520 --> 01:32:31,720
Magne would write ten pages.
Morten would write one line.
748
01:32:31,880 --> 01:32:34,800
I would be four lines.
749
01:32:34,960 --> 01:32:40,480
Before that, you had to pick up the phone,
and it got a bit harder to be...
750
01:32:40,640 --> 01:32:46,480
You know, as isolated, and sort of...
We didn't dig trenches quite as easily.
751
01:32:50,680 --> 01:32:57,040
The Analogue album didn't sell. The record
company was about to give up on a-ha.
752
01:32:57,200 --> 01:33:03,160
But the Analogue single was a hit,
and reopened the UK market.
753
01:33:03,320 --> 01:33:06,520
And we were planning to retake the US.
754
01:33:06,680 --> 01:33:10,560
So we needed another real hit.
We didn't have one.
755
01:33:10,720 --> 01:33:16,480
So Foot Of The Mountain
ended up being a "maybe" song.
756
01:33:17,400 --> 01:33:20,360
It started out as two songs. One by me.
757
01:33:26,720 --> 01:33:28,960
And one song by Pal.
758
01:33:36,040 --> 01:33:41,600
In the old days we'd probably end up
trying to knit them together somehow.
759
01:33:41,760 --> 01:33:47,760
That was often the process, a bit from me,
a bit from him, see how it turned out.
760
01:33:48,560 --> 01:33:52,520
This time it was Harald Wiik
who suggested it.
761
01:33:52,680 --> 01:33:58,160
He was the one who "interfered"
and suggested we try to merge them.
762
01:33:59,200 --> 01:34:04,120
It's like physically amputating your song
and putting something in.
763
01:34:04,280 --> 01:34:07,600
I'm writing a chorus
about escaping the city.
764
01:34:07,760 --> 01:34:13,640
He's throwing shit about me in the verse.
You know, I can't get behind that.
765
01:34:14,960 --> 01:34:19,480
Pal suddenly says, "This won't do.
This is a private song."
766
01:34:19,640 --> 01:34:24,080
And we feel... We try to digest it.
But we feel he's wrong.
767
01:34:24,240 --> 01:34:28,760
Primarily because...
I don't really believe him.
768
01:34:29,360 --> 01:34:32,160
Pal wanted to remove his part.
769
01:34:32,320 --> 01:34:35,680
You know, "Write your own fucking chorus."
770
01:34:35,840 --> 01:34:42,920
Finally Morten and I told him,
"If you do it, you've terminated a-ha."
771
01:34:43,080 --> 01:34:45,600
"Then you're fired."
772
01:34:45,760 --> 01:34:48,080
Is Pal still in the band?
773
01:34:55,720 --> 01:35:02,040
Pal's next comment was,
"Why all the bad vibes in the band?"
774
01:35:04,360 --> 01:35:06,240
So he backed down.
775
01:35:06,400 --> 01:35:12,840
I let it slide. But I don't
pay any attention to that song.
776
01:35:14,360 --> 01:35:19,360
I would never have suggested it today.
I wouldn't have dared to.
777
01:35:19,520 --> 01:35:23,680
But what I've realised,
what I'm really sorry for,
778
01:35:23,840 --> 01:35:27,080
is how important this is for Pal.
779
01:35:27,240 --> 01:35:30,400
Much more important than I realised.
780
01:35:51,600 --> 01:35:55,760
I like a poison pen song
as good as anybody. I love them.
781
01:35:55,920 --> 01:35:59,880
But that's why you have solo albums
to put that stuff on.
782
01:37:10,640 --> 01:37:14,600
One amazing thing about a-ha
is that after 35 years,
783
01:37:14,760 --> 01:37:19,760
they're still among
the world's greatest live bands.
784
01:37:19,920 --> 01:37:23,640
I don't think people realise
how huge they still are.
785
01:38:22,400 --> 01:38:28,040
This is the last time I ask you.
Has anything changed?
786
01:38:28,200 --> 01:38:34,000
Do you feel more like going to the studio
to record something with the others?
787
01:38:34,160 --> 01:38:39,840
It's not that I wouldn't like to.
It's just that I've done it before.
788
01:38:40,000 --> 01:38:46,960
And always ended up being disappointed.
But this could be a big hit with a-ha.
789
01:39:05,440 --> 01:39:12,520
We should've gone to New Orleans.
Rented a huge house somewhere.
790
01:39:12,680 --> 01:39:17,360
With voodoo and chicken feet, like.
791
01:39:17,520 --> 01:39:22,840
Stayed there, seen it through,
sweated it out together.
792
01:39:23,000 --> 01:39:28,440
I've said so for ages.
I know for certain that it's true.
793
01:39:28,600 --> 01:39:33,680
That could've brought back a-ha.
794
01:39:35,440 --> 01:39:40,400
They're not hungry enough. Like when they
were dumpster diving in England.
795
01:39:40,560 --> 01:39:47,080
Morten ate mouldy cookies. They were
hungry. They were bent on making it.
796
01:39:47,240 --> 01:39:52,000
I think they still haven't made
their best record.
797
01:40:04,080 --> 01:40:09,680
If I can get one more song in there that's
a good a-ha song, ten more, whatever,
798
01:40:09,840 --> 01:40:13,840
it's worth the hassle.
I can go through a lot of stuff.
799
01:40:14,000 --> 01:40:18,320
If we can strengthen
the legacy of the band,
800
01:40:18,480 --> 01:40:23,600
I don't mind going, you know,
through the painful bit.
801
01:40:24,680 --> 01:40:29,120
Ten, twenty years from now,
they'll go through our list.
802
01:40:29,280 --> 01:40:36,240
All our little quibbles about everything
means absolutely nothing to anybody else.
803
01:40:40,160 --> 01:40:45,320
To me it doesn't feel like
there's any upside.
804
01:40:45,480 --> 01:40:51,880
It just feels like... Going into a room
where I've simply felt awful.
805
01:40:56,440 --> 01:40:59,160
AGAINST ANXIETY
806
01:41:07,720 --> 01:41:10,920
What we know about cardiac fibrillation,
807
01:41:11,080 --> 01:41:15,240
is it often affects young people
who push themselves.
808
01:41:15,400 --> 01:41:20,320
My experience is that when I've had
the most emotional pressure,
809
01:41:20,480 --> 01:41:23,160
that's when it rears its head.
810
01:41:23,320 --> 01:41:29,080
So in that sense it's obviously connected
to the band and its history.
811
01:42:10,600 --> 01:42:15,000
Pal was extremely supportive then.
As if in a way...
812
01:42:15,160 --> 01:42:21,640
That the way we'd treated each other
had real consequences.
813
01:42:21,800 --> 01:42:24,720
So it was Pal at his most caring.
814
01:42:24,880 --> 01:42:31,200
He called me. "Magne, we have to do this
so that it works for you, for all of us."
815
01:42:31,360 --> 01:42:37,080
"We have to try to... Can't have
a situation that makes you sick."
816
01:42:37,240 --> 01:42:42,520
I thought it was really sweet. I was...
817
01:42:42,680 --> 01:42:47,720
So then it was like,
a few moments of love, and it was...
818
01:42:47,880 --> 01:42:54,040
But I'm the difficult figure in Pal's
life too, and everything I say about him
819
01:42:54,200 --> 01:42:59,560
does have a counterpoint in him.
820
01:44:09,160 --> 01:44:14,000
A-ha was never based on friendship.
Of course there's friendship.
821
01:44:14,160 --> 01:44:19,080
But it's not the cornerstone,
not what brought us together.
822
01:44:19,240 --> 01:44:24,720
We had a bond through music.
That was our strength.
823
01:44:26,440 --> 01:44:29,560
We wouldn't have stuck together otherwise.
824
01:44:29,720 --> 01:44:33,160
I think we have a genuine respect
for our talents.
825
01:44:33,320 --> 01:44:38,280
We still appreciate each other very much.
No less than before.
826
01:44:38,440 --> 01:44:40,400
Maybe more.
76111