1
00:00:07,799 --> 00:00:12,300
I knew I was going to become much
stronger than everything and everyone.

2
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:19,120
I had brutal ambitions, you could say. 
I wanted to do it properly.

3
00:00:21,130 --> 00:00:31,060


4
00:00:31,060 --> 00:00:37,160


5
00:00:37,170 --> 00:01:06,129


6
00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,000
It happened in Rio 21 years ago.

7
00:01:10,455 --> 00:01:16,836
198,000 paying fans filled Maracanã
Stadium, giving A-ha a world record.

8
00:01:16,836 --> 00:01:21,216
So I know that for Morten Harket,
I am standing on historic ground.

9
00:01:21,216 --> 00:01:26,091
And it was only natural for him to bring me here,
when his story was going to be told.

10
00:01:26,846 --> 00:01:31,720
I knew him a little from before, 
but had no idea that the next 10 days

11
00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,946
would completely change 
my image of Morten Harket.

12
00:01:34,946 --> 00:01:37,794
Norway’s biggest star of them all.

13
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,105
It was simply enormous.
Absolutely huge.

14
00:01:57,105 --> 00:02:03,897
What struck me most was how well-behaved people were. 
There was a fantastic aura around.

15
00:02:03,897 --> 00:02:07,863
A wonderful atmosphere
that you felt immediately.

16
00:02:15,162 --> 00:02:17,160
It came in waves.

17
00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:23,029
It was like an organism,
so many people together.

18
00:02:23,029 --> 00:02:29,004
They didn’t step on each other, and they had 
been standing there for 11 hours before we came on stage.

19
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I felt so tiny.
It was unbelievable.

20
00:02:32,218 --> 00:02:34,095
We didn’t really take it in,
to be honest.

21
00:02:34,095 --> 00:02:36,741
You took it in more afterwards.

22
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,668
But precisely because this happened 
more than 20 years ago,

23
00:02:40,668 --> 00:02:44,827
I was pretty sure that Morten would just be 
an ordinary tourist in today’s Rio.

24
00:02:45,544 --> 00:02:47,222
I was wrong.

25
00:03:07,571 --> 00:03:11,236
So how did Morten become 
the man he is today?

26
00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:20,959
I remember very well one day I came
home from school, I was maybe 7 years old.

27
00:03:20,959 --> 00:03:25,652
My mother came happily 
up to me and said:

28
00:03:25,652 --> 00:03:32,215
“Now you’re going to start learning piano!
You’ve got piano lessons.”

29
00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:39,319
And I felt everything inside me
just shut down.

30
00:03:39,319 --> 00:03:44,000
Right there and then. Because I didn’t
want to be taught anything.

31
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,599
I wanted to learn myself. 
I wanted to discover it myself.

32
00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,621
I had no need 
to be taught at all.

33
00:03:50,452 --> 00:03:52,257
I couldn’t do it.

34
00:03:54,599 --> 00:03:59,817
I don’t know why it’s always been like that with me.
But I have a real resistance

35
00:03:59,817 --> 00:04:03,920
to being taught anything.
But how did you learn guitar then?

36
00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,546
Well, I went to piano lessons.
Because I didn’t dare, or couldn’t, say no.

37
00:04:08,546 --> 00:04:12,499
My mother was very excited and happy,
and thought it was wonderful.

38
00:04:12,499 --> 00:04:14,522
It was wonderful. 
It was just me who felt wrong.

39
00:04:14,522 --> 00:04:19,477
I had to find a way to fix it.
So I went and took those lessons.

40
00:04:19,477 --> 00:04:23,380
I went for several years and learned to play piano,
but I never learned notes at all.

41
00:04:23,759 --> 00:04:30,302
I just played by ear. I listened to him play,
then tried to copy it.

42
00:04:30,302 --> 00:04:33,584
He corrected me 
here and there too.

43
00:04:34,113 --> 00:04:36,808
It took him three years to realize 
that I couldn’t read music.

44
00:04:37,110 --> 00:04:38,950
He had a board over my hands.

45
00:04:39,479 --> 00:04:42,000
Just so I couldn’t see them.

46
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,840
“But you’ve got the notes there,” he said, 
“so this should be fine.”

47
00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:49,738
By then he had already realized I was faking it.

48
00:04:52,759 --> 00:04:55,800
In the middle of all this, 
you grew up in a religious home.

49
00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:03,389
They had a Christian faith, open
and accessible, easy to relate to.

50
00:05:03,389 --> 00:05:06,215
There was never a heavy hand in it.

51
00:05:06,215 --> 00:05:09,005
Never any strict control.

52
00:05:09,428 --> 00:05:12,706
But you even went so far 
as to study theology.

53
00:05:12,706 --> 00:05:16,210
Yes. That was because I thought I
could justify doing that,

54
00:05:16,210 --> 00:05:22,018
but my actual reason for signing up 
for theology was that finally,

55
00:05:22,018 --> 00:05:29,086
after a bloody battle at home, I had managed 
to get permission to grow my hair long.

56
00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,693
So I had hair as long as yours.
Really.

57
00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:40,120
And then I was going into the military,
and they didn’t care about that at all.

58
00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:45,768
I realized that if I enrolled in theology,
I would get a seven-year deferral.

59
00:05:45,768 --> 00:05:48,555
So that was the real 
reason I started.

60
00:05:48,555 --> 00:05:52,720
But was it a kind of rebellion?

61
00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:54,759
Not at all!
No, you just decided to do it?

62
00:05:54,759 --> 00:05:56,242
Yes, and it had nothing to do with that.

63
00:05:56,325 --> 00:06:02,600
I’ve never really had a rebellion, you could say,
against my upbringing or my parents.

64
00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:07,333
There are small things we might disagree about,
more superficial, external things.

65
00:06:07,333 --> 00:06:12,799
Yes. 
But I’ve never had anything to revolt against.

66
00:06:12,799 --> 00:06:17,003
So when I went that way, it was because 
I felt at home there.

67
00:06:17,003 --> 00:06:23,257
I didn’t like being nicely groomed. 
I didn’t like neat haircuts and all that.

68
00:06:23,257 --> 00:06:27,976
Except when I began my 
hippie and bohemian phase,

69
00:06:27,976 --> 00:06:34,759
just as the preppy wave came in.
So I didn’t quite fit the times, you could say.

70
00:06:34,759 --> 00:06:40,688
But you also started your
musical career back then?

71
00:06:40,688 --> 00:06:45,319
Maybe not the very first, 
but you played Judas, didn’t you?

72
00:06:45,319 --> 00:06:51,319
Yes, I was in Antem, which was a
Christian youth choir group.

73
00:06:51,319 --> 00:06:56,104
And there were girls. You know, you come into 
the same room and there are girls.

74
00:06:56,104 --> 00:07:01,963
That’s an important part of the drive, 
and then there’s the community.

75
00:07:01,963 --> 00:07:05,370
You talk about life’s big questions and so on.

76
00:07:05,370 --> 00:07:06,639
And it was a choir.

77
00:07:06,639 --> 00:07:10,039
They had ambitions to stage
musicals and such.

78
00:07:10,039 --> 00:07:16,960
So I jumped into one of the roles,
and was naturally chosen as Judas.

79
00:07:22,599 --> 00:07:27,440
One day I heard music from my
cousin who had been in London.

80
00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:31,898
He came back with a record, 
and it exploded inside me.

81
00:07:32,388 --> 00:07:34,919
So then I had to start a band.

82
00:07:34,919 --> 00:07:39,680
And I couldn’t understand why
nobody else had thought of that in Norway.

83
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:43,120
I remember not being able 
to comprehend it. I didn’t get people.

84
00:07:43,384 --> 00:07:48,422
Of course there were loads of bands around. 
I just wasn’t in tune.

85
00:07:49,479 --> 00:07:54,199
But it was quite by chance that you met
Pål and Magne, wasn’t it?

86
00:07:54,199 --> 00:07:56,832
I don’t think it was entirely by chance.

87
00:07:56,832 --> 00:08:03,675
I heard them playing as Bridges.

88
00:08:03,676 --> 00:08:05,639
It was a very strange experience,
because it was so clear.

89
00:08:05,639 --> 00:08:11,696
They were standing there and I knew right then, 
the only thing they needed,

90
00:08:11,696 --> 00:08:14,525
the only thing missing, was me.

91
00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:18,639
But how did you do it?
Did you walk up and say “hey, you need me”?

92
00:08:18,639 --> 00:08:23,904
No, absolutely not. I couldn’t. 
I was too proud for that.

93
00:08:23,904 --> 00:08:26,440
There was no point either.

94
00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:28,759
They had to discover me.

95
00:08:28,759 --> 00:08:32,000
And then it could happen.
So how did they?

96
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:37,039
Eventually, that’s what happened, 
but it took some time.

97
00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:39,570
The rest is a story all 
of Norway is proud of.

98
00:08:39,890 --> 00:08:46,560
Talent, persistence, and unwavering self-belief
took A-ha and “Take On Me” to the top worldwide.

99
00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:51,020
We were going to shoot our first video, 
and we thought it was super cool!

100
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:57,801
We were there at five in the morning or something. 
We were dead tired and freezing cold.

101
00:08:57,801 --> 00:09:01,675
We sat down, had some breakfast,
and were very excited,

102
00:09:01,675 --> 00:09:06,056
because we hadn’t heard much about it,
we hadn’t had a proper talk about the video.

103
00:09:06,056 --> 00:09:08,561
About what was going to happen,
so we were very curious.

104
00:09:08,561 --> 00:09:10,647
Things had moved quickly once it began.

105
00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:20,168
Then some women came in, you know.
Real women.

106
00:09:21,037 --> 00:09:23,480
Shapely and…

107
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:27,572
I just try to remember
how it really was.

108
00:09:28,818 --> 00:09:34,058
We were sitting there with bacon, eggs,
and baked beans.

109
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:38,920
And suddenly…
they just started stripping off their clothes.

110
00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:46,375
They were changing, and I was staring
straight at a naked backside.

111
00:09:46,639 --> 00:09:48,591
Completely naked.

112
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:53,438
I saw Paul just stand up
and walk out of the trailer.

113
00:09:56,519 --> 00:10:01,260
And I sat there thinking…
What? I didn’t understand anything.

114
00:10:01,260 --> 00:10:07,951
What is actually going on here?
We’re supposed to make a video for “Take On Me.”

115
00:10:07,951 --> 00:10:12,632
What’s in the lyrics, really?
And what kind of song is this?

116
00:10:13,501 --> 00:10:17,429
We felt it was a straight-up
comic-book, Sunday-school kind of song.

117
00:10:17,429 --> 00:10:20,400
Which it is.
That was their thinking.

118
00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:22,788
They’d apparently hired the women
they knew.

119
00:10:22,886 --> 00:10:28,445
The director had rounded up some girls.
And those girls were supposed to be in a limo.

120
00:10:28,445 --> 00:10:37,114
They wanted to make that silly
pop-star thing with babes spilling out of the car.

121
00:10:38,021 --> 00:10:41,173
It was lifted straight from…

122
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,685
…the strip and porn industry.

123
00:10:46,685 --> 00:10:54,240
We eventually got pretty clear on where we stood,
but at first it felt like a total crisis.

124
00:10:54,617 --> 00:10:58,200
For once,
we were all completely in agreement?

125
00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,826
Yes, you could say that.
We suddenly felt like teenagers again.

126
00:11:01,826 --> 00:11:04,565
Completely…

127
00:11:05,105 --> 00:11:06,680
He ended up shooting some
shadows of dancing women.

128
00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:11,635
So in that video you see some
silhouettes of writhing bodies.

129
00:11:11,635 --> 00:11:14,200
But he kept going after we
finished our shoot.

130
00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,530
He started filming those women
and used it for something else entirely.

131
00:11:35,079 --> 00:11:38,440
You were even asked,
at some point, to be a film star.

132
00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:43,833
Spider-Man was one of the lead roles on the table.

133
00:11:44,361 --> 00:11:46,231
So you could have been Spider-Man?

134
00:11:46,458 --> 00:11:49,618
I was offered to play
a version of Spider-Man.

135
00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:54,780
It wouldn’t have been the one they made later.
But who on earth says no

136
00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:58,480
to the lead role as Spider-Man?
Well, this guy does.

137
00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:01,600
Yes—but why, Morten?
Because there wasn’t time.

138
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:06,880
I would have had to… It just wasn’t possible.
What was harder to turn down was—

139
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,800
It was…

140
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:15,731
I was offered a film with
John Hurt and Helen Mirren.

141
00:12:15,958 --> 00:12:23,943
That would have been fantastic.
But it never happened.

142
00:12:23,943 --> 00:12:27,040
I don’t think they ever got an answer.

143
00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,279
People have talked endlessly about
whether you guys are friends or not,

144
00:12:41,279 --> 00:12:46,320
and all of that with A-ha. Can you, once
and for all, say, “Did you fall out?

145
00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,519
Was there jealousy,
or what actually happened?”

146
00:12:48,519 --> 00:12:51,240
Yeah, but listen to your question.
That’s a lot at once.

147
00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:53,440
No, it isn’t.
It’s far too little at once.

148
00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:59,000
Okay.
Harald—our manager—has said,

149
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,279
“Nothing can stop A-ha,”
he says, “except A-ha themselves.”

150
00:13:03,279 --> 00:13:07,199
And that’s exactly right.
We can do anything.

151
00:13:07,199 --> 00:13:10,283
You never know
how much better it could have been.

152
00:13:10,794 --> 00:13:17,345
A-ha, with the story they have—
breaking through with a debut single

153
00:13:17,345 --> 00:13:19,345
that had been released three times.

154
00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:24,355
Their career started with
the idea that you never give up.

155
00:13:24,959 --> 00:13:28,360
Many other bands would have given up
on the first try.

156
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:30,639
Right? “Oh well—sorry…”
It became a little hit in Norway,

157
00:13:30,639 --> 00:13:34,754
and there went the chance.
Even that is part of the difference that separates

158
00:13:34,754 --> 00:13:40,534
those who really go the distance from those who don’t.

159
00:13:41,729 --> 00:13:44,688
It’s a lot of will, ambition, and drive.

160
00:13:44,839 --> 00:13:53,931
Through it all we’ve kept together, found our way back,
done things together, despite big differences—

161
00:13:53,931 --> 00:13:58,810
big contrasts in who we are
as types, as characters.

162
00:13:59,376 --> 00:14:04,764
That’s part of the tension
that makes it interesting.

163
00:14:04,764 --> 00:14:09,342
So the possibility, the potential, is explosive.

164
00:14:09,342 --> 00:14:11,921
Are you proud of what you
managed to achieve with A-ha?

165
00:14:11,921 --> 00:14:16,680
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Without reservations.

166
00:14:17,020 --> 00:14:21,432
But at the same time we all know
what we could have achieved.

167
00:14:21,734 --> 00:14:23,959
Is that a source of sorrow?

168
00:14:23,959 --> 00:14:27,440
Yes, it always will be, if you don’t
get to paint that picture—or you know

169
00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:29,224
you’re sitting on something
you really wanted to do.

170
00:14:29,224 --> 00:14:35,560
So there’s a sense of grief in that
which you carry with you all the time.

171
00:14:44,639 --> 00:14:46,767
Even if A-ha is a closed chapter,

172
00:14:46,941 --> 00:14:53,716
music will always be the driving force in Morten’s life.
These days, his new solo album is being finished.

173
00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:58,000
And as always, Morten isn’t satisfied
until every detail is perfect.

174
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:03,614
Especially when it comes to anatomy and
those details that are one of his specialties.

175
00:15:03,614 --> 00:15:06,071
Very little gets past him.

176
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:09,920
Cover proposals.
So cool!

177
00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:12,600
Round seven.
Oh, that many rounds?

178
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:17,040
I’m used to it. It’s just about
keeping the right pacing,

179
00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,563
the right tempo, and making sure to have fun
along the way—then it’s fine.

180
00:15:20,563 --> 00:15:23,895
Was that a new song? Maybe.

181
00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,317
You’ve worked with him for so many years—
do you feel you know him now?

182
00:15:30,299 --> 00:15:32,110
Yes and no.

183
00:15:32,110 --> 00:15:39,680
Morten is a very complex person,
so there are many layers to get to know.

184
00:15:43,839 --> 00:15:47,637
It’s really his guitar, you know.
He’s just so happy to sell it.

185
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:57,802
We’ve spent a lot of time together
the last five or six years, so we know each other well.

186
00:15:58,595 --> 00:16:06,252
When you travel and tour and do promotion,
it’s pretty close quarters.

187
00:16:06,252 --> 00:16:11,345
You sit in cars for hours together,
and you wait at airports.

188
00:16:11,345 --> 00:16:15,866
You have to find something to do in the evening.
So it gets very intense.

189
00:16:15,866 --> 00:16:20,178
You spend a lot of time together when you’re on the road,
so you get to know each other well.

190
00:16:48,344 --> 00:16:51,019
No, I don’t like it.
That’s putting it strongly.

191
00:16:51,019 --> 00:16:51,955
It is what it is.

192
00:16:51,956 --> 00:16:56,222
You just try to handle it
in the best possible way.

193
00:16:56,222 --> 00:17:00,440
Try to meet people—
respectfully, of course.

194
00:17:00,440 --> 00:17:04,081
“Fans”—I’ve never liked that word.
To me, they’re people.

195
00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:08,319
Very often it’s seen as a kind of
brainless state, being a fan.

196
00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:15,702
As if you’ve lost the ability to question anything—
you just take it in with your mouth open.

197
00:17:15,702 --> 00:17:17,935
And that’s simply not
how reality is.

198
00:17:23,259 --> 00:17:25,259
But what *is* in line with reality

199
00:17:25,751 --> 00:17:28,894
is that music often ties itself to the big
events in life.

200
00:17:29,348 --> 00:17:32,418
That’s how it was for Simone,
who wanted to take her own life.

201
00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:49,655
Simone was stopped, but she still didn’t want to live
until her quick-thinking mother

202
00:17:49,655 --> 00:17:51,869
realized that music might be the rescue.

203
00:18:19,919 --> 00:18:23,534
It was Morten Harket’s voice, and
his ability to communicate,

204
00:18:23,534 --> 00:18:25,861
that brought Simone’s spark for life back.

205
00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,910
It took you quite a long time to
accept that you’re a pop artist.

206
00:19:21,911 --> 00:19:23,723
And to be able to stand in that.
Yes.

207
00:19:24,176 --> 00:19:31,950
But when you are, and then you come home,
you’re supposed to be a father, a husband, do the shopping.

208
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:39,829
Yes. What is that like?
You’re never just one of those things.

209
00:19:39,829 --> 00:19:46,000
You’re always all of them.
All the time. I’m—

210
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:52,559
A celebrity whether I’m at home cleaning
my toilet or whether I’m feeding

211
00:19:52,559 --> 00:19:59,284
my daughter, or whatever.
That doesn’t change—it’s always there.

212
00:19:59,700 --> 00:20:04,997
I’m not a normal person, and it’s also
true that I *am* a completely normal person.

213
00:20:04,997 --> 00:20:09,037
Both are true.
I’m not normal in the social sense—

214
00:20:09,037 --> 00:20:15,361
I both… I’ve stood out through what I’ve done,
and I’m singled out because of it.

215
00:20:16,381 --> 00:20:21,324
It isn’t communication anymore.
You’re basically just being picked at.

216
00:20:21,949 --> 00:20:26,046
It’s not a dialogue. It isn’t a
social event you’re part of.

217
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:32,655
What happens when you step into the spotlight
is you’re actually pushed out of the community.

218
00:20:33,039 --> 00:20:39,632
You’re put under a light, and you no longer
belong to the flock.

219
00:20:41,218 --> 00:20:44,586
But that feeling of being pushed out
isn’t new to Morten.

220
00:20:44,586 --> 00:20:48,717
Even as a child he learned
what it means to be different.

221
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,600
“Damn it, Harket—you’re so lame.”

222
00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:59,280
After the break you’ll hear, among other things,
all about Morten’s painful school years

223
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:04,060
as we continue our unique journey in Brazil
with Morten Harket.

224
00:21:04,060 --> 00:21:11,009


225
00:21:11,039 --> 00:21:25,600


226
00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:43,799


227
00:21:53,120 --> 00:22:03,960


228
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:08,960


229
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:14,360


230
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,679


231
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232
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233
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234
00:22:45,679 --> 00:22:50,000


235
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236
00:23:01,346 --> 00:23:03,840
It’s actually quite fascinating.

237
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:08,313
That Morten, who sang for almost 200,000
fans at Maracanã Stadium,

238
00:23:08,313 --> 00:23:09,433
has seen so little of Rio.

239
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,162
Yes, I may have brought you to Rio,
but you’re the one who brought me up here.

240
00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:20,679
It’s also ironic that Rio’s
famous viewpoint, Sugarloaf,

241
00:23:20,679 --> 00:23:26,120
has an annoying tendency to disappear into fog—
on the very day Morten is a tourist.

242
00:23:26,120 --> 00:23:30,000
Or maybe it’s in honor of his
reputation as the “Prince of Fog”?

243
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,600
Do you find it tiring that people
see you as a Prince of Fog?

244
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:37,320
No, not at all…
I actually think that’s great.

245
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,440
Prince of Fog…
That’s fantastic. Imagine—

246
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:46,777
It’s the finest nickname I could get.
Imagine being appointed—

247
00:23:46,777 --> 00:23:51,229
installed as the prince over the Land of Fog.

248
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,529
But are you so aware of it now
that you kind of zhuzh it up?

249
00:23:55,529 --> 00:23:59,391
Well—the Land of Fog does
need a prince, after all.

250
00:23:59,754 --> 00:24:02,472
I’m not saying it has to be me, but…

251
00:24:02,791 --> 00:24:08,662
I see it as a blind honor—
they didn’t know what they were doing.

252
00:24:09,039 --> 00:24:13,090
No, but… they hit the mark.
Listen—can you hear me now?

253
00:24:13,090 --> 00:24:15,480
Yes, I can hear you. In that fog in there?
I can hear you. You can hear me.

254
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:20,840
That thing about going so far into
those foggy landscapes—do you do that on purpose now?

255
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,480
No, it comes on its own.

256
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:29,823
No—it’s an honest thing.
Of course, some people think I

257
00:24:29,823 --> 00:24:34,123
will never be able to find a map
of anything at all.

258
00:24:35,558 --> 00:24:40,120
I disagree with them there.
Now the top just vanished into the fog.

259
00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:44,399
Is he the Prince of Fog?
No, absolutely not.

260
00:24:44,399 --> 00:24:48,399
I don’t really understand where that comes from.
I actually think the opposite—

261
00:24:48,399 --> 00:24:55,080
that Morten is extremely precise and concise.
But I think the reason many get

262
00:24:55,080 --> 00:25:00,159
that impression is that his precision and
conciseness are delivered at high speed.

263
00:25:00,159 --> 00:25:04,599
And it can shift—
the focus can shift very quickly.

264
00:25:04,599 --> 00:25:09,520
But each statement, I’d say, is
very, very precise and fact-based.

265
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:13,080
It just goes fast. You have to keep up.
It’s not for beginners.

266
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:18,760
There it is. Two petals, and then you have
the third which has become a lip,

267
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:24,039
which encloses the sexual
reproductive stalk, if you will.

268
00:25:24,227 --> 00:25:29,468
His greatest strength is probably that
he’s hypersensitive in a way—

269
00:25:29,468 --> 00:25:39,035
both intellectually and in terms of senses.
He has an extreme…

270
00:25:39,677 --> 00:25:43,584
ability to notice detail and to fine-tune.

271
00:25:43,584 --> 00:25:51,352
That may also be his greatest weakness,
because then the focus becomes so intense

272
00:25:51,352 --> 00:25:58,138
that not everyone is able to follow it.
But it also means that—

273
00:25:58,548 --> 00:26:06,320
when you’re allowed to follow those senses,
to follow that hunt for perfection,

274
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,240
the perfect and the details, you
can get very beautiful results.

275
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:16,520
It sounds like the micro-management
could be exhausting.

276
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,240
Yes, of course it can.
And it is, for him too.

277
00:26:20,279 --> 00:26:22,748
When I, for instance, try to explain something—

278
00:26:22,748 --> 00:26:26,429
before I tell something,
use words to describe something—

279
00:26:26,429 --> 00:26:31,452
it’s quite an intense
process. For me as well.

280
00:26:31,452 --> 00:26:33,910
I get tired of it—very tired—myself.

281
00:26:35,307 --> 00:26:37,919
Morten has always been different.

282
00:26:37,919 --> 00:26:41,751
As a child, his vivid imagination
tended to blend with reality.

283
00:26:41,751 --> 00:26:47,458
Zeal, enthusiasm, and immersion
were rewarded with beatings,

284
00:26:47,458 --> 00:26:50,397
turning his primary school years into a nightmare.

285
00:26:51,039 --> 00:26:57,080
I experienced pretty intense bullying
at school from the age of seven or eight.

286
00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:02,893
Those first years of primary school
were not particularly pleasant.

287
00:27:03,686 --> 00:27:11,231
It had to do with the fact that I was
very enthusiastic about what I cared about.

288
00:27:12,962 --> 00:27:17,681
And I would just tell the whole thing. “What if…
Imagine this.”

289
00:27:17,884 --> 00:27:21,580
But when it was perceived as if I
was telling something that had happened,

290
00:27:21,580 --> 00:27:28,320
it became a blatant lie in the other children’s eyes.
And I was put on the spot—

291
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:33,520
accused of lying, of laughing—
“this didn’t happen,” right?

292
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:38,240
That wasn’t the point. The point was
the experience—to picture it.

293
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,760
Right? So there was no communication there.

294
00:27:42,780 --> 00:27:45,313
And there hasn’t been since, either.

295
00:27:46,522 --> 00:27:49,848
But it’s also said that you took
an awfully long time getting home,

296
00:27:49,848 --> 00:27:53,713
because you didn’t want your mother
to discover you were being bullied.

297
00:27:53,902 --> 00:27:59,419
Yes—snitching, telling someone else,
felt like an unthinkable line to cross.

298
00:27:59,419 --> 00:28:03,015
It only makes your situation worse.
You have to handle it yourself somehow.

299
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,151
Did it take a long time before
your parents noticed?

300
00:28:08,039 --> 00:28:11,799
They realized it—now and then.
They did.

301
00:28:11,799 --> 00:28:15,360
But I had a long walk home from school,
so it took time to get there.

302
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:17,559
So it was a bit of “wipe the tears,
dust yourself off”?

303
00:28:17,559 --> 00:28:21,760
Yes. Often, a beating was waiting
as I left school—often a ritual.

304
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:25,240
First I had to get beaten up,
and then I could go home.

305
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:29,200
Where did you find the strength, then?

306
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:38,679
Well…
First of all, I had—

307
00:28:38,679 --> 00:28:41,679
I experienced it as hell.
That time.

308
00:28:41,679 --> 00:28:45,640
Truly. And it was my whole life—
it went on year after year, you know.

309
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:52,311
That’s a long time at that age.
But I also had my life at home,

310
00:28:52,311 --> 00:28:56,831
which was a completely different world,
a completely different reality—

311
00:28:56,831 --> 00:28:58,556
one that was only good.

312
00:28:59,562 --> 00:29:02,409
And I also knew that, in a way—
I knew they misunderstood me.

313
00:29:02,409 --> 00:29:06,928
I knew there was something off about it.
I knew I was stronger than this.

314
00:29:06,928 --> 00:29:10,000
I knew that all along.

315
00:29:10,453 --> 00:29:14,078
Even though I knew I wasn’t—then.

316
00:29:14,078 --> 00:29:16,519
I didn’t have access to it then,
but I knew I would become

317
00:29:16,519 --> 00:29:21,440
much stronger than everything—
than all of this, and everyone.

318
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:25,480
I could see all those drives.
These were urges driving it.

319
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:27,559
Right? It wasn’t the person.

320
00:29:27,559 --> 00:29:30,000
I could see that the one standing there
and hitting me in the face, for instance—

321
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,350
I could see he was afraid.

322
00:29:33,747 --> 00:29:37,679
It sounds almost like you stepped
outside yourself and watched?

323
00:29:37,679 --> 00:29:38,720
Yes.

324
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,413
Saw it from the outside, looking in.
That’s one of the things I remember saying.

325
00:29:42,413 --> 00:29:47,480
I said once—
it was exactly such a scene,

326
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,372
where he had just hit me,
plain and simple.

327
00:29:51,372 --> 00:30:02,320
And he said, “Damn it, Harket, you’re so lame.”
And I just said: “I’m not me!”

328
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:10,320
I said. And then he totally lost it.
“Did you hear that, boys!?”

329
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:14,611
“Here’s the proof!
This guy is lame. That’s just how it is.”

330
00:30:14,611 --> 00:30:18,080
“He’s completely—he’s further gone
than we realized.”

331
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:24,880
But I knew that was true.
I knew I wasn’t “me.”

332
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:30,200
“Me” in the sense that—you don’t know me.
You have no idea who you’re talking to.

333
00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,159
Right?
And that’s how it is.

334
00:30:33,159 --> 00:30:37,341
None of the people who
are bullied—or who bully—

335
00:30:37,341 --> 00:30:41,985
have any idea
what they’re really dealing with.

336
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,408
When you sit like that,
do you play your way into the songs?

337
00:30:55,819 --> 00:30:56,468
Yes.

338
00:30:58,603 --> 00:31:02,775
What’s interesting
is also to see what happens to a tone—

339
00:31:03,681 --> 00:31:06,628
for example, to a single tone.
Yes.

340
00:31:07,761 --> 00:31:13,233
If you put a chord under that tone,
you get one experience.

341
00:31:26,510 --> 00:31:30,853
It’s the same tone all the way.
And I can show even more with—

342
00:31:40,316 --> 00:31:43,800
If I lock onto something, I shut
everything else out.

343
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:48,785
But it can be for three minutes,
or it can last ten days.

344
00:31:48,785 --> 00:31:52,489
You go in and out of that state—
at least I do.

345
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,399
To me it sounds like you’re
singing lots of different things.

346
00:31:57,399 --> 00:32:02,446
Yes—but you can sing the same tone.
I just don’t think I can hold it.

347
00:32:03,806 --> 00:32:06,686
Is it there?
Yes.

348
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:20,919
That’s absolutely fantastic.

349
00:32:20,919 --> 00:32:23,480
Yes, because you hear what happens to you
when you sing.

350
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,440
Oh, that’s incredible.
Yes, it’s very—

351
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:31,000
Wow, that was so much fun.
Yes, it really is fun!

352
00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:35,080
Wow—duet with Morten Harket!
Woo-hoo!

353
00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:05,026
Come on, come on.
They’re so slow, you know.

354
00:33:06,159 --> 00:33:09,880
You’re going to get a reputation out
here in the jungle: “Stay away from Harket!”

355
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:13,918
“He throws us in the air
and slams us against the walls.”

356
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:20,825
This is like Tarzan and Jane.
You can choose which one you want to be.

357
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:23,480
I think whichever one I am,
this thing’s going to snap.

358
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:24,745
It might snap.

359
00:33:24,745 --> 00:33:29,399
Is it like therapy for you to come to places like this
when you’ve been working a lot?

360
00:33:29,399 --> 00:33:34,600
Yes. Physically getting away,
in certain periods when you’ve cleared space

361
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,240
to be able to do it.
For it to work, you also need—

362
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:43,440
It has to work for the family too.
You can’t go away and be

363
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:45,120
at war with the people at home.

364
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:49,240
Then you won’t find any peace.
Especially when you have small children,

365
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:53,080
it’s difficult. “I’m off now.”
Yes—of course it is.

366
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:55,519
It’s a community.
Is family important to you?

367
00:33:55,519 --> 00:34:01,036
I’ve never consciously gone looking to establish that.

368
00:34:01,919 --> 00:34:03,575
I’ve just been open to it.

369
00:34:03,575 --> 00:34:08,672
But that applies, really,
to everything, I think.

370
00:34:09,203 --> 00:34:13,605
And I’ve always had a big
romantic side,

371
00:34:13,605 --> 00:34:15,605
which is about that connection.

372
00:34:16,399 --> 00:34:20,280
With another person
you meet in a relationship.

373
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,682
And you don’t always find that.

374
00:34:23,166 --> 00:34:26,455
But you are a flirt.

375
00:34:26,455 --> 00:34:29,363
Absolutely! I flirt with
everything in life. I do.

376
00:34:30,264 --> 00:34:32,920
But do you sometimes feel
you’re misunderstood?

377
00:34:34,879 --> 00:34:37,119
Sometimes?
All the time, maybe?

378
00:34:37,119 --> 00:34:38,920
Yes—usually.

379
00:34:40,839 --> 00:34:44,200
Have you found yourself in situations
with paparazzi

380
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:48,079
where you really think—
where you just snap?

381
00:34:48,079 --> 00:34:52,240
No, I never snap.
Fortunately, I’ve never snapped.

382
00:34:52,240 --> 00:34:55,679
It would take a lot.
But I did deck a paparazzo once.

383
00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:59,760
In England—because it was necessary.
I had no choice.

384
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:01,581
It was a girl I was with.

385
00:35:02,328 --> 00:35:08,822
And he came straight at us, right up close,
firing shots of the girl.

386
00:35:08,822 --> 00:35:14,800
One photo there would have set off
a chase after her,

387
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:17,920
which she would have been subjected to,
and that would have been very bad for her.

388
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,960
Not because she had anything to hide,
but I had to stop it.

389
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:25,320
I had to take his film—
to shut the whole thing down.

390
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,951
And he wasn’t interested in that.

391
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:31,440
So it came to blows?
I raised my hand like this, with the plastic bag.

392
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:37,058
And he jumped onto my hand
with his chin.

393
00:35:37,058 --> 00:35:41,000
That’s kind of what happened.
Then he got back up and was going to

394
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,560
come at me—and then
he stopped. Because he looked at me,

395
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:51,333
at how I looked.
And I just felt—

396
00:35:51,333 --> 00:35:54,160
I sincerely hoped he *would* come at me.
Right then.

397
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:59,031
When you go on holiday with the family,
are you constantly on alert for that kind of thing?

398
00:35:59,031 --> 00:36:01,166
Yes—it isn’t easy to manage.

399
00:36:01,166 --> 00:36:02,242
It isn’t.

400
00:36:02,548 --> 00:36:13,990
It’s enormously demanding to deal with people
and at the same time… You can’t—

401
00:36:13,990 --> 00:36:18,398
and at the same time be responsible for kids,
for small children. It’s not possible.

402
00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:28,760
Now you got a little sidetracked, I think.
You didn’t see that! You interpreted it that way.

403
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,142
I saw it in your
body language, Morten.

404
00:36:31,142 --> 00:36:34,748
No, but you don’t know what kind of
process is going on here.

405
00:36:34,749 --> 00:36:36,599
Yes, but I saw it in your body.

406
00:36:36,599 --> 00:36:40,000
Now you’re Dorthe—from “God kveld Norge.”

407
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,573
No, but it’s not…
It’s very funny.

408
00:36:42,573 --> 00:36:45,280
I’m telling the truth!
I know…

409
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:51,079
And if I’d spent the energy to
analyze it, then I would have said so.

410
00:36:51,079 --> 00:36:54,599
But I registered it while I was in
a completely different process in my head.

411
00:36:54,599 --> 00:36:59,298
That’s the truth now.
It means nothing to me—but it isn’t accurate.

412
00:36:59,298 --> 00:37:02,040
But you think it’s funny.
I think it’s incredibly funny.

413
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:04,960
Yes, I get that.
I understand that it’s fun.

414
00:38:24,874 --> 00:38:29,277
You need something to do
when the guy is diving for four hours.

415
00:38:29,277 --> 00:38:31,436
So you build sandcastles.

416
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,720
Morten is a perfectionist to his fingertips,
restlessly searching for the perfect

417
00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:51,980
way to use his unique voice.
But perfection is also Morten’s greatest enemy.

418
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,200
“Ugly” tones are interesting too.

419
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:11,514
The A-ha song “Forever Not Yours.”

420
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,305
It’s exactly the same melody!

421
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:36,510
It’s proper dissonance.
On its own it isn’t pleasant to hear.

422
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,499
During the process, it appears.

423
00:39:42,499 --> 00:39:46,123
And I narrow my eyes and think,
“There’s something here.”

424
00:39:46,123 --> 00:39:48,000
“What just happened?”

425
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,871
Is that when it’s important to have the recorder going,
so you can go back and check?

426
00:39:51,871 --> 00:39:53,800
Sometimes.
Absolutely.

427
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:58,868
You can very easily lose something.
You don’t understand what you did—and you never find it again.

428
00:39:59,222 --> 00:40:04,892
So if you didn’t record it,
it’s gone—and then it’s gone forever.

429
00:40:07,384 --> 00:40:11,321
If you’re playing for people
who mean something to you,

430
00:40:11,321 --> 00:40:16,535
is that a good feeling, compared with
standing on a stage for strangers?

431
00:40:16,535 --> 00:40:22,402
When I sit and play for people close to me—
it could be my kids, or at

432
00:40:22,402 --> 00:40:26,603
home, for a girlfriend—

433
00:40:28,319 --> 00:40:36,599
I’m no different.
I’m just me.

434
00:40:36,599 --> 00:40:41,160
It’s just as awkward, if you like,
as it would be for you to sit with a guitar—

435
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,560
or maybe easier for you,
because you’ve nothing to live up to there.

436
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:49,698
Are they also your biggest critics?
No—that would be me.

437
00:40:50,359 --> 00:40:54,040
But your kids aren’t the kind who say,
“Dad, you have to stop now”?

438
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:59,440
“That wasn’t great.”
Oh, they say that too—absolutely.

439
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:03,079
I don’t get anything for free
there at all.

440
00:41:03,079 --> 00:41:09,040
But I’d say they’re better at saying,
“Now you’re a bit too eccentric. Now you’re too…”

441
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,693
“This is perfectly fine, you know.
It works.”

442
00:41:13,675 --> 00:41:21,160
You can get too caught up in the detail of something
while it’s on its way toward being perfect—

443
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,473
which you have to watch out for.

444
00:41:23,473 --> 00:41:30,642
“For the perfect,” my father once told me—
not so long ago—

445
00:41:30,642 --> 00:41:34,800
“the perfect can become the enemy of the good.”

446
00:41:36,726 --> 00:41:39,359
I understood immediately…

447
00:41:39,359 --> 00:41:46,866
He hit very close to home.
I wrestle with that. It’s one of my hurdles.

448
00:41:46,866 --> 00:41:48,922
That’s for sure.

449
00:41:50,359 --> 00:41:54,079
There were five of you growing up.
Was it hard to find your place?

450
00:41:54,079 --> 00:41:59,359
I think I found my place.
All my siblings would confirm that.

451
00:41:59,359 --> 00:42:05,737
We have one thing in common: none of us
has a safety net in what we chose to do.

452
00:42:05,737 --> 00:42:09,408
None of us has gone into any safe,
secure position.

453
00:42:10,835 --> 00:42:13,160
That goes for all five.

454
00:42:15,420 --> 00:42:20,100
We grew up lucky,
with a safe childhood.

455
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:25,680
We never doubted that. I feel
we’re a close family. We are.

456
00:42:25,680 --> 00:42:30,160
But has that influenced you in the sense that
you have many children yourself?

457
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:31,779
That this was important to you?

458
00:42:32,652 --> 00:42:34,652
Yes.
—To have that kind of upbringing?

459
00:42:34,876 --> 00:42:38,401
I haven’t really thought of it that way, because
there’s no plan behind it at all.

460
00:42:38,401 --> 00:42:47,017
But the idea of there being many children
in a home—I like that.

461
00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:59,280
Just sitting and being—
preferably not in front of the TV.

462
00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:04,934
Just being, without those kinds
of noise signals.

463
00:43:05,119 --> 00:43:07,490
That has great value.

464
00:43:08,009 --> 00:43:12,513
Then I think we should sit here
perfectly still and take in the moment.

465
00:43:12,815 --> 00:43:15,119
That’s an order.

466
00:43:15,119 --> 00:43:18,119
You’re allowed to play a little.
I can handle that.

467
00:43:18,119 --> 00:43:21,920
No, no.
We can sit completely still.

468
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,881
It’s not hard.
Then let’s do it. One–two–three, from now!

469
00:43:26,599 --> 00:43:30,599
Can I ask something?
Yes, go ahead.

470
00:43:30,599 --> 00:43:34,559
How long can we do this on camera
before you cut?

471
00:43:34,559 --> 00:43:36,895
Well, we can test it.

472
00:43:36,895 --> 00:43:42,522
I’ve suggested shows with five minutes
of silence, but no one picked it up.

473
00:43:42,937 --> 00:43:45,079
But you haven’t managed
to keep quiet for a second either.

474
00:43:45,079 --> 00:43:48,079
No, but we actually started—or I
started—to talk about…

475
00:43:48,079 --> 00:43:51,305
I can do that just fine.
Then you don’t know me well enough yet.

476
00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:53,700
No…

477
00:43:54,839 --> 00:43:58,985
Truly not.
Give it another week and you’d have—

478
00:43:59,185 --> 00:44:01,785
I would have drowned you in silence.

479
00:44:04,214 --> 00:44:06,214
That’s a promise.