Picture by Carlos Maciá

BBC radio host Richard Green has interviewed Magne for his weekly show on BBC Radio Devon, to talk about the new solo album Living With Ourselves and possible a-ha plans for 2025. The 30-minute segment is available on BBC Sounds, starting at 2:17:45.

“There are some contrasts on this album. Some songs are more acoustically oriented, written more on guitar than on keyboards. Some are more keyboard-written, more synth oriented. I have the privilege to release an album that is not streamlined in the sense that it’s trying to make a dent in the charts or whatever. And that’s a huge privilege to have, to be honest”, Magne says about his new album.

Asked if there are any plans for a-ha to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Hunting High and Low album in 2025, Magne says:

“It has been discussed, and I think both Harald, our manager, and myself have been pushing for something to be planned and to happen. And semi-frustrated that there’s been very little interest in that. So right now there are no plans for a-ha during the 40 year anniversary.”

There may be some a-ha anniversary reissues in the works this year, but no new collaborations with his bandmates:

“It’s been a long time since we were all in a room together. We’re sort of geographically challenged in that way, because Paul is living in LA, Morten is living [here in Norway]. We don’t really see each other much, but Morten and I have the occasional encounter. But we do get quite absorbed in our own projects when we’re away from each other and most of the time that has felt like a nice break to gather our thoughts and do things on the side. But this one has felt a little bit like…I’m unsure of what – if anything – is gonna happen.

For all of us there has to be certain conditions met for us to do a tour. Morten is pretty much the one who at this point decides whether he wants to or not. And he hasn’t been very keen to discuss it. Whether that changes in the future…It’s possible, we’ll see. I think Paul always wants to record more stuff. I don’t mind recording more stuff, but I’d like it to be for some project that isn’t just us going in and loving each other for five minutes and then tearing each others hair out for the next six months.”

In his own recent podcast series with Ørjan Nilsson, Magne mentioned the possibility of going out and celebrating a-ha by playing some songs live on his own. But that is sounding less likely now:

“I know that a lot of fans would have loved for us to do something together for this anniversary. It seems almost wrong of me to sort of hijack it and go on tour…and not sure if people would even enjoy it if I sort of say ‘Oh, here’s me doing a few a-ha numbers, so thank you to you guys’. It hasn’t really felt right.”