From the EPK interview video
A 30-minute long EPK video, in which Magne, Paul and Morten are each interviewed about the reunion and the making of Cast In Steel has now been posted on the website of Universal Germany.
The video seems to have been filmed in connection with the comeback press conference in Berlin back in March.
Watch it here: ‘Cast In Steel’ 30-minute EPK interview video
Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th
(Picture by Rune Tønnessen)
a-ha played a 50-minute rehearsal concert at Union Scene in Drammen, Norway yesterday, in front of around 600 people – most of which had won tickets at a Platekompaniet signing session in Oslo the day before.
The band has been rehearsing at Union Scene over the last few weeks to prepare for the upcoming South American tour, and this was the final dress rehearsal before heading to Luna Park in Buenos Aires, although the full shows are likely to include twice as many songs.
A 14-minute video with clips from all the songs performed in Drammen has been posted on YouTube, courtesy of Rune Tønnessen.
Three songs from Cast In Steel were played live for the first time last night, while “Sycamore Leaves” appeared in the setlist for the first time since 2004 – now with Morten singing it instead of Paul. “Early Morning” was played as a full band version, instead of the acoustic version they’ve usually done in the 2000s.
The biggest surprise was probably “Soft Rains of April”, which has rarely been played live since the late 80s – apart from the HHAL/SD concerts with the Oslo Philhamonics in 2010.
Setlist:
(with links to other YouTube clips)
1. The Wake
2. I’ve Been Losing You
3. Cry Wolf
4. Hunting High and Low
5. Forest Fire
6. Early Morning
7. Sycamore Leaves
8. Soft Rains of April
9. Under The Makeup
10. The Sun Always Shines on TV
– – – – – – – – – – – –
11. Foot of the Mountain
Just as on the two previous tours, a-ha are joined by Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on synth/programming, while new bassist Even Ormestad is going on tour with the band for the first time.
Reports from some of the fans who were at the show seem to indicate that the sound is less polished and more rock-oriented than it was in 2009-2010, with Paul bringing out his Gibson SG Fano Alt de Facto ML6 guitar for some heavy riffs.
Concert reviews:
VG: Konturene av et nytt a-ha – for tredje gang…
Dagsavisen Fremtiden: Gøy på øving
Rock and Roll Dreams: Klar til avreise
Posted in a-ha, Cast In Steel Tour 
Tags: a-ha, cast in steel, drammen, erik ljunggren, even ormestad, karl oluf wennerberg 
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a-ha performing at the Goldene Henne Awards in Berlin, September 5th
a-ha have done three different TV-performances in Germany over the last few days.
On Thursday they did a playback performance of “Forest Fire” and “Foot Of The Mountain” at the German Radio Awards in Hamburg, where they also received an honorary award:
YouTube: Forest Fire and Foot Of The Mountain
YouTube: Receiving the honorary award
YouTube: Interview before the show
On Friday they did an unplugged live version of “Under The Makeup” on the ZDF talkshow Aspekte in Berlin:
YouTube: Interview and Under The Makeup
And on Saturday they did a playback performance of “Under The Makeup” and “Forest Fire” at the Goldene Henne Awards in Berlin:
YouTube: Under The Makeup
YouTube: Forest Fire
Over on Facebook, Peter Kvint has posted some pictures from the Cast In Steel recording sessions in Stockholm. One of the pictures shows a computer screen with various song mixes, which reveals five of the a-ha tracks that didn’t make it onto the album; “Digital River”, “Hold Me”, “Karma King”, “Open Face” and Morten’s well-known song “Did I Leave You Behind”.
At least two of those songs are likely to appear on Morten’s next solo album instead, Kvint says.
Additional UK radio interviews:
BBC Radio 2: Steve Wright in the aftenoon (starts at 2h 18min)
BBC Radio Lincolnshire: Melvyn in the Morning (starts at 2h 8min)
– plus the video stream of the BBC Radio 5 Live interview
And here are some more album reviews:
superdeluxeedition.com (3/5)
electricity-club.co.uk
radiocremebrulee.com (4/5) (USA)
Daily Mail (4/5)
The Scotsman (3/5)
Adresseavisen (4/6)
Dagbladet (3/6)
German interviews:
Rolling Stone (Video interview – Part 1)
Der Tagesspiegel (Video)
magistrix.de
a-ha on BBC Breakfast, September 2nd
a-ha were in London yesterday, where they spent a few hours at the BBC Studios, doing a number of radio interviews. Some of them have already been broadcast:
– BBC Radio 5 Live: Afternoon Edition
– BBC Local Radio: The Mark Forrest Show (starts at 1h 36min)
Morten and Paul also did a video interview with Reuters.
Today the guys were in Manchester, where they were guests on BBC Breakfast. A video clip of the interview has been posted on YouTube.
Later on they did a signing session at HMV Manchester. A selection of pictures can be seen on the event page on Facebook.
Pop legends @aha_com meet fans at HMV Manchester http://t.co/mVMpZjeI1g pic.twitter.com/BPAT9z9E9J
— Celebrity Manchester (@CelebManchester) September 2, 2015
For lots more links and pictures from the UK promo, visit my Twitter profile.
Meanwhile in Norway, VG had a 3-page interview yesterday, where each of them give their honest opinion on the process of making Cast In Steel. Here is a little sample:
A new album, Cast In Steel is ready, but the band members haven’t been together in the studio during the recording process. That is something Paul Waaktaar-Savoy regrets.
“I wish we could get together, that is the way we should be recording music”, Waaktaar-Savoy says. He was also eager to have one producer on the whole album: Alan Tarney, who produced a-ha’s three first albums. But that’s not how it turned out.
Morten Harket also feels they should have recorded the album together, after first doing a tour.
“In fact, from a band point-of-view, we should have recorded the album in one studio and lived together for three months. You are more tuned in after a tour, we should have done writing sessions, hung out together and made music.”
– That’s what Paul also said?
“Yeah, but he’s so slow to join! Bloody slow. So that’s not how it actually is.”
In the end, 12 songs were selected for the album, while many others were rejected.
“I came into the process very late, and I think Paul felt the album was already finished. But then the majority expressed a clear wish that we should go all in. a-ha is the three of us and needs those three voices”, Furuholmen says.
Waaktaar-Savoy describes the song selection as “total chaos” and says he really missed an A&R-guy like they used to have in the past. Someone from the record company who could interject and make a decision.
“How are we supposed to agree on things, when all three of us have different things that we care about? It ends up being so much noise, and it saps so much energy that I’m all like: OK, next album! I feel like I need another ten years before I can listen to this album again. And now I have plunged headfirst into another new project. That’s the way I manage to keep going.”
And here are the first Norwegian reviews of the new album:
VG (4/6)
Aftenposten (4/6)
Dagsavisen (4/6)
Vårt Land
Screenshot from the video greeting posted by Hydro on Facebook
Promotion is kicking into high gear this week, with the new a-ha album Cast In Steel being released on Friday, September 4th. Below are a few of the events and appearances coming up, with lots more to come:
2 September: Manchester: HMV in-store signing
3 September: BBC Radio 2: Interview on “Steve Wright in the Afternoon”.
3 September: GoTV (Austria): a-ha present their favorite music videos in a 1-hour “Hosted by”-special.
3 September: Hamburg: Deutscher Radiopreis (The German Radio Awards), performing “Forest Fire” and “Foot Of The Mountain”. They will also receive an honorary award. ARD radio/NRD television.
4 September: Berlin: Aspekte (German talkshow), performing live. ZDF
5 September: Berlin: Goldene Henne 2015 (German award show), performing “Under The Makeup” and another new song. MDR/RBB
8 September: Oslo: Platekompaniet in-store signing, at Oslo City Shopping Centre
In Norway, Radio Norge is playing a new song from Cast In Steel exclusively on their morning show Morgenklubben each day this week, as well as other times throughout the day. Morten has done an ad for this – which can be heard below:
In connection with yesterday’s announcement of two private a-ha concerts for Hydro employees in the Pará area in Brazil, Hydro has posted a short video greeting from a-ha on Facebook.
Hydro has also posted a YouTube video where the members of a-ha share their thoughts on Kygo’s new remix of “Take On Me”.
a-ha interviewed in Berlin, July 2015
Two new interviews in German have been posted online recently, by Mittelbayerische and Berner Zeitung.
Here are a few quotes:
– This time you’re doing the interviews together. Does that mean you’re finding it easier to agree on things than before?
Magne: “We’re doing it because it feels good. It’s like group therapy.”
Paul: “It definitely feels different than before. This might be the beginning of a new era for our band”
– Has it been easy to record this comeback album?
Morten: “The songwriting is always the easiest. The hard part is trying to agree on which songs that will end up on the album. That is always an enormous challenge. Personally, I’m surprised by how strong the new album has turned out to be. It’s not inferior to our earlier albums.”
– The music of a-ha is easily recognizable. Did you want to build on this tradition with Cast In Steel?
Paul: “What do you mean, ‘easily recognizable’? Our second album was very different from the first one. With every record we want to take things one step further. Morten’s voice has a clear identity, but in terms of arrangements and melodies we’re not guided by the past.”
Magne: “Morten’s voice is an important element of a-ha, but so is our songwriting and the way we arrange the music. For me personally, it’s completely irrelevant whether the new album sounds like our first, third or fifth album or whether we go in a completely new direction. The main thing; the songs are cool. There aren’t many bands from the 1980s that are still active and keep releasing new material.”
– Do you already know when you will disband again?
Magne: “2015 and 2016 will be all about a-ha. We’re really looking forward to the tour, it will be great. As for 2017, we don’t know yet. We haven’t ruled out anything, but there are no specific plans.”
A selection of pages from Paul’s notebooks are included in the Aftenposten article
Today’s edition of Aftenposten includes an extensive 7-page article that tells the story of how two of a-ha’s biggest fans, P.A. Stenersen and Christopher Hopkins, managed to rescue a number of early a-ha recordings and notebooks, ending a decade-long legal stalemate between a-ha and their controversial first manager John Ratcliff.
Many of these early recordings are now included on the new 5-disc 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of Hunting High and Low, to be released on September 18th.
Getting his old notebooks back also inspired Paul to record one of the early songs, “She’s Humming a Tune”, which has ended up being one of the tracks on Cast In Steel.
“When I got the books back, I saw the lyrics and remembered ‘oh yeah, that one was cool’. Then I thought it would be cool to record this one in particular now”, Paul says.
Paul also talks candidly about what he thinks of the new album:
“It is very hard to think of this as a-ha, because it seems to me that there are three different things – which one calls a-ha. It often ends up like this, and many bands do it this way. But I do miss the feeling of us being in the same studio, working on the same song in real time.”
An English translation of the entire Aftenposten article has been posted online at Aftenposten.no.
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Eight concerts are now scheduled in Brazil
As part of a-ha’s ongoing partnership with Norwegian industrial company Hydro, the band will play two exclusive concerts for Hydro employees in the Brazilian cities of Barcarena and Paragominas on October 1st and October 3rd.
The info is available in a press release posted on Hydro’s Brazilian website.
Although the two concerts are closed to the public, fans in the area have a chance of winning tickets to the Barcarena concert, by taking part in a Hydro competition on Instagram called “Renew your passion for the future”. A jury will choose the 30 best pictures.
In addition to the two concerts, Magne and Morten will take part in local environmental projects supported by Hydro.
In Barcarena, Magne will do a workshop with young students, using recyclable materials. In Paragominas, Morten will take part in a seed planting project in a reforestation area.
Magne will also be exhibiting some of his art in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro, opening on September 28th.
Morten in the music video, filmed inside one of the tents at Canvas Hotel in Nissedal
The “Under The Makeup” music video officially premiered on YouTube yesterday, after a preview clip was first shown on German TV on Friday.
The video is now also available on VGTV in Norway.
The video was shot in the Nissedal area in Telemark two weeks ago, and features the actresses Sofie Gråbøl from Denmark and Frida Farrell from Sweden.
Sofie Gråbøl
“The German director [Bode Brodmüller] came in contact with Gråbøl, and the band members are big fans of her, so they were really happy”, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells VG.
“In our opinion she is one of the most interesting character actors we have in Scandinavia. A music video doesn’t necessarily involve much acting, but her presence adds more weight to it – it suddenly becomes “The Killing” meets James Bond”, Magne says.
“It’s not the first time someone kills Morten in our music videos, but it’s extra fun when Sofie Gråbøl is taking part in the crime!”, he adds with a laugh.
“Director Brodmüller was very focused on keeping the Scandinavian landscape and the Scandinavian feeling – a certain Wallander atmosphere – and also trying to get an actress who was already well-known in Scandinavia and Germany for her role as a detective inspector. Luckily the schedules matched up and she was able to be a part of this project, albeit in a slightly different role”, Britta Ostermann of a-ha’s German management tells VG.
The version of the song used in the music video is quite a different mix than the radio version released last month. The orchestra is more muted, while the piano, acoustic guitar and backing vocals are brought forward in the mix. An improvement, some would say, as the orchestra was quite overwhelming in the first version. This new mix is also the one used on the album, judging by the preview clips.
Posted in a-ha Tags: a-ha, cast in steel, frida farrell, sofie gråbøl, under the makeup Comments Off on “Under The Makeup” music video premiere
The final version of the album cover differs slightly from the first version that was posted last month
The first preview of the rest of the songs on Cast In Steel was posted by a-ha.com today; the Harket/Olsen/Kvint song “The Wake”.
More previews will be added daily, check out the full list on a-ha.com.
Meanwhile, German TV promotion in the week of the album release is shaping up nicely:
On 3 September, a-ha will be performing two songs live at the Deutscher Radiopreis (The German Radio Awards) in Hamburg; “Foot Of The Mountain” and “Under The Makeup”. This according to a post by the German forum. The show will be broadcast live on ARD radio and aired later in the evening on NRD television.
On 4 September a-ha will be performing live on the ZDF talkshow Aspekte, which is taped in Berlin. All tickets are already gone, but the TV broadcast will apparently also be streamed online.
And on 5 September is the previously announced Goldene Henne 2015 award show on MDR and RBB – now confirmed to be a live performance of two songs.
