Morten will perform at this year’s Tysnesfest, which is a festival held at Tysnes in Hordaland, Norway.
The festival is held from 9 – 13 July, but the exact date for Morten’s concert is not yet known. Festivalpasses are available at billettservice.no.
Update: The concert date is July 12th.
“I’m not sure about the quality of this water”, Morten said afterwards.
Morten was in Los Angeles last week, to do a music video for “Brother”. The video is directed by Harald Zwart, who previously did the a-ha videos for “Velvet” (2000) and “Forever Not Yours” (2002). VGTV has a video report from the set at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, which can be seen here (at 3:50).
Zwart drenched Morten in water in both of the previous a-ha videos, and “Brother” is no exception. Wearing a wetsuit, Morten had to spend hours floating in what appears to be…uhm…a manmade lake.
Harald Zwart
“Harald is not interested in my body. It’s only the area from the neck up that counts now”, Morten jokingly tells VG.
“If you don’t make it challenging and exciting on the set, it won’t be an exciting video. Harket is sporty to be doing this. It’s cold and difficult to be floating in the water for hours, while pretending to sing”, Harald Zwart says.
The Brother album is now scheduled for release at the end of March, an album that has reminded Morten why he got into music in the first place:
“This has been an unusual year for me. The process of recording this album is the best I’ve ever experienced. I’ve really had a unique collaboration with the Swedish producer and songwriter Peter Kvint. When the material really hits you, when the songs have a distinctive character, that’s when I’m reminded why I got into music in the first place. It hits that guy inside me who started out 30 years ago, that guy who really wanted to do this.”
“I’m really enjoying myself at the moment, and I’m looking forward to getting started and playing live with the band”, Morten tells VG.
Prior to the music video shoot in LA, Morten and his team appears to have done a week-long photo shoot on the Caribbean Coast of Mexico. Make-up artist Kelly Thorpe has posted some info about this on Twitter and Instagram.
Morten will perform at the Trollrock Festival at Beitostølen on July 26th, the festival announced on its website today. Tickets are available at billettservice.no.
This is the fourth Norwegian summer concert to be announced, and there may still be more to come. According to Morten’s new booking agency JS Artist, he will also do additional concerts and festivals in other European countries this summer.
Cover image
Paul’s new song is called “Manmade Lake” and premiered on a-ha.com this afternoon. The song, which was originally recorded by a-ha in a different version during the Foot Of The Mountain sessions in 2008-09, is released as Waaktaar and marks the first time Paul releases something under his own name outside of Savoy.
“Manmade Lake” features a classic Waaktaar melody and production, similar to some of the material on the Savoy album (2004), with Paul on vocals. a-ha.com doesn’t have any more info about the song, but it sounds like Frode Unneland on the drums. The lyrics continue the theme of Paul’s fascination with astronomy and spaceflight. (Update: Frode tells Japanese site Bottomless Pit that he thinks Paul plays the drums himself on “Manmade Lake”.)
Listen to the song and read the lyrics on a-ha.com and Soundcloud!
Paul also has a new official page on Facebook.
Finally new music from Paul
a-ha.com has just announced that Paul will be sharing a new track on Saturday:
“Paul Waaktaar-Savoy is about to break the silence: he will be sharing a new track via http://www.a-ha.com on Saturday 8 February.
Join us here on Facebook and on a-ha.com on 8 February at 10:00am EST for this long-anticipated world premiere!”
Has he teamed up with Jimmy Gnecco again? Is it a new Savoy song? Something he’s produced for someone else? Or the first taste of a brand new solo project? I guess we’ll find out on Saturday…
Morten on Skavlan, January 31st
Morten was one of the guests on Skavlan tonight, alongside Gordon Ramsay and Sir Kenneth Branagh. The show was taped in London last week.
Morten was the last guest to come on, for a brief interview. Following a conversation about Branagh being knighted and Ramsay receiving an OBE, Morten was asked about the fact that he’s been knighted as well:
Morten singing “Brother”, with Sir Kenneth Branagh listening
“It’s a strange thing. Mainly because we grow up in a society where equality is hugely important. I wouldn’t say it’s forced upon you, but we are all the same. We don’t have a class system in Norway, so it’s a strange thing to bring in knights. I think that’s one of the elements of it. But to be recognized like that is also a very nice thing. Because it’s well meant. And I suppose it’s well thought through – I would hope. So I can’t say that I think it’s wrong. I don’t know what I think about it. But it’s not the same as being knighted in England.”
Fredrik Skavlan also asked Morten about his strongest memory of the early days of a-ha in London, thirty years ago:
“Just getting there. The days before [the breakthrough]. All the anticipation and that bubbly sort of joy, where you knew it was going to happen. And it hadn’t happened yet. I think that was the best time in some ways. Of course it doesn’t mean that you don’t appreciate it, but when [fame] hits you it’s like a train. And you’re not on it – you’re under it.”
At the end of the show he performed a shortened, acoustic version of “Brother”, accompanied by Peter Kvint on guitar.
The episode can be seen at nrk.no.
Linnea Dale
(Photo: Warner Music)
Sunnmørsposten reports that Paul is among the producers on Linnea Dale‘s second solo album, set to be released later this year.
Linnea Dale was one of the finalists on the fifth season of Norwegian Idol in 2007, where she was mentored by Morten and performed “Velvet” in one particular a-ha themed episode. In 2009 she was a guest-vocalist on the Donkeyboy album Caught in a Life, which included the hit singles “Ambitions” and “Sometimes”. Together with Donkeyboy she toured the UK and Norway with a-ha on the Foot of the Mountain tour.
Her first solo album Lemoyne Street was released in 2012, which included the single “Children of the Sun”. This was followed by “A Room in a City” in March 2013; the first single from the upcoming second album – which was going to be released last fall, but is now coming out in 2014.
“I’m aiming for a more electronic sound. At least elements of it, unlike Lemoyne Street which was a more acoustic, live-based album”, Linnea told 730.no last year.
Linnea has been in New York several times over the last couple of years, and is listed in the credits of Paul’s studio engineer Eliot Leigh.
“There’s a female singer that has recorded a lot of Paul’s songs, that may be released”, a-ha manager Harald Wiik told fans in September 2012, possibly referring to Linnea.
Before the album is released she’ll be taking part in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest finals in Oslo in March with the song “High Hopes”, which is why she’s in the news today.
Update (Jan. 29th): a-ha.com posted an update on this, with some info from Paul:
“Linnea and I wrote and recorded some songs together this last fall. A truly enjoyable and new experience for me. I’m really glad to hear that the album is coming out now. When it does; do check out a song called “With eyes closed”… I like it a lot!”
Various versions of the website; 2009 (top left), 2011 (top right), 2012 and 2014.
(Click to enlarge)
Today it’s five years since I posted the first news update here on a-ha-live.com, on January 27th, 2009.
Originally intended to just offer some info about tour dates, the website quickly turned into a sort of news blog about all things related to a-ha.
The site has continued to grow, with a total of 3 million page views so far. Just last month the site had 76,000 hits.
Thanks to the fans who visits the site, contacts me with useful information and follows me on Twitter.
Let’s keep going for another five years! 🙂
Jakob
Magne at the opening, January 25th
(Photo by Kunstgalleriet)
Magne’s new Beatles-inspired exhibition “Norwegian Wood Remix” opened at Kunstgalleriet in Stavanger yesterday, with 250 people in attendance. There’s a selection of photos from the event on the gallery’s Facebook page.
According to Stavanger Aftenblad the opening was hugely successfull, with all the artworks – 11 oil paintings, 2 monotypes and 2 lithos – being sold during Friday’s private view and Saturday’s official opening.
Which means that Magne sold art for around one million kroner this weekend.
“We’re sold out! That’s a new record. This almost never happens. It’s exceptional”, gallery manager Elin Halvorsen told the newspaper.
“This was a great reception, and not something you take for granted as an artist. I had my very first exhibition [“Maleri”] here in Stavanger. That was at Galleri Sølvberget way back in 1989. The last time I exhibited here was in 1995, so it was about time that we made this happen“, Magne told Rogalands Avis.
Magne is still busy working on the music for the upcoming Beatles movie, some of which he’ll record at Abbey Road in London in March:
“Beatles were the greatest when I was growing up. They were the inspiration when Paul and I started writing songs. Without Beatles there wouldn’t have been an a-ha. And now I’m currently composing music around what I heard as a kid. So this is a journey back in time for me, which ends up at Abbey Road Studios in March, where I’ll record my own music using the original Beatles equipment”, he said in a radio interview with NRK Rogaland on Friday.
Beatles is set to premiere on August 29th, but test screenings of a 2-hour raw cut of the movie will be held in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Tromsø tomorrow.
“Norwegian Wood Remix” is open until February 16th, and the artworks can be seen on the gallery’s website.
Skavlan is one of Europe’s largest talkshows, with an audience of 3 million viewers each week
Morten was at the ITV Studios in London yesterday, where he was interviewed and did a performance of “Brother” on the popular Scandinavian talkshow Skavlan, hosted by Fredrik Skavlan.
The show will air next Friday, 31 January on NRK1 in Norway and SVT1 in Sweden. It will also air on DR2 in Denmark on 1 February.
Other guests in the episode include Kenneth Branagh, Gordon Ramsay and David Walliams.
This will be Morten’s fourth appearance on Fredrik Skavlan’s talkshow. He previously appeared on the show in 2002 (Oslo), 2003 (Oslo) and 2011 (Stockholm). Read more about the 2011 interview here.
