The MASSIV magazine interviews are now online. They include some interesting facts, like Paul mentioning that “Shadowside” was originally written for the producer-duo Stargate and one of their artists. And Magne sheds some light on his Apparatjik-project.
Here are a few quotes from the interview Magnus Rønningen has done with Paul:
Paul on the cover of MASSIV,
photographed by Sigve Aspelund
– Getting a top 10-hit in the UK again with the single “Analogue” from the last album was inspiring to me. It had taken a long time to record the album, as usual, but that particular song was done in five days including the mixing, which felt incredibly good. I could feel that everything seemed easy again. That’s why many of the songs on Foot Of The Mountain were written in the following half-year period. “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” was the first one. Followed by many of the other ones. Some of them were written on tour, and also on travels around the States. It eventually gave me the feeling that it could end up as an album.
– But how does it work? Who picks up the phone and says “Let’s make a new album”?
– It’s a comeback every time for us. After each album we’re thinking “that’s it, never again”. But then things start evolving again after a while. It took quite a while before this one came about. Both Morten and Magne released solo albums. But then we started recording the album last September.
(…)
– How were the recording sessions?
– Split in two parts. The first draft was recorded in New York with Mark Saunders. That’s the first time in a long while that we’ve rented a studio for two months, working with one producer. We did it old school, like on the first five albums. I think everyone appreciated that. But then we didn’t get time to finish it. Saunders is a cool producer who has done The Cure and lots of cool music, but perhaps not a lot of single-material. We felt that we didn’t have the first single ready. So then the album was split up between Steve Osborne, who has done New Order, Starsailor and Happy Mondays and Roland Spremberg who did our Minor Earth | Major Sky album. The album is a mix of those three producers. The finishing part was probably the worst period. That’s when the producers were sitting in separate countries, Magne and Morten in Oslo, and myself in New York. That wasn’t ideal.
(…)
– Have you seen that Metallica documentary where they argue a lot?
– We beat them by a long mile.
– You do?
– Yes.
Paul photographed at Bislett Stadium
by Sigve Aspelund for MASSIV
– Seriously?
– In our own way, yes. We don’t have a Lars Ulrich or James Hetfield. They have their own things to struggle with. But we beat them when it comes to the arguing part. Still, we just played for all the radio people in England, and there was one guy who said that we keep the world record for being the trio which has stayed together the longest. So in that way, we can probably endure a lot. And the golden rule is that if we feel the album has been worth it, there will be more.
(…)
– By the way, what’s happening with Savoy?
– I haven’t had time to think about it in the last two years. But there are many plans. I want to try something new.
– With Lauren?
– She’s working a lot with film these days. But we’re always working together. We are together, all the time.
– When you say that you haven’t had time to think about Savoy, is that because of the new a-ha album?
– Yeah, you have it in mind all the time. Thinking about it. We also worked a lot on more songs than the ones that actually ended up on the album.
(…)
– After more than twenty years as a band, what’s the driving force?
– Well, it’s a very exciting life. We have experienced a lot, seen a lot of things. We get to meet people from all corners of the world who has a relation to our music.
– The fact that there is so much money involved – is that a positive or negative driving force?
– We went to London to become famous. a-ha is dependent on reaching a large amount of listeners. When Memorial Beach sold less than expected, we took a seven year break. If it had sold a lot, the next album would have been released three years later. So the money plays a part in this. For example, we never toured the States again after the first tour, when it turned out that we could fill bigger arenas elsewhere.
(…)
– Have you given up on the USA, or does the dream still live on?
– The plan is, as always, to tour the USA next year.
Here are links to the individual interviews on massiv.no:
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy
Magne Furuholmen
Morten Harket
