– 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.