Morten in Stockholm, Magne in Edinburgh and Paul in New York.
Photographed for Dagbladet Magasinet, March 2015.
Here are a few more selected quotes from yesterday’s 10-page Dagbladet article, in which the members of a-ha talk about their surprising reunion:
Morten: “It’s always interesting to hear what Paul has come up with. There were no thoughts of an a-ha reunion at the back of our minds, it was just his songs, my vocals, whatever. The idea was simple. We wanted to build a collection of songs, for possible use here or there. It would have been much harder to explain why I *wouldn’t* have agreed to something like that.”
Paul: “It’s like we were right back in the cabin at Nærsnes, where it all began [in 1982]. ‘Here’s a tune, you wanna lay down some vocals?’ Back to square one.”
Morten: “We could talk a lot about the reasons behind the reunion, but for me it’s actually very simple. I simply feel like doing it.”
Paul: “Everything has been turned on its head in this business. A comeback is something you’re quite simply expected to do. When we say that we’ve disbanded, they’ll go: ‘Sure, but when are you getting back together?'”.
Magne: “The prospect of Rio made me want to join. I’m not particularly looking forward to being on stage in Rio, but I’m looking forward to having done it. The concert will be a celebration of both a-ha and Rock in Rio. I would have been OK with doing just one concert, but once I had made up my mind, I was 100 percent committed. Suddenly I was writing songs with Morten’s voice in mind. It’s fun to be thinking ‘what can I contribute to a-ha in 2015?’. I never thought I would be in that position again.”
Paul: “Re-entering the stage at Rock in Rio, that will be quite a steep learning curve. But I hope we can use it to showcase different sides of the band, and that we’re able to surprise both the fans and ourselves.”
Paul: “I’m the one who didn’t want to end the band in the first place. But now I’m very happy that it turned out the way it did. As a travelling musician you’re not always where you should be. Now I’ve had a few years with more time on my hands, which means I’ve been able to be there for Augie.”
Morten: “On a purely social level, it would probably have been good for us to just go on the road and celebrate with old material. But that’s not something we’re very good at. We need to create new material. But this time it has to happen in a way that we’re comfortable with, like a good opportunity in our lives.”
Magne: “I’m interested to see if this triggers me to do something I wouldn’t have done otherwise. And it does. It’s creatively rewarding, and I’m thankful for that. Thank you, a-ha, for locking your jaws around my leg one more time.”
Paul: “If we’re not able to return with good material, that’s unfortunate of course. But I haven’t thought much about that possibility, because in my head it was never over.”
The whole article is available at dagbladet.no (subscribers only).
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