Interview with Bridges

The following short interview with Bridges is from 1980 printed in "Asker Boeringen".

Everyone who's been walking through the centre of Asker (small town west of Oslo] lately, must have seen the posters with four incriminating faces on it, giving you contemptious looks. On the posters, the mysterious text :
"Bridges - Fakkeltog" "Bridges" is definitely the name of a band, but what about "Fakkeltog" (Torchlight Procession)? To get to know more, we've arranged a meeting with the four guys...

"How did you organize all this ? According to what we've heard, "Fakkeltog" is a self-financed, privately made and privately released record !?"

"We were tired of always practicing, practicing and practicing, and wanted to try to realize some of our ambitions : to bring that, what we stand for, in the form of a record. So we looked up all the available studio's around Oslo and finally received a good offer from one here in Nydalen, named Octocon. After nine days in the studio, we'd finished our mastertape, and then we only had to take care of the printing of the cover and the pressing. In other words, it went really smooth !"

"But economically speaking, wasn't it a lot of pressure ?"

"Yes, while practicing, money was the biggest problem, but we refused to accept any financial help."

"Why did you choose the word "Fakkeltog" ?"

"This word captures the meaning; uncertainty. It is something we want to hand over in flashes and pieces. The songs do stand on their own, but "fakkeltog" is the leading thread through it. It keeps the album together. "Fakkeltog" has two parallel stories : a concrete one : the village, the fire, the changes,... The abstract idea is that, if one wants to develop, you have to leave everything behind, to sacrifice. "Dying, in order to live." Burn the old, so the new can arrive - mentally, of course. It is not an album about changes in company or whatever; in one night it can all change. Changes you could never have expected; pieces, thoughts. Write that down."

"The album is built around the triangle "The oncoming of day", "The oncoming of night" and "The oncoming" (the record is divided in three parts, and these are the titles of the parts). We've tried to give it shape, to make the atmosphere and lyrics fit strongly together."

"In other words. there's a reason for dividing it in three parts ?"

"Yes, they symbolize three phases in development, growth."

"You've also used classical instruments on the record - why ?"

"It was very inspiring, to use different instruments in this one song : 2 celli, viola's and violins, oboe and Spanich guitar. It's like balsam for the ears. In another song, there's also three trumpets !"

"To end with : do you have any plans for the future ?"

"We're thinking about releasing a second LP, and possibly a gigantic concert !"