BURNING CHRIST ABOVE PITCH BLACK DEMONS
by Stig Myhre (translation by cindy kandolf)

He must be the biggest Norwegian pop idol in the last 15 years.  
Aqua-Lene sold more albums, but she's in something of another division.  
a-ha were - and are? - a really *good* pop band!  He has granted PULS a 
rare interview - with time to spare before the comeback we've heard a-ha 
is planning.  He's sold twenty million albums, folks!

During most of his childhood Morten Harket had rarely heard an electric 
guitar.  But, he has a will of steel - and a phenomenal ability to 
adapt.  With the help of Uriah Heep's "Wonderworld" (1975) he became 
hopelessly addicted to music; and with it a belief in the power of music 
to change the world.

"We didn't play much music, we mostly played inside our heads," Harket 
admits when he thinks back on the start of his new career.

"SPIRIT BATTLE"

But nobody can say that Morten and company were your average kids without 
a vision.  The result of their early work was "Spirit Battle", an 
ambitious musical piece with an album cover showing a burning Christ 
above pitch black demons!  We're back in the 1970s, and Morten Harket and 
Geir Kolbu are using the gigantic church organ in Trinity Church in 
Oslo...

The album cover was finished long before the music - the album was never 
released.  What do you say, Harket?  Time to put a record in that cover, 
now in 1999?

"Nope.  That album was performed in concert for hundreds of thousands of 
people, in my mind, heh heh!"

SOLDIER BLUE [sic]

Morten Harket was deeply into the progressive, pompous rock of the '70s: 
"The Wall" (Pink Floyd), Freddie Mercury (Queen) - and heavy doses of 
Uriah Heep and Genesis.  We're talking about long introductions, bridges 
and breaks, heavy themes, theatrical, bombastic experiences and concept 
albums.  Morten was nonetheless - against all odds and against his will - 
drawn to the polar opposite.  A sort of self-inflicted torture, perhaps?  
He joined the straight blues band Soldier Blue.  [Everywhere else i've 
seen this name it's written Souldier Blue. - ck.]

"I actively hated the blues.  It was so incredibly dull, relaxed, 
repetitive, relatively unintelligent and uninteresting.  Soldier Blue 
played old, traditional blues songs in the beginning.  My own objections 
to it became my motivation for doing this.  I understood then that 
something was happening to me.  Choosing to do this was the tiny change 
that was necessary, that led to me doing what I do ever since then.

"It's such a delicate thing, that tiny little decision there.  In a way 
it was a drive within me that made the difference.  I agreed to do 
something I was completely uninterrested in, something I disliked, I 
didn't feel any response from *my* voice or *my* system.  Singing the 
blues was deadly dull for me.

"At the same time I understood that there had to be something there that 
I hadn't understood, that is, that there was something wrong with my 
receptors.  I kept my mouth shut, didn't get involved in anything else, 
just did what I should, showed up at rehearsals and sang like a good 
boy.  It was like taking an exam that would end my apprenticeship.  Up 
until then I had always been the boss, made it seem like I knew 
everything and drove everyone around me up the wall," Moprten recalls.

"MORTEN IS MOCKING ME!"

Thinking back to the Soldier Blue period reminds us of an episode that 
shows the ability many claim the man has for getting the last word in a 
discussion - whether he's right or not.  A well-known, white blues singer 
(female) was talking about how hard it was for a white person to sing the 
blues.  This individual, who shall remain anonymous, said that she had 
been struggling with the problem for ten years.  Morten protested and 
claimed he could meet the challenge in seven or eight months.

"They were talking about a particular song, 'A Change is Gonna Come', which
they claimed a white man couldn't sing.  I thought that was a ridiculous
claim, even though I didn't personally know if a white singer could sing it. 
That's not what it's about, it's not about black or white.  It's never been
about that.  It's true that the environment many blacks spend their childhood
in, plays a central role in what sort of adults they become, but the same
early experiences could happen to a pale pink little blond boy.  To me it's
foolish to think that those kind of differences are real." 

The episode ended, incidentally, with the blues singer crying that Morten 
Harket "is mocking me!"

PART II

"Pål and Magne wanted me in the band before they heard me sing, play, or 
anything.  Everything was about attitude and personality.  Originally 
they wanted me as the drummer.  Pål didn't want anyone else to be the 
vocalist.  At the same time I knew that nobody else but me could be the 
singer," says Morten Harket, in part 2 of our biggest pop star.  Remember 
where you read it - and know that we have a long way to go before the end 
of our conversation.

During the Soldier Blue era, Morten met Magne Furuholmen and Pål 
Waaktaar.  The calendar read 1979.  Bridges, Pål and Magne's first 
serious band, turned Morten on.  Harket, Furuholmen and Waaktaar were 
three completely different people, but found common ground in their huge 
musical ambitions.

*a-ha was born in September 1982.*

MEETING FURUHOLMEN AND WAAKTAAR

"Bridges were miles ahead of me.  Already at that time Pål and Magne were 
talented songwriters and incredibly mature.  Bridges were very close to 
the level of world class musicians.  The Bridges LP 'Fakkeltog' (1980) 
made a huge impression on me, it completely changed my situation.  Pål 
and Magne had the power to go as far as they wanted to go.  To find a 
band like that in Norway was a complete shock.  I was high on that 
feeling.  There were no boundaries anymore."

The rest is a-ha-history.

NO TO ROLLING STONE...

The newly reunited a-ha made their international breakthrough by 
following the pinciple: "Failure is not an option".  They didn't talk 
about what would happen *if* they made it.  They talked about *when*.

"Take On Me" reached number one on Billboard's singles chart.  That is 
still a historical moment, September 1985.  In spite of that they allowed 
themselves to say no to an interview in "Rolling Stone" and on the Johnny 
Carson Show.  They played for almost 200,000 people in Rio de Janeiro.

As their commercial success grew, so did the desire of the Norwegian 
press to "get them".  Many seemed to *hope* that a-ha would be a total 
flop, but 200,000 spectators....

NORWEGIAN PRESS

Morten is somewhat disillusioned about the Norwegian press' attempts to 
"get a-ha".

"They never knew what they were babbling about.  Those who want to look 
at the facts, know how many TV shows we've appeared on, how many hit 
lists we've been on... We're talking about numbers in a different order 
of magnitude than what most people believe.  At the very same time that 
the press was writing that things were going badly abroad - this was at 
the end of the '80s - Warner was congratulating us as their best-selling 
band internationally!

"So who do you think had it right, the people sitting on the bank 
statements, or the press...?  It's idiotic, it's crazt, and people just 
don't know it.  Look, it's just wrong to keep whining about it, but once 
again: You can't talk about it without saying things as they are.  I 
never wanted anyone to make everything easy for me, or to lift me up 
above where my own abilities.  It's not about making things up.  In Rio 
we sat a world record for a live concert.  That's a historical fact.  
It's not about what I think or what others 'believe' to be true.

"A spade is simply a spade.  You have to come to terms with that, and put 
it behind you.  It's ridiculous for me for example to pretend that I'm 
not different from other people - of course I am!  My whole life is 
different from other people's lives.  And it's not a question of whether 
I'm 'an okay guy' or not.  I'm only claiming that my life is a little 
different."

SPARKS BETWEEN THE A-HA BOYS

Headlines claiming a-ha was on its way down made their impressions, but
speculations on tensions between Harket and Paul Waaktaar Savoy were
considerably more serious.

It was almost as if the Oslo papers had sent out spies.  They claimed to 
"feel the vibes" between Morten and Paul after the first Savoy concert at 
Rockefeller.  "Mary's Coming" [sic] had just been released, it was early 
1996.

Morten feels a certain need to distance himself from the speculations 
about what he meant when he said "a-ha was never based on friendship".

"The press has never understood that, they've never *wanted* to 
understand it.  a-ha *has* never been based on friendship.  We've never 
needed that either.  That doesn't mean we are not friends.  a-ha has 
always been based on *things that are happening*.  It's serious, it's a 
huge project, an enormous thing we have to set in place, and it isn't 
based on what we do together beyond that.  We're deeply involved in this 
thing that draws us together - and then we have our private lives in 
addition to that, our own friends.

"Of course, when you work so closely together, you do things together and 
you become attatched to one another, but that's exactly where the media 
are so thick-headed.  They've made childish cartoon pictures of how our 
relationship works.  I really believe that, deep down, they were covering 
their own butts when they wrote that Pål and I were at war with one 
another.  They invented every bit of it, but they made it look like *we* 
brought it on ourselves."

GETTING A BAND TO WORK

"People wondered if the Savoy song "Daylights Waiting" [sic again!] was a 
slap in my face.  And so what if it was?  It's completely uninteresting.  
I don't have any problems with seeing that the powerful forces that drive 
an international band, which a-ha was and is, can lead to problems.  
Things happen and you need to get it out of your system.

"If Pål writes lyrics about a problem he's having or soemthing he needs 
to put into words, in his own way - even if it *is* a stab in the back to 
me - that's okay with me.  I don't have any problems with that.  I'm 
sitting there, not sure of whether he really needed it or not, but that 
isn't particularly interesting.  *It doesn't bother me for one second!*  
It's a question of what he needs to do to keep functioning, what Magne 
needs to keep functioning and what I need to keep functioning - and after 
that, what the band needs to keep functioning.  Otherwise we see that it 
doesn't work.  I've never looked for a static state where everybody was 
happy."

"I CAN'T CHANGE PÅL"

"In the first place, it's boring.  In the second place, it's 
unrealistic.  Incidentally I have a completely different relationship 
with Magne than with Pål.  They are very different creatures.  Pål has 
his world, his things to keep in balance, and then he has a door open for 
me, a door that doesn't look like Magne's door.  There's quite a bit of 
tension between me and Pål...

"I can't change Pål's qualities, make him be different, it's like peeling 
the stripes of a zebra.  That is how he is, and he can write, produc3e, 
and do what he does as the person he is, that's it.  I just want to deal 
with that, and learn to be active and productive within the bounds of 
reality.  But I needed to get out of a-ha to deal with it.

"I noticed that I was becoming completely dull in the a-ha situation.  
Towards the end I couldn't contribute or get across what Pål was working 
with.  Towards the end he was taking on a lot of responsibility, but also 
a lot of control - and then things weren't right for the band.  I sit 
there with nothing of value.  I didn't have anything I could do there," 
Morten Harket reports.

WITH HIS SISTER IN BRAVO

It wasn't just the Norwegian press who misundersatood the a-ha concept.  In
the foreign press a-ha was pushed early on into an unfortunate
teenybopper/one-hit wonder image, which simply did not mix with the band's
depth and creative ambitions.  This could have some tragicomic consequences
at times.  Morten turned up on the cover of the major German teenage magazine
"Bravo" with the headline: "Bunty ist meine erste grosse Liebe" ["Bunty
[Bailey, from the "TOM" video] is my first true love" -ck].  One small
problem - the photo showed Morten together with his sister Ingunn. 

Part III

Most of the people who bump into Morten Harket would say he is a nice guy. The
fame makes him something else. "The people" don't always like a guy who puts
his head "out-there". Harket has often made high-sounding statements, served
sensational conclusions - often the complete opposite of everybody else. This
Morten has experienced by commenting many essential non-musical related issues.
His support to Bellona (Norwegian organization similar to GreenPeace) for
instance has been a liberating contrast to the comprehension that a pop star
shouldn't mean anything at all. Despite this Morten is, of course, intelligent
enough to see the danger by the exposure of a famous face. Accusations about
"double-morals" is never far away.

-It's very difficult. I have big remonstrance against climbing up a hill to say

"This hill is mine, I built it!" I do it if I get the opportunity to work from
the inside, so it's all genuine. Your face should never be used, if it can be
avoided. The case itself must be the force behind it, says Morten Harket.

-I have done a lot to avoid being exploited as one of those apostles on a
bicycle. It's the worst thing that can happen. There were forces at work -
during the period when I was supporting the environmental causes. That's when I
bought the Mercedes 500. It was a kick back from me, not to end up in it (?!)
I'm no good any more, right? I'm not a moron on a bicycle. In all my activity I
fly back and forth in a jumbo. If I don't have my own car, somebody will pick
me up and take me wherever I want to go. It's all wrong and fake; to just put
on a helmet and get Dagbladet to take pictures of you.

-The more I can push away people's view on me, the better it is. I don't want
them to establish me as one thing or another. I want them to be insecure, and
thereby more fragile and open for new things.



Mortens musical philosophies

Many were skeptical right before Morten Harket's solo-career. Would he make it
without Waaktaar Savoy's songs? But what do you know: Morten Harket, who "only
wrote autographs" during ten years with a-ha made "Wild Seed" - a full LP with
potential single-hits! Were those songs penned by a "beginner"? You can't come
any closer to a perfect pop-song than " A kind of Christmas Card", and it had
great follow-ups. The album is still selling, and you can now find it in
155.000 Norwegian homes. Only God knows what would have happened to his album
if it had gotten a dignified promotion in foreign countries.

"Wild Seed" - the production was instructive, and according to the originator "
challenging to get out of the system." The sequel, "Vogts Villa", didn't reach
the same commercial height, but gave an insight to a strong tuneful, melodic
and timeless songwriting tradition. This man shouldn't feel the need to be more
"up to date"!

-I usually don't have the energy to listen to new music, I'm careful not to use
all the space in my head. I want things that grab me, nothing else. I've really
not followed anything new since a-ha got their breakthrough.

-That doesn't mean good things don't happen out there. Of course it does, I'm
sure there is a lot of things I'm missing, but I use that same time doing
things that reach me, that grab me. It's complete "academic" if one thing is
better than the other as influence.

-It's just as interesting as if Dagbladet comes in color or black/and white one
or the other day, or what color your car is. Everything is about this one
thing: Does it awaken your senses?

-It can be jazz, tango, rock, anything. I'm not supposed to communicate with a
special-oriented general public and now the "jungle-list" I wish to communicate
with other people, and that's it! That's why I have a new curiosity for the
commercial, gladly pop - cause it's a

Implacable, extremely difficult gender. Pop is about making something within a
tiny format - and at the same time you can reach people you usually don't
communicate with. Exciting, OK?