Transcript of the Morten Harket-interview on the radio-show "Mamarazzi"
on NRK Petre 28.07.99. (By Jakob Sekse)

Before you start reading, please note that it takes a little while
before the conversation with Morten starts. In the beginning, it`s just
the studio-host and the outdoor-reporter who are talking. The main
conversation starts in the next part...


As a song fades out, voices can be heard talking in the background:

Marte Spurkeland (MS): So that the fish gets covered, in a way...

Morten Harket (MH) (in the background): Do you think we have too
much...?
MS: No, I don`t want too much. I think we have a bit...

Studio-host Nina Stensrud (NS): You have just heard [some artist] on
NRK Petre. So, it`s Wednesday, and then "Mamarazzi" invites men who
deserves to be called "barbecue-king". And today it`s Morten Harket.
He`s busy up there [on the roof] with matches and stuff. I think he`s
trying to grill a "steinbit" [I don`t know the english word for this
fish...]. And then there`s Marte Spurkeland, who you can hear is trying
to look after Morten. Let`s try to call out to her:
"Marte!"..."Marte!"..."Marte!"...

MS: Oh, hello! Yeah, we`re on now...Hi!

NS: Yes, I`m here too, you know!

MS: I`m totally loosing track of it with these men. I`m standing here
now with Morten Harket and his manager.

NS: Wow...

MS: They`re standing here, studying the coalfish-fillet, and they are
going to make some fantastic grill-food for us.

[Morten and his manager keep talking constantly in the background,
discussing the fish]

NS: Did you say coalfish-fillet? Wasn`t it "steinbit"?

MS: I said that, I am a bit dyslexic, but I am totally loosing track of
it, as I said... Morten is wearing a singlet...

NS: Excuse me?

MS: It`s not so unusual... He`s wearing a singlet...

NS: Oh, my... oh, my... But tell me, how does his hair look?

MS: His hair is short and washed recently, I think, even though he is
currently recording a new [a-ha] album in the studio all day. He looks
very...

[Morten says something in the background]

MS: That`s why it`s recently washed, he says.

NS: Not very stressed, is he?

MS: No, his skin is satisfactory, his arms are well-trained... He is
wearing jeans...

NS: No holes on his knees?

MS: No, but he has removed the pockets, so it` a kind of difference in
the colors.

NS: Removed the pockets???

MS: Yes, he claims that it`s a pair of women jeans, actually...

NS: Good gracious! No "cross-dressing" here, is it?

MS: The manager is standing in the background and is pouring salt, now
it`s Morten who is pouring salt...

NS: But tell me, that "indian-look", has he left all that behind now?

MS: He has left that all behind. No bracelets... But he has a rather
cool watch...

NS: OK? Does it look expensive?

MS: No, it doesn`t look that expensive, but it looks kinda tough, kinda
"disguised cool" or maybe more "disguised expensive".

[Morten is commenting to Marte from the background]

NS: He`s trying to prompt you Marte, I can hear it, but just ignore
him.

MS: I think he likes to talk about himself...

NS: He, he!

MS: He will have time to do that later... He has these fine, fine veins
that goes up his arms...

NS: So, he is going to grill "steinbit"?

MS: Now the "steinbit" is being laid on the grill... Oh, it looks so
delicious!

NS: He won`t manage to burn it, will he?

MS: We are looking after Morten`s fingers. We can`t risk anything...

NS: You know, "Mamarazzi" can`t afford that insurance sum, I can tell
you that right now! You have to take care of this, Marte!

MS: Yes, now Morten is standing... Ugh! His fingers are near the grill!
This looks a bit risky... But the manager can`t seem to wrap up the
fish properly, so now Morten has intervened... This looks very good,
and I am really looking forward to the meal.

NS: Yes, we all do.

MS: That`s nice!

NS: So, Morten Harket is the "barbecue-king" today, out on the roof of
the NRK-building, outside the "Mamarazzi"-studio. He`s ready to pour
all of his inner energy on the "Mamarazzi"-grill... In the meantime,
here`s "Prince & the Revolution" with the song "Pop Life".

[Morten, Marte and the manager keep talking in the background as the
song starts]

[about 20 minutes later]:

Marte Spurkeland (MS): There is a bit confusion up on the roof
concerning if the fish will be grilled, when it`s so wrapped up in
foil...? Do you have any idea about how to do this, Morten?

Morten Harket (MH)[while eating salad]: Well...foil happen to be very
thin, so I think that the heat from the grill will be able to penetrate
that foil-paper.

MS: But you are a man who...if the grill is going to be treated, then
you can treat it? You do know how to do these things, don`t you?

MH: Yes...but that has also got something to do with attitude... Just
to grill something isn`t the most difficult thing, but if you are
willing to enter into something, you will finally figure things out.

MS: He, he! A small life-philosophy about the "steinbit". But, tell me,
what is it about "barbecue-kings" and fish? You`re the third
"barbecue-king" we`re having here, and all three want to grill fish. Is
it a typical male-thing?

MH: Uh...to be called "king", is that something you are born with? He,
he. I don`t think I am worthy of being called a "king" when it comes to
grilling... But you asked about fish?

MS: Mm...

MH: Fish is...more...I think I feel a bit more comfortable when I have
filled my stomach with fish, than if it would have been something
more...sausage-orientated. He, he!

MS: He, he! You know, it`s not very nice to not listen to people when
they`re talking... But, you know, you are incredibly good-looking! How
old are you now?

MH: How good-looking and how old am I, or... He, he! I don`t really
know...how good-looking I am... And how old I am? You can count from
1959, in Kongsberg.

MS: You are soon turning forty, aren`t you?

MH: Just around the corner...

MS: How is it for you to be getting older? Are you handling it OK?

MH: Doesn`t it show?

MS: He, he! But how do you manage to keep that youthful charm of yours?
You know, no one thinks of you as a grown-up man, soon turning forty!
If someone says "Morten Harket", then we imagine...

MH: Then you have a real problem!

MS: Yeah? Then we imagine a motor-bike, wind in your hair, jeans...

MH: Today, there are more 40-year-olds riding motor-bikes than any
other age group, I think...and I am actually not one of them, because I
ride my bike way too seldom, I don`t have time to do it... Uh, I have
just had a ride on my bike, actually. He, he! But that`s the first ride
in a very long time! I miss that. For me it`s not something... Now you
presented this "turning-forty-thing" as something negative...but for
me, it`s not like that at all. Other people can say what they want, but
I... My experience of getting older has been just positive, so far.

MS: But there is a big difference between the albums you are making,
and the various stuff you are doing now, compared to the late eighties
and a-ha? Have you gone through a process in order to find your inner
self, or...

MH: But now you are associating with he image that was connected to the
gossip-magazine part of a-ha. You know, at the end of of the eighties
a-ha was far from that pop-hysteria which we was presented as...and in
a sense, left the scene as. But if you take a look at the first album,
or in any case, from the first album to the second... The first came in
85, and the second in 86. And there is just as much introvertment and,
if you like, "heaviness"- in relation to a rock or pop-idea, to be
found there as you find in most music, and you can also find today- in
much of the things we do... So I think that the main [musical]
direction of a-ha has always been there, and it is not really
pop-orientated. You know, neither of us come from that musical
direction, we didn`t listen to pop-music any of us, before we got
together. We weren`t interested in that kind of music at all, and that
was maybe the thing that we had the most trouble with. Because the way
we were presented, not any of us would have cared to buy our own music-
as bystanders, because we wouldn`t  have been attracted to it in any
way. Or we would at least have been pushed away from it, because it
involves so much other noise, which we not really would have wanted to
associate ourselves with, or simply didn`t find interesting.

MS: But you agree that since you released "Wild Seed" in 95, it sounds
like you have come to a stand and looked at yourself and your life?

MH: Yes...that`s maybe a compliment?

MS: And then he turns and looks at his manager! He, he!

MH [in an indistinct voice]: He`s smarter than I am you know.

MS: Don`t talk with food in your mouth, Morten! It`s not a nice thing
to do.

MH: Yeah, but we`re on an interview, and I have been offered some
cherries.

MS: You know, I`ve been reading abot you... That`s a bit threatening
[in a deep voice]: "I`ve been reading about you!", that you have been
wandering for 18 months through South-America and Asia? Is that also a
thing you do in order to get a new perspective on things?

MH: That`s something the press writes for lack of something else,
because I have never...[chuckles]...been wandering through Asia or
something like that, so what you have read is not correct! But I have
travelled a lot, I have spent much time in certain areas, that`s
correct. But it hasn`t been a pilgrimage, it`s been more shorter,
intense stays. There has been a few like that, mailnly out in the
nature, especially in the jungle. I`ve always been fascinated by that.

MS: But you`re sitting here like, I mean, Norway`s biggest pop-icon,
and you have sold 20 million albums! It`s a totally crazy number, how
do you manage to avoid that this goes to your head?

[pause]

MH: Well..."goes to your head"... I think I have a realistic view of
what belongs to the commercial aspects of having success, because they
are very connected... But with succes, then you think of commercial
success, right? There are many types of success, and to make a good
product, to be involved in making an expression that reaches people,
people in general, that`s the valuable part of it. At least in relation
to a spiritual perspective. Then, on the other hand you have the
commercial part, which is about the money-part... And that is really
interesting, all that stuff, because as I have become familiar with
what it implies and the mechanisms that rules, I have become even more
interested in the commercial part, because it represents a capacity of
expressions, which means that you can reach people, no matter where
they are in their own life. Because if you have a huge breakthrough, in
a proper way- there are the very superficial commercial ones, and you
have the the ones who actually reaches a wide audience- that`s the
interesting. That`s the part I`m interested in.

MS: Is that what you want to now, with a-ha`s 3 new albums? It won`t be
super-commercial?

MH: I have no objection to it if it`s "super-commercial", that only
means that the superficial part of it hits the audience. And then you
have the product, how many layers of values that`s hidden inside it. To
me, things have to contain something inwards too, or I have no reason
to be there at all. 

MS: Now I got really happy, Morten, when I heard that... Thank you!

MH: Really? I didn`t need to say much to make you happy...

MS: But how do you think the food will turn out?

[Morten keeps talking, as a song starts]:

MH: I feel like I don`t have the command here anymore, concerning the
grilling...

MS: Has he [Morten`s manager] taken your leader-status here?

MH: It seems like Erling is the new king here!



And with that, the conversation ended...

So now you all know what food to offer Morten if he suddenly rings your
doorbell... (fish!)

Hope you`ve enjoyed this transcript! (even if my English isn`t totally
perfect yet...)


Jakob