KS: You still had dreams
when you were 17. Do you
remember what they were?
MH: Oh, yes! Things were
virtually exploding in my
head! I had just started to
sing in a band and realized
I was really quite good. I
was sure to become a star.
I don't know how, but I just
knew it.
KS: When did you discover
music?
MH: As a three-year-old. My
parents took me to an event where
a brass band was playing.
The bandmaster took me on
his shoulders. He obviously
had never seen such a small child
go nuts with excitement. At
the end of the performance,
I peed on his neck.
KS: One year later you began studying
piano.
MH: Right. I made up little
songs by myself and tried to
play what I had heard. When
I was 6 my parents sent me
to a piano teacher. It was
then my love for music died.
KS: Why?
MH: Because I couldn’t bear
to be instructed by anyone.
Since I didn’t want to hurt
my parents, I did it just
the same. But I never did
learn to read music.
KS: When did you discover
pop music?
MH: Rather late. For a long
time I didn’t have any
interest in music at all. I
was collecting butterflies
and breeding orchids. When I
was 15 my cousin brought me
a Uriah Heep record. I had
never heard something like
this before. Electrical
guitars were totally unknown
to me. I decided to start a
rock band, and thought I was
the first one in Norway to
have this idea.
KS: What motivated you?
Money, women?
MH: Nothing like that. The
pure energy of music excited
me. I was pretty much a crackpot.
I wandered around outside for
hours, living on daydreams.
I was always playing music
in my head, or coming up
with grandiose ideas. To establish
a band wasn’t based on much
more than this feeling in
the beginning.
KS: What got you going then?
MH: One day I realized that
other mothers were making
fun of me. That hurt my
mother very much. I then
began to take the things I
did more seriously.
KS: At age 19 you decided to
become a priest.
MH: Not quite, although I
was brought up very
religiously. When I was
called into the military
service, I was required to cut
my hair. I preferred to pursue religious
studies instead. However, in
the end, I did cut off my
hair and fulfilled my
military service.
KS: Why?
MH: Actually I wanted to
refuse, for ethnical reasons.
Because nobody has the right
to kill. But then I became
convinced that it was my
duty to serve, because
democracy must remain
tenable (and that sometimes
requires fighting).
KS: When did you start your
career as a professional
musician?
MH: Shortly after this. At
first, I studied again,
though this time the natural
sciences. But I realized
after one year that I had
learned nothing. There was
only room for music in my
head. So I dropped out.
KS: a-ha became the most
successful Norwegian band of
all time. Were you prepared
for this?
MH: No. Quite the opposite.
I am very receptive to what is
expected of me, and this
irritated me. I wanted to
meet everybody, and there
were so many who wanted
something from me. In the
end I was drained
emotionally and had to back
out of all that hype.
KS: Would that hype have
discouraged the young Morten?
MH: Hardly. Although it
should scare everybody.
This degree of popularity is
very unhealthy for the soul
and mind. But the boy who
was Morten would have
accepted that he had to
learn to deal with it.
