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Translation of an article from the
16th. of April 2002. The article is an interview with Morten
Harket. And written by Hege Duckert.
I'm Danish, and isn't familiar with some Norwegian expressions,
but I'll do my best. So Norwegians feel
free to correct me.....
The a-ha Experience.
Morten Harket (42) used to run away to a Coralocean, when the
pressure got too big. He doesn't need that anymore.
-Come on. Come closer. Look at him! That's a good guy. Plenty a
character. If he's happy, he's tail is
orange. And then he gets into any holes he finds.
-Oh, a guy like that?
-Look at the lobstershell! The lobster has just changed his
shell and knows that there's some animals
that would eat him if they had the chance. The Eremitcrap over
there, has eaten the snail and taken
over the house.
-Like, live and let die?
-It's about the same in the street. I learn a lot about humanity
of this.
-Of...fish?
-Jalousy, bullieing, sickness, territories.
-You have it in here, all of it. Some suddenly dies, because
they give up. That always surprises me: You
get enough food, you are fine, you have your lady around the
corner - What's your problem? - But then
you die anyway. A peacefully aquarium is a balance of power.
-Have you seen "A fish called Wanda"?
-Yes says Morten Harket. -It's a horror film for fish!
In the livingroom of Morten Harket, it sounds like the back seat
in a plane. Maybe he doesn't hear it, after15 years with loud
music. The noise comes from the cooling to 3 big
saltwateraquariums, where Morten grows his own Corals and keeps
amimals that you'll find on the plate in his neighborhood in the
westend of Oslo - lobsters, craps, snails and fish in all the
colors of the rainbow.
-It's a big responsibility. In natural known inviroments many
are skeptical about cathing wild
animals and putting them in a glasscage in the livingroom.
That's understandably.
-But it's just about...fish?
-These fish are the best because they're fine, because I take
very well care of them. Out there is a killing field between the
ocean and the livingroom. It's not a long time ago that the loss
was 95% when
they were being transported. The most important argument for
saltwateraquariums is that maybe here we can save the Corals.
The knowhow could be used for natural growing of natureparks.
But today people are more concerned to animals than to human
beings. It's like they have given up on saving the people.
Animals are innocent. Human life are like dirty.
Morten Harket poses willingly in front of the aquarium, and
discusses the lights and reflects with the phographer Agnete. He
takes his glasses of. But even though he in a long time was the
best to pose, he
doesn't care much about what he looks like.
-I stopped caring for some thousand pictures ago. I don't care
much about my look.
But he cares about the styling of the fish. He feeds them to get
them to move, moves the equipment in the aquarium, so the
picture will be clear. Harket has a hobby with exotic stuff. It
started with tropical when he was 11 and the orchidees when he
was 14. On the walls there hangs stuffed birds and indians
equipment, which is made by his younger brother Kjetil.
He dries the skin with SAUEHJERNER (must say I have no clue what
that is, any norwegians that can help me out???) and puts it on
feathers of eagles.
-That's quite a family?
-We have that in common that none of us has any safe income. Our
childhood must have been very secure. We did develop confidence
in ourselves.
-You needed that?
-Yes, I experienced a lot of bullieing when I was younger. I had
a very long unpleasant time in school.
When I found out, that I even though this experience, had been
bullieing myself, it was a cold shower. I had all the experience
to feel the pain, and even though, I didn't see what I was doing.
-You seem like your life is more in harmony than before?
-Yes, I have a more simple relation to conflicts. I've become
better to ask the right questions and know more about what works
for me. But you know one thing: I might be further out than
other people.
The life of being a popstar has again taken Morten Harket. a-ha
will in these days come out with another album than their "coming
back together" and now it will soon be the big concert on
Ulleval Stadium. Few Norwegians has experienced a sweeter
success with the bitter after-taste than the members of a-ha,
which in more than 15 years has been pop-icons, nearly against
their will.
-We came out so bad, you know, we were so young and it was so
easy to promote us as a boyband. We went from an entusiastic
glow to the feeling of circus. Suddenly it was all about my
pants. We were so naive. Look at U2, they have been good at
making out who they are. People thought they came right from the
street.
-When you came right from the hairdresser?
-No, I cut my own hair and looked like it. We went right into
it. Today I think I understand why many artists travels around
with a crazy number of stylists and assistents. It's not very
smart, but I understand why. Normal people who comes in weird
situations looses what everyone else takes for granted. Your own
surroundings, own sheets, the possibility to take the bus
without people staring and a cap without the driver must talk.
The only relations which seems normal is the one you have to
your hairdresser and make-up lady. You can use the little energy
you have left to be yourself. In this market you aren't a human,
but a product on the line with Ajax and Volvo.
-You are 42 years old and still a rockstar. Will you
always stay in music?
-I think so, because I always have. But I don't listen much to
music. Never in the car or at home. I hate the music in the
background, you know, when music is a way of filling the air.
Don't people have a need to think?
Morten Harket does. He is a thinker. Thinks very strange and
does even say things that are even
stranger.
-I have always been very curious and a guy who asks questions.
It's better to get lost than to stop for an answer. Answers
don't hold for long. But sometimes I feel sad. Sad about how
much I have
to take care of myself being well and in a good shape. Magne can
break his arm, and we still do the concert - but if I get a sore
throat we have to cancel.
-Do you practice a lot?
-No, almost not. I have a body which gives a fast response. If
something is wrong, you'll see it. I think it might be annoying
to some people. But to me, who's living in this body, the most
important is i feel in good shape inside.
Harket goes for the diet of bloodtypes, which he means has
raised his energy. We go out to eat and he asks for meat "a lot
of meat" and vegetables. But no potatoes and bread, thanks.
-Wouldn't you prefer a fish?
-No think, says Morten gently and kicks me under the table.
Will a-ha fill up Ulleval Stadium? Do people take their lunch,
blanket and sunglasses to spent a day in
June on the grass?
-It'll be healthy for the music enviroment in Norway if we can
fill up Ulleval. When they invited us, we first said no, because
the safety didn't work. They answered by fixing the safety very
well. People expects certain things in a a-ha-concert and this
we will have to fulfill.
-It went very well in Valhall last year?
-Yes, the way we were met, from the audience and media was so
much without expectations. I sat for a long time and waited for
it all to fail, but it hasn't happend yet.
-Has a-ha played any concerts in stadiums?
-The biggest was at Maracana, the footballstadium in Rio, where
we played for 194000. With so many people standing there for so
many hours, you get raced by the
statistic - someone dies, someone is being born.
-Someone dies?
-Not at our concert, but with Guns & Roses who played just
before, it happened.
-How does so many people look like, from the stage?
There is a very long way down to the one who's at the back.
There is a very long way to the ones who is with you at the
stage, I'll tell you. If there is a little wind, you can't hear
them.
-What do you do then?
-What you have to do. Go on playing.
A band is like a relationship, says Harket. You have to make
sure that your partner is happy. Then you get the most from the
partner and you'll get your own stimulation. That's what I have
learned from
the last 18 years with a-ha, even though we haven't done that.
-What's the most important thing to you now?
-The kids. They are 8,10 and 12, plus a little more.
-Plus a little more?
-Yes, it's not very accurate right now. The youngest one is
nearly 9 and the middle one has become 11.
-You are divorced. Do you see the children a lot?
-In periods. It's a constant battle between job and family, and
both parts demand more time than they can get. Relationship and
relation-break-up is something you have to cope with, but it
doesn't change the responsibility as a parent. Maybe the word
Relation-break-up isn't the right word.
-Isn't it?
-You still live together, when you have children, even though
you live in different houses. It's still
sharing.
-Would you like more?
-I would most like holidays. With the children. But I don't like
the thought of deciding the number of
children I'll have. Things come as they come.
The last years Morten Harket has creating headlines by driving
into the ditch. He's a guy with a big G. It's fast in the curves.
-I got my driverlicense in the worst time with a-ha, because I
had a big need of getting away. Just before I took it, in
Germany, we got someone to get me and Magne a bike. My plan was
just to drive a little out in the parkinglot in front of the
hotel. Thought, that when I got my helmet on, nobody would
recognize me. But then I got very much recognized by a group of
fans and I panicked. I went for the speeder and raced around the
block to get away. There I got forced out in a one direction
lane. I dissappeared out in Berlin and didn't know how to ride
the bike. And didn't know the trafficrules. I had no money, no
identification and I didn't remember the name of the hotel. That
was
a crisis. My saving was a man in a Porshe behind me, who thought
I was in trouble and helped me out of the traffic.
-What did you learn from that?
-I learned to ride a bike. After that episode I became a man.
-THE END......
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