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| 27 February 2004 |
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| - I won't be making records to the age of 35 |
| Source : Nordlys |
OSLO: Lene Marlin are frequently making new songs, and believes there will be another album. - However, I won't be making records to the age of 35, says the 23-year-old.
HAPPY: Lene Marlin is enjoying herself very much with her way of life, and gets the time doing what she likes the most: writing songs.
- I feel more comfortable with the song writing than as an artist, and I'd stop the artist career before I stop writing songs, says Lene Marlin to Nordlys.
Does not dare starting in Tromsø
This doesn't mean that she's not enjoying the role as an artist.
- No, that may also be a wonderful thing as well. After the spontanous concert at the pub here in Oslo last autumn, I felt really great. It felt good playing before an audience and get such great response, she says.
- And I'm enjoying myself when I'm singing songs that mean much to me, whether it's in the studio or before three of my friends.
Because it's the smaller formats that work best for her. And it's on smaller stages she could picture herself staging concerts in the future.
- I think it suits my music the better. Smaller places with good contact with the audience and acoustic music. However, the tour plans are for the time being not so concrete. The ideas of playing are there, but there haven't been decided on any dates and such yet. I'm still traveling about and promoting the album, and I haven't come to all the places that I intend.
A concert in Tromsø is also in her mind.
- However, the first gigs are to be done far away from Tromsø, she smiles.
- I have to practice, so I know everything properly before I'd be playing at home. I wouldn't have dared starting up in Tromsø. It gets to be a different thing knowing people on the floor. Perhaps I ought to show up unannounced at Kaos, like I heard Röyksopp did?
- Seriously?
- No, I don't dare saying that, I won't be able coming to Tromsø ever again.
Made demands
However, it happens that the urge gets to be strong.
- One time we were in Italy, I suddenly got the urge to play again, and I got around with the band across town looking for a suitable place late at night. However, that time we didn't find the right place, so it didn't come to anything, she says.
Traveling is going on a lot still. Thursday evening she came home from Denmark, and now she's home on the occasion of tomorrow's Spellemann show, before she's traveling abroad again on Monday across Europe.
- However, I'm enjoying myself with how things are done this time around. Before I started working with Another Day, I made demands that things needed to be done differently than last time. It has been totally necessary to make it work, and this they understood, she says.
- Now it's more peace, and then I get the time being creative - and that leads also to me wanting to continue traveling on.
Doesn't believe in a prize
However, any Spellemann award she doesn't believe she'll be getting.
- Kurt has been selling 100.000 of his single, and Bertine Zetlitz has made an incredibly wonderful album. Still, should it happen that I nevertheless get an award, I'd be very happy. A Spellemann award means a great deal. Many thinks that the MTV award I received has meant more than the prizes I've gotten in Norway, but that is absolutely not true. On the contrary.
And prize or not, Lene Marlin is looking forward to tomorrow.
- Yes, it will be fun. And I think it seems so long ago since the last time, even though it's just been four years. Sometimes I think: Wow, have I been doing this for only six years. A lot has happened.
- Speaking of Kurt; are you watching Idol?
- Yes, I do watch it a bit. It's entertaining for sure, but at the same time I do see that many are losing their courage. Not everyone is suited to that format, and it could easily happen that young people would put away all the ambitions of a music career if they get negative feedback from the four in the panel of judges. And that's a pity. If you are eliminated, it doesn't mean you should be giving up, says Lene Marlin.
- I'm a hundred percent sure I wouldn't have progressed in Idol. I have had several requests of sitting in panels of this type, but I've respectfully said no every time. I don't want to be someone taking away people's faith.
- What about Team Antonsen, are you laughing of that?
- Yes! I've registered that there's been a debate about the show and the humour. However, I don't understand why people who don't like it uses energy watching it. Can't they just turn it off?
North-Norwegian voice?
It gets to be a few years since she moved to Oslo now, and she's having a good time, even though Tromsø still is 'home'.
- I was in Tromsø during Christmas, and it made me well. Wonderful walking about outside in the silence, without a human being in proximity, and with a lot of fresh air.
Any plans of moving back she doesn't have at the moment.
- However, I don't feel I was ever moving away from home, not for real. I brought along a suitcase and never came home again. Suddenly I was just living here, kind of.
- Have you gotten a different view of North-Norway after living away for a few years?
- No, I don't think so, even though I see that Tromsø has changed a great lot. The centre has moved to Nerstranda, among other things.
- Do you feel at home in other people's personal perception of North-Norway?
- There's somewhat of a stereotypical picture of North-Norway being created in the media. Just look at the commercials on TV, where the people from the north are often sitting about in their small smack. And people here in Oslo think I'm eating a lot of fish and visits the fisherman's shack all the time when I'm home in Tromsø.
- Do you feel like a 'new North-Norwegian voice'?
- No, I don't walk around thinking that I'm from North-Norway all the time. North-Norway will always be something special to me, but it's hard to say how much it has set its mark on me and my music. I don't have to be sitting in Tromsø to write songs. And there are a lot of things contributing to a human's development; family, friends, environment and surroundings. I've been thinking about it somewhat - to what extent have the surroundings played a part?
- At the same time I notice that I'm 'seeing Tromsø' other places, when I'm traveling. To be able sitting in Kroken watching the lights on the other side is something I like very much. And sometimes there might be similar lights popping up at places that are not so different from Tromsø.
Likes the visions of the Olympic Games
In the surroundings Lene Marlin grew up in, there are many now wanting to stage the Olympic Games in 2014.
- Yes, I've of course heard of that. It would take a damned lot of boats to accommodate this many people, she laughs.
- I don't know if it's do-able, but I do like the visions very much. I'd give them credit for that. Everybody ought to have visions and dreams.
That is something Lene Marlin also has, despite that many thinks she's sad and is feeling sorry all the time.
- He-he, that I'm not. I'm really great, and in the tempo we're working now there are more room for a bit of thinking. I've written some songs since Another Day, and sometimes I'm thinking I'm getting closer to a new album.
And not only do people believe that she's constantly sad; they think she's mystical as well.
- Yes, people are saying that. However, I'm not hiding away, and I'm outside just like everybody else. Still, I don't feel like putting my head out for no reason. My friends say that I'm an incredibly poor celebrity, Lene Marlin smiles.
She's very grateful for the response she's getting from people following the return to the limelight again.
- Now and then there are someone coming up to me on the street, saying 'I don't mean to bother you, but I'd just want to thank you for your last album'. Things like that can save the rest of my day.
The joy is also affecting her music.
- There's been a development since Another Day. I'm very satisfied with that one, and I had to make this record, but now I'm moving on.
- More cheery, perhaps?
- N'yes, I don't know about that. Even though I'm happy, I can still get thoughtful. So the next album won't exactly be any kind of a happy disco record.
Translation by Tef Johs
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