PALINTERVIEW3

PAUL WAAKTAAR SAVOY.

Tania: You really enjoy to work with Harald Zwart, and you made "Forever Not Yours" and
"Velvet" with him. And you were in Cuba as well. How was that trip ?
Pal: Well, that was great. It´s very different.
Tania: What do you mean different ?
Pal: Because I came from New York, we´re not supposed to go there. Silly isn´t it ? But we
travelled a long time. We were supposed to get ther in 3 or 4 hours but, But it took us 12 hours
to get there. But then the country is really beautiful and very hot. And about Harald , He really
knows everything about a-ha, because he is Norwegian. So when you work with him, everything
is in the Hollywood style, so actually he is very Hollywood. He lives there. (he laughs).
Tania: But the critics said that in "Velvet", you played around with necrophilia ?
Pal: Yeah, Have you seen it ?
Tania: Yes.
Pal: Well, that was not the intention. It´s a wrong interpretation. Nothing to do with it, and
actually I liked Savoy´s version more, but it never was famouse like with a-ha; And Harald did
a great job with the song, and the only thing that we tried to show in the video, is when the soul leaves the body and the lover is still thinking of his girlfriend even after she killed him.
Is there any necrophilia in that ?
Tania: Not, for me.
Tania: Do you feel allright in a-ha now ?
Pal: Yeah, but I like Savoy more; Because, a-ha is too commercial.
Tania: But if you are not commercial, you are not rich and famous, and nobody knows you,
isn´t that so? And if the music is great with a-ha or Savoy, people have the right to know it, yes
or no ?
Pal: (He smiles) Yes, but then you become a "PRODUCT". The only thing that is important is how
much you sell; It´s the charts and the music; And in Savoy, I am free; The king (he smiles).
In a-ha, it´s never enough, and I realize that; An then the record company doesn´t understand
that the most important thing is that you have to be happy with the album and not to be worried about how many copies you sell? Because even if you sold millions, the next time that will not enough.
Tania: Arer you happy with the projection that wea gave the band in the "beguining" ?
Pal: Well, in the beguining , we didn´t have any objection, because you don´t know how this will
work; So at the time you learning how it works, and, then you want to change it, but then you
found that the people have a certain idea how a-ha is. It´s really hard to tell everybody wich direction a-ha wants to go, but it´s more difficult to say that to the record company; The people
who like your music accept you changes, but the record companies are very different.
Tania: I know that you played in the Middle East. How was that ?
Pal: Yeah, we played in Beirut, Lebanon. And it was crazy. A total shock; It was different.
In our hotel there were bullet holes on the wall; And then on stage when we played there, there was a huge hole like a big bomb hole, and then there was the sound; It was very loud, so the concrete still fell down on stage; And then Mange was just walking there very near to the hole bomb and Morten and Me, we just looked it at him, and then we looked each other like thinking, where he is going?... But it was a great show there especially after the people waited hours outside.
The first show was terrible because it has the worst seats. In the other two shows; It was a little bit different, just the opposite.
Tania: I know you were in New York when all the crazy things happened on September 11 th.
How did it affect you ?
Pal: ¡ Well actually it left a mark on all the neighbors in that experience. It change you in a different way. I remenber that I listened very clear when the first plane impacted into the first Tower.
I can´t forget that sound; We could realize all the tragedy there. It was very scary, especially with Augie, because on the radio it sais that more planes were hijacked. So that could be transformed into a chemical or biological war; So I ran to a shop and I bought gas masks for what
might happen !
Tania: You couldn´t go back to Norway. And I suppose that you were frightened to take a plane, with all this hijacking ?
Pal: Lauren was for sure! I just wanted to try to get out of that place.