Original subtitles

I knew I was going to become much stronger than everything and everyone.

I had brutal ambitions, you could say. I wanted to do it properly.

It happened in Rio 21 years ago.

198,000 paying fans filled Maracanã Stadium, giving A-ha a world record.

So I know that for Morten Harket, I am standing on historic ground.

And it was only natural for him to bring me here, when his story was going to be told.

I knew him a little from before, but had no idea that the next 10 days

would completely change my image of Morten Harket.

Norway’s biggest star of them all.

It was simply enormous. Absolutely huge.

What struck me most was how well-behaved people were. There was a fantastic aura around.

A wonderful atmosphere that you felt immediately.

It came in waves.

It was like an organism, so many people together.

They didn’t step on each other, and they had been standing there for 11 hours before we came on stage.

I felt so tiny. It was unbelievable.

We didn’t really take it in, to be honest.

You took it in more afterwards.

But precisely because this happened more than 20 years ago,

I was pretty sure that Morten would just be an ordinary tourist in today’s Rio.

I was wrong.

So how did Morten become the man he is today?

I remember very well one day I came home from school, I was maybe 7 years old.

My mother came happily up to me and said:

“Now you’re going to start learning piano! You’ve got piano lessons.”

And I felt everything inside me just shut down.

Right there and then. Because I didn’t want to be taught anything.

I wanted to learn myself. I wanted to discover it myself.

I had no need to be taught at all.

I couldn’t do it.

I don’t know why it’s always been like that with me. But I have a real resistance

to being taught anything. But how did you learn guitar then?

Well, I went to piano lessons. Because I didn’t dare, or couldn’t, say no.

My mother was very excited and happy, and thought it was wonderful.

It was wonderful. It was just me who felt wrong.

I had to find a way to fix it. So I went and took those lessons.

I went for several years and learned to play piano, but I never learned notes at all.

I just played by ear. I listened to him play, then tried to copy it.

He corrected me here and there too.

It took him three years to realize that I couldn’t read music.

He had a board over my hands.

Just so I couldn’t see them.

“But you’ve got the notes there,” he said, “so this should be fine.”

By then he had already realized I was faking it.

In the middle of all this, you grew up in a religious home.

They had a Christian faith, open and accessible, easy to relate to.

There was never a heavy hand in it.

Never any strict control.

But you even went so far as to study theology.

Yes. That was because I thought I could justify doing that,

but my actual reason for signing up for theology was that finally,

after a bloody battle at home, I had managed to get permission to grow my hair long.

So I had hair as long as yours. Really.

And then I was going into the military, and they didn’t care about that at all.

I realized that if I enrolled in theology, I would get a seven-year deferral.

So that was the real reason I started.

But was it a kind of rebellion?

Not at all! No, you just decided to do it?

Yes, and it had nothing to do with that.

I’ve never really had a rebellion, you could say, against my upbringing or my parents.

There are small things we might disagree about, more superficial, external things.

Yes. But I’ve never had anything to revolt against.

So when I went that way, it was because I felt at home there.

I didn’t like being nicely groomed. I didn’t like neat haircuts and all that.

Except when I began my hippie and bohemian phase,

just as the preppy wave came in. So I didn’t quite fit the times, you could say.

But you also started your musical career back then?

Maybe not the very first, but you played Judas, didn’t you?

Yes, I was in Antem, which was a Christian youth choir group.

And there were girls. You know, you come into the same room and there are girls.

That’s an important part of the drive, and then there’s the community.

You talk about life’s big questions and so on.

And it was a choir.

They had ambitions to stage musicals and such.

So I jumped into one of the roles, and was naturally chosen as Judas.

One day I heard music from my cousin who had been in London.

He came back with a record, and it exploded inside me.

So then I had to start a band.

And I couldn’t understand why nobody else had thought of that in Norway.

I remember not being able to comprehend it. I didn’t get people.

Of course there were loads of bands around. I just wasn’t in tune.

But it was quite by chance that you met Pål and Magne, wasn’t it?

I don’t think it was entirely by chance.

I heard them playing as Bridges.

It was a very strange experience, because it was so clear.

They were standing there and I knew right then, the only thing they needed,

the only thing missing, was me.

But how did you do it? Did you walk up and say “hey, you need me”?

No, absolutely not. I couldn’t. I was too proud for that.

There was no point either.

They had to discover me.

And then it could happen. So how did they?

Eventually, that’s what happened, but it took some time.

The rest is a story all of Norway is proud of.

Talent, persistence, and unwavering self-belief took A-ha and “Take On Me” to the top worldwide.

We were going to shoot our first video, and we thought it was super cool!

We were there at five in the morning or something. We were dead tired and freezing cold.

We sat down, had some breakfast, and were very excited,

because we hadn’t heard much about it, we hadn’t had a proper talk about the video.

About what was going to happen, so we were very curious.

Things had moved quickly once it began.

Then some women came in, you know. Real women.

Shapely and…

I just try to remember how it really was.

We were sitting there with bacon, eggs, and baked beans.

And suddenly… they just started stripping off their clothes.

They were changing, and I was staring straight at a naked backside.

Completely naked.

I saw Paul just stand up and walk out of the trailer.

And I sat there thinking… What? I didn’t understand anything.

What is actually going on here? We’re supposed to make a video for “Take On Me.”

What’s in the lyrics, really? And what kind of song is this?

We felt it was a straight-up comic-book, Sunday-school kind of song.

Which it is. That was their thinking.

They’d apparently hired the women they knew.

The director had rounded up some girls. And those girls were supposed to be in a limo.

They wanted to make that silly pop-star thing with babes spilling out of the car.

It was lifted straight from…

…the strip and porn industry.

We eventually got pretty clear on where we stood, but at first it felt like a total crisis.

For once, we were all completely in agreement?

Yes, you could say that. We suddenly felt like teenagers again.

Completely…

He ended up shooting some shadows of dancing women.

So in that video you see some silhouettes of writhing bodies.

But he kept going after we finished our shoot.

He started filming those women and used it for something else entirely.

You were even asked, at some point, to be a film star.

Spider-Man was one of the lead roles on the table.

So you could have been Spider-Man?

I was offered to play a version of Spider-Man.

It wouldn’t have been the one they made later. But who on earth says no

to the lead role as Spider-Man? Well, this guy does.

Yes—but why, Morten? Because there wasn’t time.

I would have had to… It just wasn’t possible. What was harder to turn down was—

It was…

I was offered a film with John Hurt and Helen Mirren.

That would have been fantastic. But it never happened.

I don’t think they ever got an answer.

People have talked endlessly about whether you guys are friends or not,

and all of that with A-ha. Can you, once and for all, say, “Did you fall out?

Was there jealousy, or what actually happened?”

Yeah, but listen to your question. That’s a lot at once.

No, it isn’t. It’s far too little at once.

Okay. Harald—our manager—has said,

“Nothing can stop A-ha,” he says, “except A-ha themselves.”

And that’s exactly right. We can do anything.

You never know how much better it could have been.

A-ha, with the story they have— breaking through with a debut single

that had been released three times.

Their career started with the idea that you never give up.

Many other bands would have given up on the first try.

Right? “Oh well—sorry…” It became a little hit in Norway,

and there went the chance. Even that is part of the difference that separates

those who really go the distance from those who don’t.

It’s a lot of will, ambition, and drive.

Through it all we’ve kept together, found our way back, done things together, despite big differences—

big contrasts in who we are as types, as characters.

That’s part of the tension that makes it interesting.

So the possibility, the potential, is explosive.

Are you proud of what you managed to achieve with A-ha?

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Without reservations.

But at the same time we all know what we could have achieved.

Is that a source of sorrow?

Yes, it always will be, if you don’t get to paint that picture—or you know

you’re sitting on something you really wanted to do.

So there’s a sense of grief in that which you carry with you all the time.

Even if A-ha is a closed chapter,

music will always be the driving force in Morten’s life. These days, his new solo album is being finished.

And as always, Morten isn’t satisfied until every detail is perfect.

Especially when it comes to anatomy and those details that are one of his specialties.

Very little gets past him.

Cover proposals. So cool!

Round seven. Oh, that many rounds?

I’m used to it. It’s just about keeping the right pacing,

the right tempo, and making sure to have fun along the way—then it’s fine.

Was that a new song? Maybe.

You’ve worked with him for so many years— do you feel you know him now?

Yes and no.

Morten is a very complex person, so there are many layers to get to know.

It’s really his guitar, you know. He’s just so happy to sell it.

We’ve spent a lot of time together the last five or six years, so we know each other well.

When you travel and tour and do promotion, it’s pretty close quarters.

You sit in cars for hours together, and you wait at airports.

You have to find something to do in the evening. So it gets very intense.

You spend a lot of time together when you’re on the road, so you get to know each other well.

No, I don’t like it. That’s putting it strongly.

It is what it is.

You just try to handle it in the best possible way.

Try to meet people— respectfully, of course.

“Fans”—I’ve never liked that word. To me, they’re people.

Very often it’s seen as a kind of brainless state, being a fan.

As if you’ve lost the ability to question anything— you just take it in with your mouth open.

And that’s simply not how reality is.

But what *is* in line with reality

is that music often ties itself to the big events in life.

That’s how it was for Simone, who wanted to take her own life.

Simone was stopped, but she still didn’t want to live until her quick-thinking mother

realized that music might be the rescue.

It was Morten Harket’s voice, and his ability to communicate,

that brought Simone’s spark for life back.

It took you quite a long time to accept that you’re a pop artist.

And to be able to stand in that. Yes.

But when you are, and then you come home, you’re supposed to be a father, a husband, do the shopping.

Yes. What is that like? You’re never just one of those things.

You’re always all of them. All the time. I’m—

A celebrity whether I’m at home cleaning my toilet or whether I’m feeding

my daughter, or whatever. That doesn’t change—it’s always there.

I’m not a normal person, and it’s also true that I *am* a completely normal person.

Both are true. I’m not normal in the social sense—

I both… I’ve stood out through what I’ve done, and I’m singled out because of it.

It isn’t communication anymore. You’re basically just being picked at.

It’s not a dialogue. It isn’t a social event you’re part of.

What happens when you step into the spotlight is you’re actually pushed out of the community.

You’re put under a light, and you no longer belong to the flock.

But that feeling of being pushed out isn’t new to Morten.

Even as a child he learned what it means to be different.

“Damn it, Harket—you’re so lame.”

After the break you’ll hear, among other things, all about Morten’s painful school years

as we continue our unique journey in Brazil with Morten Harket.

It’s actually quite fascinating.

That Morten, who sang for almost 200,000 fans at Maracanã Stadium,

has seen so little of Rio.

Yes, I may have brought you to Rio, but you’re the one who brought me up here.

It’s also ironic that Rio’s famous viewpoint, Sugarloaf,

has an annoying tendency to disappear into fog— on the very day Morten is a tourist.

Or maybe it’s in honor of his reputation as the “Prince of Fog”?

Do you find it tiring that people see you as a Prince of Fog?

No, not at all… I actually think that’s great.

Prince of Fog… That’s fantastic. Imagine—

It’s the finest nickname I could get. Imagine being appointed—

installed as the prince over the Land of Fog.

But are you so aware of it now that you kind of zhuzh it up?

Well—the Land of Fog does need a prince, after all.

I’m not saying it has to be me, but…

I see it as a blind honor— they didn’t know what they were doing.

No, but… they hit the mark. Listen—can you hear me now?

Yes, I can hear you. In that fog in there? I can hear you. You can hear me.

That thing about going so far into those foggy landscapes—do you do that on purpose now?

No, it comes on its own.

No—it’s an honest thing. Of course, some people think I

will never be able to find a map of anything at all.

I disagree with them there. Now the top just vanished into the fog.

Is he the Prince of Fog? No, absolutely not.

I don’t really understand where that comes from. I actually think the opposite—

that Morten is extremely precise and concise. But I think the reason many get

that impression is that his precision and conciseness are delivered at high speed.

And it can shift— the focus can shift very quickly.

But each statement, I’d say, is very, very precise and fact-based.

It just goes fast. You have to keep up. It’s not for beginners.

There it is. Two petals, and then you have the third which has become a lip,

which encloses the sexual reproductive stalk, if you will.

His greatest strength is probably that he’s hypersensitive in a way—

both intellectually and in terms of senses. He has an extreme…

ability to notice detail and to fine-tune.

That may also be his greatest weakness, because then the focus becomes so intense

that not everyone is able to follow it. But it also means that—

when you’re allowed to follow those senses, to follow that hunt for perfection,

the perfect and the details, you can get very beautiful results.

It sounds like the micro-management could be exhausting.

Yes, of course it can. And it is, for him too.

When I, for instance, try to explain something—

before I tell something, use words to describe something—

it’s quite an intense process. For me as well.

I get tired of it—very tired—myself.

Morten has always been different.

As a child, his vivid imagination tended to blend with reality.

Zeal, enthusiasm, and immersion were rewarded with beatings,

turning his primary school years into a nightmare.

I experienced pretty intense bullying at school from the age of seven or eight.

Those first years of primary school were not particularly pleasant.

It had to do with the fact that I was very enthusiastic about what I cared about.

And I would just tell the whole thing. “What if… Imagine this.”

But when it was perceived as if I was telling something that had happened,

it became a blatant lie in the other children’s eyes. And I was put on the spot—

accused of lying, of laughing— “this didn’t happen,” right?

That wasn’t the point. The point was the experience—to picture it.

Right? So there was no communication there.

And there hasn’t been since, either.

But it’s also said that you took an awfully long time getting home,

because you didn’t want your mother to discover you were being bullied.

Yes—snitching, telling someone else, felt like an unthinkable line to cross.

It only makes your situation worse. You have to handle it yourself somehow.

Did it take a long time before your parents noticed?

They realized it—now and then. They did.

But I had a long walk home from school, so it took time to get there.

So it was a bit of “wipe the tears, dust yourself off”?

Yes. Often, a beating was waiting as I left school—often a ritual.

First I had to get beaten up, and then I could go home.

Where did you find the strength, then?

Well… First of all, I had—

I experienced it as hell. That time.

Truly. And it was my whole life— it went on year after year, you know.

That’s a long time at that age. But I also had my life at home,

which was a completely different world, a completely different reality—

one that was only good.

And I also knew that, in a way— I knew they misunderstood me.

I knew there was something off about it. I knew I was stronger than this.

I knew that all along.

Even though I knew I wasn’t—then.

I didn’t have access to it then, but I knew I would become

much stronger than everything— than all of this, and everyone.

I could see all those drives. These were urges driving it.

Right? It wasn’t the person.

I could see that the one standing there and hitting me in the face, for instance—

I could see he was afraid.

It sounds almost like you stepped outside yourself and watched?

Yes.

Saw it from the outside, looking in. That’s one of the things I remember saying.

I said once— it was exactly such a scene,

where he had just hit me, plain and simple.

And he said, “Damn it, Harket, you’re so lame.” And I just said: “I’m not me!”

I said. And then he totally lost it. “Did you hear that, boys!?”

“Here’s the proof! This guy is lame. That’s just how it is.”

“He’s completely—he’s further gone than we realized.”

But I knew that was true. I knew I wasn’t “me.”

“Me” in the sense that—you don’t know me. You have no idea who you’re talking to.

Right? And that’s how it is.

None of the people who are bullied—or who bully—

have any idea what they’re really dealing with.

When you sit like that, do you play your way into the songs?

Yes.

What’s interesting is also to see what happens to a tone—

for example, to a single tone. Yes.

If you put a chord under that tone, you get one experience.

It’s the same tone all the way. And I can show even more with—

If I lock onto something, I shut everything else out.

But it can be for three minutes, or it can last ten days.

You go in and out of that state— at least I do.

To me it sounds like you’re singing lots of different things.

Yes—but you can sing the same tone. I just don’t think I can hold it.

Is it there? Yes.

That’s absolutely fantastic.

Yes, because you hear what happens to you when you sing.

Oh, that’s incredible. Yes, it’s very—

Wow, that was so much fun. Yes, it really is fun!

Wow—duet with Morten Harket! Woo-hoo!

Come on, come on. They’re so slow, you know.

You’re going to get a reputation out here in the jungle: “Stay away from Harket!”

“He throws us in the air and slams us against the walls.”

This is like Tarzan and Jane. You can choose which one you want to be.

I think whichever one I am, this thing’s going to snap.

It might snap.

Is it like therapy for you to come to places like this when you’ve been working a lot?

Yes. Physically getting away, in certain periods when you’ve cleared space

to be able to do it. For it to work, you also need—

It has to work for the family too. You can’t go away and be

at war with the people at home.

Then you won’t find any peace. Especially when you have small children,

it’s difficult. “I’m off now.” Yes—of course it is.

It’s a community. Is family important to you?

I’ve never consciously gone looking to establish that.

I’ve just been open to it.

But that applies, really, to everything, I think.

And I’ve always had a big romantic side,

which is about that connection.

With another person you meet in a relationship.

And you don’t always find that.

But you are a flirt.

Absolutely! I flirt with everything in life. I do.

But do you sometimes feel you’re misunderstood?

Sometimes? All the time, maybe?

Yes—usually.

Have you found yourself in situations with paparazzi

where you really think— where you just snap?

No, I never snap. Fortunately, I’ve never snapped.

It would take a lot. But I did deck a paparazzo once.

In England—because it was necessary. I had no choice.

It was a girl I was with.

And he came straight at us, right up close, firing shots of the girl.

One photo there would have set off a chase after her,

which she would have been subjected to, and that would have been very bad for her.

Not because she had anything to hide, but I had to stop it.

I had to take his film— to shut the whole thing down.

And he wasn’t interested in that.

So it came to blows? I raised my hand like this, with the plastic bag.

And he jumped onto my hand with his chin.

That’s kind of what happened. Then he got back up and was going to

come at me—and then he stopped. Because he looked at me,

at how I looked. And I just felt—

I sincerely hoped he *would* come at me. Right then.

When you go on holiday with the family, are you constantly on alert for that kind of thing?

Yes—it isn’t easy to manage.

It isn’t.

It’s enormously demanding to deal with people and at the same time… You can’t—

and at the same time be responsible for kids, for small children. It’s not possible.

Now you got a little sidetracked, I think. You didn’t see that! You interpreted it that way.

I saw it in your body language, Morten.

No, but you don’t know what kind of process is going on here.

Yes, but I saw it in your body.

Now you’re Dorthe—from “God kveld Norge.”

No, but it’s not… It’s very funny.

I’m telling the truth! I know…

And if I’d spent the energy to analyze it, then I would have said so.

But I registered it while I was in a completely different process in my head.

That’s the truth now. It means nothing to me—but it isn’t accurate.

But you think it’s funny. I think it’s incredibly funny.

Yes, I get that. I understand that it’s fun.

You need something to do when the guy is diving for four hours.

So you build sandcastles.

Morten is a perfectionist to his fingertips, restlessly searching for the perfect

way to use his unique voice. But perfection is also Morten’s greatest enemy.

“Ugly” tones are interesting too.

The A-ha song “Forever Not Yours.”

It’s exactly the same melody!

It’s proper dissonance. On its own it isn’t pleasant to hear.

During the process, it appears.

And I narrow my eyes and think, “There’s something here.”

“What just happened?”

Is that when it’s important to have the recorder going, so you can go back and check?

Sometimes. Absolutely.

You can very easily lose something. You don’t understand what you did—and you never find it again.

So if you didn’t record it, it’s gone—and then it’s gone forever.

If you’re playing for people who mean something to you,

is that a good feeling, compared with standing on a stage for strangers?

When I sit and play for people close to me— it could be my kids, or at

home, for a girlfriend—

I’m no different. I’m just me.

It’s just as awkward, if you like, as it would be for you to sit with a guitar—

or maybe easier for you, because you’ve nothing to live up to there.

Are they also your biggest critics? No—that would be me.

But your kids aren’t the kind who say, “Dad, you have to stop now”?

“That wasn’t great.” Oh, they say that too—absolutely.

I don’t get anything for free there at all.

But I’d say they’re better at saying, “Now you’re a bit too eccentric. Now you’re too…”

“This is perfectly fine, you know. It works.”

You can get too caught up in the detail of something while it’s on its way toward being perfect—

which you have to watch out for.

“For the perfect,” my father once told me— not so long ago—

“the perfect can become the enemy of the good.”

I understood immediately…

He hit very close to home. I wrestle with that. It’s one of my hurdles.

That’s for sure.

There were five of you growing up. Was it hard to find your place?

I think I found my place. All my siblings would confirm that.

We have one thing in common: none of us has a safety net in what we chose to do.

None of us has gone into any safe, secure position.

That goes for all five.

We grew up lucky, with a safe childhood.

We never doubted that. I feel we’re a close family. We are.

But has that influenced you in the sense that you have many children yourself?

That this was important to you?

Yes. —To have that kind of upbringing?

I haven’t really thought of it that way, because there’s no plan behind it at all.

But the idea of there being many children in a home—I like that.

Just sitting and being— preferably not in front of the TV.

Just being, without those kinds of noise signals.

That has great value.

Then I think we should sit here perfectly still and take in the moment.

That’s an order.

You’re allowed to play a little. I can handle that.

No, no. We can sit completely still.

It’s not hard. Then let’s do it. One–two–three, from now!

Can I ask something? Yes, go ahead.

How long can we do this on camera before you cut?

Well, we can test it.

I’ve suggested shows with five minutes of silence, but no one picked it up.

But you haven’t managed to keep quiet for a second either.

No, but we actually started—or I started—to talk about…

I can do that just fine. Then you don’t know me well enough yet.

No…

Truly not. Give it another week and you’d have—

I would have drowned you in silence.

That’s a promise.