Music!

23.08.2017 - 23:29 - Music - No Comments

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Music has always played a huge part in my life, ever since I was a toddler. Very often, my Dad would be jamming on his guitar or a keyboard, and my Mom was listening to her albums. I grew up with Cliff Richard, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davies Jr., Ella, Louie…

I had my own albums already from a very young age, which I enjoyed listening to. Children’s albums like Hakkebakkeskogen, Slurp og Klukk-Klukk, Dunderklumpen… Especially Hakkebakkeskogen and Slurp og Klukk-Klukk got played a lot.

If no instruments or albums were being played, the radio was on instead. My Dad even made me a tiny radio that stood on the shelf above my bed. Back then the only ones allowed to broadcast in Norway, was NRK (equals BBC), and they played mostly Norwegian music. But with a good antenna, which most people did have, we could also listen to Swedish radio and they played lots of pop music, both Swedish and English/American. Norway however, were very into translating all foreign music to Norwegian! With basically what felt like a handful of artists singing them all…

Already at a very young age, I was fascinated by the English language. Tried to speak what I believed to be English, sing in ‘English’ (“Did that sound like English??”). The first time I went to London, with my Mom and Granma, I was four years old. On that trip, I learned the song ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’, feeling very proud. Also at home, my parents used to speak English with eachother when I wasn’t supposed to know what they talked about. No wonder I’ve ended up the way I am, huh?

Around the time I was eight years old, I started playing the piano. A woman who recently had moved into the neighborhood offered to teach children, and I remember several other kids from school doing this too. Granma decided to get me a, not too advanced, Yamaha keyboard so I could practice at home. My career was however shortlived, as the piano teacher moved out after a year or so, and there were no other offers around. Remember, I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and it was out of the question being driven here and there by any parents.

Discovering the wonderful world of pop music happened somewhere between 1982/83. Especially the midwinter break in March 1983 made an impact. Me and my parents were back in London for a vacation and English pop music was ruling! Til this day, everytime I hear Culture Club’s Karma Chamelion or Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams, I’m back in London, 1983. There were also a couple of other songs that had caught my attention by then, but it took a while longer before I learned they were called Save A Prayer and The Chauffeur, and that the band was called Duran Duran…