|
Interview with Arve Henriksen
June 2007
by Luca Vitali
|
![Fai click qui per leggere la versione in italiano](../images/italiano.gif) |
I meet Arve Henriksen for the appointment in front of the
Hotel Norge in the centre of Bergen during a pause between the thousands
of things he has to do (after the rehearsal with Trio Medieval at the Logen
Theatre and before the mini-show of "folk" music for "OiOi" festival reviewed in
the "Io c'ero" section (only in Italian).
His way of being and the nature around us are immediately obvious when
he invites me to go to a park close-by near a big fountain where it is more peaceful,
but more importantly, a place where the nature (so ever-present in his last record
Strjon) all around makes his feel more relaxed (that's what I think).
While walking there, something strange happened, we met a "strange artist"
who was playing an instrument (mounted on a cart) that looked like an organ but
in fact played bells, the sound is quite delightful and Henriksen, amused,
opens his Notebook (Apple of course) and starts recording, at the end of which we
start the interview.
![](Immagini/ArveHenriksen1.jpg) ![](Immagini/ArveHenriksen2.jpg)
L.V.: First of all, I would like
to compliment you for "Strion", after "Sakuteiki" and "Chiaroscuro" it was not easy
to make an album as beautiful and original and, most of all, different from the
Supersilent with three out of the four components. Are you happy with the result?
Will you be making a European Tour to promote it?
Henriksen: In first I'm very satisfied and
very happy with this recording and I must say it's been a great pleasure working
with Helge Sten who produced this record and Stale's
(Ståle Storløkken – member of Supersilent) contribution has been fantastic.
The thing is that we are trying to make a tour, but I rather would like to go with
Supersilent instead.We are trying to put together a tour with
Supersilent in September and then we will. But I will do a tour in October
visiting Germany, France, Ireland and I'm not quite sure if we have the chance to
go to Italy, but my management is working on this now so we will see if we can do
it.
L.V.: Your work to date shows that
you are a great ‘explorer', each record is a surprise, each concert a unique performance:
it is clear that you are full of creative youth that naturally we all hope will
be long-lasting. But aren't you afraid that the creative streak will run out? Aren't
you afraid that you will make records that, for sure will be beautiful, but they
will be a shadow of something that you've already done? And if so, do you have any
‘preventive therapy' to avoid it?
Henriksen: Ha-ha-ha (laugh)....well, this
is always a challenge for artists because we are always afraid of repeating ourselves
but if you listen to Garbarek or other musicians today they can produce
many records with the same concept and the same band playing just melodies
and doing nice material. So, I think many artists just go on making variations of
the same theme and for myself I've been trying to make different records. These
three solo albums are all a bit different. The next one that I'm working on right
now has a obvious link to the record of the "Chiaroscuro" record, but I'm not afraid
of doing that, because the Chiaroscuro had a certain, special sound and I
think there are some more things there to be explored.I'm not afraid of repeating
myself in the sense of making variations of the same concept but after that coming
record, I have to do something really drastic, (HaHaHa - laugh) I just want to make
one more record with this concept and then hopefully I will do something else, maybe
more powerful, more rhythmically, maybe playing some drum kit myself on my solo
album – I don't know, I really would like to do something different.
L.V.: Of the artists that you have never worked
with, with which would you like to collaborate, Norwegian or otherwise?
Henriksen: Of course there are many Norwegians
that I haven't had the chance to work with, Sidsel Endresen the singer,
we talked about this two weeks ago that maybe we could do something next year we
could meet and see if we could have a gig together, it would be very interesting
- I really admire her work – of course there are many other Norwegians.It would
be fantastic to work with Jan Garbarek someday....or
Bill Frisell
...maybe one day. I have so many nice projects with Supersilent
and Christian Wallumrød right now so for the time being I just
try to focus on those things and maybe in one or two years time I can try to do
more and explore more with different musicians.L.V.:
You have a big group of friends and you can explore with him
Henriksen: Yes, yes absolutely !
L.V.: What part do electronics play in your music?
Do your compositions come from the computer or do you improvise and compose at the
keyboard or on the trumpet?
Henriksen: you know, in many ways actually,
some times I just record the concepts I play and then I do a lot of improvisation
and sometimes I just listen to the recording from the concert and then we just go
in there and cut out the things that we would really like to use. Then we focus
on those parts and we delete or add more trumpet or more keyboards or whatever to
make it more strong and precise, so that's one way I can do it, but also I sometimes
sit by the piano and I make some chord changes or some melodies but I must say that
most of the time I just improvise stuff and compose like that. So improvisation
is my leading way of working.
L.V.: Future projects?
Henriksen: as I said earlier, now its focused
on doing Supersilent and we're going to China do more with Supersilent,
we go on this release tour in September, then I also have a dual tour with
Jan Bang in France and Germany and Belgium I think so and hopefully
I have the chance to collaborate with a lot of musicians but I will also produce
a record next year in January with a very famous Norwegian songwriter Odd
Nordstoga he's doing folk music so I will do that kind of producing
work as well, but of course, about composing I would really like to spend more time
on writing music and writing music for different string instruments or whatever,
I have one project with a cello player from Oslo Johannes Martens
and I will write a piece of music for him this autumn, you know, its so many different
things that its difficult to find time to do all the things
L.V.: Your skills and the originality of your
‘sound' mean that you are one of the most sought-after "sidemen" today. Do you feel
you get something out of every situation to increase your own value, or do these
situations in reality distract you from your projects?
Henriksen: It's a good question, the thing
is that this is a give and take situation – when you work with musicians you get
a lot of nice response (feedback) on what you are doing and you also learn a lot
from playing together with people so for me it's a question of finding a balance
in this, a balance so that you feel that you can add something to other peoples
projects but at the same time its important for me not to be engaged in too many
projects where I get tired, but I must say, I've been, how can you say, open wide
since I started to play trumpet and being a musician, I've been more interested
in working with different types of music, folk music, jazz, contemporary music,
rock pop, I really find interesting a lot of different stiles, so for me its been,
I must say, I try to, in every situation I am in, if I go to a studio with a pop
singer or I go to a studio with some more contemporary music, all the things I do,
I try to find something to learn from it, I try to find something. it is also a
question of how you put up your life, I mean, I have three kids, I have a family
situation I also have to be at home, I have to find time to be around my kids, and
in the last years I've tried to cut out things that I don't have time to do and
focus on a few projects, but it's a very interesting question because its always
this give and take situation
L.V.: I think that is very different to plays
with David Sylvian, or Sinikka Langeland, or Frode Haltli, are very different situations..
Henriksen: It is, absolutely, it´s different
people I am so lucky and privileged that I can work with musicians that are very
focused and musicians that are very professional and, you know, musicians that want
to get out the very best of what I'm doing and that also inspires me to be as good
as possible when I meet these people or when they ask me to add something to their
concert or to their records so it's a fantastic situation to be in
L.V.: By now the whole world has discovered your
talent, the UK Guardian speaks glowingly of you, in japan they invite you to play,
at Moers last year you were the resident artist, Fresu invites you to Berchidda,
do you feel that you have ‘emerged' on an international scale or is everything like
before?
Henriksen: I have achieved a lot of nice
things in my career, but I'm not thinking of that so much.My goal is not to become
famous or to have a world wide recognition of my work, I just keep on doing the
things I've been doing all the way and I get inspired by all the musicians that
are around me, all the musicians and all these people, I feel that its more important
to be a part of a certain band, I mean, its fantastic to be a part of Supersilent
and we feel that we are a band, four members that we go around and we have this
nice response, so I'm not so, well sometimes its very nice to get invitations from
around the world and you think that wow this is fantastic, but I'm not thinking
so much about that, I tried to just focus on playing and creating nice music and
as long as I keep that focus I think that that's most important – because if you
start to be, or get this kind of attitude of being a certain important star or whatever,
then you are out of focus and I don't want to lose the focus.
L.V.: When you play you are very happy.. (risponde:
yes), yesterday during the concert with Stale Storlokken I have thinked that is
very beautiful when you smile to Stale or other components or to spectators.. I
think that is very important because arrive from your hearts
Henriksen: it is. i have had the chance
to play with fantastic musicians and when you are invited to a festival to play,
you know, they like what I am doing and they like this kind of concept that I can
bring along. At the concert yesterday I improvised some Norwegian texts about going
to Gardermoen airport. I made up story about all this weird stuff that you see there
and when you can add these things in a natural way at a concert then people can
have a little laugh about,and the next moment you go into a more serious mood and
then will follow you there as well– so I'm walking on this balance between being
able to let people have a laugh and in the next moment get a bit serious.its always,
there is a mix of many different moods and we can "walk" between them.
L.V.: It's very nice because people interact
with you and they can enjoy of special unique show and exit fully enjoiedHenriksen:
oh that's good, wow!! That's Fantastic!The voice is used much less in the last record,
is this a sign of things to come? It would be a shame because the voice has been
really important in your albums and concerts, like an "angel" or like a "shaman"
(I don' know if this word exixts in Norway) at the same time.
Henriksen: Yes, from the Norwegian folk
music tradition of the Sami musicians from northern Norway, Lapland, maybe
the next record will be a little bit vocal – I don't know how much but a little
bit – the fifth album has to be powerful and with more vocals and rhythmical aspects
and I would really like to sing more, I sing more in concerts than I do in the albums
of course – but it takes time because the voice is so personal and there are so
many good singers around and I need time to find my voice, not just trying to copy
other people and try to sing this high "falsetto", it takes time and I mean, playing
trumpet for many years I don't know how long, 25 maybe 30 years a long, long time
and the vocal stuff, I've been singing for just a few years compared to the trumpet
so it takes time to develop and become confident and to trust that you can sing
but I really like to sing because it is something direct, it gets direct response
it just comes out so, I promise to sing more on records ha-ha-ha (laugh)
L.V.: How is it going with the drums
Henriksen: Well, it´s coming gradually and
slowly and it is fun to play drums.I'm trying to practice drums as often as possible,
I sit there by myself and try to find ways of playing it and also get a certain
technical skill so I will be able to play these very difficult patterns but I'm
not stressed about it, I have plenty of time you know rehears. My son plays much
better drums than I do so its inspiring to him rehearsing together and I try to
play the same things that he does but its difficult, very difficult, I'm too old,
ha-ha-ha (laugh)L.V.: Is there a question that
no-one has ever asked you but that you would like you to answer?
Henriksen: ha-ha-ha (laugh) Well….the meaning
of life – that's something that people don't ask you about because its too personal
but – maybe that's a good question actually, what's the meaning of life to me -
could be kids family have a nice girlfriend that I have now – I have a good relationship
with my ex wife, be able to play this fantastic music that I've been doing with
Supersilent with all the colleagues in other bands so that
gives me a certain meaning of life so its very seldom that you get those questions
L.V.: And one that everybody always asks that
you are really fed up with answering?
Henriksen: Well I'm not fed up with it but
its one question that it is very obvious for people to ask about and it's the trumpet
and shakuhaachi combination, you know this link between the shakuhachi and
trumpet because for some reason this is very strange for a lot of people to talk
about or they are very curious about it because it's a …. but I think that all musicians
have certain…… either a musician that they have been copying or inspired by or they
have a certain sound that they would like to copy but maybe this is a weird combination
of listening to shakuhachi music and try to answer and work …..I'm not fed
up but this is very often the focus for journalists and people to ask me about.
Maybe because I don't look upon this question as a very important thing myself actually
but some questions are probably interesting because it gives a certain different
focus for the journalists to ask but its fine, it's ok
L.V.: If you hadn't become a musician, what would
you have liked to do or become?
Henriksen: Well this is difficult because
I never decided to be a musician I just became a person who really liked music and
in my childhood my brothers and sisters played in a marching band, fanfare orchestras
that we have a big tradition of in Norway and I was just listening to their rehearsal
and I went to the rehearsal of the marching band and I was sitting there thinking
‘maybe one day I can play some kind of instrument' so I gradually became, or was
dragged in, actually I would have liked to play football and I was doing well as
I kid, I played football with Thor Andrè Flo, a Norwegian footballer
who played for Chelsea – he was playing football and I thought that this was good
and there were a lot of people playing football in the street where I come from
and it was very nice but gradually music became more and more important for me and
I was thinking; one year I worked in a kindergarten looking after kids and that
was not interesting – it was nice because my son was there but I could never do
that – I've never had any ‘proper job' I've never worked in other one place I've
just been working with musicians – but what else could I do ? I've been thinking,
if I had an accident or something and I couldn't play trumpet if I cut off my hand
or whatever, I could probably sing or play drums. I could play drums with one hand
– I know I could do a lot of different things in life, but if there were an accident
or my kids had some problems or I had to do a big change in my life I would certainly
find something interesting and maybe I would like to work as a promoter or whatever
doing some art work because when I worked in the kindergarten I tried not to work
so much with music but it was impossible, you know, I just had to do, there's a
strong need in me to work with some creative aspects but maybe I could be a performance
artist doing weird paintings or whatever – so there are a lot of things I haven't
done yet but I couldn't go to an office every day and sit there for 5,6, 7, hours,
I couldn't live with that – I have to be moving around
L.V.: Is there a new talent that you would like
to mention, someone that you think will have a great future as an explorer like
you (not necessarily a trumpet player)?
Henriksen: I do some teaching once in a
while and I meet a lot of young talented musicians around and there's a lot of young
musicians coming up in Norway and for me its hard to mention some new up and coming
musician – of course there's Mathias Eick who's a trumpet
player and he's got a lot of nice response around him and its fantastic and its
good to see because of his fantastic talent because he is so talented in many ways
because he plays the piano he can write down music from just hearing it first time
so he's full of these nice skills and there's a lot of very well educated and young
musicians coming up and its hard for me to….its difficult to have this overlook
(overview) because I'm touring so much and I don't have much time to go to concerts
but its amazing how many new musicians are coming up, loads of vocalists from Norway,
loads of musicians or other instrumentalists and so its nice to see that the younger
generation, and its strange to say that because I don't feel that I'm so old but
there are always new musicians coming and this is fantastic, and Mathias Eick
the guys in JagaJazzist the guys in Shining
I mean bands that are really putting focus but maybe I can mention another name,
its Stian Westerhus the guitarist in puma and that trio
with those three musicians, fantastic and talented and I really hope they can go
on with their work – loads of musicians to mentions but I don't have the whole picture
of it good
L.V.: Thanks a lot for taking time to answer
Henriksen: Oh, thanks to you
Insert an opinion
© 2000 - 2024 All the material published on Jazzitalia is exclusively owned by the author. Moreover it is protected by International Copyright, so it is forbidden any use of it which isn't authorised by the rights' owner.
|
This page has 4.056 hits
Publishing Date: 17/09/2007
|
|