The Norwegian pop legends - Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy - are back in the charts with the first single from their exciting new album, Analogue.

The band’s career stats are impressive (over 30 million records sold, 63 top of the chart placements in 27 countries, 13 top ten singles in the UK, 409 concerts before uncounted millions in 31 countries), but the confident and unmistakable tracks on Analogue will show that a-ha very much have a future as well as a past.

GaydarRadio’s Jason Rosam caught up with the charming Magne to flirt a little and find out more about their new album, The Da Vinci Code, self torture, gay fans and Morton’s pecs!

a-ha’s been making music for twenty years and suddenly you’re making a come back with a new album and single.
It seems that every album we make is being called a come back by someone or other. Either we take two long to write the albums or we disappear off someone’s radar and suddenly it’s another come back. We took the 90s off, but apart from that we’ve been going strong!

How do you think the music industry has changed since the early 80s?
We didn’t have these reality competitions with an emphasis on how a good voice and good looks can get you into a final and then onto a record deal. Back then it was more innocent somehow. But if you asked the guys in the 80s who were making music back in the 60s and 70s they’d probably say the same thing.

New talent has always had a problem finding and developing their audiences, but record companies now seem to go after the one-hit wonders and the quick buck instead of nurturing talent. It’s cheaper than looking after us, who’ve been developing their music over a number of years. It’s not an easy thing to manage a career over a long period of time.

So would you ever go on a reality TV show?
No, I wouldn’t but I sometimes think we are a reality show as there’s enough strange stuff going on around us all the time – like Morten travelling around with his 24/7 on the call healer. There’s so much eccentric stuff going on that I do wonder if we should have sold our souls to the devil and had cameras everywhere. But, I don’t feel that I have that much to offer as an individual to these programmes and that they don’t have anything to offer me.

What was it like playing the Albert Hall?
We did the sold out Albert Hall shows back in 2002. It was very special for us because it was our first reintroduction to the UK audience.

But it was also the beginning of a very frustrating time for us because we could see that there was an audience there - as people were coming to the concerts and latter the Wembley shows and UK tour - but our records weren’t getting released. It was a frustrating situation. That’s why it feels so good with our new record company on board as they seem a lot more prone to spread the word.

"I’m really fed up with the ‘cool police’ who put you down for being different and I think to a certain degree we were different in that were so unashamedly, unapologetically emotional in our approach."

There was a problem with Warner wasn’t there?
They probably had a problem with us as we were old hat, people who had been and gone and should just stay away. I can see how that happens with all these new bands coming up and that’s what it’s about – finding new talent, not rediscovering old farts from Norway.

Talking of Norway, do you spend most of your time there now?
It doesn’t seem like that, but my family is based there and we go back and forth and travel around a lot. It’s been home since I moved away from England.

Do you miss London at all?
I miss London a lot. Being back here now and reconnecting with old friends puts me back in the mould for coming back and living here for a while. It’s also where a-ha started and where we took our baby steps as a band and where everything came into bloom. The whole band’s history is so linked to London that it’s a very special place for all us. It has a very special energy as a city; I reckon it’s the best city in the world, certainly to visit and probably to live in.

How do you feel about your huge gay following?
I think people come to our shows – and to our music in the first place – because it’s an unashamedly emotional type of music. It doesn’t try and be cool, it’s music that declares itself.

I’m really fed up with the ‘cool police’ who put you down for being different and I think to a certain degree we were different in that were so unashamedly, unapologetically emotional in our approach. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe Morton’s pecs have something to do with it, I really wouldn’t want to speculate.

Morton is a bit of a poster pin-up and he’s always been very aware of himself. He was an idol to a lot of people irrespective of sex so maybe he has a special place in people’s hearts. But hopefully it’s the music that draws you in and makes you believe in yourself and believe in expressing yourself in anyway you see fit.

"I tried leather once and I didn’t look too good in it."

How does your new release, Analogue compare with your other albums?
Each album brings a new set of things to deal with and because of the long break between albums - and the fact that each of us has done a lot of individual projects - there was a different kind of group dynamic when we got back together. We’re not so much a collaborative group these days, more three individuals working under a common umbrella and a common vision of what the band is, was and could be.

Before, a-ha was what you did. Today it is a part of what I do, and I think the others feel the same and it makes us celebrate a-ha’s strengths in a different way. We’re still trying to evolve the band, but I think we’ve come to terms with our own past and no longer try to run away from it. We make the music, the songs and the recordings as effortless as we can and work within our format.

What were the influences on the album?
It’s a varied album with a lot of different influences, but the real thread of the album is its melodic emphasis. Morten has an amazing voice that we sometimes forget about as we’re so close to it. He always blows me away.

Morton has a very defining voice and whenever you do something with him it immediately seems to sound a lot more like a-ha than when you do it on your own. We couldn’t have done this album twenty years ago and you can’t keep writing about puppy love when you’re past forty.

"I think we’ve all found ourselves in relationships - whether they are love relationships or friend relationships - where you feel you’re subjecting yourself to a hell of a lot of pain."

Tell us a little about ‘Celice’, the first track on the album, and its connection with The Da Vinci Code.
The connection is very simple to explain because I read the book quite early on before it became a big seller. Like everyone I was intrigued by the beginning of the book as it promises so much, but I was particularly intrigued by the character of Silas and the idea of applying this instrument of self-torture, of self-restraint, this Celice, this belt you’d use as a self-disciplinary tool. I thought that would be an interesting image to utilise in a love lyric to describe a particular kind of relationship.

It caused some controversy because the video was so full on and going down the road of S& M and prostitution.

Do we see you in leather?!
I tried leather once and I didn’t look to good in it!

So have you found yourself in that kind of torturous relationship?
I think we’ve all found ourselves in relationships - whether they are love relationships or friend relationships - where you feel you’re subjecting yourself to a hell of a lot of pain. However, I wouldn’t be without those painful moments in my life as I know for a fact that they are the ones that have taught me the most.

There’s a celebratory angle to the song – even though it has a dark and twisted lyric that can be understood on many different levels. Personally, I think of people bopping along to an upbeat pop song but singing, ‘Celice is in the way, You hurt me, I know that I’m alive’. I thought that was an interesting subject.

That’s also how it got connected with The Da Vinci Code, as the producers were showing some interest in the early days to use it in the film, but I don’t think it’s going to happen as there’s a lot of politics going on.

So it might not actually go into the film?
I don’t think it will. I’d be very surprised if is does because we haven’t heard anything. We don’t have a record deal in the US so we’d have to start from ground zero. But it was inspired by the book and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Read our review of Analogue.

‘Analogue’, the title track from a-ha’s latest album was released on 23 January 2006.

Analogue, by a-ha
Number of Discs: 2 (CD + DVD)
Label: Polydor
ASIN: B000BI0QNM
Catalogue Number: 9874700

Buy Analogue, by A-Ha, online and make your own mind up about the Norwegian song stylists. But it online and save some money to put towards The Definitive Singles Collection 1984-2004. Alternatively, buy a book of paintings by Magne F called Payne's Gray.