a-ha frontman Morten Harket is working on a brand new solo album as the group prepare to unleash their latest project ‘True North’.
Clocking in at 12 tracks, the album features six tracks penned by guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and six by keyboard player Magne Furuholmen, both of whom worked remotely on their material before bringing it to the group to rehearse.
Of the album and its accompanying film, Magne tells Retro Pop’s November 2022 issue: “It was about finding a way to do something together during the pandemic after realising that 2021 wasn’t going to be an open year of normalcy – the pandemic was going to go on.
“Paul was in LA, I was here [Norway], Morten was here too and I was speaking to our manager [Harald Wiik] and said, ‘What can we do?’. I had just seen the ‘Western Stars’ documentary by Bruce Springsteen and I kind of got a strong hunch that we should do a darker, melancholic a-ha version.”
The pair worked on material from their home bases – “Paul produced and recorded demos in LA; I did the same in my studio in Norway and we just went – ‘OK, let’s meet and rehearse’,” he explains – with Morten becoming involved at the recording stage.
While happy to hand over creative control of the group’s new long-player to his bandmates, the frontman reveals he’s been busy working away on an entirely different project – which is set to be a new solo record.
“I am writing with Peter Kvint, from Sweden, and the musical aspect is either together with him or it’s just me,” he shares. “So presently the material I have – which is quite a lot – is like that. Lyrics are becoming more just me – which has been a change in the last two to three years, where I’ve started to write everything myself.
“I’m sitting on various types of demos, looking at which way to approach them, so I can’t say as of now [when it will come out].”
‘True North’ is out October 21 and available to pre-order now.
Read the full interview in the November 2022 edition of Retro Pop, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
