Artist Interviews

Q&A: Harrys Gym

By | Published on Tuesday 1 February 2011

Harry's Gym

Norwegian dream-pop quartet Harrys Gym formed in 2006 amidst the wintery fjords of Oslo, naming themselves after a deserted fitness centre. So far, so bleak. Frontwoman Anne Lise Frøkedal, along with members Erlend Ringseth, Ole Myrvold and Bjarne Stensli, self-produced an eponymous debut album which was released in 2008 via Hype City to significant acclaim.

For their second LP ‘What Was Ours Can’t Be Yours’ the band roped in indie super-producer/remixer James Rutledge, who has worked with the likes of Bloc Party and Four Tet. With the album due out on Monday, 7 Feb, through Oslo-based label Splendour, the band commence a UK tour on the same day with a top billing at London’s Jazz Café (as part of HMV’s Next Big Thing showcase).

We approached lead singer Anne Lise with the Same Six line of questioning.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
The four of us have all lived in Oslo for quite a while, but didn’t know each other that well until we were all asked to join the same band. After a while we realised that we had a lot of the same ideas about the music we wanted to play, but that we were in the wrong band for it. So we started a new one – Harrys Gym.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Musically, it is inspired by a lot of electronic music as well as folk artists like Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs. There might not be obvious traces of any of these artists in the album, but it might have triggered us to do certain things the way we did. The lyrics are inspired by events that sooner or later occur in all people’s lives, when communication breaks down between people.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Songwriting, then recording really rough demos, sometimes with only an acoustic guitar, vocals and a drum machine. We played around quite a bit with some of the tracks, and would send them over to James Rutledge who would mess around with them even more and send them back to us. Other tracks were developed together in the rehearsal room.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Animal Collective, T.Rex, MGMT, The Shins, Radiohead, Brian Eno… there is a whole bunch. Artists who, without losing focus on the music itself, manage to combine unusual elements in a way that makes them sound new or different.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
For a live show our advice would be: Relax, enjoy yourself. Don’t feel that you can’t move, even if you sometimes find the music quiet. Free your mind. Give us a shout about your love or hate. We like a lot of different people, both noisy and shy. So we’d probably like you too.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Creating good music and doing inspired shows are the most important things for a band. It is the most important ambition. We love being on tour and look forward to playing in the UK and Europe now. Touring is the reward for all the hard work you do in the rehearsal room and in the studio.

MORE>> www.harrys-gym.com



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