press
Scene
2003
by Marc Grimwade
Magnet
It was only two years ago that record companies the world over were unearthing 'quite-is-the-new-loud' artists. Enter stage left, Ed Harcourt and Turin Breaks from the UK, Kings of Convenience and Royksopp from Norway. In reality it was just a 'clever' bit of marketing to herald the emergence of a new wave to singer/songwriter types, but you know record companies, they like to think they have their collective finger on the pulse rather than up their bums.
Fast forward to 2003 and yet another Norwegian is making the grades. Even Johansen aka Magnet (he was anaemic as a child until his musician father took him to see the rock'n'roll doctor who recommended a tattoo. After passing out, Even awoke to find the world 'magnet' tattooed on his shoulder in special magnetic ink, and apparently, he was anaemic no more.) He hit the spotlight last year with a series of three EPs that had the English music press fighting for superlatives. Eventually, an album came in the form of 'On Your Side' and it's suffice to say that those comparisons to Neil Young and Elliot Smith, Thom York and Chris Marting are totally justified.
As it transpires, Johansen has spent the past ten years living in the UK, the last four of these in Lockerbie, Scotland with his English wife Becky and their two children, Francesca and Tobias, but has recently moved back to his hometown of Bergen in Norway (also home of Kings of Convenience and Royksopp). "And yeah, I know those guys," says Even, anticipating my question before I even ask it. "Llike Bergen's a very small place ...it's inevitable that you're gonna meet up with everyone but it's not like we walk down the street holding hands all the time." It's a nice ice-breaker and while we both share a laugh, I do feel as though I better pick up the pace before Johansen puts me in my place or I bore him to death.
So what's his take on the magnitude of good press surrounding his debut? "I was certainly surprised by their good comments by to tell you the truth, I don't spend too much of my time thinking about whether a review is going to be good or bad because at the end of the day, the UK press is so fickle anyway ... like it's nice to have good reviews and so far it has been surprisingly good but ina couple of weeks they're probably going to tell me I'm an idiot ... that's just how it goes in the UK ... so my motto is 'enjoy it while you can'."
The success of his debut has taken him all across Europe and it also afforded Johansen the opportunity of doing a couple of shows in Tokyo, his first ever trip to Asia. "Amazing would be the best way to describe it ... like before we went we thought 'this is going to be interesting' and when we got there it was like the reception and the way people treat you is so different ... it was totally overwhelming [in a good way] and I mean it was a long flight and I hear that Australia is even further but I'm trying to convince the record company to put me on The Orient Express where I can play every night on the train and entertain the guests and then fly from Vladivostok to Sydney so it doesn't take so long."
Even is clearly a lark and was completely at home with the poetic tongue-in-cheek-isms of his Scottish neighbours. Hearing him describe the location of his Scottish studio, it clearly leaves you wondering if he has a serious bone in his body. "The place in Scotland where I recored it was a pigeon farm with all these pigeon coops on it and I converted one into a tiny little recording studio and most of 'On Your Side' was recored in the pigeon studio surrounded by the stench of pigeon shit." Who would have thought that pigeon shit would be so inspiring. "I'm not sure how inspiring it was but it sure made us get it finished as quickly as we could ... but then again there is nothing to regret from living in Scotland. I mean the Scots themselves have a real way with words and they all have an excellent vocabulary and they speak as though they're singing and they seem more happy and more kind and more friendly than the English."
There are quite frank cultural observations by Johansen, but then again he ought to have an insight into the regional psyche of the Brits. He has toured extensively with the likes of Ed Harcourt and Doves and as a consequence of sharing some dates with songstress, Gemma Hayes, together they recored a slice of heaven in the form of a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay'. "Well yeah, I'd done a couple of shows with Gemma last year and when I decided to record that song she was the obvious first call to make and it was a very natural way to doing it. We met up in London and did it there and we had a great time recording it. People like Gemma and Ed Harcourt, we're kinda trying to reach the same people ... the same kinda audience so that worked out really really well."
For the most part, Johansen plays, records and mixes all his own music so he considers himself to be a little less prolific in the writing stakes than the likes of Harcourt, who boasted to Scene magazine last year of sitting on about 300 unrecorded songs. An obvious brag for Even is the fact that his six year old daughter has already recorded a charting pop song. "Yeah, she's a bit of a child prodigy in that way," says one very proud dad. "She's a well-established artist, in Norway at least and her stage name is Goola. She's bilingual but she likes to sing in English with a bit of a Scottish twang."
And when Johansen isn't playing music, he's following the football fortunes of Manchester United, watching his favourite TV show, 'Six Feet Under' (in which some of his songs have aired) and spending as much time doing physical things outdoors. "Music is such a non-physical thing and I live by the sea so I can go fishing or I help friends build things and doing proper 'man stuff'."