She has kept her mouth shut since the M2M-split. 2005 will be a different story.
It was the summer of 2002, M2M had been sent home from their support-act tour with Jewel in the USA, and a Norwegian pop-fairytale was over. Immediately a new one started. Marion Ravn basked in all the attention, and even a small demo-recording at Ole Idol Evenrud in Halden was covered like it was the biggest event of the year. She was the one that grabbed the lucrative solo-contract with the legendary Atlantic Records. What about the other one?
Total silence followed.
Marit Larsen went into the isolation booth. She sat at home with her mother in L¿renskog and wondered if she should let pop-music be just that, take her final exams and start a further education, become a psychologist or something. When she came out of the booth, she battened down the hatches to publicity, got her drivers license and moved away from home.
- It was a crossroads for me, I was playing with the idea of how it would feel to not be making music anymore. But that was a bad feeling. I just had to take the chance to go on, Marit Larsen says, in her first big interview after the M2M-breakup.
- When I started to write songs again, it was a very good feeling. It was like falling in love or finding a religion. Now I see it as a natural choice. But there is always another solution. I have friends that donÕt make music, and they all have great lives too.
Of course we have to get back to M2M, but just at this introduction, this short summary of her humble doings in public since then, the break-up of M2M will have to make do as a starting point. Because Marit is not completely back yet. But the gates are about to be opened. She guaranteed will be By:Larms most wanted artist in Stavanger in February and she has no recording contract at the moment, an album has not been recorded but there are no shortage of songs or benevolent co-writers (album ready to go by now, as you all know now of course). Among others, Marit has been in the studio with ystein Greni from BigBang. Other writing-partners get labelled "confidential" with a smile. She makes intricate demo recordings and has enough material for four albums.
- When the album will be recorded, it will be much like the final version of a school essay. It will be fast. If it will come out at all in 2005 remains to be seen, but it is a goal. No matter what, I will use 2005 to rehearse, get an audience and make records that I can fully stand behind. If it should turn out to be only one record, at least I hope that it says something about who I am, and that it will show gratitude towards my idols.
Marit has until now only played two public shows in front of at times a gaping audience. The first one at Blu in March last year, and then in October at NRK's Petre-sessions. Then she talked a little to the press, but first and foremost she showed that what she is doing now is remarkably different from the M2M-past.
- Being different is nothing that I strive to be, but what I'm doing now will probably be seen as a counter-reaction to what I was doing before. Remember, I have been that far on the other side, she says.
Can you say something about your music, how does it sound? - You can say that my music is centred around three different directions. One is the vulnerable, good and soothing music, which at the same time is sharp, cheeky and direct, like Joni Mitchell and Gillian Welch. Then there is the eccentric and exiting, like Bjork. And the third is piano-based music that still is fun and uplifting, like Ben Folds Five and Ben Keller. I want people to view me as a person who loves life. But sad lyrics with a positive melody can often go deeper.
We're still talking pop-music then, right?
- Joni is pop-music, but it is pop-music with so much more to give. Standard pop has only three emotions. The static love story where you end up not getting the one you want, the devoted and unconditional love, and the love where you say, I love you, but do you love me? You can sum it up as no, yes and maybe.
And that kind of music you are through with?
-The M2M-music had much light in it. It was affected by our age at the time. The world has changed a lot since then. I live a real life now, instead of a superficial "at-the-surface" type of life.
So it's about pop-music that's smarter in a way, then?
-Like I see it, music can be split into different boxes. The simple type, and then the one that's more complicated and a bit arty. You can be in both boxes at the same time without any problems. The Beatles are like that. I have both of them in me too. But I have been far out on the other side, now I want to give my voice to the other.
We have to talk about M2M now. Everybody wants to know what really happened two and a half years ago?
- I have put it behind me. It's just me and Marion who have had to put it behind us. What happened then is not relevant for my future career. But I know that M2M opens doors for me. I get the chance to reach a bigger audience right away.
Are you and Marion enemies?
- You will have to keep wondering about that. People can believe whatever they want. It's nothing to dwell upon.
Marion is being launched in 2005 as well. You will be compared to each other; musically, the styling, record sales, everything. How do you relate to that?
-It will always be like that since we're in the same business. But it's not a competition. Our records will be so different that it will be no issue. But I wish her all the best. I haven't heard her record, so I don't know how it sounds. It's going to be exciting.
That you were different was pretty obvious in M2M too?
- We were a good compromise, and it fit who we were well. Now it's lovely to not have to compromise anymore. A new time, a new dream to chase.
Are there experiences from the time with M2M that you would rather be without?
- No. I don't regret anything. Regret is a feeling that's not good for you, if you have to much of it. I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but it's pride to a more or lesser extent.
Marit has almost reached her goal regarding final college exams. She studies one subject at a time, three years worth of learning in one month, then the final exams. Norwegian and history went smooth, the horrible math remains.
- Now that I've become a grown up lady, I can say it: I'm proud of myself. I've been building a career as long as I can remember. It was quite a feeling to know that I could do this for a living.
Highlights with M2M?
-That must have been the Jewel-tour. We played for an audience where the music hit, it went straight to the hearts of these people. We played some really big places, to huge crowds. The concert at Red Rocks in Denver is my biggest live-experience.
When I (the reporter) interviewed Jewel in London in the summer of 2003, we got into talking about the tour. "They gave the contract to one of them, but it's the other one that is the talented one, isn't it?", Jewel rhetorically summed up the interview. Marit Larsen, on the whole self-confident in her statements, for the first time during this interview shows signs of youthful coyness.
-Did she say that? To get such a compliment...that's great. I'm allowed to say that, aren't I?
Was the breakup sudden and unexpected for you??
-M2M was in a way moving upwards all the time, until it suddenly ended. It was not an immediate shock that it ended. All parties involved knew about it.
What was uncomfortable about it?
-If you were a close friend I might have been able to tell you how it was, but I'm through with it. What is to be said eventually will be reflected in the record.
Will you be performing M2M songs in the future?
-That's not going to happen. That's how through I am with it. M2M is so far away from what I do now, it's completely irrelevant. But hey, what I'm doing is not the Ultima-festival either . I still write songs with a verse and a chorus.
But I'm sure you have started to tune your guitar differently, just like Joni Mitchell?
-Yes, I have. ItÕs actually a challenge. You sit there, tuning your guitar in a new way while you write a song, and there and then it represents no problem. But I realized the other day that, Hey, I need a lot more guitars if I'm going to play these songs at a concert. It's hard to have all these different tunings. It's an organizing challenge.
It's easier with the piano then?
-When your guitar makes you mad and pissed off, it's nice to have the piano. When the other person goes behind your back and acts like a jerk, you have another instrument you can play.
Tranlation thanks to Halvard