Life after M2M After M2M, Marit has moved out, gotten to know her friends better and bathed in the mud at the Roskilde-festival. Good music comes from things like this.
- After M2M I got back to real life. It has been fantastic.
She is this springs big hope on the music scene, and her recently released single ‘Don’t save me’ is raising the expectations as well as the interest in her. Cause what the heck, a cheerful Abba-inspired tune from the ‘grey mouse’ in M2M?
-‘Grey mouse’ was a role I was given in M2M. Marion seemed like the only one with ambitions, while I was the one with artistic credibility. A couple of years ago, when I had been out of the media for a while, a guy came up to me and wondered why I wore such a nice dress. That was not the way I was supposed to be, Marit says with a laugh
In the time after the break-up Marit has battened all the hatches. No home-reports, no pics in the fashion mags. After being in the M2M-circus surrounded by only people from the business and fans, she moved out and started to create her own life.
-I feel strongly that I have something to communicate with my music. I want to make people laugh, cry and smile. But it has to come directly from me, so there is no room for compromise.
How important has it been for you to become able to stand on your own?
-It has been very important. I had a sort of mid-life crisis at 19, so I have felt how it is. I never really got the chance to decide if I should become a musician or not. I would consider myself as a musician of some kind any way you look at it, but that I got to be a musician by occupation was something I never settled on. After M2M I suddenly had to consider a whole lot of things that other people normally don’t until later on in life. I had already been working and making money. Should I continue, or start studying? It was a very healthy experience to take the time to think these things through. The years after has been very long in a good way. I have been able to fill them with what I want.
What have you been up to?
-I’ve been working out, seen my friends a lot more. I have gotten to know myself better. In addition to that I have been playing music. It’s been lovely to have all the time in the world to write, and don’t panic if I have not written a song in three weeks. I have also travelled a lot, and been to festivals. I’ve been allowed to be completely anonymous, and stayed a week at the Roskilde-festival, bathing in the mud. It’s been no pressure, and I have been allowed to be just Marit. I think these kind of things result in good music.
Sad and happy
In March the album ‘Under the surface’ is released, will it be as poppy as the single?
- Yes, the album bursts with joy. But like the single, the lyrics may be sad even if the music is cheerful. On ‘Don’t save me’ I sing ‘Our little castle is a house of cards’. Its about growing older, about your personal liberation from another person – at the same time with a twinkle in the eye.
How is that possible?
Sad lyrics in a happy song gives a much stronger impression. It’s the same about happy lyrics in a sad song, just think about ‘A Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed.
Is ‘Don’t save me’ about Marion Raven?
-No. It’s not. It was written a long time after...
Yeah, what shall we call it?
-after we disbanded as colleagues.
And what are you now?
- We’re not colleagues, but we’re very good friends.
Translation thank to Halvard