TALKING TIME
WE ARE TALKING TO: ANE
BRUN
Are you more into music from your native country now than when you were
living back home?
I have to admit that I hadn’t listened to the Norwegain singer/songwriter
Ane Brun until a friend here in Switzerland gave me her CD. I totally
fell in love with her music and I’ve been to her concerts every
year…here in Switzerland.
She is a Norwegian living in Sweden and I am a Norwegain living in Switzerland.
Does this have any affect on how much I like her music? Actually I think
not, but it might give me the extra push to go see her perform live every
time she comes to visit.
Ane Brun toured Switzerland in late April (09) and lucky, lucky me got
to chat with her before the concert at Südpol in Luzern. I`m sure
I was all starry eyed and red-faced all through the interview with “my
star”. It`s a good thing I brought my tape recorder because afterwards
I couldn’t remember a question asked nor an answer received.
What I do remember is how nice she was, relaxed and beautiful…so...Norwegian.
Interview Ane Brun – based solely on my tape recorder.
Q: How many times have you toured Switzerland?
A: Many times now, six maybe. My record came out here
in 2002 and then we started touring. I like touring Switzerland actually.
Switzerland
and Holland are my two favorite countries to tour because you often come
to very good concert places. It’s clean, you get nice food and
they know what they are talking about. When you’re on tour this
is something you learn to appreciate.
There are mostly grown ups that come to my concerts. Swiss people, but
usually there are always a small group of Scandinavians everywhere I
perform. It’s good to see that it’s not only Scandinavians
coming though. We promote ourselves only by touring and so far getting
the word about our concerts out there has gone really well.
The first tour we did in Switzerland I got food poisoning. I was supposed
to play in Winterthur and I had to cancel for the first time. I don`t
know what I ate but I got so sick and it took me 48 hours to recover.
So I remember that well. But the audience here is great so I like coming
to Switzerland. Yesterday we played at the Mascotte in Zürich and
it was actually fantastic.
Q: I was actually going to ask you about Swiss food but…
A: It doesn’t feel very Swiss, more continental with a mix of everything.
I haven’t tried cheese fondue or raclette though.
Q: Do you know any Swiss singer/songwriters?
A: I know Heidi Happy, and she’s coming for tonight’s concert.
We met in New York and we just now had a myspace conversation so she’s
going to come and do some humming with me on stage.
Q: “Sketches” is an acoustic version of your last
album plus the two “new” tracks. Why did you publish “Sketches”?
A: “Sketches” and “Changing of the seasons” are
not the same, but still the same. I have my own record label (DetErMineRecords)
so I can do whatever I want (laughing), and I had the recordings of these
songs in demo version. These are the first recordings of the songs where
I was still searching for the sound, and it’s a really magical
time when I have just fallen in love with a song. It felt sad to have
these recordings and just keep them to my self. We wanted to release
it as just a “thing” but then it became a real record because
people liked it. The two extra songs were actually recorded for “Changing
of the seasons” but they didn’t fit in then. Now, for Sketches
it was right to present them.
I’m slowly working on a new album, but before that I have other
small plans.
I have just started a band, with no name, where we’re going to
do cover acts, and I’ll be playing electric guitar. Its fun! In
between my projects I try writing new songs, but I don’t want to
push it at the moment.
Q: You moved to Sweden for love in 2000, and although
the Scandinavian countries are very alike what did you find most challenging
about integrating?
A: The first year was socially very hard. I came from Bergen
where I studied and had a group of about 20 friends to hang out with
at any time. Then I moved to Uppsala, Sweden to study music history.
I had been studying for years and I wasn’t really interested in
going into the social university world again. So I tried to get friends
in other places and it took me at least four months to find someone that
I could connect to.
Then I moved to Stockholm and although Scandinavians
understand each other well, I decided pretty fast to learn to speak Swedish.
As a foreigner you are always identified by nationality, so by speaking
the local language I avoided the typical first question: “where
are you from?”. People tend to place you in a certain group when
hearing your nationality. I didn’t always want this to be a topic
of conversation and also people think they are the first to say something
funny about your country, but you as a foreigner must hear it every day.
Q: How has living in Sweden influenced your music?
A: In Stockholm, I got a job in a record shop and through this
I met a lot of people.
I wouldn’t have met the same people if I hadn’t moved abroad.
My friends influence my music, my self and the people I surround my self
with.
Q: On tour, what do you miss the most from home?
A: My friends, but now I have good friends with me on the tour so it’s
not so bad.
I miss my apartment and not having to travel. We have a tour bus which
is nice, but also tiring because you don’t sleep as well. It’s
good to wake up in your own bed.
Q: What reactions do you get on
the cover-songs you perform?
A: The artists mostly don’t give reactions, but the audience seems
to like it.
People have liked especially “Big
in Japan “and ”True
colors". I didn’t know that the original “Big
in Japan” with
Alphaville was such a BIG
song for so many. I got reactions like: “That is the song I’ve
listened to the most in my life”. My version of it got recorded
as a request from a Swedish TV-show and it became a big radio-hit. I
have a thing for some of the 80`s music, but late 80`s.
In my teens I listened a lot to jazz, Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner, Prince,
Madonna and Michael Jackson. Maybe you can’t hear it in my music,
but it’s become my library. Like if you’re a writer, everything
you’ve every read becomes your language, so everything I’ve
every listened to becomes my music library.
Also tradition and culture plays a part in my music because I have folk
music somewhere in my Norwegian genes. This is kind of the essence of
the Scandinavian sound.
I’m a big consumer of music, and a big iTunes customer. I like
buying new music all the time and I don’t even know the artist.
I listen to everything.
Q: Of all your songs which one is your
favorite to perform?
A: “Changing of the seasons” and “Lullaby for grown-ups”.
Red: we thank you, Ane Brun, for talking to us. See you in Luzern
next year!
Ane Brun & Therese Moser-Rønning
www.anebrun.com
Listen to Ane Bruns favourite songs to
perform (YouTube):
Changing of the seasons
Lullaby for grownups
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