“Children are just as individual as teenagers, thirty-year-olds and one hundred-four-year-olds,” says Martin Hagfors. As one half of Mr. E & Me, he is nominated for Spellemann for the album “New Orchestral Hits 4 Kids.”
/ 30/04/2020 / Kristian DugstadName: Martin Hagfors
Current with: New Orchestral Hits 4 Kids - Mr. E & Me
TONO member since: 1997
Who is Martin Hagfors?
Songwriter, lyricist, musician, performing artist, children's book author, partner, father, soon-to-be grandfather, environmental activist, cyclist, vintage car enthusiast, novice dinghy sailor, parcel hatcher, occasional producer, former; sound engineer, peace activist, construction worker, taxi driver, care assistant with dual citizenship and Anglo-Scandinavian-American background.
Tell us about your musical background?
Exposure to music as a record collector, sound engineer and listener was important to me. Creative activity was more important than skills. I am largely self-taught in everything I do, I played a little violin as a child in Peru, piano as a child in the USA, guitar and songwriting as a youth in Norway, but a lot of moving has trained the continuity. The snowball effect has been good and the winters long.
Throughout your career, you have operated both as a solo artist and in bands. Home Groan, HGH, Me and my friend my and Cream of the Crop. How did the road come about?
Love and curiosity for music paved the way from hobby to livelihood, via sound work as a PA technician in the USA where some of the highlights were concerts with Etta James, Astor Piazzolla, Sun Ra, Tracy Chapman, Stan Getz, Pixies and Dr. John. Then I went back to Norway and worked at Det Norske Teatret, at the legendary Cruise Cafe. Gradually I wrote songs via Polygram Publishing until I started releasing music myself and became a full-time artist with a long list of collaborations. I am largely self-taught in everything I do, also as a musician. Music gradually became my career with increasing income, and thus other pursuits were put on the shelf. Things happen, opportunities arise and it helps to have a high work capacity. I have released 25 albums with my own projects, and have greatly enjoyed all the tours. Great job!
You have contributed to countless projects and recordings with a wide range of musicians in various genres. The National Bank, Ellen Andrea Wang, Ida Jenshus, Askil Holm, Øystein Greni, Hellbillies to name a few.
What would you highlight as your core business as a composer and musician?
I spend most of my time writing music and lyrics for my own use. When I collaborate with others, it's mostly lyrics to music where the themes, phrasing and melody come naturally to me.
We can't avoid a quick trip through the corona crisis: How are you spending your time in the current situation?
I am fortunate to have creative work as a way of life and am currently working on a new release in my own studio. The album will be called Rare shells, and will be the sixth in a row for Meg og kammateren min. It's fun to collaborate, and so far we, kammate Erik Johannessen and I, have recorded contributions from Erik Nylander, Niko Hængsle, Megan Kovacs, Amund Maarud, Lars Horntveth, Mathias Eick and Eirik Tovsrud Knutsen. Now it's Heming Valebjørg, Det Norske jentekor and KORK's turn.
How have the strict infection control measures affected your work?
It was difficult, the measures were introduced two days before we were to record with newly arranged music in Store studio with KORK. We were in the middle of a kindergarten tour in Oslo, and had just finished a DKS round. Further tours were shelved and we had to think before we could continue working. The work process was turned upside down, but we ultimately chose to Take it as a vacation!
The duo Me and my friend, which consists of you and Erik Johannessen, writes and performs children's music. What made you start doing it?
Me and my mate was a continuation of HGH (Haugen, Gebhardt, Hagfors) later (Hagfors, Gebhardt, Hickstars) finally (Hagfors, Gebhardt, Hello!) A producer from Rikskonsertene was at one of our concerts and thought that adults would not benefit from seeing us. They thought the music and not least the text universe with the long monologues were best suited for children. We created a performance with artist Marit Skjermo Bjartnes on an overhead projector, which added a lively, analog psychedelia to our music and the performance Me and my mate (a translation of the HGH song title, Me & My Buddy), was born! After a few years on the road, we decided to make our first children's album It's not good until it's bad. I myself enjoyed performing for children more and more, a wonderfully sober and alert audience, and eventually chose to put both Home Groan and Martin Hagfors Band on the shelf in order to work as much as possible with new children's music. We (Martin Hagfors and Håkon Gebhardt) released the next album Cheese pop Friday 13.02.2015. Friday the 13th is unlucky, and within a month there was a divorce and a new partner Erik Johannessen came into the picture. Erik, who also plays in Jaga Jazzist and also played in my solo band, had memorized the songbook that came with the Ostepop album so that he knew all the songs from before. Win, win!
Does children's music get the attention it deserves?
I'm not a fan of the "category" of children's music. There's a lot of music that doesn't get the attention it deserves, like contemporary, classical, and other narrower genres like visual arts and poetry. But yes, music with that label is often dismissed and isn't included in playlists on the radio, for example. The idea is that if music with that label comes on, the adults will leave the room and maybe get out of the car, so that the children have to experience it alone?
And more importantly, is enough music being created for children of the quality they deserve?
A lot of good music is created with that label, but is it a genre? Children are just as individual as teenagers, thirty-year-olds and one hundred and four-year-olds and they don't necessarily have age-specific musical tastes? When I write for children, I write mostly for myself because I have to enjoy playing it, which is why I'm not afraid of complexity. There's a lot of talk about taking children seriously, but I'm mostly concerned with taking myself seriously as an artist.
You have also created an English version of the group, known as Mr. E & MeWhen did you discover that there was a market for translating your music?
My cunning friend Erik is a learned man and our collaboration is flourishing. We collaborate and complement each other well. We write, perform, arrange, mix and produce everything ourselves, which is why we have managed to deliver an orchestral score. This wonderful country has support schemes that value what we create and have given us the opportunity to record new orchestral music aimed at children. Giving children the opportunity to hear orchestras play something other than Peter and the Wolf, also outside of Norway, is a joy.
In September 2019, you released the album “New Orchestral Hits 4 Kids.” A massive work with, among others, the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra, the Norwegian Girls’ Choir, and Mari Boine as collaborators. What drove you to do a project of such magnitude aimed at children?
The album is both a best-of album for Meg and my friend and a continuation of the work after the previous Norwegian-language album “Snydelig”. The vision behind Snydelig was to make an album with catchy vocal pop music performed with an orchestra, without a pop band behind it. Erik got to play a little trombone, but I was just a singer. This was so fun and to our ears unique, that we decided to also arrange some old hits for orchestra. These, together with the best songs from Snydelig, got English lyrics and became NOH4K. It was released on Friday the 13th, and it went well this time.
The album has been released on the world's largest classical music label, Naxos Records. Is this the first time a Norwegian English-language children's album has been released aimed at an international audience?
I'm a little unsure, but I think it might be true. When you search for orchestral music for children, not much comes up at all. NAXOS has a large global network and is a natural place for us to be with this music.
The album has resulted in a Spellemann nomination. Despite initially being cancelled, the Spellemann Award will be awarded this week. Are you looking forward to the awards ceremony? What does the nomination mean to you?
Yes, the nomination is of course nice, even though I think the process is somewhat unfortunate. I'm not a fan of folk/children's juries. If you want to give music the same premises as other categories, the cafeteria at Vy should choose the winner in folk music and the company football team at Prior should choose the newcomer of the year. I have previously been nominated in the categories, composer of the year, lyricist, male artist, children's album but only won as a supporter. Just as exciting every time.
You have a long career as a composer. What made you start writing music?
I have been interested in storytelling for as long as I can remember, if I remember correctly… Lyrics to music only came when I learned a few chords on the guitar. I first wrote lyrics to other people's melodies, and eventually started doing everything myself. I love to sing and best of all, to sing my own songs.
Where and how do you write?
I have never been conscious of the process and have no guidelines to follow. This has freed me from setting the threshold too high to be able to perform. Music moves, often sets a mood that can in turn dictate the theme. Other times it is the lyrics that control the melody, stories that are told, or struggles that need to be conveyed and then in an palatable and lyrical way. Sometimes in collaboration with others I have to articulate the vocalist's own thoughts. Location is not important, I can write almost anywhere. The shower is often a good start to the day's session.
Do you have any equipment or tools that are indispensable in the writing process??
In the absence of a sticky brain, today's dictaphone with a SIM card is useful; before, there were dictaphones and cassette players as well as a small notebook.
What projects are you currently working on?
The previously mentioned Sjeldne skjell is in focus but also soon a future album with Ellen Andrea Wang, another project I can't mention publicly, a possible album with Bendik Brænne and new songs for my own use “down the road”. Aslag Haugen and I almost have an EP lying around that Nikolai Hængsle is producing and wants us to continue with. We'll see. Also musical theater for children that is being written about in a choir, in collaboration with my partner Kari Slaatsveen. Hurray!
What is your career highlight so far?
It's often moving to hear others do my thing. Concerts with The National Bank, when Susanne Sundfør performed my song Scarlett on my fiftieth birthday, Ida Jenshus, Ellen Andrea Wang and of course killer concerts as a performer, most recently with Erik! Sometimes I like to take out my own records and listen to them in the studio, the records produced by Lars Horntveth are perhaps the biggest highlights.
Can you share your greatest music experience – as a listener?
Leon Russell in New Orleans with a big band in 1982. Running sound for Etta James where she was on stage a few feet away from me singing I'd Rather Go Blind and You Can Keep Your Hat On, Astor Piazzolla, magical! Brian Wilson, God Only Knows at Norwegian Wood, Tom Petty in New York circa 1999, that's a lot.
Finally – Can you give us a tip for a Norwegian artist you listen to a lot these days?
When I work on new music, I unfortunately almost only listen to that, Rare Shells is absolutely amazing! But I've recently been listening to my friends in the Norwegian Girls' Choir - The Beauty Still Remains, the new singles by Valkyrien Allstars, Jaga Jazzist, there's so much good Norwegian music!