Team Me is one of the country's most acclaimed independent bands. Songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Marius Drogsås Hagen talks about how the P3 hit "the All Time High" was composed and went through what he calls an "idiot check" before recording.
/ 17/10/2014 / Janne Sievers"The All Time High" is a magnificent song, a euphonic combination of sounds and happy singing from the six members of Team Me. Songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Marius Drogsås Hagen made the first demo already in 2012, and explains the development to TONO-Magasinet.
Tekst: Kai Lofthus
Team Me's status could be called an ideal situation for a band's development, almost like a dream. Over four years have passed since their concert debut during the NRK Urørt final in Trondheim, January 2010. The time that has passed could potentially treat them unfairly in the modern music industry, but the band's talents, a professional apparatus and the famous x-factor have created a momentum that many can envy them.
Team Busy
The band has released two fantastically well-executed albums, won independent music awards, acquired an international fan base, achieved a significant profile on social media, booked a well-filled concert calendar on two continents (Europe and Asia, at the time of writing until March 14th next year), and has not been subjected to any 24-hour media treatment.
Panegyric press
The new album – “Blind As Night”, published and released on September 1st by Propeller – does not appear to be a “difficult second album,” even though it has taken some time since “To the Treetops!” from 2011. Norwegian reviewers are as unanimous as the band members themselves are on the record:
Bergensavisen 6/6: “Blind As Night” will remain one of the album highlights of the year.”
Aftenposten 5/6: "Nobody makes soaring and catchy indie rock songs like Team Me in this country."
Dagbladet 5/6: "Hats off, there's a new indie king in the country."
Dagsavisen 5/6: "Team Me has been the new century's great pop experience in Norway."
Gaffa 5/6: "Long-awaited and enormous sequel of a unique kind."
Marius is Me in Team Me
Marius Drogsås Hagen, who composed the melody and wrote the lyrics (the rest of the band is credited as arrangers), says that the first demo was made by him in 2012 and was developed with the rest of the band through several stages until recording last year. This is usually how all the songs come about.
– Everyone in the band contributes greatly and our latest album is a result of exactly that, with the exception of three fantastic string arrangements written solely by Lars Horntveth, he says.
Idiot check before recording
There are nine demo recordings of "the All Time High," in addition to the album and radio versions. The melody came before the lyrics, he says, and explains:
– The song was originally made on a midi keyboard using Cubase LE and Reason, which in addition to acoustic guitar and piano are usually always my main tools for songwriting. It is important to me that the song/idea works in a stripped-down form, it is a kind of idiot check to see if the melody, lyrics and chord progression are good enough for me, he says.
Test Me in the studio
They then had a pre-production session at Athletic Sound in Halden, where they played through the basic composition together and made some changes to the tempo and structure. A very long time is always spent testing out everything from harmonies to instrumentation on the demos.
– I think we also lowered the song one key, so that it would be easier to sing, says Hagen, and adds: – The lyrics also change through this “testing out” process, but perhaps in a less drastic way than the music itself.
Billy Corgan is number 1
When asked about the band's sources of inspiration, he replies:
– There are obviously a whole bunch of inspirations, and if you had asked all six in the band you would probably have gotten a ridiculously long list. He continues:
– Personally, I grew up with the Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and have probably been very colored by the songwriting and the stooge madness of Billy Corgan. That particular album is still my favorite album to this day and it never ceases to inspire me. I love, among other things, the fact that he dared to put a song like "XYU" on the same album as the song "Cupid De Locke". I think Billy Corgan wrote about 100 songs in the period before recording that album and that is very inspiring to me, especially when most of it is of such unbelievably high quality, he says.
In terms of arrangements, he highlights Canadian Owen Pallett for strings, wind instruments and orchestral elements, and Sufjan Stevens for vocal and choir arrangements. Lyrically, he is inspired by “a whole bunch, everything from Conor Oberst to Jenny Hval/rockettothesky”. He adds that he is currently listening a lot to Aphex Twin’s “Syro”, PJ Harvey’s “Let England Shake” and new Team Me demos.
Credits:
Composer/lyricist: Marius Drogsås Hagen
Organizers: Simen Schikulski, Uno Møller Christiansen, Elida Inman Tjørve, Bjarne Alexander Ryen Berg,Simen Sandbæk Skari
Publisher: Propeller Music
Wimp: https://wimp.no/wweb/track/32357030
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/track/47ieBN8xh8nQbPwuK7BBsQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamMeBand