Video still from A-Ha's iconic music video for Take on Me
Video still from A-Ha's iconic music video for Take on Me
"I don't think I've sat down and listened to the album in its entirety probably since we mixed it back in the 80s," Mags Furuholmen admits with a soft chuckle.
A startling revelation, considering the synth player and his fellow A-ha bandmates, guitarist Pål Waaktaar and vocalist Morten Harket, will be playing their classic new wave record Hunting High and Low in full this Saturday night.
Back in 85 Kiwis went crazy for the Norwegian synth-pop trio's debut. Hunting High and Low found the No.1 spot in our charts for two weeks running before hiding out for a further 59 weeks. Its popularity propelled by two true synth-pop classics; the dramatic tour-de-force that is The Sun Always Shines on TV and the urgent rush of their iconic pop earworm and quintessential 80s track, Take On Me.
"Obviously that album was hugely important to us," Furuholmen explains. "On one level it's a bit like taking a trip down memory lane coming back to it. But then we get to experience new things, like coming over to New Zealand to play to you guys. It's kind of a mixture of an old and new for us."
Remarkably this show, which celebrates the 35th anniversary of the album, will be their first time here.
"I know, it's strange!" he laughs. "It's just the way the dice has rolled."
Over the years A-ha have overhauled, remixed and reimagined their songs many times. However, this tour is one for the purists.
"After having done Take on Me in a number of different versions over the years, going back to the original needs discipline. It makes you like the song again," he explains. "It makes you excited to do it. To do it with the precision of how we arranged it in 85."
"It doesn't take much to make it feel new again for the band. Hopefully that's what's gonna happen for the audience. It won't sound tired and old but new and fresh."
A-Ha are performing at Auckland's Villa Maria.
Take on Me was a song that Furuholmen had kicking around for years before A-ha formed. He came up with the song's riff when he was 15 and later merged it with a verse idea his pal Waaktaar had. From there, it was less written and more assembled, with various sections being bolted on or removed from that core framework over a period of years.
"Both Pål and l felt it was a little too upbeat," he reveals. "We were in this 60s-orientated, dark band, influenced by The Doors and Jim Morrison's poetry and what-not. So we always thought, 'It's catchy but too upbeat for us.'"
So why stick with it?
"Some songs have a certain tenacity," he grins. "It wasn't a finished song lying around. It was elements. Now the lyrics are different and at least two or three different choruses were in there at some point. It just never really wanted to leave us alone. It just kept coming back and saying, 'Hey, don't forget about me, I'm gonna do you some good at some stage." And finally it did."
It was only after they started A-ha that the song began to resemble the hit we know today.
"Mort came in and he heard the riff and said, 'We need to do something with this.' Discovering his vocal range, it was like, 'Okay ... how high can you go? Let's put in a challenge," he laughs explaining how they rewrote the chorus to take advantage of Harket's vocal range, which covers an astonishing two-and-a-half octaves in the song.
A-Ha in 1985
Listening to it today, it has lost none of its urgency or emotional pull. That instantly catchy synth riff, the rushing electro-drums that drive the song's 168bpm tempo and Harket's yearning vocals delivering those cryptic, curious lyrics.
"I think if people like it, it's because it's upbeat but not cheesy upbeat," Furuholmen says as way of explaining its enduring popularity. "Musically it's uplifting but strangely melancholic."
Then he laughs and says, "Maybe that's the trick."
LOWDOWN Who: Mags Furuholmen, synth player for 80s icons A-ha What: Playing their album Hunting High and Low in full When: This Saturday night at the Villa Maria winery.
5 Takes on A-Ha's Take On Me
Weezer The band introduce a couple of twists here to keep you on your toes. Predictably, they heavy up the bridge to inject some classic Weezer stomp and, dramatically, vocalist Rivers Cuomo takes on the final verse solo. It's an interesting take but also sounds exactly how you imagine covering this song would.
Reel Big Fish This high energy ska-punk version is probably the best version ever recorded if you are a 16-year-old boozed up on ill-gotten beers, shouting along with your bros at a house party over the Shore in the mid-90s. If you do not meet these strict conditions, then avoid at all costs.
A.C. Newman The New Pornographers' frontman takes his cover seriously going for an emotional hit. An acoustic guitar strums, sad strings swell, a xylophone sparingly plays the riff and the odd choice of clipping his pronunciation of the word '"Take" in the chorus before drowning the rest of the line in reverb is distracting every single time. It's a little overwrought.
Jim Carrey Guesting on David Letterman, Carrey jumped off the couch to take on Take on Me live, introducing it by saying, "I want a song that will challenge me." The two and a half octaves of the song is a challenge for the best of singers, so how did Carrey get on? Let's just say as a singer, he's a funny actor. Though full credit for taking a serious shot at hitting that high note.
Kygo This chilled-out remix takes the Norwegian synth-pop classic to the tropics, buys it three rounds of pina coladas at the pool bar, before strolling down to the evening beach party. It's a fairly drastic overhaul. The urgency of the original is lost to "island time" and the frantic riff didn't get past the bouncer at all. Instead it sways gently to the sound of the sea and the sunshine.
