Interview with Lasse Marhaug
Lasse Marhaug (born 10 September 1974) is a Norwegian musician who primarily works in the field of noise music but frequently drifts into other areas such as improvisation, jazz, rock and extreme metal. Marhaug has also been involved in creating music for theatre, dance, art installations and video art. Active since the early 1990s, he has participated as a performer and composer on over 200 releases in CD, vinyl and cassette tape formats. He currently resides in Oslo.
Marhaug tours extensively, and is a frequent collaborator. He currently participates in the projects Nash Kontroll (with Mats Gustafsson and Dror Feiler), DEL, and Testicle Hazard. Defunct projects include Jazkamer/Jazzkammer, Origami Replika and Lasse Marhaug Band. Other collaborative partners include Tore Honoré Bøe, Marc Broude, Anla Courtis, Carlos Giffoni, John Hegre, Kommissar Hjuler und Frau, Merzbow, Paal Nilssen-Love, Nordvargr, Maja Ratkje, The Skull Defekts, Ronnie Sundin, Sunn O))), Ken Vandermark, Jon Wesseltoft, Runhild Gammelsæter, John Wiese, Jenny Hval and Kelly Lee Owens.
I asked him a few questions on the occasion of release of his new, excellent album ''Provoke''
In every artist’s and musician’s life there is a moment when having enough skills, knowledge and passion and also having some sort of inspiration makes you think: ok, let’s try it. What was that moment in your life?
Not sure I’ve had that moment. When I started I would just try things. I never felt limited. I figured the worst that could happen was that I failed, well then I would try again, and I fail a little less next time. You learn and then you get better. I've done this for 35 years now and it’s still my approach. I push myself a little into a direction that seems challenging or unknown or that offers some new angle to the questions that haunt me, and it's exciting to go into that fog, see what creatures live there. I understand that my abilities are limited, but if I keep working something will happen. With this new album, Provoke, I wanted to work with a more rhythmic approach. I know nothing about beats or dance music, and I didn't want to imitate those who do it well, so I had to subvert it to my perspective. The marble-like sound on the second track is actually a snare drum. There's also extensive use of a zither-harp on it, which is an instrument I knew nothing about. When we moved from Oslo in 2021 I gave away all my guitars, which featured frequently on the Context album, and I didn't want to get back into the guitar ghetto, so I bought a zither.
Every musician has an instrument - not necessarily in a literal, musical sense that she or he develops a relationship with. Every person has a different interface that is useful - what is it in your case and relationship with it?
The way I see it my musical instrument is the mixer. With the mixer I can combine and shape the sound into music. The sound sources may vary, but it always going through a mixer of some sort, that step is always there. As for sound sources the turntable is probably my favourite tool, it was the first tool I started to work with. The second was tape recorders. I guess you can call both of those instruments. I never learnt how to play conventional instruments, so there’s no real difference between a guitar and a block of wood to me. I don't have a close bond to the sound objects/instruments that I use. I can see how a cellist can love a beautiful hundred-year-old cello, being a work of great craftsmanship, but the equipment I use are mostly electronic devices that will last 20 years if I'm lucky. I don't trust electronics, they're sneaky critters that will fail on you given the chance. It’s just tools. What I'm interested is the sound, and how the combination of different sounds makes me feel. I make speaker music.
The other part of your activity is graphic design - does it correlate with your music at all?
I think so. In my mind I work with visuals and audio, and it's all about giving elements form, how you use the format/medium to your intentions. Design, photography, films, collage, drawing, print production, installations, composing, improvising, mixing, mastering, live performance, music and sound design for film/theatre/dance – it's all the same, just different aspects of working with aural and visual mediums.
In ever-changing reality of music distribution it is difficult for an artist to make a name and also the model of selling records seems to be obsolete. How do you feel about that?
When I did my first CD and 7" in the mid 1990s they sold out within a few months, in editions of 500 copies, and I was a young artist just starting out and there was no internet or PayPal, I just operated with mail and fax, and people sent me cash in the mail, to some kid in Norway. If I did a 7" now it would be impossible to move those kind of numbers, yet I can reach thousands of people through the internet and social media, and money is transferred across the world in the click of a button. We talk about how downloading and streaming have killed off the consumption of music how we knew it, but we should also consider that music means less to most people now. What purpose it used to fill have been taken over by other things. Also, maybe we overproduced a little? Obscure noise music records are great, but how many do people need on the shelf before they’re full? I’m certainly guilty of this and I apologise.
Are you pessimistic about the situation?
Not really. My take is to make physical objects that document my work. I don't think of them as commodities with monetary potential. They're art editions, multiples, objects that (hopefully) carry some meaning and tell a story. If they break even that's great, if they don't then make them still has value. To quote the great Saul Bass: "I just want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares."
Live gigs, tours, art events - what’s the best way to present your work?
I prefer recording. The studio is my home. I was a recording artist for six years before I performed live. I like performing too, and I think I do a decent job at it, live performance has qualities that are unique and special, and I really like working within those parameters. Most people probably prefer to see me perform live rather than to listen to my recordings, but if I had to choose one it would be the studio. I love editing and assembly, putting things together, finetuning the details, that whole process is wonderful, it’s like having access to a spaceship, you can go anywhere. Studio time is always enjoyable. Making a gig happen involves many non-enjoyable factors, many of which I can do fine without.
How do you feel about collaborating with other musicians these days?
I don't feel like doing more first-time one-off live improvisations anymore. It can be interesting and lead to new connections, but I've done it a lot over the years and these days I prefer to either play alone or in collaborations that are already established. The dialogue is more rewarding, you go deeper. My main focus now is the solo work.
How moving to a new place changed the pace of your life and change in lifestyle and work?
We moved up north three years ago (2021), to the Arctic in northern Norway. Both me and my partner are from this area, so it wasn't stepping into the unknown. It was something we wanted to do after living in Trondheim and Oslo for 30 years. We live in the Vesterålen region, just north of the Lofoten islands – in fact we live on an island as well. The landscape and light is really special up here, at least to me it is. I like to go on hikes in the mountains and I do a lot of landscape photography, which is wonderful. My lifestyle remains the same: work and family. I'm not much of a hang-out guy, and I never went to bars or clubs anyway, so this solitude suits me fine. There are less distractions, if I want to work on a specific thing for a week I can. I do miss having people dropping by my studio though, that was a luxury I had in Oslo, my studio was in the middle of town, and there were a lot of incredible musicians living there, and many more passing through. I had that studio for 17 years, and I'm currently in the process of putting together a box-set of various recordings, most of it previously unreleased. I started going through my archive last year and realized the scope of it. That's coming in 2025.
Plans for the future?
Yes. Many.
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