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| 08 October 2003 |
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| Lene Marlin - Back in sad peak condition |
| Source : chilinet.dk |
I'm sitting down here, Lene Marlin sang - and got so much success that she couldn't handle it. Four years later she finally dears entering the stage again.
Lene Marlin stands with her back towards me. She rummages slightly confused in her short, blonde hair. Then she disappears running down the hall in cowboy pants and a grey vest.
The singer from North of Norway really doesn't belong here at the record company's main offices in London, where journalists from the whole of Europe have been invited. She is back into the kind of attention she ran away from four years ago. After the greatest rising with the hit song Sitting Down Here the greatest trip down followed.
Stage fright.
- I was tired. At that time I had just got out from school, and suddenly I became known worldwide. I absolutely had to relax and find the joy in music again, Lene smiles as she returns.
- Weren't you glad for the people's attention?
- Yes! However, I was 17 years old when I got a record deal. I thought Playing My Game (the debut album) was to be released only in Norway, and now it has sold 1.7 million worldwide. I really don't understand any of it! They have all bought this little record that I made, she almost shouts.
- Are you afraid to start over again?
- Yes, there are many in this industry that says it's insane waiting four years releasing the second album, and I'm also very pessimistic myself. It might very well flop!
Lene knocks her arms out.
- However, it took the time it did. I was actually not sure if I wanted to make another one, she says.
Alone Lene
- The new single You Weren't There and other titles, like Whatever It Takes, deals with taking somebody's hand and helping them forward. Like Sitting Down Here. Are you so sad and lonesome?
- Ha ha, I never tell, of course, what the songs are about, because I don't want people thinking of me. I'm way too shy, says Lene.
She looks around the strange room we're sitting in. Big windows, a round table, and eight armchairs.
Lene looks at me.
- As a solo artist you are often alone, travels alone, sitting here alone. Sometimes I could very well embrace the idea of being in a band, but I think I write better alone, she explains.
Lene Marlin pursues the sad and lonely in her songs - and hides the smiles and the good mood for interviews like this. I show her an old photography of her dressed in a wide blouse and with a depressed expression.
- Why aren't you more lightly dressed and happy, like other pop stars?
- Ha ha, nicely observed! I don't sit down writing music when I'm happy, she smiles, and tells about the people she's been working with this time.
- However, it helped somewhat, that there were so many men around me, because then you can't walk around being pouting, Lene grins.
- But do you never write about being in love or having a lot of money?
- Yes, but it always ends up, even if it's a happy song, in a melody that's somewhat sad, Lene smiles and shrugs. She gives me her hand.
- Thank you for wanting to meet me in these strange premises, she smiles.
A good, firm handshake. Lene Marlin is back in peak condition - a sad peak condition.
Translation by Tef Johs
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