Royksopp

Röyksopp is an electronic music duo from Tromsø, Norway. The members' names are Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge.

Interview quotes

Svein

• "What first caused you to think to yourself, man, this is a great fucking job?"
  "When me, Han Solo and RoboCop had our first gig on top of the Great Pyramid of Khufu in front of 6 billion people. I was in the middle of my guitar solo when Wolverine shouted to me from behind his drum kit, “Man, this is a great fucking job!”

• "I think someone should make a pair of jeans made of banana peel; that’s what I’m thinking. Instead of washing them, you just throw them away and they will decompose. Ideally, it shouldn’t be lots of banana peels – you should be able to make it in one piece so it’s one big seamless thing. They would be yellow, which is the colour of the insane"

• "You see, it's part of the process you go through: the longer the hair and the beard, the more Beaujolais you drink. It's stage three of the seven stages of songwriting."

• "I feel so unattractively enthusiastic about the new album".
  • On the Junior release at Pete Tong's Friday night show on BBC Radio 1 9th of January 2009.

• "People have certain expectations of how a festival concert will be, with a vocalist, bassist, drummer and two guitarists. When the singer screams "Woaaaaaaaa", the audience must respond "YEAAAA". When we play live, we try not to be too clever and "arty". There shall be an element of party in what we do."

Torbjørn

• "Seriously, who was supposed to add the pressure? The record buying public? I don't think so. The critics? We're not afraid of them. Our mindset, even on Melody A.M., has always been to do our own thing."
  • On making the album The Understanding.

• "Röyksopp is more than a band. It's also a transport system."
  • On being confronted with Röyksopp's ability to take people to a state of mind.

• "Where would your ideal place be to listen to one of your own songs?". "I think, in a blimp. Over Antarctica".

• "I get angry when I have to read...Like if you put a DVD into a DVD player, and you actually have to read, that thingy, where it has the copyright control. And if that's on for like half a minute and there's no button that you can press that gets you through it. That fills me with double rage."

• "I had this bow and arrow that my uncle had given me, and I found a knife and sharpened the arrows. It was a deadly weapon. And I killed birds, I killed a lot of polar bears. I went on a killing spree for days, killing every animal I could see in Northern Norway."
  • Making a sick joke in a BBC interview. This actually made PETA criticize him in public , unaware that polar bears does not habit in continental Norway.

• "The most annoying [pop star]? Well, that's gotta be 50 Cent. Why? I mean, because of the story that goes with him. This story, the story that sold him to a lot of newspapers. I just imagine a reader who's like 50 years old and who's really not into hip-hop... "But this guy, he's been shot 7 times then he must be good", and that story is just so crap so I instantly had a dislike of the whole package."

• "When you do interviews it's not like you're a politician that people are going to say "Ahh, he didn't really answer the question". If you're an artist it's good to just not answer the question sometimes."

• "What's next for you? We are going to start a farm where we trying to make nothing grow. that's really difficult. That's gonna be a heavy work.

Together

• On asked by KCRW about things that influence their creative process:
  • Torbjørn: To be very dull, I would have to say scenery and nature and the world itself. Growing up in Tromsø, as we did, we had a lot of space and a lot of scenery. And without being too New Age about the whole thing, I’m just noting that that is in us, and definitely colouring whatever we do.
    Svein: I think people and humour also has to be thrown into the bowl.
    Torbjørn: Well, not so much humour.

• On their album The Understanding:
  • Svein: Yes, there is meaning, but we believe there's room for your own interpretation. Listen to the album and see if you can come up with your own.
    Torbjørn: It's like a classical painting like the Mona Lisa. When you tell people what they should look for, they only look at that thing.

• On being asked about their favourite album in Röyksopp's discography:
  • Torbjørn: That would be like comparing my children, not that I have any.
    Svein: It's like trying to compare two testicles. One is not better than the other. Both are vital to the Röyksopp anatomy.

• "Tromsø is a city with crime and dope, and with the nature right beside. You can sit by the sea, eat ecstasy, surf on the internet and eat seagull eggs. We have a half-naive love relation to the midnight sun and the nature in Northern Norway. Old people aren't the only ones who can claim that."

Said about Röyksopp

• "Röyksopp's album Melody A.M. is one of the best records ever made"
  • Chris Martin of Coldplay to NRK.

• "This is the one that puts them firmly and officially up there in the top tier of the dance-music crossover-album crowd, up with the Daft Punks and, umm, Basement Jaxxes. Really: Good for them."
  • Review of the album The Understanding in Pitchfork.

• "This is genius – it is no wonder they are laughing."
  • Review of the album Junior in The Sun

• "Apparently the original title of this striking debut was For Kids and Elderly People, and you can hear why: cornerstone hit Eple is likely to beguile any age."
  • The Guardian chose Melody A.M. amongst the 1000 albums you must hear before you die.

• “I always listen to new music. I get new CDs every week from England and America. I prefer listening to new things rather than old, and so at the moment I’m really enjoying listening to the band Röyksopp.”
  • Sir Elton John is a Röyksopp fan.

• "There's a new Röyksopp record out which is called Senior which I'm really looking forward to hearing."
  • Sir Elton John says he's looking forward for Röyksopp's Senior album.

Lyrics

So Easy

• Hello?
  Yeah it's me
  I wanna give you some good frequencies
  170, 2.6, 2245...
  Yeah
  3032, 400
  Four hundred?
  Yeah.
  I'm coming over.
  Do that.
  Hehe. I'll be there in two seconds.

Sparks

• No matter gray or grim
  It's those tiny little sparks
  Daily life that makes me
  Forget my wounded heart
  
  It doesn't matter when
  It may rain or it may shine
  Blurry memories of us
  Come back from time to time
  
  No matter gray or grim
  It's those tiny little sparks
  Daily life that makes me
  Forget my wounded heart
  
  It doesn't matter when
  It may rain or it may shine
  Blurry memories of us
  Come back from time to time
  
  No matter gray or grim
  It's those tiny little sparks
  Daily life that makes me
  Forget my sulky heart
  
  It doesn't matter when
  It may rain or it may shine
  But you will always be here
  Stored inside my mind
  
  Can I give you all my love
  Suck some air
  Tell me what I'm dreaming of
  Oh, whoa, oh...
  
  Maybe within a thousand years
  You'll be here
  Maybe within a thousand tears
  Oh, whoa, oh...
  
  Can I be so alone?
  Can I be so alone?
  
  Oh, whoa..
  La la la la...

Only This Moment

• Only this moment
  Holds us together
  Close to perfection
  Nothing else out there
  No one to guide us
  Lost in our senses
  Deep down inside I know our love will die
  
  Only this moment
  Holds us together
  Lost in confusion
  Feelings are out there
  Scared of devotion
  Doubting intentions
  Deep down inside I know our love will die
  
  Stay or forever go
  Play or you’ll never know
  What heaven decided
  You can't deny it’s
  All you’ve been waiting for
  
  Stay or forever go
  Play or you’ll never know
  Your spirit’s divided
  You will decide if I’m
  All you’ve been waiting for
  
  Clouds in my head have been parted with grace
  By the voice of an angel revealing her face
  And her words they make sense and I do understand
  Falling in love isn’t part of a plan
  
  Forces within me mix reason with lust, but
  I’ll try to accept it and not make it worse
  'Cause I know I might lose it by taking the chance,
  (But) love without pain isn’t really romance
  
  Only this moment
  Holds us together
  Close to perfection
  Nothing else out there
  Always beside her
  Trusting my senses
  Deep down inside I know love will survive
  
  Only this moment
  Holds us together
  Close to perfection
  Nothing else out there
  Always beside her
  Trusting my senses
  Deep down inside I know love will survive

49 Percent

• Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  I won't try to dent your night
  Or stop your flight
  I've known our plight
  You know I'm right
  I know about your little fling
  How you hide your ring
  You senseless thing
  I'll cut this string
  The heat has simmered for a while
  It's not my style
  So versatile and with a smile
  At anytime, I could explode
  When you kissed your toad
  You killed your princely episode
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Bit off more than one could bite
  And the taste is slight
  It leaves this dullish appetite
  About time I've finally seen the light
  And said goodnight
  For the sling is tight
  We'll lose this fight
  In a corner painted white
  As you fly your kite
  I shun the sight, i've seen the light
  And now i've got to say goodnight
  You know I'm right
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  I won't try to stop you flight
  Or chage your night or nothing
  Less than half
  Why won't you try
  To make this damage better
  
  Math and imagery
  Equates cacophony
  Multiplies muteness
  A sum better disturbed
  For silence subtracts
  And shadows divide light
  Less than half is slight
  
  Math and imagery
  Equates cacophony
  Multiplies muteness
  A sum better disturbed
  For silence subtracts
  And shadows divide light
  Less than half is slight
  
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  I won't try to stop you flight
  Or chage your night or nothing
  Less than half
  Why won't you try
  To make this damage better
  
  Forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing
  
  Oh forty-nine percent
  One percent short of half
  And less than half
  Ain't really much of nothing, yeah
  
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while
  The heat has simmered for a while

What Else Is There?

• It was me on that road
  But you couldn`t see me
  Too many lights out, but nowhere near here
  
  It was me on that road
  Still you couldn`t see me
  And then flashlights and explosions
  
  Roads end getting nearer
  We cover distance, but not together
  
  I am the storm and I am the wonder
  And the flashlights, nightmares
  And sudden explosions
  
  I don't know what more to ask for
  I was given just one wish
  
  It`s about you and the sun
  A morning run
  The story of my maker
  What I have and what I ache for
  
  I`ve got a golden ear
  I cut and I spear
  But what else is there?
  
  Roads end getting nearer
  We cover distance, still not together
  
  If I am the storm, if I am the wonder
  Will I have flashlights, nightmares
  And sudden explosion?
  
  There's no room where I can go and
  You`ve got secrets too
  
  I don`t know what more to ask for
  I was given just one wish
  (Why)