Written by Norwegian art-rockers Gazpacho stare fate in the face with their latest album, Magic 8-Ball, but things could have turned out very differently had it not been for Hollywood scriptwriters. Songwriter, producer and keyboard player Thomas Andersen discusses fate, creating great art and never being afraid to rip things up and start again.
The best art often involves some sort of sacrifice – but for Thomas Andersen and his bandmates, it seemed to border on self-harm. And “it hurt like hell,” he says. Perhaps one reason for that is that it’s hard to imagine many other artists making the decision they did.
In 2021 they were close to wrapping up their 12th album. Then keyboardist and producer Andersen – along with Jan-Henrik Ohme (vocals), Jon-Arne Vilbo (guitar), co-producer Mikael Kromer and rhythm section Kristian Torp (bass) plus Robert Johansen (drums) – heard alarming news.
They saw a trailer for a new film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, called Don’t Look Up. The premise was that a giant comet was coming to wipe out the planet within six months. “We’d just finished making an album about a comet hitting Earth,” Andersen explains. “Then Don’t Look Up came out, and it was the exact same story!
“We were maybe six months from release, but we thought, ‘We have to drop this.’ We lost a year when we first decided to drop an album that was almost done, and another year trying to get to grips with the loss.”
They’re finally back on track with Magic 8-Ball. This time the theme is broader, loosely connected to the idea of fate and fortune, and the way people invest in it for want of traditional spiritual solace, and also turn to it for escape from the limitations of everyday life.
Two real people who inspired songs on the album went further; they took their own lives. Immerwahr is written from the viewpoint of chemist Clara Immerwahr, who was said to have struggled with her conscience after her husband and colleague Fritz Haber helped develop the poison gas that killed thousands in the First World War.
Sky King is about Horizon Air ground service agent Richard Russell, who stole a plane, went on a joyride through the skies and then deliberately crashed it into the sea.
“In his own way, he took control of his own destiny, didn’t he?” says Andersen. “He went on his own terms. What I find interesting is that he became a bit of an internet hero. Maybe that reflects the fact that so many of us feel that we’re trapped in our lives. He chose to do something completely crazy about it.”
He continues: “We’re always trying to gauge the world around us and look for meaning – even the people who believe lizards are ruling us, or the flat-Earthers. I mean, you can laugh at them, but it’s not necessarily weirder than believing we were created by a Big Bang 14 billion years ago.”
Scrapping a whole album because of a film, empathising with a suicidal plane joyrider and empathy for flat-Earthers are all examples of how Andersen seems to think differently. When Prog suggests that luck must have played a part in his band’s success, he doesn’t downplay the chance factor. “I think it’s all luck,” he states.
“The best album ever made, to me, is Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love. I think that that’s an achievement which is impossible to better. But it’s just the best album we know of. I’m willing to bet that there are 10 better albums that never got released.
“The real 10 best albums in the world are probably lying on cassettes or DATs or MiniDiscs in someone’s drawer. They didn’t get to release them. It’s all luck – being in the right place at the right time.”
If you could write a shitty book, would you prefer to become a billionaire from that, or write the best book ever written that would never be released? I’d go with the best book written
He continues; “One song that intrigues me is Don McLean’s American Pie. Why is that so damn catchy – is it the tune? Is it the singing and the way he performs it? The chords are not all that unusual and the lyrics are kind of cool; but there’s something magical about the song as a whole, which I don’t get. To me, it’s just luck; you can never write another song that good. It’s lightning that will only strike once.”
Whatever part good fortune might play in Gazpacho’s music, it certainly sounds like the result of careful composition, songcraft and arrangement. The songs on Magic 8-Ball aren’t instantly prepossessing; but by the third or fourth listen, they seep into the listener’s head and take up residence.
“I do a lot of music for car commercials,” Andersen says, “and especially now with online, I usually have 30 seconds to get someone hooked on a recognisable little ditty that can be that brand’s ‘sound logo’, as they call it.
“Ironically, it’s helped Gazpacho – I have time, so Gazpacho is like an anti-ad. It’s music that is not meant to be catchy. It’s meant to create an atmosphere, to help you get somewhere mentally that you maybe don’t have time to do in life; like a meditative place, I think.”
There’s no doubt they’ve have worked hard on their music, with an impressive productivity rate (before this decade’s turn of events). Some 25 years into their recording career, what would Andersen do differently if he had his time again? “Nothing. I think the growth of the music and the band and the way it all worked out was organic and natural.”
Surely a modest amount of mainstream success might be nice? “Well, I feel extremely lucky. If I was in a huge band – say Coldplay – I don’t know if that’s necessarily a better life. I think we have the perfect mix of anonymity and a small level of recognition.
“I still don’t know why you need recognition anyway. I was talking to a writer the other day. I said, ‘If you could write a shitty book but you became a billionaire, would you prefer to become a billionaire from that, or write the best book ever written? It would never be released, but you would know deep inside that you made great art.’ In my case, I’d go with the best book written.”
There aren’t many creative individuals who could live without at least a modicum of external validation. “Yes; I’m not sure if I could live without it either,” Andersen admits, “but I don’t know why. I mean, you can have 1,000 people saying you’re great, and then the one person who says, ‘That was shit!’ – that’s what gets to you!”
Magic 8-Ball is on sale now via Kscope.
