[Thor Joachim Haga]

Thor, I think we first got in touch after I had a reader’s letter in “Filmmagasinet” (a Norwegian movie magazine that was distributed for free at cinemas) sometime in the late 90s, complaining about their abysmal film music coverage. That was back in the day when it was OK to leave your e-mail address in a “public place” like a magazine. You saw that and contacted me, right? (as did Jon).

That’s correct. I wish I remembered the year. I know it was the late 90s. Alas, my Yahoo Mail doesn’t go back further than 2014, although I’ve used it since the mid 90s (I think the older e-mails have all been deleted from cyberspace). Do you still have the magazine with your letter?

Wasn’t it some guy called Arne Svingen who had that “soundtrack column” (if you could even call it that) in the magazine? I think he later became an author. I do, however, remember kinda hating him a bit for his dismissive and ignorant remarks the few times he DID actually review a score album. I especially remember a review of ANYWHERE BUT HERE, where he wrote mostly about the songs, and then briefly mentioned Elfman’s score suite – kinda ad hoc – as “nissen på lasset” (a Norwegian expression that somewhat translates to “a thorn in someone’s side”). Even though Elfman actually co-wrote some of the songs as well.

(ooops, I just googled him and realized he wrote the children’s book DE TØFFESTE GUTTA [THE TOUGH GUYS], which was turned into a film with a score by our very own Eirik Myhr, who in turn is a big Elfman fan….so great comeuppance!).

But all of this is a perfect example of how it was like back then, and how poorly instrumental film music fared as a pop cultural phenomenon. This was long before the ‘nerd revolution’ of the mid 2000s, so the only acceptable alternative crowds were the grungers, indie-poppers and hip hoppers. Things like instrumental film music was definitely considered ‘anorak’ and super un-cool. I was actually doubly un-cool, because I wasn’t only into film music — my interest in pop music veered towards earlier prog rock and art rock like Supertramp, The Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, 10CC etc. Or electronic music like Jean Michel Jarre. So absolutely ANTI everything that my own peerage was into. But I didn’t care. I liked what I liked.