Monarchy in the UK

UNUSUAL Kings of Convenience behaviour, episode one: the bit where Erlend Oye laughs. We're talking about the music to which we lost our virginities, me and KoC's lankiest half. "I wasn't listening to anything at that point," he says, enviously peeved by my own Red House Painters revelation (a massive KoC influence), "but the first time I ever cheated on a girlfriend was to 'OK Computer'."

Was she fitter, and were you happier?

"Haaahahaha!" he cracks up, "yeah!"

When he laughs, it's like a funfair; his eyes boggling about behind those trademark specs like bumper cars with dodgy brakes. If quiet is the new loud then jolly would also seem to be the new glum.

Of course, we were asking for oddness coming to interview Kings of Convenience - we're called Playlouder, they ought to be called Playquieter. Or should they?

"Well," counters Erlend, "our new single, 'Failure', actually says 'Play this loud' on the sleeve. It sounds good loud! Loud in a quiet way, though, obviously. Listen louder, play quieter - that's the key to what we're doing. See, we used to be in a rock band [Skog or 'Forest' in their native Norwegian], but I was getting sick of all the songs going from quiet to loud. I started wondering whether they could go from quiet to even quieter, where the quieter bit is the most intense bit of the song."

He was right, of course they could. But Erlend's a man who knows about these things; a man who taught Damon 'Badly Drawn' Gough extra-delicate guitar tunings back when he lived in Manchester. A man who saw the incredible beauty in A-Ha's proto-Radiohead classic, 'Manhattan Skyline', and freed it from those nasty 80s guitars on the b-side to KoC's 'Winning A Battle Losing The War'. And a man who compares songwriting to carpentry. "I am an artisan," he admits. "It is my craft and I think a lot about it."

Unusual Kings Of Convenience behaviour, episode two: the bit where Erlend gets all rockstarry on our asses. "I think I will find love on the road," he announces, looking nothing whatsoever like Dave Lee Roth. "That's one of the reasons I make music. I've always been someone who's never got any attention, and making music is where I shout: 'Hey! Check me out!' Besides, I'm on the road all the time - where else am I gonna find love? I think I'm gonna die while travelling, too."

You do?

"Yes," he smiles, oddly. "I think the chances are very big now. I hope it will be a glamorous plane crash."

And where would you like that to happen?

"Ha!" he laughs, in premonition of his answer, "I want to crash so that the two wings of the plane get stuck between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Great! I'm unconscious for 10 minutes and then I wake up, see the chaos and try to escape out onto the wing. But just when I get to the end boom! the plane falls down and I die."

Are you sure you couldn't make it to a window of the building, climb in and survive, Erlend?

"OK," he says, grumpily. "A happy ending. Fine."

Robin Bresnark

The Kings Of Convenience's debut album 'Quiet Is The New Loud' is out now. If you're lucky, you might still be able to get your hands on recent PlayLouder Single Of The Week 'I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Royskopp Remix)', but you should definitely be able to get a copy of new single proper 'Failure' when it comes out on 2 July. Everything's on Source.

30th June 2001