They met in geography class and are about to play to 40,000 people in support of fellow countrymen A-ha. Xfm Online asked singer Erlend Oye and partner Eirik Glambek - about being Norway's worst-kept secret.

What are your earliest memories of music?

Eirik: "I remember my brother gave me his record-player and his stereo and all his vinyl records when I was five years old. He was twelve, and he just realised that he wanted to be a poet so he started reading and he didn't want to listen to pop music any more. And they were all Beatles albums, and I was listening to it all the time. I didn't know any English and I was singing, "She loves you/ Yeah, yeah, yeah," trying to imitate the sounds of the words."
Erlend: "My first memory was standing in the country farm with my grandparents, having built a guitar with four strings, out of fish strings [fishing line], which to me seemed to be the rock guitar. I was telling everybody how important it was that you would stand like this [stands, legs wide apart] when you were playing. How could anybody want to stand like this [legs together], with their feet close to each other?"

When did you realise that the band might be something you could make a full-time career out of, what was the turning point?

Eirik: "Maybe it was when we realised that a record label wanted to spend money on making our records."
Erlend: "We did some recordings in Manchester in 1998, just a four-track recorder at the band Alfie 's rehearsal rooms. I remember listening back to this the day after, this was the song 'Failure' and a song called 'An English House', and I was so impressed by the relative quality of this recording, that I thought 'Wow! This is so good that we might be able to live out of this."

Your home town of Bergen is associated with the Norwegian satanic metal scene - did you opt for acoustic music as a reaction to that?

Eirik : "That's the funny thing because that's what Bergen is known for but I don't know any metal people in Bergen. I mean, I see them around but the people I know are into all kinds of different music. It's more the myth of the Viking."
Erlend: "I think the British music press like this idea of Norway just being Eurovision Song Contest and Black Metal. Because they pose no threat [laughs]."

Obviously 'Quiet Is The New Loud' is an ironic title but is there an element of truth to it too?

Erlend: "It's a word game, but it can mean both the word game and it means referring to our history as a band. We used to have, like, a take-off part in every song. And then it would be describing the feeling that I had when I first saw the band Low, the point when they move away from the microphones and start singing, and they sing without really having any amplification. And everyone's attention is drawn, you can feel the surge like into a black hole. The volume just drops but there is so much energy, suddenly, in the room. It's really incredible. That's quiet is the new loud - as much impact as Radiohead's 'Creep', y'know?"

You said that simplicity sounds appealing and fresh, but you've re-recorded 'Failure' with Bacharach-y strings and the Royksopp remix of 'I Don't Know What I Can Save You From' is quite a complex affair...

Eirik: "I think in the future we'll be moving more in different directions, doing more complex arrangements but also cultivating the simplicity of the songs."
Erlend: "I think that after having released 'Quiet Is The New Loud', as long as we had released that I felt that we didn't need to have such a pure aesthetic. We've proved we can do that. We would never have released the remix of 'I Don't Know What I Can Save You From', or the new version of 'Failure' , before this album. Like any craftsman, first you just build the chair, a typical chair, and then you start producing the chair with a lamppost and a refrigerator built-in [laughs]."

Why did you chose to record covers of Tom Petty's 'Freefallin'' and Joy Division's 'The Eternal' for the b-sides of 'Failure'?

Eirik: " Joy Division was because that was something we did four years ago when we they were putting out this Norwegian tribute album to Joy Division and we were one of the bands that were asked to do it. And Tom Petty? Just because it's a nice song. It sounded good with the harmonies that we used."
Erlend: "We never really sit around discussing, 'OK, we need to do a cover song, what song shall we do?' it basically just happens. We did 'Manhattan Skyline' as well, that was the b-side for 'Winning The Battle, Losing The War'."

You're actually set to support A-ha soon - did that come about because of doing the cover?

Erlend: "I imagine so, I imagine it's got something to do with it, that we've shown the necessary respect to be asked."
Eirik: "We're a little bit nervous."

Do you feel any particular affinity with other acoustic acts like Turin Brakes?

Erlend: "Turin Brakes just passed us in the car and we waved back and we were both very happy to see each other, so that was kind of a movement: we waved. The 'new acoustic movement' is like this [waves elaborately]."
Eirik: "We were very happy to see them."

You said that you expected to be "the kind of band no one would ever read about and only a few people would come across by chance - a well-kept secret", but it seems you've got quite a media profile now. Are you disappointed?

Erlend: "I think relatively we're still quite an unknown band, it maybe depends on how much internet you read, if you're an internet fan you'll probably know quite a lot about us. If you're from Belgium you have no idea who we are, unless you're a very music-interested person. I still think we can achieve that [anonymity], maybe not in England, not in Norway. In Spain, I think we're still an ultra-cool indie band. But in Norway it's very funny because we are actually perceived as being commercial. In the same way as Coldplay are here. It comes to that point where you sell too many records and then people don't find it rewarding to like you. [Laughs] Some people have a weird way of enjoying music."

Emma Morgan