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Aha take on me unplugged mtv1/17/2024 That would have been around the time of Upstairs at Eric’s. PWS: We just tried to pick artists that sort of… going back to the beginning Echo and The Bunnymen was the first show I got into and Yazoo was the first band we checked out, as we landed in London. SDE: What about the collaborations on the MTV Unplugged album? How did working with Alison Moyet and Ian MacCulloch come about? There’s stuff we missed… I’d love to have another go at that, in some other place. PWS: But also like… with Savoy we did a-ha’s Sycamore Leaves, so that’s another idea. SDE: And of course, playing live, every time you do a tour, you have an opportunity to re-arrange or re-present the material I think I only did that once, at that was for The Swing Of Things and that was a big timpani thing and that became that song. PWS: Yeah…we never used machines or synths to do stuff like that, you know ‘here’s a sound – I’m going to write a song based on that’. SDE: I guess the songs would have been written like that at the beginning? In a way, you can do it however you want. And we knew that song was just like all the others. Nobody thought you could do Take On Me without all that stuff. And every review says the same thing, you’re hearing the songs in a different way. PWS: I think it’s great to do what we do now… that’s why we do a lot of touring. SDE: So, do you ever look back and think, it’s a pity we just happened to be in that space and time? It’s very much locked into a time and a place, whereas the new arrangements, you could argue that it frees up some of the songs… SDE: Do you ever look back on all the big hits from the beginning – contrasting with the acoustic album that you’ve just done – and regret the ‘eighties’-ness of the sound, the thickness of the production. I guess the company always wanted to release that song… for the 500 th time to see if we can get a little more out of it! PWS: It’s a little different, it’s a little cleaner… there’s a little more picking, to keep the motor running. SDE: Right… so what was the thinking behind the re-arrangement? SDE: That’s interesting, because you did also create a new version of Take On Me, after the album. So, I feel like some of the vocals, and maybe some of the playing, is perhaps a little too timid – I probably prefer the way it sounds now. I think we’ve brought them on further from the original recordings up at the place because that was such a small audience and it was a little bit… people almost sitting on your lap as you’re playing. I think you have to check it out and see for yourselves. PWS: Obviously, the ones with the biggest contrast… I don’t know really. SDE: Were there any songs that you thought worked particularly well with the acoustic-style arrangements? And it was fun not to have this lengthy – just two or three weeks and that was it. Nice to hear the songs in a different way. PWS: It was good… you know, you knock out an arrangement… Lars did all the preliminary stuff… It was a different kind of bag. SDE: The last time we spoke, you were preparing for the MTV Unplugged album… how do you think that turned out? SuperDeluxeEdition: How have you been enjoying the tour? The a-ha songwriter and guitarist was in relaxed form as we sat and chatted about the release of the MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice album and the tour itself. SDE went backstage last month before a-ha‘s end-of-tour MTV Unplugged Concert at London’s O2 Arena and caught up with Paul Waaktaar-Savoy.
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