CONFRONTATION "Det Nye nr. 43-83" Garden Of Delight, are they really black sheep? People stare when they walk down the street. And that's okay, that's the reward for scorched scalps and visions of insane men, werewolves and blood. Garden of Delight is the country's most interesting rock band nowadays... Garden of Delight are a bunch of black sheep. They are not foremost among Norway's rock bands. But they are certainly visible, a mess of hair, colours and clothes. They have been together since October 1982 and has quickly drawn attention. They contributed to Zikk-Zakk, March 8th on Women's Day. Their tune 'Glory' is on the record for peace 'Fremtiden er nå!' [The future is now]. There was a one-page interview in bucolic newspaper 'Opdalingen'. And now they are here, ready for their confrontation with DET NYE. Bitten, the loquacious guitarist, her diction cute. Mai-Britt, the singer, dialectal, with a shock of golden white hair. Heidi, the bassist, dark and pale, sleepless half-closed eyes. Anne, fiery red hair, fairly quiet. And Bjørn, looking fairly normal, drummer, talkative with a cackling laughter. Bongo-player Atle was not present. - Where are you from? - Oslo. (Titters). Teisen and Helsfyr... Four of us are unemployed, one is attending school and one has a job. - Only Bitten and Bjørn had played in bands before when you formed. Bitten came from PVC, perhaps someone remembers the singles 'Sykebil' [Ambulance] and 'Galehus' [Madhouse]. They went to the studio anyway, inexperienced and most of them with no musical background. - Bjørn: We hit it off from first second. We made three tunes the first two hours. We still play them! - You live differently than the average Norwegian youth? - Bjørn: You can say that again! - Bitten: We're a bunch of black sheep. - Bjørn: There's a rock scene in Oslo, kinda 'underground', where the bandwagon youths dare not thread... - Bitten: Nor 'Det Nye'-punks [Cosmo/Elle-punks] (Howls of laughter from all.) - And how do you spend time in this scene? - Bitten: Playing, drinking, going to shows. - How do you live? - Heidi: Mai-Britt and I live in a housing collective. - Bitten: And I am married. (Laughter again.) - Bjørn: It's those two (nods towards Mai-Britt and Heidi) who are living the so-called rock'n'roll life. - Heidi: We keep odd hours. - Mai-Britt: In our housing collective... - Bitten: ... no one sleeps until 5 am, and no one gets up before 3 pm. - What kind of housing collective? A squat? - Maj-Britt: Oh no. We ain't punks! We are creatures of convenience, couldn't live in Skippergata [Blitz]. Too cold... - Heidi: We would like to have... hot water. And mirrors, stuff like that. - You are concerned with visual aesthetics? - Yes. (Laughter) - And you use candles on stage? - Mai-Britt: We couldn't have that spot light in our eyes. - Heidi: It's quite moody. We like to have lots of candles. And most of all we'd like to play outdoors in the middle of the night with lots of huge torches and such. Cool, huh? - Where do you get your ideas from? - Bitten: Old Dracula movies. - How do people react when you walk down the street? - Mai-Britt: I get offended if they don't say 'bloody hell!'. - Heidi: I feel like a tourist attraction. Many say we look like crap, old ladies in particular. - What does your appearance mean to you? - Everything! - How long does it take to prepare your hair, makeup and clothes? - Mai-Britt: Some hours. But we've nothing else to do... - Bitten: But when it's like this (touches her hair) it's gonna stay that way for a while. - Do you read Det Nye? [girl's magazine] - Heidi: I eat dinner at my mom's every sunday, see it there. - Bitten: My boyfriend's mother gives it to me. - Bjørn: (cackles) But no one buys it! - Bitten: I buy it every now and then. - Who writes your lyrics? - Bitten: Mai-Britt and me. - What are they about? - Bitten: This and that. Werewolves, schizophrenic persons, stuff like that. (To Mai-Britt): Didn't you bring lyrics? - Mai-Britt: No, I forgot... - Heidi: (absentminded) I left my bass on the bus. I don't know how I... Well, now we have no bass. - How do you write lyrics? - Mai-Britt: I make up an interesting sentence and write around it... a little blood and some murders... - Bitten: My characters don't bleed. My characters are men, and they don't bleed - Heidi: All of Bitten's characters are men. - Butten: Well, there is a woman in one track. - Heidi: Oh? Which one? - What are your men doing, then? - Bitten (sounding more innocent and cute than ever before): They are mostly insane and schizophrenic and... (laughter). - That's why you got the March 8th job? - (Howls of laughter) - Bitten: And then I wrote an on-topic tune 'Glory' for the peace-record. It's deep, very deep. There's a man there too. - What are your interests... - Music. - Besides music? - Bitten: Nothing political. (Enthusiastic): I work for the Lung Association. - Bjørn: That's why she stopped smoking. (Laughter) - But are you not interested in politics? - Bitten: People ought to be. - Heidi: Why? - Bitten: People ought to be concerned about their everyday life. - Mai-Britt: Won't turn out worse than now, anyway. - What do you think about Reagan? - Bjørn: Send him back to Hollywood! - Bitten: He reminds me of... Albert... eh, Alfred? Albert? - Nordengen? [conservative mayor] - Bitten: Yes, exactly! He has the same smile and insane flash in his eyes. - Why do you go to school, Anne? - I want to graduate. I'd like to do something else than those who sleep until three pm doing nothing. I don't like that life style... - Mai-Britt: It's alright! - But not in the long-term? - Mai-Britt: I like living like that! - Heidi: Me too! - You don't think ahead? - Nooo... - Bitten: It'll wait until 1984 is behind us. Year of fate, isn't it? Nostradamus wrote about it... - Orwell. Orwell wrote a novel called '1984'. - Bitten: Right. - Do you listen to older rock? - Bjørn: Yeah, Gary Glitter. - No, older. - Bitten: What do you mean, Beatles? Well, James Brown I can listen to. Soul. That's fun. - Fun!? - Yeah, lots of screaming, it's raw. - What do you think of the disco wave that's over us again, movies like 'Flashdance'...? - Bitten: Gray and pink sweat suits. Whatever. I want to see that movie. - Mai-Britt: Me too. Is it worse than 'Fame'? I kinda liked 'Fame'. - And Travolta is returning. - Bitten: Yeah? (Whistles) I'm into Richard Gere. - Do you go to the movies? - Anne: Yeah, often... when we can afford it. - Bitten: Loved Mad Max! - Anne: And Octopussy was badass. - What do you think of today's fashion? - Heidi: Don't like it at all. - Mai-Britt: Listen to her! You would like it if you could afford it! (Laughter) - Heidi: That's what they call fashion-punk! - Bitten: There's a lot of that in Det Nye. - Do you have money for food? - Heidi: I pick up food at my parents' every Sunday. - Bitten: We return bottles for deposit... - So you're not starving? - Mai-Britt: No, there's always someone with food in a housing collective. (Laughter) - Do you like synth-pop? - Mai-Britt: Yuck! - How does your hair handle all that dyeing? - Mai-Britt: My scalp is scorched. - Anne: ... wounded. - Mai-Britt: Craters! - Bitten (world-weary): It's expected... - But isn't it harmful? - Bitten: Oh no! - Heidi: Just heard you can get some kind of sickness wearing black. My mother told me (almost drowns in the general laughter)... She's so worried about me, thinks I'm gonna die. It's just black clothes. - Bjørn: And diet coke will mess up your mind, so... - Bitten: Some guy wrote in Sirene [fem-mag] that makeup gives you digestion problems. - Do you think you can make a living being artists? - Bjørn: There's hope. - Heidi: If you don't believe in it, you definitely won't make it. - What do you think of the Norwegian bestsellers? - Heidi (mumbles): Never bought any. - Bitten: I don't know what sells. - Bjørn: Banana Airlines! (Violent laughter) - Bitten: Disgusting tape! - Bjørn: Racism. - Bitten: Made me sick, it was real nasty! It was like, if you're pakistani, norwegian or... vegetarian... ya gotta take a joke. And if you have a big nose and are fat, ya gotta take it. And if you're sami, you're stupid... and drunk. Stupid Jompa DUI on his snowmobile. Yuck! - Mai-Britt: Humour like that... - Bitten: Poops and farts! - Is it equally natural for women to play rock? - Bjørn: It's just a myth that there is a difference. - Bitten: Many boys get a guitar for their 12th birthday. Not a lot of girls get that. - Mai-Britt: Perhaps boys are the best drummers. Don't you think? - Bjørn: It's just myths, gender roles... Works both ways, just look at Grace Jones. - Bitten: Wayne County having a sex change helped a little. - Anne is going to graduate. What about you, Bitten? - I'm going to study. - Study what? - Criminology and english. - Oh!? - And then journalism school. But introductory classes first. Easy. - But what are you going to do? - War correspondent! I'll go out in the world and write from the Middle East! - Mai-Britt: Bah! You'll end up at Hovseter with four kids!