Motorpsycho - You Gotta Hang On To The Trip You're On...

@ You can't use all of your creativity as a drummer in one of the world's best rock bands?
# No. I can't. It's been very extreme last year, with a MP album, a solo album and a record with a guy from the Hellbillies.

@ How do you imagine your solo concerts?
# I've been thinking about how I'm going to present this material live... Probably I'll have to bring the music on an 8-track tape, and play with pedals on the volume knobs while I play one of the instruments myself. That way I can play any instrument I feel like playing most on that night.

@ Have you become so self-sentered that you think you can make better music alone?
# No, but different music. MP use a lot of styles, and I like maybe even more myself. I came up with the title 'Gebhardt Plays With Himself' and just had to make something out of it. I feel like a real beginner. MP has been going for 10 years, but it feels like three. We've accomplished a great deal, but it still feels very fresh. With this solo album, it really feels like starting from scratch.

@ It's out on vinyl only?
# Yes. The reason for that is that for the first time I've taken responsability for everything myself. I paid everything myself, made all the deals myself, made the cover myself. If I had time and more money, it would have been out on CD too.

@ The banjo on the cover looks pretty special ...
# Yes, I found it in a bar in New York. It had a broken neck and was all ruined. I bought it and it took me two or three days to fix it. The tuning pegs are more expensive than the rest of the banjo. It's also a fretless banjo, probably the only one in the world.

@ You've passed 30, isn't it time to give up the life of rock n roll with sex, girls and dope?
# It is, and that's exactly why I've begun to adapt to the club size. I see how it goes with all the poddle rockers that go on for too long. I have a dream about playing in a pub-band. There are many fun young musicians that are crazy enough to join me.

@ By the way - you have a tendency to dress naked on scene ...
# Hehe, it's a lot more comfortable than playing with clothes on. The playing naked thing has a special history. When we played in Germany many years ago, we had an incredibly bad support act that irritated me so much I did it as a sort of protest. Later it became sort of a tradition, but I quit because people became more interested in peeking over the drums than listening to the music ...

@ You're singing on the last MP album, and you've written a couple of songs. Does that mean you're starting to replace Bent as the front man?
# Yes, I hope so. I've been playing drums back there for a lot of years. There's a strong equality within the band, and it's nice to get noticed by singing and writing songs, cause that's something I've been doing since I was two inches tall. There are mostly instrumental tunes on GPWH, and I've also been writing a lot of songs with absurd lyrics.

@ Dagens Naeringsliv [conservative Norwegian newspaper] gave up and started giving you rave reviews. Did you change sides?
# Hehe ... no, I'm sure that's because I put some money in "aksjefond" ... Besides, it's good to get into such circles, where so-called highly cultural things like opera rule. I don't mind selling albums to a diverse audience.

@ Commercialising, in other words?
# No, rather accessability. Commercialising means adapting to sales, and I can't help it that my mom and the folks at Dagens Naeringsliv have the same taste as I do.

Vilde Batzer & Marius Oefsti