magne ‘mags’ furuholmen

Magne on himself: “I have always been hyperactive. I’ve always been told that I waste too much energy on the wrong things, but I think it’s better to do everything and rely on some of it being worthwhile.”

Morten on Magne: ‘Mags is ingeniously childish and childishly ingenious. He is talented, spontaneous and impulsive. He does everything recklessly and with so much energy. In contrast to Pål, Mags is totally disorganised and has no self-discipline at all. Of the three of us, he is the one who really knows how to live life to the full. Everything happens around Mags. Personally, I’ve learned an awful lot from being around him.”

Pål on Magne: “Mags is impulsive. Dashes around. Throughout the years, I’ve often wondered: Is he a complete fool or a genius? Does he have talent or doesn’t he? He can say things which are really dumb, but then he’ll suddenly switch on, put things in their place and come up with the idea that we’ve all been fumbling for. I think he’s both a fool and a genius. There has, at times, been a tough competitive relationship between us, which has been a driving force for us both. I have always had great respect for him and believe in him as an artist and musician.”

Magne (Mags) Furuholmen was born on November 1, 1962. His mother is a teacher and his father was a musician. The family lived at Manglerud, a predominantly working class area in Oslo. Mags’ father, Kåre Furuholmen , played the trumpet in a dance band called Bent Solve’s Orchestra. When Mags was only five years old, the plane the band was travelling in crashed just outside Oslo, and his father was killed. His mother, Annelise, remarried after a while, and Mags now has one sister and two brothers.

“My father had a great deal of musical ambition although he never got a chance to carry it out. However, it seems to be alive in me because I became so absorbed in music at an early age. To some extent it took priority over things like school, private life and everything else,” Mags says in retrospect. “I’m not doing what I’m doing today for my father’s sake. I’m doing it for my own sake, but I know that it means a lot to the people in my family if you try to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.”

His mother and grandfather have both given their undivided support to Mags’ efforts to probe the mysteries of music. They know that it was in the family. In spite of the tragic loss of his father at such an early age, Mags feels that he had a happy and secure childhood. He always got along well with his stepfather, and is very close to his mother.

He met Pål when he was ten, and they quickly became good friends. Their common interest in music did not really manifest itself until Mags was in the seventh grade. It was then that he began to listen to people like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. The total involvement of these artists with their music became a challenge to Mags and he was no longer able to treat his own music as just an amusement. He had to make a choice, and he chose to go into music, even though it meant distancing himself from his friends. Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix didn’t quite fit into the classroom or the flats at Manglerud. Mags became an outsider. He let his hair grow and became a hippie at a time when it wasn’t ‘in’ to be one. When he was fifteen years old, the family moved to Asker, a fairly well-to-do suburb of Oslo. This was a real culture shock for Mags.

“I was an avowed anarchist at that time and expected to find spoilt kids with rich parents. And I found them, of course. My freaky appearance, long hair and taste in music were pretty unusual – I was considered a weirdo. But I was never made fun of or bullied. It was actually the time I spent at the Gymnasium in Asker that changed my personality. I learned to be more tolerant of people who were different from me, and in turn I found they became more tolerant of me. Most of the friends I have today are from that period at the Gymnasium.”

He was an average student at school – there were other things in life more important than homework. School became an obligation to fulfil in order to satisfy parents and teachers. Mags completed his degree at the Gymnasium, even though he really wanted to go to London with Pål long before he finished school. But it was not only school that kept Mags from going. There was Heidi, the Girl in his life.

Mags positively bursts with energy. He’s the one who might jostle you in fun, who will challenge you to a race, who dives and windsurfs, who is physically active. He’s also a great fan of electronic games, like Space Invaders, which he can play for hours on end – always managing to end up with the highest score!

But behind the loud, extrovert personality lies a searching soul. Mags spends a lot of time by himself thinking, and is very concerned about the misuse of power. He refused to do his military service and was given conscientious objector’ status.

“There are many ideologies which attempt to explain everything, to put things into place once and for all. I look at the Christian religion as one of several ideologies. The Bible stems from a true understanding of what a group of people need in order to live together. There is a great deal of wisdom in it, but I think it represents a system created by a minority to regulate the affairs of other people. I don’t believe in all-encompassing solutions. Then I have more appreciation for the humility of, say, Einstein. To look around you with an open mind. Leave room for change and development. I think that greed for power is one of the major forces motivating people’s lives, and that it so easily becomes power in the sense of oppression of others. That’s misuse of power. I think that power in the sense of developing your inner resources is important. The feeling of really mastering something, and using your ability to the full.”

“Precisely because we arc such individualists, driven by a desire for power, it is extremely important to cultivate solidarity and loyalty towards one another. We all share responsibility for the society we live in. I hate political extremism, dogmatic beliefs and the cultivation of an elite; the idea that some know better than others and therefore have the right to control them. It’s fine to be an individual and not want to follow the crowd, but it is dangerous to start thinking that your ideas are the only ones that count – and force your ideas on others,” he says.

Mags, like Pål and Morten, was very interested in drawing at one time. A friend of his, who is now attending the National College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Oslo, was the first person Mags met who had a burning, creative desire – he knew he was going to be a painter. Mags was inspired by him and began too draw himself – rather grotesque, abstract drawings. After a while music took over as the outlet for his creative urge. He did, however, consider enrolling at a London art school during a stagnant period in a-ha’s development.

Mags’ family accepted his total absorption in music. When they moved to Oslo, they had more room in the house and Pål and Mags were allowed to move into the basement with their instruments and sound equipment. They practiced for several hours at a stretch, five or six times a week. They divided the instruments between them. Both played guitar and keyboards and Pål continued to play the drums. They became so accustomed to playing together that after a while, they could communicate without words. Pål would play two notes, and Mags would continue perfectly naturally with the next ten.

Until now, Pål has done most of the composing. But Mags has made a conscious effort to pull his ideas together and get them down on paper or on tape and the second a-ha LP will probably contain quite a few of his compositions.