Biography

Island Life

There's something inherently romantic about growing up on a small island. It makes you different, somehow, part of an elite group of windswept neighbours, living a life - in some degree - to the exclusion of all others. For a community such as this, there is a slight sense of some kind of divine blessing; sea borders are natural, not man-made; approach is limited; defence largely in the hands of the Big Man upstairs. No need for fences, no call for walls. It also makes escape just that little bit more tricky, and it is for this reason, perhaps, that - in The Margarets - island life has produced an unusually close-knit band of musical blood brothers, intuitively receptive to every guitar lick, every bass riff and every rim-shot.

That happy accident of being encapsulated on the tiny outcrop of Giske, an island tucked close-up besides the towering mountains of the Norwegian fjords, is perhaps the secret to The Margaret's success. Proximity to each other during their formative years gave this band of fret-caressing, drum-bashing cousins a certain harmony of thought, a tightness rare in that vast ocean of manufactured pop.

Giske - for those who don't know - is a flat island, no bigger than a small town. It's only peak a 'mountain' so small you can conquer it in a leisurely stroll - from bottom to top in less than five paces. Next time you cook a fried egg for breakfast, think of Giske - after you've dipped the bread in.

But God gave men an appetite for climbing mountains, and so it is that The Margarets grew eager to explore distant landscapes, new horizons to seek out and conquer.

Ironic then, that following the phenomenal success of their first album What Kept You, reverberations around the globe saw the band riding the crest of a wave all the way from little Giske to the shores of North America, to be beached on that island of all islands - Manhattan, in New York City. What a difference a few days make.

It is here, amidst the towering blocks of Times Square, that the band laid down the finishing touches to their second album, Love Will Haunt You Down in 2004. Having initially recorded the album at Tambourine Studios in Sweden, Malmo, the lovable princes of Giske now found themselves collaborating with some of the giants of the US music industry, including Michael Brauer, a venerable king of the Manhattan castle. Here, the same hands that had previously guided the tracks of the Stones, McCartney, Clapton, Springsteen and Dylan, were now surfing the faders to mix the unique sound that is The Margarets. And it is here, amid the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, that they penned their new single, Surf Alone.

As Brauer said: 'I love their records so, of course, I was more than happy to get involved'.

But even if the growth of the band had stemmed from a happy accident, the song-writing certainly didn't; in preparation for Love Will Haunt You Down, the writing process was definitely a planned affair. Spending four weeks in a little boathouse on Giske, beside a rocky shoreline lashed by the North Sea, The Margarets had lived, ate and slept undisturbed. It was here that they wrote the new songs and reworked old ones, moulding the music and polishing the tunes like shiny pebbles on the beach outside.

And so now, in the Spring of 2005, The Margarets are poised to repeat the success of their first album, What Kept You?, which - within weeks of its release back in 2002 - had shot straight to number two in the Norwegian album charts and went 'gold' shortly afterwards. As one of the fastest selling debut albums in recent years, Norwegian newspaper VG had dubbed it 'the perfect pop record'. At that time, the band was achieving similar success in the singles charts, reaching the Number 2 slot again with the debut single, Rubber Rubbish / Alain Delon. The record was so well-received that, in August 2002, Rubber Rubbish was declared the best Norwegian pop release ever, topping the A-list of 100 best records presented by Norwegian journalists.

At first glance, it may seem improbable that an emerging band could achieve such status with their first-ever album release. But take into account the fact that The Margarets not only grew up on a small island together, but also spent ten years writing songs before they ever cut a record. Now you get a different picture.

The Margarets is a story about two brothers and four cousins staying together, believing in themselves and their music through hard times, and who - after ten years - took a huge gamble, borrowing $80,000 to cut their first CD. No sooner had Rubber Rubbish become a hit, that all the major international record companies were falling over themselves to sign them. Thanks to a prestigious deal with Universal Records, that ominous bank loan has now been consigned to history.

In the wake of The Margaret's arrival in 2002, Norway's newspapers were immersing themselves in the 10-year history of the 'new' band, while radio & television stations flooded the airwaves with the 'new' music. The musicians, needless to say, happily soaked up the attention after a decade in the wilderness. "We have spent a period floundering at sea" said lead singer, Alex Rinde.

Building on the strength of their common upbringing, The Margarets have easily absorbed the influence of The Beatles, The Smiths and The Byrds to create their own unique brand of pop. The quality of the writing is both heart-warming and razor-sharp, the songs patiently honed - during the calm before the storm - by brothers and cousins clinging to the smallest of islands amid a tiny archipelago off western Norway; a tight crew if ever their was one.

We're sure you'll agree that - ten years in the making - this is a band worth its 'wait' in gold.