Paul Waaktaar-Savoy

Paul WaaktaarSavoy born Pål Gamst 6 September 1961 is a Norwegian musician and songwriter He is best known for his work as the main songwriter and guitarist in the Norwegian synthpop band aha which has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide He has written or cowritten most of the bands biggest hits including The Sun Always Shines on TV Hunting High and Low Take On Me the 1987 James Bond theme The Living Daylights and the ballad Summer Moved On In addition he is also a painter WaaktaarSavoy was named a Knight First Class of the Order of St Olav by King Harald for his services to Norwegian music and his international success WaaktaarSavoy was born to the Gamst family on 6 September 1961 in Tonsenhagen Norway at the outskirts of Oslo and was raised in Oslos Manglerud district with his older sister Tonje His birth name is Pål Gamst in the Norwegian language an acceptable alternate spelling of his first name is Paal His father was a pharmacist and his mother worked at the phone company He is a distant relative of Norwegian footballer Morten Gamst Pedersen His parents appreciated classical music and encouraged young Pål first to learn the flute then to study music composition when his performance skill revealed him to be a child prodigy He admired the music of American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix and hoped one day to write a rock opera similar to Hair He used his mothers family name Waaktaar in his stage name to become Pål Waaktaar He also enjoyed reading and painting He was a loner not social at school and was unsuccessful attracting girlfriends in his teens Pål Waaktaar as he was then known was lead singer guitarist and songwriter in the Norwegian rock band Bridges along with keyboardist Magne Furuholmen with whom he later formed aha with singer Morten Harket drummers Erik Hagelien and Øystein Jevanord and bassist Viggo Bondi In 1980 Bridges released their first album the selffinanced LP Fakkeltog Although the title is Norwegian meaning torchlight procession the songs are in English At the request of Harket aha performed the Fakkeltog song The Vacant renamed Sox of the Fox during their 2017 MTV Unplugged performance released as MTV Unplugged Summer Solstice An unreleased Bridges song called Miss Eerie later evolved into Lesson One and then into the aha hit Take On Me In 2018 Bridges second album Våkenatt Wakeful Night was released The album was recorded in late 1980 and early 1981 but was discarded after Paul and Magne Furuholmen decided to go to London which made Viggo Bondi and Øystein Jevanord to leave the group WaaktaarSavoy is the lead guitarist and main songwriter for aha one of the most successful bands of the 1980s Once Q Magazine named him as one of the best unknown lyricists of his generation aha performed Summer Moved On live at the NobelPeacePrizeConcert following a hiatus After this they decided to record a new album and in 2000 aha had the comeback of the year followed by a soldout tour The aha album Lifelines was released in 2002 The following tour was documented in ahas second official live album How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head which was released in March 2003 Source Article Paul WaaktaarSavoy from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA