Real Ones (Norway) – Happy Birthday (single/future album track) + video

Surprisingly, I’d only encountered Real Ones oncebefore, which is something I needed to remedy having noted that no less an august organ than Dagbladet, Norway’s top newspaper, has described them as the country’s “best live band beyond comparison”.

Now I thought I’d already seen several qualifiers for that title and all I can say is that they must be bloody good.

If you don’t know them, a quick overview will tell you that they are five childhood friends from Bergen that formed the band aged 14 in 1994 as a trad folk band, have been together ever since (none of your faux ‘split owing to musical differences’ nonsense) and with 13 albums, 4 EPs, 2 Spellemenn (Norwegian Grammy Awards) and over 1000 concerts in 15 countries on three continents under their belt.

Along the way they attracted the reputation of being Norway’s most experimental band within the genres of folk, pop, rock, and world music, having cemented their reputation for live performances.

And I have to say that this single, ‘Happy Birthday’, manages to tick all those boxes. And it’s quite different from the last time they were with us, almost three years ago now, with a much heavier song about an environmental protest.

I had to watch the video a couple of times to experience all the many and contradictory influences that occurred to me although I guess none of them actually applies. They are unique.

Anyway they included Polyphonic Spree (especially for the harmonising); 1980’s UK Boy band Haircut 100; and Talking Heads while there is a distinctly Caribbean flavour hanging in the background throughout and the overall effect isn’t that dissimilar to the sentiments of Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’.

Perhaps, at a pinch, even Altered Images and the lovely Clare Grogan with the rendition of their own ‘Happy Birthday’ also in the 80s.

That’s quite a mish mash but they bring it all together quite brilliantly. Of course it helps when your producer of the track and the forthcoming album ‘So Say All of Us’ is Matias Téllez who is also the producer for Aurora and Girl in Red and a winner of a Norwegian Grammy for Best Producer.

I doesn’t it look like they filmed the video in the Orange Man’s suite on Air Force 1?

Gotta see this band soon.

Real Ones are: David Chelsom Vogt – violin, vocals, keyboards, Ivar Chelsom Vogt – guitar, vocals, dulcimer, Jørgen Sandvik – guitar, vocals, charango, Øystein Skjælaaen – bass, backing vocals, Kåre Opheim – drums, backing vocals.

Find them on:

Website: https://www.realones.no/