Pop-philosophy for the lonely

Not every project materializes immediately. Sometimes it takes years to share your innermost thoughts with the world.

No one greets me on the street
So I keep my eyes on my feet
Making sure they are still there

The Lonely Boy and Other Tragedies is a different kind of band. The two people who are behind it have never met, and the songs on the self-titled album, which as of today looks like it will be their first and last, came to life via e-mail and recorded cassettes in the postbox.
-I have written some poems that I wanted to put to music, and took contact with Anthony Harding, the drummie of the English band Hefner, which was my favorite band at the time, we are told by the Univeristy of Oslo philosophy-student and poet Eivind Kirkeby.
“At the time” is four years ago. Kirkeby was eighteen, and had ambitions of taking his poetry a step further.
- I entered the project as a poet who wanted to make music whereas Anthony was a musician who wanted to make more poetic songs.

Lyric block
For Harding the Lonely Boy-project was a whole new way of working.
- I can write music all day every day, but it’s usually the lyrics that slow me down.
He’s pleased with the collaboration, despite some early scepticism.
- I was a little hesitant, but I took on the role of a young man when I sang, and it helped me stop and think about how I felt the words would work for me.
According to Harding it was a slow process.
- Eivind sent me a stack of poems, and I picked the ones I thought would work best. The first demotape I sent was made on a normal cassette-player. Then we discussed different ideas before I finally recorded the songs on my 8-track.
The songwriting process took a year and a half. Getting the album published took two and a half.
- I had no contacts, and it was hard to catch anyone’s attention, Kirkeby says.
- So the whole thing was in limbo for some time.

Naive-pop
It was a new experience for Kirkeby to write pop-lyrics.
- I tried to write exaggarated pop-lyrics, which I think I managed. In the pop-genre you can get away with a lot, he says, laughing.
- But a recurring theme is isolation and loneliness, themes that work well in this genre I myself call alternative naive-pop. I was pretty young back then, so there’s not much philosophical content in the first round.
He’s pleased with the album. So is Harding.
- I think it’s a lovely, simple little album, and the text and music works very well together.
The question then is: Will they ever meet?
- For the one and only Lonely Boy show, Harding laughs.
- Eivind can read his poems and I’ll play in the background.