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Medisin & psykiatri

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

We tend to be in agreement on which songs are good enough to wager on, we are quite compatible like that, but there was a bit of disagreement about this one. Some felt that the "doomsday country" quota had been filled up with Hevnervals from Evig Pint, while others thought it was an up-tempo breath of fresh air that there absolutely was room for on Maestro. As we know, the benefit of the doubt was never given to the innocent this time, and "Medisin & Psykiatri" remained unrecorded.

It has been performed live a number of times, and on the last round we did it, fall 2008, we had worked out a new and improved arrangement with the solo theme as a pompous intro. We felt that elevated the song and made it ripe for a proper recording.

Vicente is the protagonist in these lyrics, the same man who in "På ditt skift" manages to escape from Dieter Meyer's Inst. Vicente is not sick in ways other than being rebellious, and in "Medisin & Psykiatri" he plans what he later succeeds in on "På ditt skift", namely to be the first to run away from DMI, and on the boss's shift at that.

The story of Vicente continues on the Maestro song "Delikatessen" where he, as a free man, describes Delikatessen as the worst ward in DMI. Additionally, it is documents from here that he is later stopped with on the way to Poland in the song "Die Polizei".

Våre demoner

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

Dieter Meyer's Institution is the arena for most of the material on Maestro. It is a place that, under the cover of being a mental institution specializing in war trauma, is involved in shady activities like drug dealing, whitewashing of money, as well as selling organs to wealthy private hospitals. The institution is built up and run by a mysterious figure who no one knows the identity of. He is referred to as Meyer, Maestro, and Papa among others, but no one has ever seen him. The protagonist in these lyrics has been confined to Dieter Meyer for life with the diagnosis of incurable paranoia. Really, he is just an ordinary man who has discovered what goes on in this place and has therefore been committed and subdued. After a few years hospitalized, he has realized that he is alone in the fight against the corrupt system, and now only wishes to end it all with hope of better times in heaven.

"Våre demoner" is one of several "genre songs", this time in surf/rockabilly tradition. We tend to say that we like the best of all genres and use the inspiration actively. Sometimes the result is a bit more clearly genre than other times. It is usually these songs we like the least of our own material, and so they often fall to the wayside. In the rehearsal phase for this album we tried to "Kaizer-ify" several of these songs, including this one, but we found out it was both livelier, more fun to play, and also better if we instead genre-ified them.

Die Polizei

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

The English translation is taken from www.kaizers.de.

Background information about the song:

Every December 22nd, Janove and Geir go to "Kalas". A festive get-together where old buddies from Bryne meet, hang out, drink, and update each other on what's happening in their lives. A tradition that began with a birthday party for Kris in 1995, which has continued every year since. Every year Janove or Geir makes a new "Kalas song" which is performed together at the piano later that evening. This slightly pompous mens'-choir-song style fits Kaizers very well, so two-three of the songs have, after a total lyrical renovation and improvement of basic melodies, made their way into the Kaizer catalog. The most well-known is probably "Mr Kaizer, hans Constanze & meg", but Die Polizei was also another Kalas song.

Die Polizei is from the Maestro era, and continues the story of Vicente from "Delikatessen", who escapes from Dieter Meyer's Institution on a draisine with a suitcase full of documents. The escape ends in Germany where he is arrested by the police and questioned. The conversation in the refrain, where the interrogator addresses the accused in English, is an exact copy of Jim Jarmusch's interpretation of how German Nazis talk in interrogations in old war films, from his own film "Blue in the Face". A lovely scene we felt just had to be set to a tone. "Good thing they don't usually sing in English, with that pronunciation!" We've heard it, yes. Bat vi ar spiking it cherman style, vid ze purpes, ja!? As our dear fans know, this is a popular live closer for us. Fun chorus to sing together with a sold-out house and a good, pompous atmosphere. Thank you! See you next time… Herr Polizei… you'll never find me again, because I've gone off the path… Safe travels!

Fanden hakk i hel

Thanks to Jez for the English translation! Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

This was a song we had a lot of faith in when it came up. Janove especially liked it very much, and that tends to be a very promising starting point for a Kaizers Orchestra song. Nevertheless, it was never part of any release. Janove actually fell into making an English solo version of it, but that was also never released. To assess it a little, we can say that there were two factors which took the air out of it for Kaizers:

1. The timing. "Fanden" was one of the first songs that turned up in the Maestro rounds. That meant that we were a bit tired of it when we were recording the album two years later.

2. The tone. After composing several songs and finding a sort of red thread in the material for Maestro, we thought this was not fully fitting. Guitar rock is a nice, but also dangerous and overpopulated landscape. And since we had many other songs to choose between, this one came up short. But it is a fun song to play, so we are glad that the opportunity has opened up now! The lyrics are about a young couple, who in good Romeo and Juliet style pursue their love against all odds and against everyone's will. They know that as soon as they are discovered it will all be over, so they live the time they have together intensely, with the devil on their heels.

Kavalér

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

After the Ompa til du Tour tour was expanded from 15 to 150 concerts in the wake of success and live-demands in 2001-2002, there was little time to sit at home and write songs. Janove moved the pump organ from his apartment in Storhaug in Stavanger to a side room in the bar Cementen (for locals: the one that is now Gnu) and sat there in free moments. In addition, there was some writing in hotel rooms around the country. Partial amnesia might be a side effect of a hard rock life. In any case, Janove remembers nothing of the circumstances around the origin of this song, but it was made, weighed, and apparently found too light.

This version is more guitar-based, heavier, and more droning than the violently rattling demo taken up at NRK Rogaland in 2003. When we brought it out again, we felt we were able to "crack the code" and make a cool composition for a melody we had always liked, but hadn't figured out how we should resolve it. A full guitar downpour through a whole song is not something we do often, but here rock-Kaizers comes fully into its own.

The lyrics are about paranoia in the mafia world, where you can never be completely sure who is friend or enemy. The rules are such that when you've got the red feather and know that you are the next one out on the plank, it could be the person you thought was your best friend and partner who's strangling you. A kind of "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" lesson here.

Gruvene på 16

Thanks to Jez for the English translation! Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

Lyrically, this song is most closely related to the more famous "Bøn fra helvete". The mines on 16 are the place described as a hell on earth, the place that it's no use to pray from.

The story is about the sailor Marcelo Conradas who, after being captured in a raid somewhere in Asia, is sold as a slave to gold miners. From "the bars at Kringsjå" he describes the ruthless and psychopathic Henry who torments and tortures the mine workers until it all culminates in commotion and mutiny.

In the following chaos and escape attempt, Marcelo is the only one who comes out alive, with a bag of gold in his sack. In safety, the thought of revenge is so strong that he later spends his whole fortune on having it realized. In "Marcelos leksjon", another unreleased song that is not in this collection, he learns voodoo in Egypt (from a certain Mr. Kaizer) and finally gets his revenge on Henry by letting the world's heaviest Siamese cat eat the head of the voodoo doll that represents Henry (and people ask us what we are inspired by when we write lyrics…!)

Musically, "Gruvene på 16" was considered too "ballad-like" for the Ompa album. It had too much of the precursor to Kaizers "gnom" in it, we thought, and was therefore not "fresh" and hard-hitting enough. Now, however, we have grown up and are no longer afraid to admit that we also very much love nice ballads.

Señor Torpedo

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

When we were making "the difficult second album", we had only 12 songs with us in the studio - the 12 that in turn became Evig Pint. The reason was that there weren't more to choose from, we said then. We simply had not made more.

But after going through the demos from this period, we found out that was not fully correct. We have never been occupied with looking backwards, so we were a bit surprised by these songs we had left orphaned without any remorse in 2003, because there were some curious notes here. Señor Torpedo is an example, a bit like "Veterans klage" from Evig Pint perhaps, a very strange song that isn't like much else out there.

The lyrics ask the question of who can take over the mafia throne after Sonny, who was exposed in a plot in the song "Hevnervals", ended up with life in prison and a death sentence in the song "Drøm hardt". The family business is bleeding and shouting for someone who can take over for Sonny. Sonny has a "right hand", a man on the outside. It is he who is the narrator and runs the show all throughout Evig Pint. In this song, he presents a merciless replacement by the name Señor Torpedo who gives you everything you ask for. But in practice, it is he himself who rules the mafia, up until he quietly passes away as a blind old man in the song "Sonny".

Sometimes as a songwriter, one has one theme or another, a stanza or a melody line that rides one like a mare for a long time. The potential is there, but it never materializes. The organ riff of Señor Torpedo was one for Janove, in the end it ended up in "Knekker deg til sist" from the Maestro album, but before that it was part of "Señor Torpedo". It is, after all, legal to steal from oneself.

Den sjette sansen

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

This is yet another example of what we call a "genre song", in this case a blues rock song. Even though we like a lot of music in this genre ourselves, we think it is difficult to find our place in it. That is the main reason that "Den sjette sansen" was cut from the Maskineri album.

Like "Medisin & Psykiatri", this is also a song we have played quite a few times live. Therefore, we have gotten a number of inquiries about whether it will be released, and finally we have found a place for it.

The lyrics are a sort of surrealist reflection over a life lived so far, and what one eventually could do differently if one got a second chance. Like the other lyrics on Maskineri, it is not a part of a conceptual story but uses themes we often engage with: the big questions in life, and life after death. Nothing less.

Sonny

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

With the Evig Pint album we wanted to show a slightly different side of ourselves than we had on Ompa til du dør, and show that we weren't just a party band with only one gear that had gotten lucky. Therefore, we did away with some of the song ideas that leaned in the direction of ompa in favor of heavier and darker rock songs. So in came "Di grind", "De involverte", "Salt & pepper", and out went "Kavalér" and this one, "Du og meg Sonny", a romantic nostalgic song in waltz time. This song is actually one of the reasons we wanted to do this rarities album. We think it is so good that it would be simply terrible of us not to share it with Kaizer-sympathizers out there.

Lyrically, "Sonny" is tied to "De involverte". The narrator has been high up in the mafia, and is actually the boss Sonny's right hand on the outside. Sonny now sits inside, condemned to death ("Drøm hardt"), but controls things on the outside from the prison through his right hand man, who in this song reminisces about the past. He has gotten sentimental in his blind, older days, recalls the good, old times, and now only prepares himself to die.

Prosessen

Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

In the year 2000 there was naturally no one who had heard of the newly-founded band Kaizers Orchestra. The few who had heard of it had little faith that it would ever get anywhere, and no one could really blame them for that.

BUT, Janove had other plans, and in addition to talking a lot about these bright outlooks, he also made a song about them, a sort of pep-talk for the band. In short, Prosessen is about Kaizers' future "rise to fame" as he imagined it. "The revolution" and "the new religion" are Kaizers, who contribute to saving the music world from the mire we thought the industry was in at the time. The new homemade apricot wine, if you will. The main problem with Prosessen, and the reason it wasn't on Ompa, was that it was a little too pop-catchy. We were terrified of getting a "hit" we couldn't completely stand up for, end up in the DH-rock category, and come off the ski jump askew in what could have been a great musical flight. We felt that the melody went off like a gunshot, but unfortunately a gunshot of the irritating sort. If we were presented and associated with this song, the rest of the album would simply not be in keeping with it. So for the sake of the whole we dropped the frivolous "Prosessen" in favor of dark Romani style, which is what we were really passionate about. We did the right thing with that, with the future taken into consideration.

A fun fact to end with: Author and Kaizer friend Tore Renberg heard Prosessen in concert once at Blå in 2000 and has been humming the catchy/irritating tune ever since. So here you finally have it, Tore, you're welcome!

Stormfull vals

Thanks to Jez for the English translation! Thanks to Anthony and Casper for translating the background info!

Background information about the song:

"Stormfull vals" was on the list of songs to go on the Ompa album, but was beat out in the last stage of composition by newcomers Kontroll på Kontinentet and 170 (Janove has always had a tendency to come up with the best album tracks right before the deadline. For example, Evig Pint was the last song to be made for that album, and Maestro was the last song for its album). "Stormfull vals" is a real rattler, one of the first we made as Kaizers Orchestra, and it's not a waltz either. It is about Egil Ei, who after foreseeing the great flood in the song "Katastrofen" - without being believed - turns to the bottle for comfort.

The village, and specifically his great love Ms. Victoria Zudine, are (seemingly) taken by the flood, the wind rages on, and it is stormy both inside Egil's head and outside. Humorous tragedy is something we have dealt with many times in our lyrics, yes, and here as well. This song is also a genre song, and we found out the only way to do it was to get drunk on Terje's Christmas present, a 23 year old rum from Cuba, invite everyone we knew with an instrument into the big room in the studio, count to four, stumble away and hope for the best.

Under månen

Thanks to Jez for the English translation!

The Norwegian lyrics were never officially published, so they might contain errors.