What can I say about my musical taste.....

I have always enjoyed a wide variety of genres, from bluegrass, folk, pop, and rock to jazz and classical music. My first musical recollection was listening to the radio and hearing Frank Ifield's version of Hank Williams' Lovesick Blues." There was always a lot of music in our house and my Mum and Dad would play artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Josh White, Waylon Jennings, Gram Parsons, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Buck Owens and Jerry Lee Lewis, and Stevie Wonder to name a few - and on Sundays my Dad loved to listen to Sousa marches, Hawaiian and Malaysian music, Scottish bagpipe music, or we would all listen to concerts of Leonard Bernstein.

In addition to my parents' records, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, T.Rex, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, Led Zeppelin, etc., Tamla Motown artists and punk were also part of my musical education, and standing in our hall in those days, there'd be a cacophony of sounds, as music would be pouring out from every room.

When I was about ten years old my Dad formed a band, Clive Scott and the Skywegians. Their repertoire consisted of country, rock 'n' roll and a few jazz standards, and rehearsals would be at our house. Around the same time I started taking accordion lessons, but my teacher had a guitar on her wall, and at ten I found that instrument a lot more inspiring....

I loved playing the guitar and my sister, Marita, and I started singing together. Marita did great harmonies! We'd sing at all kinds of functions: school parties, birthday parties, Christmas parties, old-age pension homes, etc. I'd also rehearse songs with Dad and we'd sing duets together, songs by Melba Montgomery and George Jones. Soon Marita and I were playing bigger concerts, shows in Bergen and doing half an hour sets in my dad's shows. My dad and his band recorded their first album when I was about 11, where I did a song called "She's Gone", a duet with my Dad and also the harmonies on the album. My voice on that album is very nasal, due to a cold, and I must laugh when I think about the lyrics I sang at 11: "When I woke up this morning...he was gone, gone gone...." and "Nobody loves you when you're down and out."

By the time we were in our teens Marita and I became full members of my dad's band. I played rhythm guitar and we both sang harmonies. We continued playing in the band until we left to go to college. I moved to study in Oslo, and several years went by before I, just by chance, got back into music. After finishing college, I worked for a year, and then went back to school to continue studying. At this time I was contacted by Casino Steel and Ottar Johansen. two well known established artists. They had heard of me through Kjell Birkeland, the guitarist in the Skywegians. Cass and Ottar both came from separately different backgrounds, punk-rock and country, and were good friends. They wanted to collaborate in some way and were looking for another singer. I was looking for a job to get by while studying.

After a short audition, the plan was to record an EP, but it resulted in an album. The trio was called Claudia-Big Hand-Casino and we ended up recording three albums together. One received a Grammy (Spellemann) and another a Grammy (Spellemann) nomination.We toured all over Norway and parts of Europe, played festivals and sold a bunch of records. However, the collaboration did not last for more than three years, as our musical ideas were very different, but despite our different musical taste, we have all stayed close friends.

I had until now only been in bands, initiated by other people and I wanted to have more creative input if I were to stay in music. At the time I did not know in which direction I wanted to take my music, but I knew I did not want to stay in one genre.

However, my solo plans were delayed when I was asked to participate in a project with Cass, John Paine and Carlene Carter. This was my very first rock project, and I found that in itself interesting, so I did not mind putting off my own plans for a while. We were called CCCP, and recorded an album of old covers from the -70's. The album did well, but musically this was not something any of us wished to pursue, so the collaboration ended after only one album. Cass and I continued working and touring together and this accumulated in the album "Scott and Steel," which in a sense was the beginning of my solo work. We released the album in 1988 and then left for Los Angeles.

Around the same time my friends Jeff Wasserman (mandolin, guitar, vocal), Jørun Bøgeberg (bass) and I were asked to do some shows for the military. We thought it would be fun to put together a band, so we called our acoustic trio The Three Blind Mice. Our repertoire consisted of old bluegrass tunes, old timey songs in addition to our own songs. When Jørun was asked to work with the pop band AHA, our friend Karl Aasland took his place. We toured all over Norway and all the military bases. It was a real fun band and we had a lot of laughs. Unfortunately we did not record any albums.

Four years had gone since my last release, and I felt it was about time to record my first solo album. I had met Harald Wiik, a fellow Norwegian musician, in L.A, and we worked on the preproduction and also produced Flowers & Thorns which was released in -92 when I returned to Norway. The album contained songs I had written throughout the years and also new songs that showed the direction my music was taking. "Heard You on My Radio," which I wrote with Andrew Matheson, was chosen as the single. It went to Number 1 on the radio charts, and the album did not do too bad either, as it was nominated for a Grammy (Spellemann) and also for Album of the Year by the Oslo paper "Natt og Dag." I put together a Norwegian band and we toured Norway and Denmark. "Flowers & Thorns" was released in Scandinavia, Germany and the Benelux countries.

Emanuel's Secret was recorded in Spydeberg, Norway, in Easter -96, and was the result of a development in my song writing, and also an awareness in musical direction. After moving back to Oslo in -92 and listening to a lot of European music, my music was gradually changing.

I did not want to be totally removed from "Flowers & Thorns," but I wanted to try to find my "own" sound. Erik Honoré, whose work I first heard on a demo tape, had elements of the sound I was looking for, and he introduced me to the musicians I am fortunate to have in my band today. We all found the right chemistry in each other, and almost intuitively Erik and the musicians understood the direction and vision I had for my songs. My brother, Rolf, who is an anthropologist and filmmaker, had written a lot of poems and lyrics and handed them to me to see if there were any of them that I liked. When I look at someone else's lyric, it immediately gives me a melody by the rhythm of the words and the content of the lyric, and Rolf's lyrics are so visual. We wrote "Where the Rivers Run" and "City of Violence" for the album. My band and I got to do some really fun shows for the "Emanuel's Secret tour." Among them was to play at the White Night Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia and we also played an outdoor show in 14C below zero (6, 8 F) on a mountain in the far north of Norway for the military during a NATO maneuver. It was so cold we had to wear special suits and warm air was blown onto the stage!

Soul on Soul, my third album, was recorded in New Orleans and released in 1999. Certain songs on this album are probably a little more influenced by jazz than my two previous albums. I seem to go through musical waves, where I listen to different music and genres, and the result of this is obviously clear in my songwriting. This was also the first time I wrote a song by starting with a groove. It was a fun and new way for me to approach a song, and very different to my regular method of writing, where I usually start off with the lyric, a verse and maybe a chorus, and go from there to the melody. This time Rolf had some more lyrics for me, which resulted in the songs "Cry for Us All" and "Mother of All." He also co-wrote the song "Desert Highway" with our friend, Erik Ringen. I heard them playing it in my living room, and fell in love with the song. "Northern Sky" was written by Nick Drake, and is one of my favourite love songs.

Erik Honoreé and I produced the album together, this owing to knowing the musicians and Erik much more than on "Emanuel's..." and also being aware of how "far" we could take a song with the band. Working with Erik and my band is so inspirational, and everybody brings something to the party. "Soul on Soul" did very well with the critics, was nominated for a Grammy and the single from the album was also nominated for an Edvard Award, song of the year by TONO (the Norwegian equivalent to SESAC, BMI, ASCAP).

It's been almost 6 years since my last release and there are a number of reasons for why it has taken so long. I moved to Nashville in December -99, and the record company I was on, Norske Gram, has since then merged with EMI. Every time I'd have songs to play, there would be a new person in charge of A&R, so the years just trickled by.... Finally, I asked to be released from my contract.

This has resulted in Lovely Monster Records, and as this is the company's first release, I thought it would be appropriate to sum up my albums in a collection.

Collection is, as the title reveals, a collection of songs from these three albums in addition to three new tracks; "Some People," " Love Is" and the single, "Brink of Breakthrough" which I wrote with the Icelandic poet and songwriter, Kristjan Hreinsson. The new songs were recorded at Vidar Ersfjord's Studio in Oslo in April and mixed by Erik at our friend Jan Bang's studio in Kristiansand. This time I wanted to have a completely organic approach both to the sound and also the choice of instruments, so we did not use any synthesizers. We also used a banjo and a mandolin for the first time on two of the tracks.

The songs for "Collection" were chosen by my family and friends and are their favourite songs from all my albums, I hope they'll be yours too.