Mystisk Leven

Interview on the day of his concert at the Rockefeller, Oslo, as part of a “magical week” on the theme of healing. The standfirst: the cult hero has quit drugs and turned to whisky production instead. On the album title, which Robert Bly tossed out on an occasion he hardly remembers, Leven says he has no clear idea what it means – what is mystic is the mystery itself. Sandnes recalls Doll by Doll and the silence after the attack, broken only by Mike Scott's cryptic thanks on This Is the Sea (Leven had let him “take the bus”).

Leven tells it soberly: after the attack he lost his voice, sat at home for a few years and took heroin; the silence led him back to a place he knew. His lyrics are about universal loneliness and the need to accept being alone; he likes to write about sadness, but “in a loving way”, and humour is the basis of life. He rejects being compared with Nick Drake, Syd Barrett or Kevin Ayers: he is neither dead nor a junkie nor mad, although he works with many mad people. He describes himself as a rough, tough, poetic guy. He started the whisky as a joke and then discovered the kinship of “spirit” and “sprit”.