Nå blir det Leven

Short interview piece at the start of the Norway tour in September 2001. The hook is not the new album but Leven's own whisky: Grønneberg presents him as probably the first artist in the world with his own whisky label. Leven says that in winter 2001 a fan approached him in a pub, revealed himself as the director of the Islay Mist distillery and asked him to “compose” a whisky of his own. Leven stresses that he does not care what is in the bottle; what matters to him is the label: it shows the motif “The Order of Release” (a woman freeing a Scot captured after Culloden). Leven interprets the picture as a depiction of female strength that humiliated Scottish men and contributed to violence against women; Scotland is far ahead in Europe for domestic violence, and the label is meant to make people think – a typical Leven interpretation, hard to verify.

On the album Creatures of Light and Darkness (summer 2001, according to the article his 21st studio album, praised by critics) Leven says it is exactly the record he always wanted to make; he compares his role with a fixed line-up of musicians to that of a football manager. He likes Norway because of the weather, which reminds him of Scotland, especially the rain in Bergen – hence the song title “Rainy Day Bergen Women”. The article lists the tour dates.