(Original on kaizers.no, Text backup here)
Janove and Terje keep it up as live performers, also without their Ompa pals from Kaizers.Both are involved in "Den kulturelle skolesekken" ("The Cultural Backpack") this fall, which takes place in collaboration with Rikskonsertene. Terje plays daytime concerts with Skambankt on stages in Rogaland, mainly for high school students. Janove's project, "Tresko" ("Clogs"), is probably a bit less known. Kaizernews asked the reality favorite that has been kicked out of the Senkveld duel to explain what he is doing at the moment.
- Well, to start with the beginning .... Janove is just done with today's second concert at a school in the Haugesund area when Kaizernews gets hold of him.
- I get quite a few inquiries, mostly about music related things, and with Kaizers Orchestra, I have to turn down most of them, because Kaizers is a too large and expensive machinery to roll out. Apart from that, we have clear plans and ambitions for what we want to use the Kaizer forces for, and class visits and weddings are not included there. But I could imagine having projects with a slightly lower threshold as well, and Tresko has become such a project for me.
- What is it and how did it start?
- We are four people who play bluegrass by whim method, simply. The line-up is double bass, acoustic guitar, banjo, and fiddle, and clogs of course, because clogs go never out of fashion. Never, as we say here in the band. It all started when I and Jan Olav were asked to contribute to a ceremony at Steinerskolen in Stavanger, the school my children go to and where Jan Olav is a teacher. And then the atmosphere was so good when we did "Man Of Constant Sorrow" there that we got some requests to play more concerts. And then it grew from there, and now we got a hint about this "Kulturelle skolesekken" and got accepted with our application there, and now we are in Haugesund and play bluegrass!
- What kind of material do you use for that?
- We play genre classics such as "Man Of Constant Sorrow" and "She's Looking At Me", songs that everbody who has seen the Coen brothers' "Oh, Brother Where Art Thou" will recognize, but we also use indie-rock material like "Last Night" by The Strokes and "Hotel Yoba" by The White Stripes. Then we drive them through the clog refinery and send them out on the bluegrass side. Bluegrass purists will probably snort of us, but we allow ourselves to let the joy of music reign. Bluegrass is a very catchy genre, just like the Ompa that we do with Kaizers, so people get carried away. The atmosphere has been amazing lately. Fun to do a little more easy going stuff in between as well, and not the least to get to meet people during the day!
You can experience "Tresko" yourself at Cementen when they play there on Dec. 21!