BY CLARA CHOW

FOR making quiet the new loud with their geeky, nostalgic brand of Scandinavian folk rock, Kings of Convenience have often been compared to Simon & Garfunkel.

Like the 1960s American folk-rock duo, the Norwegian pair - whose debut album Quiet Is The New Loud (2001) brought them critical acclaim - deliver fine vocal harmonies.

And, just as Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's relationship was famously stormy, Kings bandmates Erlend Oye and Eirik Glambek Boe admit that they have a love-hate relationship.

In a phone interview with my paper, Boe says: "It's a little bit like marriage. There are problems connected to being so close to one person. But when we make music and develop possibilities that we can reach together, there is a strong feeling of love."

This intensity is the reason why Boe and Oye, both 34, consciously spend protracted periods apart from each other. The former stays put in their hometown of Bergen, a city on the south-western coast of Norway.

The latter hops all over Europe as a DJ and also with his sideproject band, The Whitest Boy Alive, living in cities such as Berlin and Sao Paulo.

Boe - who has a two-year-old son with his model-turned-doctor girlfriend Ina Grung - seems the anti-rockstar. He answers questions on his mobile phone while standing on a hill near his home, all the better to admire a view of his snow-covered city.

He says: "When we experienced the success of our first album, there were a lot of demands on us to go to a lot of countries and do promotional tours. Now, I feel really happy that I didn't go along with that pressure. I basically have the same friends and life as before."

Unlike formulaic acts who churn out albums to capitalise on their fleeting popularity, the band's third and latest album, Declaration Of Dependence, took five years to produce. Released here in September last year, it has sold more than 1,500 copies.

Boat Behind, a bitter-sweet ode to the (im)possibility of symbiosis in a relationship, buoyed mainly by vocals and broken chords on guitar, has received regular play on regional music channels.

On the Kings' gigs here, he promises simply: "Same people. New songs."

myp@sph.com.sg

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