Ben Marcus Rules

Oystein Greni used to be a familiar face in the surf at First Point - usually paddling around on a too-small Fish board but looking happy to be out in the land of surf and sun.

Oystein talks funny and claimed he was a “rock star from Norway.” I thought “Yeah yeah, everybody in Malibu is a rock star.” But it turns out Oystein is a rock star in Norway with his band Big Bang. Having done a surf trip to Norway with SURFER Magazine back in the 1990s, the place intrigues me - because Norway is probably the best-run country on the planet: Rich, thrifty, frugal, progressive. What California would be if California only had 5,000,000 people. 

Haven't seen you around The Malibu in a while but then I don't go in the water much anymore so maybe you've been there and I haven't.

Have not been to Malibu much lately... got out of the habit during Covid when I could not enter the US at all for about two years. And when I got back I’ve just been focusing more on music and being in my studio in Echo Park

You used to divide your time between Norway and Los Angeles. Are you still doing that?

Yes I do. I’m in California for about two months in the fall and two months in spring in LA. It´s a setup I really like.

Winter in Norway? The Land of Ice and Snow? Isn’t it cooollllldd? Snow skiing? Hunting elk? Chasing reindeer? What? Can’t tear yourself away from the Land of Ice and Snow when it’s icy and snowy? Or planes can’t take off? Los Angeles is sweet in the winter. Although not last winter. It was like Norway.

Yes, I was stuck in the rain in LA this spring. Well we always tour Norway in December, then Christmas with the family. I used to go back to LA on New Year's Eve - a great day to travel - but lately I really love cross country skiing and Oslo in January and February is great for that. The light with all the snow is good too. So LA in March/April is my favorite time there. And then back for more work in Norway in May and the rest of the summer.

I believe you used to live in Silver Lake. I'm hipsterallergenic so I can't go to places like that, I break out. 

Yes Echo Park, it´s gotten worse in that respect I suppose since I moved there back in 07 - but you know you can focus on the stuff you like or the stuff that bugs you. There´s such magic to almost any neighborhood in southern california on a good day with a Norwegian’s frozen goggles.

Are you still touring Norway and Europe? How goes it with Big Bang?

We do really well still in Norway… But now that all three of us have so many kids we basically stopped touring the other countries we used to go to like Brasil, Germany, Denmark the US and a few other European countries. The joy of a day off in Hamburg or New Orleans doesn´t taste as good as it used to when you didn´t miss kids or the coffee you make for yourself in the morning.

You once told me Norway is a good place to be a rockstar. Is that still true? You can make a living as a musician there?  

I think so, yes. Norway is so small and people don't really take show biz too seriously - which I guess can be both good and bad. But in effect most people are not that impressed and they leave you alone unless they're very drunk and want selfies or shootouts to other people on their phones. Yes you can actually make a living as a musician but it's not very lucrative unless you are very lucky or dabble in bad taste stuff.

From visiting Norway in the 1990s I know your country is stable, clean and prosperous - I called it a white Saudi Arabia where supermodels are mopping the floors at McDonalds. And I also know that the silver lining in the Russia/Ukraine conflict is Norway is now the #1 supplier of natural gas to Europe and your country is going to make an extra $112,000,000,000 this year. 

Having traveled and talking to friends from different places has definitely taught me to appreciate the things you mention above: The social security system, very few really poor people, social mobility and yeah… Norway has changed a bunch since I grew up in the 80s when we were still a relatively poor country.

Then all that oil money started funneling into the everyday lives of people: body shapes are way different. More fancy food, less cross country skiing, more screen time, buying of purses and loafers etc. High allowances and less housework.

Music business is a tough hustle these days. A girl I know wants to see Neil Young in Santa Barbara. The least expensive ticket is $300+. Holy hand grenades. That’s nuts!

Neil needs more model train tracks !

Le Californie is French. Did you do an entire album in French? You know, William the Conqueror wasn’t French. He was a dandified Viking.

Le Californie is really bad French, but to this Norwegian fool it feels just right. I got brainwashed on the California myth and culture growing up. My dad played in a soul band - kind of like a Viking Little Feat or something: They were called the Undertakers Cirkus and were actually really good. Check out their record "ragnarock." 

My dad worked for Levi Strauss, the gold digger pant-maker. And then came skateboarding which is still a huge part of who I am... and it was illegal in Norway.

Skateboarding was illegal in Norway? Completely illegal? From when to when? Would you be Blood Eagled if you were caught? Banished to Greeland? I know the Norwegians are very practical but that goes too far.

Yeah, that´s where you see socialism (which btw is a good word where I come from) going too far. Skateboarding was banned I believe from 1978 until May 8 1993.  I did a radio show celebrating the 30 years anniversary. That's why I remember. 

First board I had to build in a woodshop class in primary school… put my mom's roller skate trucks on there. 

Well I was a skateboarder in Santa Cruz in the early 1970s - there for the transition from clay wheels to urethane. One of the cool things about being a skateboarder then was making custom skateboards in woodshop. It required a lot of skills and you came out with something cool that you could use and be proud of.

I knew I had to skateboard when I saw Back To the Future with my grandma …I mean I could play Chuck Berry tunes which was also how my dad taught me English and a little bit of geography. I remember he took out the map when we learned the song Route 66: "Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino… won´t you…"

You can only imagine the brotherhood that helped create among the other obvious and well-documented effects growing up skateboarding will have on some people.

OG SKATER - A GALLERY

Just read an interview in Interview Magazine with Tony Hawk and Lil Wayne. I guess the rapper is the real deal as a skateboarder. How involved in skateboarding were you and are you? Competitor?

Yes I loved it and I still do. I went to skate camps in Sweden where really good skaters taught me stuff and skated with us every day… the Zorlac guys: Donny Myhre (very Norwegian last name) , Rob Mertz, Scott Stanton. Ryan Monihan and his then-skating girlfriend who rode for Santa Cruz, (we should find her name she was cool and African American) Carabeth Burnside, Tony Magnusson (maybe the name dropping is irrelevant..) and later I got sponsored by Schmitt Stix and Gullwing trucks… which is how i got to go to Cali in '92 to skate parks and learn about the culture. 

Randy Janson who was team manager for Gullwing and now shapes Methless surfboards was so cool to us little dorks… took us everywhere and let us stay at his house… so did many other skaters too that I wanna thank. Todd Prince and JJ Allen in San José, Soren Aaby and Bof Boyle in Marina, Steve Douglas and Pete Ha in Cupertino. Paul Schmitt, Mike Vallely and Ed Templeton in Orange/Costa mesa. 

I won the European amateur Vert championship in Antwerp, Belgium in 92 - then messed up my knee in Munster only to get terrible surgery that really set me back in Norway .. which led to Bigbang and music… coping with my skate career not happening. But I made a bit of a comeback in 2017 when a new skatepark opened down the street in Oslo. With a different mindset: “gotta stay in shape and do something.” The only goal I have now when I go skateboarding is to make someone smile. But in my soul I am a skateboarder more than anything… it´s taken me a long time to realize how deep that culture sets into a person.

Surfing is the same way. I don’t live like a surfer anymore but I still think like one. Does Le Californie have a theme or a style? How would you describe it? 

Bigbang has existed for a long time, and have in many ways taken turns I didn´t really like… especially when I tried very hard with no luck to "break" into the American market... 

I´ve also very much been a control freak with my music - driven by fear and insecurities - the usual stuff which is easy to talk about but harder to deal with or change. After some really rough stuff that happened to me and my son Leon around 2013 I was forced to accept ... learning to accept has really helped in many other areas of my life and I think also in my music... 

Sorry for the long answer here, but, well - the result as I hope is manifested in the music on is that I just want the songs to be themselves. There is straight up gospel in the song "Tune For Believers" (heavily inspired by Aretha´s Amazing Grace), followed by Detroit-punk "Divin’ In" and God knows a bunch of Byrds-type Rickenbacker Jangle.

I grew up on so much different stuff and love it all. Many of the songs hint at the situation with my son who´s 9 and I don´t get to see... he doesn´t even know I´m his dad even though I reach out and try to get in touch with him all the time. 

I have a friend going through something similar in Texas with his baby momma. It’s excruciating. My condolences.

Thank you. It's to the point where if I had seen this in a movie I would´ve thought "bad script… this stuff can't actually happen…"  but it is my life and has been for more than nine years. 

Luckily I´m on great terms with my daughter´s (Julia 19)  mom Maria and that divorce works real well.

Julia and I are very close and she lives with me most of the time.

My girlfriend Marianne and I also just got a baby boy (Jimi Luka 8 weeks) and hanging out with him heals my heart quite a bit it seems like.

But I focus on the hope… doing the best I can stuff... it´s not whiny I think.

Is Le Californie available online?

we´ve had some challenges on the internet after the Korean boy band with the same name as us busted onto the music scene.

For a while people in Norway couldn't even see if we were playing in their town. 

But here is Le Californie on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4qtcvw7NzAMUDlLymRFCzS

Perhaps we will be seeing you around Malibu again soon?

And let me know when I drop in on you at Malibu. With my accent people might not understand when I say: “I´m so sorry Sarlo - didn´t think you were gonna make the section.”