Amund Maarud & Lucky Lips release new album and music video, ‘Wolves’
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- March 15, 2022
“I wanted to focus on those who work when others have time off in a locked down world. They are the real everyday heroes and the song Wolves is an homage to them”
You might recall, back in November last year, we spoke with one of the best blues guitarists Norway has ever seen, Spellemannprisen winner and one hell of a nice bloke, Amund Maarud. The interview dropped while Amund and Lucky Lips were promoting the release of ‘Wolves’, their last single, which Amund explained came to him in the small hours as he was driving back from a gig. He describes; “doing everything backwards from most people. You work when they have time off and you work when they work. Sometimes you just wanna sleep in a bit.” The single serves as the title track for the album, released on February 28, and is now accompanied by an incredible music video, directed by the great Nikolai Grasaasen.
The video was shot in Vormsund, Årnes, Skogbygda and Flisa in Norway, and has scenes from the area Amund grew up and still lives, about an hour north of Oslo. Framing the video locally is critically important to Amund and gives viewers a deeper understanding of his roots, and where he comes from.
“This is something we have always done at Snaxville Recordings in Skogbygda, but this time we have dug deeper. When you can’t go to North Dakota or Minnesota, we are lucky to live in a farm land with little towns scattered around. Flisa has so much atmosphere reminiscent of Fargo and Victoria Hotell is a completely unique place we just had to stop by to film”
Amund Maarud
Most of the characters and roles are performed by Maarud himself where he appears as a taxi driver, a petrol station attendant, and also drives the resurfacing machine at the hockey arena. With strong farming roots, where as a kid he would typically work the farm on a Sunday after playing a gig the previous night, it comes as no surprise to see those elements making their way into the video, “I also snuck in some tractor,” Amund says with a grin.
This is the eighth release from Amund Maarud’s solo career, and the second album with Lucky Lips and the album has been well received.
“Amund steps in with some wonderful guitar solos here and there, not least in the title track – which has also given them a semi-final place in the International Songwriting Competition 2021”
Øyvind Rønning
Amund Maarud has been one of the country’s foremost representatives of the expanded blues concept for 20 years. Now he embraces the whole Americana panorama on the album ‘Wolves’. (..) Maarud’s guitar playing is as usual impeccable. He has the group Lucky Lips behind him, once named Europe’s best bluegrass band, but now with a more raunchy American electric sound.
Geir Rakvaag, Dagsavisen
Amund explains that he, together with Lucky Lips, have become an extended family, who have had the great pleasure of making this record and being together musically in the strange times we have lived through in the last two years. “The sad thing is that it continues to be a strange time to live in even when the record is coming out. I think of the war that is unfolding, and that most of what one does feels unimportant in the big picture. But music is love and peace, it’s just that. And this is what I do”, says Amund.
