The floor is covered with blue mats. The trail of sweat hangs between the brick walls.
We are in the taekwondo room where Hans Heum (30) and Daniel Bekken (29) met as children.
– I ran out of gym class crying. That’s where I’ve been attacked most often, that’s where they stood up, says Heum.
– Stand on your feet
Let’s go back to the early 2000s.
Inhale. Focus.
When the white clothes were put on and the belts were tightened, they left the usual me in the locker room.
They repeated the mantra “indomitable spirit”. He straightens his back. During training, the pain that existed on the outside disappeared.
– We were losers with no confidence in ourselves. Sports, music and friendship meant we could keep up, Heum says.
– I just wanted to escape
The happydieyoung band is back to the old way.
Good memories come to life, but so do dark ones, from the years of bullying in primary and secondary schools.
– It was a daily battle. A struggle for survival, Heum says.
The class was divided into “cool” soccer boys and pretty girls. The rest were at the bottom of the ladder, out and free play, he recalls.
Remember the feeling that you have always been chosen last. To freeze. The hours alone. The overwhelming feeling of loneliness.
– It was me, but it all went wrong. I couldn’t affirm myself or recover. I just wanted to escape.
Becken, who went to another secondary school, was a little easier.
– We were a group of amazing people who came together and formed a band. There was a greater focus on music. That was probably what saved me.
Heum finds solace in the friendship between them. The two feel “the only ones” to listen to original songs such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Nirvana. He can share it. They take the bus to the city. He spends all the money on Apollon records. Start a band.
Super heroes
Heum is doing a PhD in cryptography. Bekken works as a personal assistant.
They don’t give up on their dream of making a living from music.
Now they are launching the EP. In the new year there will be an album. They have a childhood friend and former band member Askjell Solstrand as a producer.
They make pop songs with slightly melancholy lyrics that they think many people can relate to.
– Like when you feel like you’re going crazy yourself. You want to get away from yourself, they say.
Fans, located all over the world, were encouraged to dress up, to be a superhero.
– It is touching to see others dare to be themselves and get help from our texts. We’re not big or important, but we don’t give up on music and persevere when we help others with our songs.
If they could go back in time and find themselves at 15, they know what they would have said:
– Be who you are. Keep being a nerd and a superhero. There is nothing wrong with you.
– Have faith that it will improve. Have faith.
