Marius Müller

Marius Müller was a Norwegian guitarist, singer and songwriter who blew into Norwegian fame in the summer of 1981 when his song "Den du veit" hit number the charts with a bang. He was cast as a poster guy and the music business wanted him to sing easy, light, happy songs teenagers could relate to. Luckily Marius emerged on the other end of this ordeal as a much more profound musician with a far heavier repertoire and his own sound. He had his musical epiphany when he was nine years old and heard Jimi Hendrix on a hotel jukebox, and from then on the guitar was his companion and way of life. At 16 he turned professional straight out of school and that was his profession for the next 24 years. Marius had his very own fingerprint sound; you could always hear when he played. He was a much used session player and he can be heard on many Norwegian records within a variety of musical genres. He was also a record producer and he wrote music for the Norwegian movies "Hard asphalt" 1986 and "Pathfinder" 1987 (the latter nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Movie). Around 1990 he founded Marius Müller's Funhouse - a power trio that became his band for the remainder of his years. They were known all over Norway as a tremendous live band and their records got good reviews. Their repertoire was inspired by Hendrix but they wrote their own material too. Alongside everything else Marius also had a career in broadcasting. He was a radio DJ in the 80'ies - amongst other things he did a regular show every second Friday. He did "expert commentary" for live television broadcasts of rock concerts - and did the job very well indeed. Last but not least - he was one of the original gentlemen behind the legendary radio show "The Gentlemen's Department" (Herreavdelingen). Here he could show his humorous side and also show off his vast knowledge of music and musical anecdotes. Marius' recording career left us with 13 albums - 6 solo, 5 with Funhouse and two posthumous releases; one Greatest Hits album and one livealbum together with Funhouse. Marius was found dead in his car in the evening of the 14th March 1999, aged 40. He had suffered a heart attack before his car had skid off the road. The ambulance crew tried to resuscitate him, but to no avail. His friends and fans paid tribute to him a year later at a memorial concert to raise money for his family and at the same time his Greatest Hits album was released. As a very fitting memory and to mark the 10 years since his death, his band Funhouse chose to release a live album in March 2009. This album contains a concert from 1997 not previously released.