Bretton Woods is a Norwegian band that plays their own kind of country music: developing country. Named after the Bretton Woods institutions the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the band makes country music with a political twist.

History
The band Bretton Woods started one fine day when Erlend and Jens combined the two facts that that they wanted to play in a band and that the social movements of Norway lacked a country band. They came up with the concept of naming the band Bretton Woods and that they should not only play country, but rather “developing country”. Lars and Kristoffer heard of this and were in awe of the concept, and in 2004 the band was formed. They started rehearsing a couple of tunes, but were too eager to play live and that resulted in some very bad performances at a couple of venues. During the year Ole Jacob also joined the band on drums.

In 2005 the band decided to stop playing bad live performances and focused on lo-fi recording instead. The band brought all their equipment into the Nobel Peace Prize Institute and started recording their tunes at nighttime. There was little time for rehearsal, no one had a clue what to actually play and it was Kristoffers first try at sound engineering. However, considering how little time was spent on rehearsing, the Nobel Sessions is a fine collection of the songs as they where at that time. Einar had also joined the band just in time to make his part in the recordings.

The songs from Denmark
In 2006 Bretton Woods had a short break while Erlend was studying in Denmark. However, his stay abroad resulted in some classic Bretton Woods songs and when he returned, the band had a lot of material to start working on. But now Lars had left Norway and the band were in need of a guitarist. Luckily Helge had moved to Oslo and was eager to join. Helge came with a fresh view on the bands songs and was influential in turning the band towards a more acoustic sound. Einars upright bass also helped this development. Inspired by this acoustic turn, Kristoffer picked up his harmonica and slowly the band started to sound like it does today.

A new beginning
Now the need for a more permanent rehearsing schedule arose. And the neighbours of Einar, although they claimed to be big fans, could probably need a break from the semi-weekly band sessions in Einars room. So the band moved into their own rehearsing studio early 2007. And when he band members had to pay to rehearse, the frequency of rehearsals raised dramatically. And to Ole Jacob it was too much having to rehearse every week, so he quit and in came Kristian on the drums. Now the quality of the band was just high enough that the members dared to ask Trygve if he wanted to join on his fabulous dobro – and so he did!

During 2007 Bretton Woods spent a lot of time just rehearsing and by the end of the spring they had 15 songs ready to be played live. The band took matters into their own hands and arranged a concert at Skuret in Oslo. It was an overwhelming experience for the band, as all of their friends and fans came and the place got packed. Some people were even forced to stay outside as the fire regulations did not allow more people inside.

Political impact
At the end of 2007, Bretton Woods finished a string of live shows at different venues such as U1, Blindern and different Christmas parties. The political highlight was when the band managed to sneak into the Christmas party of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and play three of their songs. Even the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, seemed to be a country fan that night. Too bad that the Minister of the Environment and International Development was not present, as the band has been chasing him this autumn with the song Zero Point Nine. (You can listen to the song below).

Recording again – this time for real
The band has been quite embarrased of the quality of the Nobel Sessions for many years and in 2008 an opportunity to rectify this arised. At a charity-gig for Amnesty at Betong, the band shared backstage with Bob Haley and met Marius who runs Nye Losjen studio. Since he liked the music, Kristoffer contacted him and made arrangements for a recording session in april.

Country and debate!
Finally, in June 2008, the five tracks recorded in april was turned into a physical product: The EP “I Wanna Work for an NGO”. The band felt it was time someone else said something about their music, and since the music is full of political messages, the idea of a debate was born. Country and debate! Three debaters were invited to the releaseparty: Erling Borgen (journalist), Knut Nærum (author and comedian) and Ingeborg Gjærum (leader of Nature and Youth). Gjærum did not make it, but Ingrid Næss-Holm (leader of Changemaker) replaced her and did a wonderful job. Sindre Tollefsen was the confronting leader of the debate. “I Wanna Work for an NGO” is available from this website and from the bookstore Tronsmo in Oslo.

Finshed with all the hard work the spring of 2008, the band is looking forward to a relaxing summer vacation . However, this summer the band will make their first festival performance!

To be continued.