Magne F

Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen (born 1 November 1962, Oslo), is best known as the guitarist/keyboardist in a-ha. He was born to father Kåre and mother Annelise and grew up in Manglerud, Oslo, along with a-ha colleague and co-writer Paul Waaktaar-Savoy.

Music career

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a-ha
Magne's Career as a-ha's keyboard player and guitarist has spanned 20 years and he has co-written many of the band's hits with Guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. Songs include "Stay On These Roads", "Manhattan Skyline" and "Take on Me" which was famously accompanied by Michael Patterson's ground-breaking animated video. When a-ha went hiatus in 1994 Magne began working on his soloproject.

Solo
Magne is widely acknowledged to be the a-ha's 'joker' but this belies his creative powers, as Magne has had considerable success with his solo projects, such as Timbersound, formed in 1994 with Magne's friend Kjetil Bjerkestrand, and later, Swedish singer, Freddie Wadling. Their work has been used on film soundtracks such as "Hotel Oslo", which also featured the vocal talents of Anneli Drecker.
Magne also recorded "'Past Perfect Future Tense" in 2004, with appearances from Guy Berryman and Will Champion of Coldplay, and from Andy Dunlop of Scottish band Travis.
Magne is also a talented artist, working with glass, paint, etching and woodcuts. His art has been displayed at The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, and he has also shown his work at The London Art Fair. In 2001, Magne was commissioned to design an official Norwegian postage stamp. The stamp is today a sought-after collectors' item among Furuholmen and a-ha fans.

Other musical projects
In 2008 Furuholmen collaborated with Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman and Mew vocalist Jonas Bjerre under the band name of Apparatjik for the theme to the BBC2 series, Amazon. The theme will be available along with exclusive tracks from various other artists on the Survival International charity album, Songs for Survival.

Personal life

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Magne has one sister, Line, and two half brothers, Thorstein and Trygve Christian. Magne's father, a jazz musician who played trumpet with Bent Sølves Orkester, was killed in an aeroplane crash over Drammen, south of Oslo in 1967, when Magne was just five.
Magne married Heidi Rydjord, his high school sweetheart, on the 8th August 1992, in the garden of their Nesøya home. They have two sons, Thomas Vincent (born 20 April 1990) and Filip Clemens (born 2 October 1993).
Magne supports English football team Stoke City.