Cape-Phung is making a comeback after a serious accident

The year is 2001. The pop group Cape had a huge hit with the song “Tic Tac” after being put together in a group during the TV program “Popstars”.

Although the TV program was referred to as “a flop”, Cape took Norway by storm.

– Very, very wrong

The band, which consisted of Kjetil Tefke (48), Phung Hang (42), Hanne-Karine Sørby (46), Alf Gunnar Nilsen and Mette Olsson Årbø (49) managed to sell their first and only album to platinum, top VG -lista, warming up for Westlife and being nominated for Spellemann before they already announced in 2002 that the members were going their separate ways.

– Death came close

Now one of the members, Phung Hang, is making a comeback.

– It must be a surplus project, this one. So there will be a song now, then we will see how it does, and then there will be more later, she says.

Recently she released the song “Mr Mr” under the stage name Jade Aya.

Dagbladet meets her and cohabitant and producer Per Martin Nordlie at Nydalen Bryggeri og Spiseri.

They laugh, smile and talk about the journey, but when asked why they should come out with new music right now, the mood immediately becomes more serious.

– Death came quite close to us, says Hang.

To the emergency room: – Was going to tough me out

She says that in a short time she lost a brother-in-law to cancer, in addition to two of their friends also getting cancer. The couple themselves were involved in a very dramatic car accident where they were lucky to get out of it with their lives intact. All this happened last autumn.

– In a short time it became a lot. And then I realized that life is too short to sit and think about what one should do. When I die, I want to look back and know that I lived a rich life, dared to take chances and did all the things I dreamed of.

The 42-year-old takes a breath and continues:

– He (the brother-in-law, editor’s note) loved life and he wanted to live so fervently. At his funeral, I said that we must live to the fullest, those of us who still can. And I think we owe him that.

She blinks away a few tears.

– So I think that if I hadn’t released the music now, it would never have happened. I know he would have supported me and been so proud that I have dared to follow my dream of releasing music again.

– You never know when something crazy is going to happen

The music was basically put on the shelf – at least temporarily – after the Cape adventure, but Hang has had more things to fill his days with.

In the years that followed, she worked on TV and as a speaker.

– And then I became a mother, it’s a 24/7 job. There is a live broadcast every day, you never know when something crazy is going to happen, so you have to be on all the time, she says and laughs at her roommate.

Together they have two children aged three and five.

– The life of young children takes some time, so we usually work on the music in the evening, after the children are in bed. We have made it an additional project where the goal is that it should be fun, while also meaning something.

Hang had a, in many ways, hectic start to his music career. Cape became famous “overnight”, and as a 19-year-old who was completely new to the industry, it is not “just”.

– Can we just give her a chance?

The impressions from that time are still firmly in his body, although the 42-year-old stresses that today is a good time to look back on.

– I got some scars after I was in the Cape. I was 19 years old, new to the industry and there were certain expectations. We were loved and hated, and we became huge. It did something to me, she says and continues:

– And the music and entertainment industry was different at the time, and we didn’t have the people we could need around us. There was no one who was a psychologist or coach, and no one who took care of you when it was over, she claims.

Still friends

It was an absurd feeling, says Hang, that the biggest newspapers were still writing about them, while she herself worked serving coffee.

– Then I think I felt the pressure when people said: “Yes, but when will there be new music?” and: “What are you going to do next?”. At the same time, I was told that I couldn’t sing myself and that I couldn’t write songs. But I had never been in a studio before, I had zero experience with it. I was thrown into it, but didn’t get the opportunity to try my hand, fail and learn.

In the early 2000s, they were superstars, and managed to do a lot in the short time the band was together.

– When we went to sign at the shopping centers they had to close the center because there were too many people. I thought it was completely normal, but I realized afterwards that it wasn’t, she laughs.

The rush to the emergency room: – It went completely black

– I realized then that you are loved and hated, but we got to experience an awful lot that others don’t get to experience. Most of all, I gained memories and friends for life, and a starter pack that I could build on.

There were five members in the band, and Hang says that she still has occasional contact with the others.

– And Hanne (Hanne-Karine Sørby, editor’s note) has become one of my closest friends. It took time then, we found our way back to each other when we made “We love the 2000s” in 2018. I am in regular contact with her, she says.

In many ways, she thanks Cape for the music that comes out today, even if it’s a completely different genre this time.

– Had it not been for all this, I might not have dared to bet today.