HK Magazine: Just to inflate your ego, Napoleon Dynamite’s character was actually based on you, right?
Erlend Øye: I have no idea. But isn’t it strange that there are only two people in the world famous for dancing with glasses?

HK: There’s a lot of people bitching about your song, “1517,” being on the FIFA 10 soundtrack. They’re saying you’ve sold out.
EØ: I am very happy to hear that there are still people who care about bands selling out or not. Because we do. We constantly say no to having our music used in commercials; we don’t want our music reduced to a promotional tool. But then there is the other side of the coin, where we want people to hear our music. The age group of the people who play FIFA 10 is probably around 13. At this age the music you hear makes a big impact on you. We generally judge that having our music in films and TV series are OK, but commercials are not. Games are OK unless it’s one of those massacre games. That stuff scares me.

HK: You’ve been to Hong Kong before with Kings of Convenience. What’s your impression of it?
EØ: It has its own aesthetic with all the neon signs and mega-clutteredness. I like that. I was in somebody’s apartment that was amazingly decorated although he wasn’t rich at all.Meticulous. The late-night food, though, was a letdown.

HK: What can people here expect from your upcoming show?
EØ: I want to encourage people NOT to bring big cameras if you plan on being close to the stage. We prefer excited dancers up front. Our show is not a “show.” It is not a DVD that we play back. It’s very dependent on the interaction with the audience. If the audience is boring, then the band will be boring, too.

HK: What’s the best and worst thing about being on tour?
EØ: New places, new people, new food, new audiences, new energy, challenges, work to do, the feeling of doing something meaningful, playing our songs. Bad: Queuing at airports. And all the people asking for a “picture with you.” Nobody wants to talk to us anymore. All they want is “picture with you.” Of course I wouldn’t mind if it were one or two, but there is no such thing as one or two, it’s either zero or 50.

HK: What’s the weirdest place you’ve performed at? And why?
EØ: Stuttgart. They don’t seem to know what it means to have a good time.

Dance your feet off at The Whitest Boy Alive’s live gig at HITEC on Mar 17