Janove Ottesen (born Jan Ove Ottesen, 1975) is a Norwegian musician, born in Stord, Hordaland, Norway. He specializes in vocals, guitar and barrels, and is a leading member of the Norwegian band Kaizers Orchestra. History Youth and first contact with music Bryne, where Ottesen grew up, had few activities available at the time other than football, so he was given a guitar by his grandmother when he was a child. Ottesen and his friend Geir Zahl began writing music in his cellar, recording their music on a cheap tape recorder. The partnership between Ottesen and Zahl eventually evolved into the band Blod, Snått og Juling. In 1994 they produced their first studio album En glad tunnel, which only sold 50 copies. They made a more serious attempt with better studio equipment for their second album, but this still only managed to sell around 100 copies. gnom and Kaizers Orchestra Ottesen moved to Bergen in 1995 to study. In 1996 he joined the army, but soon after moved back to Bergen and became a music teacher. Upon his return Ottesen and Geir formed a new band gnom. They released the album Mys in 1998, but it sold poorly. After gnom's dissolution, the pair finally found critical success in forming the band Kaizers Orchestra. Solo career After two albums had been released by Kaizers Orchestra, Janove decided to launch a parallel solo career while working on a third album Maestro (released in 2005). His 2004 solo album, Francis' Lonely Nights, is entirely in English and contains 12 songs, two of which had their music videos filmed in Scandinavia. In September 2015 Ottesen announced he was returning to the mainstream music industry under the artist name Janove. His first single, "Regnbuen Treffer Oss Ikkje Lenger" ("The Rainbow Doesn't Hit Us Anymore"), premiered on Spellemannprisen on 30 January 2016 as he performed it live for the first time. He says his music has influences of R'n'B, hip hop and rap music. The lyrics are also more modern than the fans might have gotten used to with Kaizers Orchestra. The first album of his new solo career, Artisten og Marlene, came out in 2017, followed closely by his 2018 release Hengtmann, which utilized songs left over, or developed after writing the former album. After touring with his solo band Janove did a stripped-down tour consisting of just himself, with emphasis on unique set and lighting