|
Es ist Samstag, der 22. März 2008, und ich stehe vor der Tür des Backstage - Raumes im Flex. Mit Herzklopfen warte ich darauf, dass man mich zum Interview mit Chikinki holt, was auch kurz darauf geschieht. Minuten später sitze ich bereits mit Schlagzeuger Steve Bond und Keyboarder Trevor Wensley gemütlich im Backstage – Raum, wo auch die anderen Bandmitglieder sitzen, Bier trinken, Spaß haben, oder einfach nur entspannen.
Was dabei rausgekommen ist, lest ihr hier.
|
 |
|
Which bands do you personally count to your most important influences concerning your music? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Ok, first I ll begin personally...Super Furry Animals, Squarepusher... Is that enough? |
|
|
|
Yes, thanks!
You have already played a lot of concerts here in Austria. Do you like the austrian athmosphere and are there any differences compared with other countries?
|
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Austria is pretty good. Each time we came here it was pretty good. Its like when you play in London, so it s small, but also big enough. In Austria, there is a particular feeling everywhere and the people are quite different I think....
It s very mixed up here in Austria. Germany and Austria are better than France. *laughing*
|
|
|
|
Which one of the Austrian cities and locations do you like best? |
|
|
Steve Bond: On monday we played in Innsbruck, which was pretty good.
Trevor Wensely: Yeah, Innsbruck is great!
Steve Bond: Where did we play in the mountains?
Trevor Wensley: Ah...Graz?
|
|
|
|
Or was it in Klagenfurt? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Yeah, right! Klagenfurt! Klagenfurt is really good. It s really good at night too! *laughs* |
|
|
|
Do you know any austrian bands and if yes, which ones do you like? |
|
|
Steve Bond: *laughs* No, not really. Do we know any austrian bands, Trev?
Trevor Wensley: Hm...
Steve Bond: Tell us some famous austrian bands!
|
|
|
|
Naked Lunch, Guadalajara, Jonas Goldbaum, Petsch Moser,.... |
|
|
Steve Bond: Hm, no. But we know a few german bands! Today we ll play with one too. And there are quite a lot of gigs where we play with german bands, especially on festivals. Generally, the bands we play with are german.
Trevor, Do you remember the name of Philipp s band?
|
|
|
|
thebigempty? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Yeah, bigempty! That s a great austrian band! |
|
|
|
Your current album „Brace, Brace“ was released in November. How would you describe the difference between your new album and „Lick your ticket“? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Mostly, we spent more time on each individual song, and we were...capturing you know, quite high streaming it. We were trying to be more focused on classic songs. Lick your ticket was more about exploring and more about the arrangement thing and we spent several years to make it. There were coming a lot of things toghether for a long time. Brace, Brace was a bit more focused and we sat down a bit more to write songs for this record and we came up more for how we play live gigs.
Lick your ticket was more like „from the bedroom“.
|
|
|
|
The music videos of your current album are totally different than your first ones. What influenced your decision to change your style? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Money, and...money. On Lick your ticket, when we first released a record in the UK, we spent a lot of money for it. And I think, the videos of „Assassinator“ are really, really good. But to my mind, videos of Indie bands did generally change. Apart from that you can get any videos on youtube, before they are on MTV. People don t expect such high productions anymore. |
|
|
|
All band members are writing songs, which is a very impressive fact for lots of your fans. Do you think that it is more difficult to cooperate with all the others than to write the songs alone? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: I think, it s harder when just one or two members in the band write songs, and we are lucky, because we have always just gone well. There are always five ways and five different inputs. If just only one person writes the songs, this person always has the pressure to write, you know. And its not quite equal, so that all members in the band write but everybody tries to bring in his ideas. |
|
|
|
How do you spend your time when you are on tour? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: On tour...Sitting in the van. Today we got up and were trying to get here. The shows are good, and now we work quite hard. And we play some football, some soccer, drink a lot of beer... *laughing* But mostly it s kind like just getting to the next gig and keeping the energy to get to the next gig. |
|
|
|
Your band name is not only creative but also very exceptional. Who chose it? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond:
Who chose it? Hm...It wasn t really a big deal for us at the beginning and we didn t really think that it would become a major thing. Here in Austria we have always got to defend our choice... so it was just random. A lot of things happened and we are not the guys who have so much plans, so we chose a name which sounded funny. The name was one of those accidents *all laughing*
|
|
|
|
Despite of the fact that you don t have a bassist, your music sounds perfect. Have you ever thought about having one? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Oh, we do have a bassist, but we don t have a bass guitar. At the beginning, when we started playing, one of us played bass guitar. But we haven t planned to not- have a bass guitar. We had two keyboard players and a lot of fans came out, who said „Hey, we like that!“ yeah, and so it s a bit different. Maybe on the next record we ll all play bass guitar *laughing* |
|
|
|
What are your plans for this summer? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: Learn to play bass guitar *laughs*. We re going to play a lot of festivals which is really chilled out because you just play one gig and then you can hang out and it is cool because it offers a lot of fun, you can hang around in the sunshine and such things. |
|
|
|
You are going to play on the „Frequency Festival“ too, right? |
|
|
Steve Bond: Yeah, that will be really good. I think, our plans are really full in July and August. Then, we will do some writing for our next record, and...What are you going to do this summer, Trev?
Trevor Wensley: I will learn to speak spanish!
|
|
|
|
Really? |
|
|
Trevor Wensley: Yeah, that s a beautiful language!
Steve Bond: German is a beautiful language! I think, it sounds beautiful
|
|
|
|
But it is difficult to learn, no? |
|
|
|
Steve Bond: I m trying. |
|
|
|
Can you say anything? |
|
|
Trevor Wensley: Say a beautiful word!
Steve Bond: Süß...no, süß is not beautiful. Schön is beautiful *laughing*
|
|
|
|
Thanks a lot for the interview and all the best for the future! |
|
|
Steve Bond: Cool!
Trevor Wensley: Thank You!
|
|
|
