True Nord Interview

True Nord im Interview über ihren Sound

True Nord im Interview beim Spot Festival

Beim Spot Festival habe ich die dänische Band True Nord zum Interview getroffen.

Etwa eine Stunde nach ihrem Debüt-Gig im Radar am Samstag beim Spot Festival habe ich René und Kristian zum Interview beim Godsbanen getroffen. Die beiden sind Teil des in Dänemark mega bekannten Projekts Nephew und haben sich jetzt ein neues kreatives Projekt aufgebaut. Nach ihrem Gig wirken sie sichtlich erleichtert und entspannt:

How was it?

René: Surprisingly good! Well for our personal experience there is a very new set-up and we’ve put a lot of effort in to it. But then seeing everything coming together, is a very good experience.

You’ve told us that this was a completely new experience. But do you think there could be a song that you’ve never want to get reduced off?

René: Do gain that experience the song has to become a major hit before. Then we need to produce an album without that track on. But I think we would be happy if one of our songs could make it out wide.

In which way you see your new project as representive for the nordic musicscene?

Kristian: There is a lot of stuff going on in the nordic countries you know. But I think we’ve been trying to reach out with our album on which we were working since two years, travelling around the world. We were in countries like South Africa, Columbia, in the States, Sri Lanka and the UK. I think what we do is trying to combine our own sound, the nordic sound with other kinds of inputs. Hopefully we can bring something new to the scene. But we don’t know because we’ve just released our single. So far we had some great response but it’s up the people know if they will like it or not. We got a lot of good response from Germany. We are also inspired by the 90s scene from the UK from Bands like Depeche Mode, Massive Attack and so on. I think it’s nice to do our own version of that and let’s see if anyone just likes it.

As you’ve mentioned you travelled a lot. Is there one experience you’ve gained there and brought back to the studio for the new stuff?

Kristian: First of all: We don’t really use studios. The whole album is made on a laptop with a USB-Mic. So actually we’re catching the moment. This is a kind of recording like what is happening out there. But I recorded some vocals with a girl in South Africa and then René as it got recorded and mixed he called me: “You know like a fridge? And in South Africa the fridge has a different frequency than they have in Europe. And why do you say that?” So properly I forgot to turn out the fridge. So when he had to find that frequency and get it out he: What is wrong man? Is that a frequency? What I mean is typical issues like that because that was something we had to deal with like after producing of the recordings. But I think when you will hear the album which will be released this fall, you will hear a high diversity of the sound and in each song there is a new voice. That was a lot of work but I think this was totally worth for it.

You are both part of the project Nephew. In which way this allows you to try new things and being crazy?

René: First of all both things are bands. True Nord is very different from Nephew in the sense that Nephew has a history of more than 20 years now. And of course if you know each other that well it’s a comfort because you know what’s gonna happen. You stay and play together. If we stand there for Nephew we just sound like Nephew. And for this new thing the only thing we didn’t decide is how this will gonna sound like. Kris and I decided that we wanna do something new but not exactly what it’s gonna be. So we have allowed the time to shape the sound of this. From our different infuences and also the people we meet the contributors on the True Nord songs we allow them a great deal of space to have an influence on our songs and the sound.

Kristian: I think one of our issues is for example listening to a big House-Act like the Swedish House Mafia. You hear a song with a voice in that song, it’s a big hit but you never really know who is featuring it. For us it is very important to give our collaborateurs the space and bring them live on stage as well. So it’s our project, True Nord but we are bringing together the people on our stage.

This makes it more diverse!

Kristian: Totally! And of course getting the album out this is going to be exciting because how will people receive that? The thing is you can not fist together in a fun way that we are like songwriters and producers and performers as well. Even though we have different singers, it’s still have like the same sound and the same basic feeling in it.

True Nord im Interview beim Spot Festival;

What kind of role does Spot Festival play for you?

René: Our bookers suggested it to us to play Spot Festival and it is a funny feeling. Because Nephew has played Spot thirteen years ago in 2004. But that wasn’t the first time that I’ve played Spot. I’ve played Spot here with a breakbeat act in the 1990s together with our producer of our Nephew albums. He is my schoolmate and we played here in 1998. So there have been over 20 Spot Festival since my first one. Of course it is a different feeling suddenly being a debut band but we also think that this is the right platform for us because we are a new act and this is right to present this here.

But is it hard to accept this to start new here?

Kristian: No. I think this is exciting!

René: Yeah! You don’t get that chance! I think the process has to be enjoyable and should be fun. We tried to be very ambitious but we also want to be humble.

Kristian: „We’re catching the moment. This is a kind of recording like what is happening out there.“

 

Do you think your gig could build something sustainable for True Nord?

Kristian: I mean this year we played saturday afternoon at 4:30 in a small venue. I’m pretty sure that what we’ve heard from people coming to the show is: “Oh we would love to see you on a bigger stage! I want to see your visual productions a little bit better.” So yeah, why not, I would love to come back! I think this is a great platform. Many international industrial people and also people who love to see live music. And today this was a great mixture of both.

René: Spot is doing a great job! They’re putting a light on great new artists and as you mentioned many of them play here in a row and that’s called artist-development. And that is something labels have forgotten about.

But isn’t it much more easier for you because you know the game?

René: Yeah you know we’ve been in the game for a lot of years now. But we are not getting served any perks here. We got a saturday afternoon in a smaller venue which is right. But certainly Kris and I we have a lot of experience as musicians and especially Kristian in the music industry. But I think it’s fair to say that we as a band hired a management team so that we the two of us and the collaborateurs can concentrate more on our music and less on promoting the music. Because you have to put the horse in front of the wagon and not behind it.

Were there any obstacles you were confronted with?

Kristian: I think it’s a bigger advantage that the technology got evolved in a way that you can produce an album on a laptop. So I see this as a very positive thing. But I’m not sure that we’ve done this twenty years ago. Because the technology and the society of people, just hanging out and just say: Hey let’s record a song and you don’t have to hang out in an expensive studio. The other part promoting our stuff the social media thing, we are not the biggest fans of Facebook and Instagram but we know that’s part of the game today. You have to be visible and the people should be able to find you.

René: For me it’s been more like a transformation. Originally I came from electronic music from the 90s where the live setup would be with a mixing desks on stage. So there were keyboards, drum machines, samplers and it was very complicated to shoot an electronic setup. But mostly instrumental and just with a little part of singing. Unfortunately technology comes to a place where it’s easier to perform electronic music. You can do it with a simpler setup and still with live electronic sounds.

What are your goals you want to reach?

Kristian: I would love to do a show into Millerntor before St. Pauli goes on and play a song for the audience there. And I hope that would happen next year (laughing).

René: The only payment we would need for that is like the small St. Pauli jerseys.

Kristian: No really we would love to come to Hamburg to play Molotow or Gruenspan. I hope that we can go on tour in Germany in the coming next sixt months.