A guide to love, loss and desperation
09.04.2008
Die ultimative Antwort auf Liebesprobleme und anderen Gefühlskummer. The Wombats: hot new shit aus Liverpool, um es hier mal kurz zu machen. Mit dem 2007 erschienen Album „A guide to love, loss and desperation“ spielen sich die drei Musiker, die vor allem für ihre erfrischenden Lyrics bekannt sind, in die Herzen der Briten und natürlich auch der Nicht- UKler.

Der Dancefloor- Krocha (Entschuldigung aber das musste sein) „Let´s dance to Joy Division“ bringt wohl jeden Tanzverweigerer und Anti- Fred Astaire dieser Welt auf die Tanzfläche, um dort die Luftgitarre zu schwingen und die Haare so richtig durcheinander zu wirbeln. Alles andere wäre nämlich unnatürlich.

Ja diese Band, bestehend aus Matthew „Don´t compare me with Luke Pritchard“ Murphy, Dan „Moonwalker” Haggis und Tord “the viking” Øverland-Knudsen, bespielte schon so manche Bühnen dieser Welt, so zum Bespiel in den USA, in Australien, Asien und natürlich Europa, wo sie zu 90 Prozent in ausverkauften Locations aufgeigen.

Wenn man so lange auf Tour ist wie diese drei Tonkünstler, vermisst man schon mal die menschliche Nähe. So kann es dann auch mal passieren, dass man sich nachts unbewusst im Doppelbett des Hotels zusammenkuschelt und morgens mit einem beschämten Lächeln aufwacht. Solche bittersüßen Geschichten, die alle auf wahren Begebenheiten basieren, führen dann wohl auch zu Lyrics wie denen von „Patricia The Stripper“, „Backfire at the Disco“ und „Kill the director“, die von einer unerfüllten Liebe zu einer Prostituierten, verpatzten Dates und versüßlichten Hollywood- Schnulzen alá „Bridget Jones“ handeln.

Eine weitere britische Band, die unsere Herzen höher schlagen lässt. Freuen wir uns also auf ein zweites glanzvolles Album, welches uns bei Liebesangelegenheiten wieder mit Rat und Tat zur Seite stehen wird und uns genau beschreibt, wie man es definitiv NICHT machen sollte.

Britishrock: You all studied at the “Institute of performing arts” founded by Paul McCartney. I guess you are either very talented that you got a scholarship or your parents are just really rich. What is the fact?

Dan: The Institute doesn´t cost more than any other university in the UK , maybe a thousand pounds a year. They don´t teach you how it is to be in a band. It is places where you can grow as a musician.

Tord: It is all about doing what you are already good at and then make it even better.

Britishrock: Is it the same school where The Kooks went to?

Dan: No, they went down south.

Britishrock: Is there a certain British-Scene where bands from the UK support each other?

Dan: There is some sort of competition but that is a good thing because that pushes everyone to do better and better. You have to find a way to stand- out. We are not friends with that many bands but we try to help bands out from Liverpool who are not signed with any label. It is hard to get in the music industry. But I would say that there are no fights between the bands. Well a couple of bands talk shit about each other but we try to stay out of it.

Tord: We just give shit on the bands in our tourbus and not in public. (general laughter)

Britishrock: You have this very tight tour-schedule. Do you try to get as much as you can out of that current success because you don´t know how long it is going to last?

Dan: Yeah, things are going so well for us at the moment. It is better to not have any regrets, so we rather feel tired at the end but have a good feeling with no regrets about anything like a city we didn´t play in.

Tord: And we are living day by day. We want to grow and do a lot more albums and they will all be very different. We are influenced by so many different genres.

Britishrock: Yeah, I want to know a bit more about your influences. So let´s imagine there would come a flood and each of you could take 3 bands with him on the “music-saving ark”. Which bands would you like to take on your ark?

(loooong thinking)

Tord: That is too hard, I can´t do that.

Dan: It is so hard because there is so much good stuff out there.

Tord: I can´t do it, I can´t.

Britishrock: Well then just pick 2 bands, one from the past and one recent band.

Dan: Ok, I really liked Nirvana. Kind of a boring answer but I think they where there for a reason. Then one from even earlier: Neil Young. And recently Fleet Foxes, a Popband from Seattle.

Tord: I would take The Beatles and I take (thinks)…It depends on my mood.

Britishrock: Well ok, you don´t have to decide.
So, what song would let you freak out on the dancefloor?

Dan: “You can call me Al” by Paul Simon (they start singing)

Tord: Then of course “Carma Cameleon” by Culture Club. (they sing again)

Dan: You can´t just not dance to that, can you?

Tord: Any song by Michael Jackson…

Britishrock: So you can Moonwalk?

Dan: I got told how to do it (note: and he did it ;))

Britishrock: Fantastic! Are all your lyrics autobiographic?

Dan: Pretty much! It is actually about what happens to Murph (note: the singer)

Britishrock: Oh he is a poor guy! So he fell in love with the stripper? (note: A Song: Patricia The Stripper)

Dan: Well that was him. But, it is a bit of an exaggeration.

Tord: Or maybe it is less than what happened (general laughter)

Britishrock: What is the worst thing that could happen during a date, related to Backfired at the disco?

Dan: We made fun about that when we were in Texas . Imagine you would tell a girl “Oh, you´re so pretty and such a cute girl and suddenly you say (note: he sniffs) `YOU FURTED!` Imagine that! (general laughter)

Britishrock: You have the reputation of being a very funny band. Are you under a sort of pressure to always be funny during an interview or on stage?

Tord: We never try to be funny.

Dan: It is different from gig to gig, it depends. We are not pretending to be funny. We try to have different chats with the audience. But of course we have some classics we use all the time.

Britishrock: How often do you need a time-out of each other?

Tord: We need actually more than we get. It is like a marriage, we work together, we eat breakfast and dinner together, we pause together. But we don´t have sex. (laughter)

Dan: Well, not with each other (laughter).We generally miss human contact.

Britishrock: If you could be a classic rockstar for one day, who would you like to be?

(thinking)

Tord: I want to be Elvis

Dan: I want to be Michael Jackson in the 80s, when he was handsome. Well, we want to be dancers.

Britishrock: When we drove to Graz we heard a couple of Guns n´ Roses Songs and there under “ Paradise City ”. Now that you have seen so many places in the world, where would be your paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty?

Dan: Hmm, I think girls are pretty everywhere aren´t they?

But I would say Norway , basically Scandinavia . Or Sydney , that was amazing.

Tord: Well I thought Sydney was a bit too much L.A. I liked Melbourne .

Dan: I go for Bergen . I spent enough time there to actually say “I like it”

Tord: And Paris .

Dan: Yeah, Paris was amazing.

Tord: And Amsterdam . We like the European Cities.

Britishrock: What are your favourite recent Britishrock bands?

Dan: I would say The Pigeon Detectives. They are also friends of us.

Tord: The Enemy is a great live-band. I like Los Campesinos, they are a great band as well.

09.04.2008, 14:09 von M. Punz