interview: kay engelhardt und sindyan qasem
text: sindyan qasem
fotos: f.amaro
airplay: 2008-11-20 (uncut version); 2008-11-29 (cut version) @ radio blau leipzig
ruhig und besonnen agieren die drei jungen herren am frühstückstisch, eben so wie es sich für einen buß-und-bettag-morgen gehört. von wegen 'sleep just like a drummer', jonny klärt uns auf: verlaufen habe man sich letzte nacht in leipzig, dann trotzdem den weg ins ilses erika gefunden und dort viel zu viel zeit verbracht um nun frisch und munter zu sein, so das fazit der vergangenen nacht. dass sie vor diesem nächtlichen abenteuer eines der besten konzerte im café panam gespielt haben, verschweigen sie. english understatement.
bei käsebrötchen und tee werden the wave pictures wieder lebendig; sticheleien beweisen das wieder erwachte selbstbewusstsein von sänger david; bassist franic und schlagzeuger jonny sind die leidtragenden. wir rauchen und sprechen über giftige tiere, vertrackte liebes-dreiecke und die singles von tom petty and the heartbreakers.
auf dem weg ins radio-blau-studio kann sich die band nicht über die passende begleitmusik im auto einigen. einen eigenartigen geschmack haben sie, the police, dire straits oder doch die blues-compilation? am ende schallt 'roxanne' durch den kombi, in dem the wave pictures noch bis 28. november zwei mal quer durch deutschland touren um ihr (zweites) debutalbum instant coffee baby vorzustellen.
nachdem franic die tücken der zahlreichen umleitungen gemeistert hat, können im studio mandoline und ukulele gestimmt werden. drei songs intoniert die band und außerdem erfahren wir noch einiges über davids ansichten von konzerten und den werdegang der wave pictures:
how have you been doing? how has the tour been so far?
david: so far it's been very pleasant. we played in munich and had a good show, we had a good show in cologne, we had a good show in kiel, and we had a good show in leipzig last night, really good gigs.
what do you think about germany?
david: there are no deadly animals, germany seems pretty safe to me. and i like the big sausages that you get in service stations. i don't like german radio, we had a whole day of trying to listen to the radio, this is an odd thing to say on the radio now, but we couldnt find anything to listen to. we heard the same whitney houston song like three times in a day, more terrible things and a coldplay song. we couldn't find a good classic rock station, so we had to go cd-shopping and buy lots of classic rock.
yesterday you played in leipzig promoting your debut album instant coffee baby. but how many albums did you actually record?
david: so far i think we recorded six or seven but only two of them had been released on record labels. nobody put out the first three or four.
so they were just pressed on cd-r?
david: yeah, we just made cd-rs and sold them at shows and gave them to friends and bands we liked and sent them to radio and blablabla. then sophie came out on smoking gun records, i think two years ago now and that was really our debut album on a record label. but i'm happy for instant coffee baby to be another debut album. i'd quite like to only make debut albums. debut albums are usually band's best albums.
because there are no expectations?
david: yeah, there are no expectations and they are usually just better. younger, more rocking, more vigorous. so it is a good career move if we could only make debut albums and never make the difficult second album.
you are signed now to moshi moshi records. how did that deal actually happen? did they find you or did you search for a label?
david: well, they stalked us and pasted us and they sent us contracts and we said: "no we don't want to know" and then they sent us better contracts and we said: "no we still don't want to know" and then they kept hounding us and hounding us: "please, we desperately want to sign you" and eventually we said: "okay, we suppose that we can sign with you", that's kind of how it happened.
do you feel happy there now?
david: i'm happy with that label, yeah. they are nice guys and good friends of ours, kind of. it's a good label, they let us do what we want.
there seems to be some connection towards the french band herman dune.
david: yeah they are friends of ours from a long time ago, we play a lot of music with them.
how often do you see them?
david: we are seeing them today actually, or better one of them. a former member, andré, he calls himself stanley brinks now. but you know, we see the other guys as well, as often as we can. i play guitar on the new herman dune album. i think it's already been released, in france and the uk at least. i played in all tracks. but yeah, they are really good friends of ours.
there's this song 'leave the scene behind' on your new album and the video for 'i love you like a madman' was produced by former hefner singer darren hayman. would you say that you are part of a scene or do you think that scenes are avoidable?
david: we don't generally belong to a scene, and i think that scenes are to be avoided. scenes aren't useful for musicians, there are useful for journalists and scenes are journalistic creations that don't really exist. you know, we are friends with darren hayman and we are friends with jeff lewis for instance, but you can't call us a scene, because darren and jeff don't know one another. and you can't call darren and the wave pictures a scene because it's just him and us. i mean, when jonny and i go round to his house we drink tea and watch a movie, but we don't do anything. everyone has friends, but it's not a scene. but 'leave the scene behind' isn't about that especially; but i suppose i do think that scenes are to be avoided, yeah.
we just talked about your second single 'i love you like a madman'. you didn't play it yesterday, why was that?
david: well, we didn't not play it for any reason; we didn't set out to not play it. we don't use setlists, so we just go on stage and play the songs we can think of at the time; which is why you can see us talking to one another between the songs to decide what we are going to play next. 'and 'i love you like a madman' is a song i'm happy with and i liked it as a single, but i don't like it any better than any of the other songs i had written. we have a lot of songs, i've written a lot of songs and we like to keep as many of them as possible going in our repertoire. we never play exactly the same set twice and there is no song that we play every single show. we played 'i love you like a madman' the night before and we didn't play it yesterday because there were other songs we wanted to play, that's all. i can't keep playing the same thing over and over again when people have the record. that's a thing i'll never understand, when people come to you after a show and say: "why didn't you play that song? that's my favourite song!" i mean, if it's your favourite song, why do you need me to play it, you already know it, you've got to go home and listen to the record. the whole point of a concert should be that it is live and spontaneous, that's what people are paying for, but if it's all pre-programmed, they might as well listen to the record, cause that's what records are for. that's the difference between concerts and records to me.
and please, don't download the album. go to a shop, talk to a real human!
thank you very much for being here, good luck for the rest of your tour!
david: thank you for having us! it's been a lot of fun. and thanks for breakfast! it's been really nice.
nach knapp einer stunde sind the wave pictures schon wieder auf dem weg nach berlin. aber ein satz von franic hallt noch nach: "the best thing of being in a band is to play your songs, there's nothing more to it". und ja, wir glauben es ihnen!
the wave pictures sind david (gesang und gitarre), franic (bass) und jonny (schlagzeug)
aktuelles album: instant coffee baby (@ moshi moshi records; cd und vinyl lp)
aktuelle ep: just like a drummer (@ moshi moshi records)
neue veröffentlichungen im frühjahr 2009 und ein vinyl-only album im januar
www.thewavepictures.com
copyright: onestepbeyondshow.blogspot.com, 2008
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