S: Simon Jarl�v (Epigram-Music)
J: Johannes Dybkj�r Andersson
D: Daniel l�fgren
E: Eric
S:
Hi, we're from Epigram-Music and this is the interview with Lampshade. Or three of them at least.
Our first question to you is, 'Your music, how would you define the style or type of music you do?
J:
Yeah, sometimes we call it beautiful noise. I think it's kind of a mixture between different styles,
we all listen to different kinds of music, from hardcore to grunge, postrock, singer-songwriter, emo, like a lot
of different rock styles..
D:
It's like melancholic.. emotional.. poprock.
S:
Great...
E:
Ah, that's easy, beautiful noise (points towards writer's notes).
S:
Yeah, single-liners. So.. what inspired you? What other bands inspired you to create this kind of.. beautiful noise?
J:
Actually, we're inspired by many things. Both music, poetry, nature. Musically we're inspired by different bands and it's
kind of a rule in our band that we need to take care of these different inspirations to create the best
mixture.. I mean, we can mention bands.. Sunny Day Real Estate, Sigur Ros, Stina Nordenstam, Mogwai, Smapshing Pumpkins,
Damian Jurado..
S:
So it's very diverse?
J:
Mmm, I think we listen to a lot of underground stuff as well, kind of not known music from the Netherlands..
D:
A lot from the Netherlands actually.
J:
Bands like This Beautiful Mess.
E:
Swedish and Norwegian..
D:
Yeah.
S:
In terms of influences, some reviewers have said that your frontwoman sounds very.. resembles Bj�rk. How would you say
that resemblance fits?
J:
I think I understand why they say that because she sounds like Bj�rk and Henriette from Under Byen and Stina Nordenstam.
But the cool thing is that she actually never listened to Bj�rk before people started saying that so she had to..
S:
So it's just a coincidence?
J:
'People say that I sound like Bj�rk so I have to listen to her'.. so it's kind of a coincidence.. but it's very strange
because of course it's similar..
E:
Not that much, I don't think so.
J:
No, I mean.. somehow it's just journalists not knowing other strange female vocalists other than Bj�rk. 'Oh, she sings in a
strange way, it must be like Bj�rk.
D:
Bj�rk is the big famous one but that's not..
S:
So it's just the closest thing they think about?
J:
I mean, some journalists compare her to Pernille Rosendahl from Swan Lee just because they don't know any better..
S:
It's like the same thing with me when I heard 'Treasure Is' for the first time, after the first five seconds I said 'Oh, they
have the same bass as Super-Fuzz (another Danish band)'. Then I listened to the whole song and your other stuff and it doesn't really sound like that all but it was the first
thing that came mind.. that crossed my mind, that fuzz bass (ed. not: The fuzzy sounding bass from 'Treasure Is' is not the bass but
the guitar)..
J:
That's cool..
D:
They can find twelve different bands if you take the twelve songs from the album.
S:
If you have to say that there is a band that inspired you.. this or this song, but it really is just different sources
that you have pulled together to create this mixture.
J:
But I think it's cool to be inspired. I mean, we have no shame in wanting to be as good as Smashing Pumpkins and be as good
as Mogwai and be as good as Stina Nordenstam but we try to do it all in one kind of music and it becomes our unique sound..
S:
But that really is what it's about just say.. what you would like to hear in your own songs, then play it..
D:
Somehow yes.
S:
Uhm, we have a question here you might a bit offense of but it's.. do you do other things than music that is if you don't
make a living out of music..
J:
Haha, no, no, we drove here in a limousine.. No, actually, four of us study and Rebecca is working in a book store but all of us
do a lot of different things in music.. I myself is a manager and I'm a booker of a venue, a club, in Odense and I study music
management, Eric is a producer, he's like getting a lot of stuff like () in his spare time, besides all the studies..
E:
I play in a few different groups and orchestras as well..
D:
We have another band together (points towards E).. me and Eric are in another band.
J:
So we can't live of it yet..
S:
Not yet but you just got an international record contract in Germany, Glitterhouse?
J:
Glitterhouse in Germany.
S:
What do you think the possibillities..
J:
(mobile phone rings) Sorry, I just have to answer it.
S:
What do you think this record contract will do? Make you able to live of it?
E:
That's what we're aiming at, to be able to live of it, of music.
D:
At least for a while, ten years or so.
E:
We love to work with it.
D:
I think our music will go to more countries.. I think we're gonna get more exposure in Sweden.
E:
We have played a few times in Sweden, we would like to play there more, now that we're a half Swedish band.
D:
I mean, if they want us to play in Russia, we're gonna play.
E:
It's gonna be more worldwide.
S:
So being released internationally will of course make you be able to go to other places, cause there will be
a demand for you to play there, if people know what you're about..
J:
(returning) They're lying. (Laughs)
D:
Economically that's more hard to say but of course it will be great.
S:
To talk a bit more about that contract which countries will they release the album in?
J:
Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Scotland, Ireland, the UK, Finland, Sweden, Norway. Every European country, except from Denmark.
S:
Except from Denmark? You have a contract here already?
J:
No, we do it by ourselves, we have our own label (Tyst). So it's gonna be out on Coste, Greece.
S:
So, you're gonna get around?
D:
And if it sells very good, that's great.
S:
Fed fest og bonus (Danish expression).
J:
I think the record deal will do a lot of good, because Glitterhouse is very good in getting the music out to the right audience.
I mean, they're focused on the music listeners, music lovers, who still buy old-fashioned records in record stores, write about
music in magazines and not depending on radio charts and MTV and stuff like that and that's really the audience we want to be in
touch with. So, I mean, we don't have to care about a lot of music videos or radio singles to get our music out, it will be out
to the right audience through Glitterhouse and that's a very cool thing and that way we can build big fan bases in Paris and Berlin
and London and Amsterdam like we don't to worry about television in Denmark, that's nice.
S:
This is a long question and it requires that you tell every detail about your band basically but the band's history, how did it
start and develope. I know you did lead singing for a while?
J:
Yeah..
D:
We don't want to talk about that too much.. (joking)
J:
Well, first we were a good band, I was singing, we were playing rock'n'roll. Then from there it all just went down.. No, I think
we just started out as a couple of friends wanting to have fun and then it began to be better and better and people started liking it
and three years ago we decided to focus and Rebecca joined the band and it became Lampshade as it is today and then the band got
like even better Daniel joined the band and even better now that Eric is in the band.. so it was from being just five old friends
in Odense to be a hardworking international band, Danish, half-Swedish, wanting to do this full-time. And I think an important
thing in our story is that we have until Glitterhouse almost done everything by ourselves, released the record, done all the
promotion, radio promotion, done the booking of tours, more than 200 shows, we did the CD ourselves, everything.. so, and that's been
really cool. We like it but it's like Glitterhouse is gonna spread it even wider than we have been able to..
S:
Right, two questions left, then you're off..
J:
It's okay.
S:
Those two questions concern the music as it is and the texts, the lyrics. But who writes the music, how does your songwriting
process work?
D:
I think every member brings something to it, we all work on the music together.
E:
It starts with a good idea and we show it each other and every member puts a part in it.
J:
It's important that we don't have any songwriter in the band, we're all song writers somehow. It's some kind of a rule that everybody have had something to do with the song, made a difference in a song before it's finished.
And everybody has to like it, love it, before it's a Lampshade song, so I can't write any song and expect it to be a Lampshade song
without all the others having changed it a 100 times.
S:
So it's a group process?
J:
Yeah it is. A Very interesting process.
S:
Rebecca, she only sings or does she play something as well?
J:
She plays everything.
D:
She plays a lot of.. you can look at the CD, you know, she plays piano and organ and glokkenspiel..
J:
And melodica.
E:
She plays everything.
D:
Except the things we play.
S:
So your territory isn't being invaded just yet?
D:
It's only a matter of time.
E:
We're just glad to be in it. (laughs)
S:
And our final question: what is your music and lyrics about? Is there something you want to say with the music?
D:
Sure..
J:
All our lyrics are kind of personal and all of them are focused on the creator of art and the universe, nature and poetry
and everything and that's.. I mean, all focused on God somehow or in thankfulness to God for having given us music and the things
we do. So.. I wouldn't say that we have a purpose of saying a certain thing through the lyrics but we have a purpose of expressing
ourselves, like the things we feel and the things that are most important to us which is obviously faith in God, what we sing about
because it would feel strange to sing about a walk in the city when it's not as important as our belief. That's really what
inspires us, I think. But kind of personal things, it's not something we read and 'Oh, we wanna tell a story'.
D:
We just write what we feel.
J:
Yeah. Try to.. We tried to do poems when we write lyrics, we don't make music and then some words for it, try to make music and
poetry and combine them. It's kind of important.
D:
It's the song together. Music and lyrics, all together.
S:
Great. Tak skal I have.
J:
Selv tak.