INTERVIEW: The Wombats

FRENCH VERSION AVAILABLE WITH PICS FROM THE CONCERT on www.soundofviolence.net

Google map was wrong. And it took me about 45 minutes trying to find my way around the Canal Saint Martin to get to the venue where The Wombats were playing and where I was to interview the band. But it was worth it as the gig was legendary and the interview turned out to be a nice chat with Tord Overland-Knudsen, the bass player, about the (in)famous pressure of the second album , working with four producers and becoming a Norwegian legend on the Merseyside.

HAL : You're at the beginning of the European leg of the tour. So how do you feel?

Tord: Well, apart from having a cold, I'm really excited about showing people our new songs, the things we've been working on for a year and a half now. I think.... It's gonna be really exciting to see how people react to the songs. There are a lot of of new elements, a lot of keyboards going on that we didn't have previously so it's all like, you know, things that technically work out live. I think we're gonna be OK. Fingers crossed!

HAL : This tour will last about five months and you will come back to Paris in February. How do you explain such a popularity in our country, which is not particularly famous for loving rock bands?

Tord: Well, I can't really tell why but I guess, I mean I do like our music, obviously that's why I'm in this band, and I can see why I would like it if I were a teenager. I mean, we're pretty good live.

HAL: You've got lots of very young fans already queueing for the gig. (pointing to a young German fan trying to get her name on the list)

Tord: actually, I don't know if it's an all-age or 18 + gig tonight

HAL: Well, there's no 18+ in France.

Tord: Oh? really? OK then!

HAL: You're back with your new single entitled « Tokyo:Vampires and Wolves » which is like the perfect dancefloor song. Is it important for you, as a band, to have people dance on your songs?

Tord: I don't know, it doesn't really have to be dancing. If a song inspires you to do something- even relax, or be cheerful- it can have various effects on people, I think it's great if music makes people happy in whichever kind of way, if music is doing something right to people

HAL: And why this title « Vampires and Wolves?

Tord: Well, Murph wrote this song, It's about escaping daily life, being away, having fun being on tour and coming back and having to face reality. It's a bit of a let down thing at the beginning and also the process of writing songs and having the band write or perform songs that are supposed to be better, well at least as good as the o nes on the previous album. That's what people expect from us. Even ourselves as well, we want that to happen. So it's all about the pressure of doing a second album

HAL: Well, that's true coz it's a highly-anticipated album. I mean you've got a great press coverage but you must feel a lot of pressure.

Tord: We do. But I think pressure can be good in terms of pushing yourself creatively and aesthetically. I think that the songs that we've written for this album, some of the songs are probably the best songs we've ever written. Whether it is the pressure or not, I don't know but it's been definitely a lot of pressure, having a successful first album. Well, the label wants us to repeat the success we've had with the first album so I think the biggest pressure has been from the label. We've written 30 songs but its only 10 songs on the album you know.

HAL: Did you pick up the songs you wanted or...

Tord: it was the label choice but we wouldn't have been able to choose the best in the 30 songs so we kind of agreed. We picked the songs together. The songs that we wanted wouldn't probably have been the best for the album.

HAL: When will you release this album? Coz there's no official release date yet.

Tord: Well, this is the thing: it was supposed to be at the end of November but it's now been pushed back. It's gonna be early February. So we have more time to promote it. It all came a bit of a sudden coz we basically finished studio 3 weeks ago so we need to take time to promote and we felt we would have done it in a rush otherwise.

CC: What is the name for the album? Is it already chosen?

Tord: No, there is no title yet. But it will probably be the title from a song on the album. Maybe like Jump Into The Fog.

HAL: You recorded the album with 3 producers.

Tord: Well, now 4 actually! (laughs)

HAL: wow! But why 4 producers?

Tord: Because the producers went away for longer than 2 weeks at a time. The first one only had 2 weeks. And 2 and a half weeks with Eric Valentine and we went to LA, and then back to the UK for two weeks. Then 3 weeks with Rich Costey and 3 weeks with Butch Walker. They're all producers we wanted to work with. Rich Costey mixed our 1^st album so we knew it was gonna be fun. Eric Valentine was the label's suggestion. A lot of things he'd done was like cheesy American rock music that we didn't really like. But as a producer, he is a genius, he ended up being one of the producers we liked best.

HAL: So what was it like, working with someone you didn't really choose?

Tord: He only did 2 and a half songs. He's just like, he had a very msuical approach to things. He was geeky about sounds. But the thing is that you lose the right feeling if you don't have that live approach. It's fun though. It's cool to work with many producers because they have very different ways to approach the recording and mixing.

HAL: Those who've heard the album already compares it to The Horrors, Depeche Mode, The Killers. Is it a mix of all this or did you try to put your influences away and do something that could become typically Wombats? I mean you are becoming a reference for new bands.

Tord: Actually, I don't know who's heard the whole album! But people have to refer to whatever they like. I personally, and we, as a band collectively don't drag our references. We don't refer to them. A song is a song, whatever suits the song is good. Any genre can be fine.

HAL: And what about you? What are your influences?

Tord: Me personnally? When I was a kid, it wasn't like one band or one guitarist. It was more, I liked the idea of making music that I enjoyed listening. I was really into Weezer, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, it was grunge, I grew up in the 90s.

HAL: So no Britpop. You were more on the US side.

Tord: I grew up in Norway you know, so we were more influenced by America. I loved Blur though but they were almost a grunge band, an English version. At the time, I didn't like Oasis. I learned to like them afterwards. Basically I played classical music. I got tired of playing an instrument that played music I wouldn't listen to.

Which intrument did you play?

Tord: Cello.But it wasn't creative enough. And I came to think: « why should I even bother playing this when some people can do it ten times better than me? » I knew how to read music, it was useful, I used my classical experience in rock and indie music

HAL: You never wanted to put cello in your songs?

Tord: we did on the 1^st album. For one of the songs we'll record the strings in Abbey Road. I don't know if I'm going to be on it though. I think they're going to hire someone coz I haven't played it for so long. I'd screw everything up! (laughs)

HAL: Or they'd tell you it's you, when it's a professionnal cello player.

Tord: yeah, probably! « yes, listen, it's you »! (laughs)

HAL: You said you used more keyboards on this album. Was it an attempt to get a more 80s sound or were you tired of playing the guitar?

Tord: Yep, the second one! We really liked with the idea of playing many instruments at the same time. « How can we get all these sounds playing at the same time? »

HAL: You're gonna play many instruments tonight?

Tord: yes! But it's a surprise.

HAL:The last tour was pretty harsh on you all. Is it why you're having this 2-month break in the middle of the tour this time?

Tord: No, well ,the reason is that we want to do promotion around the album. I don't think there was any reason. It's not gonna be a gap, as we've got radio and TV things to do. And hopefully meet the fans. It's not gonna be time off.

HAL: You're from Norway but you moved to Liverpool. Why did you decide to move there and did the town have any influence on your music?

Tord: I chose Liverpool because of the university, it's got a good reputation in Norway, it's like Paul Mc Cartney founded it! so I wanted to go to Paul McCartney's school. (laughs) Now, I'm gonna stay, I've got a girlfriend in Liverpool.

HAL: As we're reaching the end if the interview, is there a new band you particularly like, or that you think the readers should know about?

Tord: I listen to a band called Miniature Tigers. They're from NY. But I quite like older bands. Nothing particularly new. No, it's more like new releases. I'm not really finding much these days. There was a lot of things last year like Passion Pit and Phoenix. PVT also. They're good live.

HAL: Well PVT is really more electro than rock. Are you into a lot of electro?

Tord: Well,I would listen to anything as long as there is something that is inspiring in it