INSTANTLY GRATIFYING
Der zwangsläufigen (pseudo)philosophischen Besorgnis um Hype oder nicht-Hype entgegnen The Drums, die Band der Stunde, mit bewundernswerter Lakonie – „We'll use the media as much as it'll use us“ – und schnell stellt man fest: Diese Musik ist ohnehin nicht Zeitgeist, sie versucht sich an der Zeitlosigkeit.
2008 in einen „Yes we can“-Optimismus hineingeboren, handelt die erste Single der Drums „Let’s go surfing“ tatsächlich von einem „new kid“ im „big house“ – und auch diesen vier in Brooklyn angesiedelten Dean und Brando Doppelgängern gelang ein beispielloser Start aus der Poleposition: „the shit“ heißt man sie nun medial allerorts, oder besser „the cat’s pyjamas“, um gleich beim Slang der 50ies Idole der Band zu bleiben. Dabei nahm alles mit einem harmlosen Bilderaustausch zwischen den Ferienlagerfreunden Jonathan und Jacob seinen Anfang, bis die zunächst rein visuelle Bandfiktion schließlich zum handfesten ästhetisch-musikalischen Retropop-Konzept heranwuchs. Prompt folgten eine befeierte Residency an der Lower East Side inklusive religiös-begeisterter Tanzmengen, ein nicht enden wollendes Medienecho zum neuen Jahrzehnt und Awards vor dem Erscheinen des ersten Albums.
Wie selbstverständlich und aus purem Eigensinn gehen The Drums eine musikalische Wahlverwandtschaft ein: Ein zutiefst melancholischer Grundton in Anlehnung an The Wake und andere britische Factory Bands der 80er wird übersprudelt durch sonnig-amerikanische 50er Jahre Doo-Wopstimmung. Wichtig ist die Refokusierung auf den Song in seiner simpelsten, melodisch-klassischsten Form. So ist auch das Video zur neuen Single My Best Friend in Eigenregie gedreht worden, unverfälscht und ohne Schnitt und Schnörkel. Dazu sind die College-Shirts, die sie tragen, ironischer Kommentar in Richtung manch anderer klugscheißender Bandkonkurrenz. Sänger Jonathans infektuös klatschende, jitter- und jivende Bühnenpräsenz ist genauso ernst, ehrlich und geradeheraus wie unser Gespräch mit den vier Drums: In einem ehemaligen 50er Jahre Ostberliner Kult-Kino diskutierten wir mit der Band über Capes, Ikonen und warum sie lieber so richtig langweilig wären...
Jonathan and Jacob, could you tell us the anecdote about how you met each other at summer camp and what you thought of each other back then?
Jacob: I thought he was really tall because he had hit a growth spurt before I had. So he was about a foot and a half taller than me and he thought I was a big freak..
Jonathan: He wouldn't leave the house without a cape on.
Jacob: And I would always wear bow ties. So... I heard him playing Kraftwerk and I just walked over and said, „Who's playing this?“, and he said „I am“, and I said, „Well then we are best friends, if that's okay“, and he said it was and we've been best friends ever since.
Jonathan: It was refreshing to meet someone like him. We were both weirdos in our communities. It was strange that we were both shipped to the same small random summer camp and instantly we bonded over this music that we loved so much. We've kept the relationship alive for a long time.
I read that it was some sort of religious camp too, where kids go to services every day and read the bible. What was it like to grow up in a conservative surrounding like that?
Jonathan: It wasn't weird at the time, because it was all I knew. Both my parents are ministers actually. Looking back, I know I don't wanna be a part of that anymore.
Jacob: A lot of people tell us that the bands we're influenced by are very strange given our age and where we're from. As random and crazy as that is, being influenced by these very obscure European bands, it's even worse when you're in a household where you're not allowed to listen to that stuff. So you're searching for it desperately and then you're hiding it and you feel like you're smuggling something. Maybe this makes it even more exciting.
Much later you two started exchanging ideas about a fictional band. What was the concept and imagery you had in mind? What kind of ideas did you mail back and forth?
Jacob: A lot of it could be really abstract things like pictures of the Olympics from the 50ies to set a mood or a tone. Or maybe we'd find some random garage bands from the 60ies that never got anywhere – and we were like: „Look how cool they look!“.
How do The Drums today differ from that band fiction?
Jacob: I don't think very much at all. I think it all stuck. It definitely has mashed together in its own way. It's a strange way to start a band but I think it gives you a good foundation.
While bands today are mainly concerned with sounding different, you guys try to revive things that have been done before in your own way. What aspects from the past do you use and how do you modernize them?
Jonathan: We don't try to modernize anything. Our influence is both directly and indirectly from the past. What's „new“ about us, is really something that's very old. It's going back to the idea of a classic band writing classic pop songs rather than trying to be edgy, hip and trendy. We're making a point to not be interesting. We actually try to be more boring. Because everyone right now is so obsessed with being exciting and I think that's why we sort of stick out like a sore thumb.
As a main influence you often name girl bands of the 50ies and 60ies. What do you find particularly powerful about these?
Jonathan: We feel like that's when pop music, the fundamentals of a pop song, were invented. They were all short and concise. The best thing about them was that they were so simple, both melodically and lyrically: It was the bare bones of what a pop song is. There was nothing really excessive, all the songs were like 2½ minutes long and they just said what they needed to say in the most simple terms. There's something really exciting about that to us. A lot of people now write lyrics that are overly clever and tricky – we want to go back to the basics: the most simple lyrics joined with the most simple melody. For us, simplicity equals power. When things are a little more clever, they can almost delude the power of what you really want to say... the poetry of it.
You are also referencing actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando. Are these the masculine aesthetics you are aiming at?
Jonathan: Yeah that's that classic iconic sort of thing. We were very influenced by both, bands that we loved and – sometimes even more – by the feeling you get looking at an iconic photograph of James Dean lighting a cigarette or the feeling you get watching an old movie.
Connor: Certain things transcend time. You see them and you don't think „Wow, 1951“ – you just see them and you're already sort of moved or taken to a new place.
Jonathan: That's what we try to do with our music, to bring ourselves to a place. That's what's cool about popmusic, what's our greatest obsession. It's very much like looking at an image of James Dean: It's instantly gratifying (snaps his fingers). That's what we want our songs to be.
Even with the very upbeat songs there's always a slightly adolescent melancholy and despair in your lyrics. Could you describe that feeling and where it comes from?
Jonathan: I think it's just a lack of answers. Probably everyone is really miserable deep down. Maybe I wear it on my sleeve a little more than most people do and I'll probably burn in hell for it, but it all kind of ties back to the music: even saying something like that in an interview... being vulnerable like that. A great pop song to us is extremely vulnerable and lets its guard down. The source of sadness? I think there are so many.
Jacob: Not being content is probably a big contender.
Connor: Being content is pretty depressing too. No one cares about the issues going on in the rest of the world, people are content with their lives and that's pretty dark too... Happiness is sad in a way, you know... (everyone laughs)
Jacob: Dry things can be really wet... (laughs)
Could you tell us what to expect from the upcoming full-length?
Jonathan: Basically, it was all written at the same time we wrote the EP. The EP consists of 7 songs that were a little more summery, a little more joyous-sounding than the rest of the songs. We had about 30 songs we recorded in Florida. So what was left after we put all the songs on the „Summertime EP” were naturally songs that were darker, a little more serious, maybe more somber and introspective. It was all written around the same time so it does very much sound like The Drums. We just finished the album, we wrote it, recorded it, produced it, mixed it all ourselves – it hasn't been touched by anyone else which is exciting for us. What's nice is, that we don't have the pressure like a lot of bands who put something out, get a lot of hype and then have to go in and record a record that's nearly perfect. I'm not gonna say we haven't been hyped at all, you know, because we have, but for us the album's already done and we're really happy with it. It would be great if everyone loved it, but if nobody does, we still love it. That's the most important thing to us. It may sound awful, but this band is sort of rooted in selfishness. Our legacy are the songs we put out, that's what we'll be remembered by, so we have to be completely happy with everything we put out. We've never changed anything because of an outside source. It's always been very concentrated... a very small bubble, a small world we've built for ourselves.
Jacob: As soon as you get an outside influence it waters down the vision we have for this band. We want to keep it as pure as we can. We always know exactly what we want, barely do we discuss things. We all almost psychically know that we all feel the same way about something.
The Drums seem to be about the quest for the perfect pop song. What is the quest for the perfect pop song like?
Jacob: That's a tough question… I feel like we couldn't answer that question for maybe another 10 years or something.
Is it a concept that is even achievable?
Connor: No.
Jacob (at the same time): I think it is. (everyone laughs)
Connor: Things that are achievable are never actually achievable. (towards Jacob) But would you say why you think so? And then I'll agree…
Jacob: I think it's possible and it's achievable because there are a lot of examples of what we consider to be perfect pop songs that you wouldn't want to change anything about. I think it's some sort of weird thing that happens almost spontaneously.
Jonathan: It's a time and a feeling, an urgency and an influx of creativity. We never force anything. We'll never sit down and say: „Today is a day to write a song“. It always has to be natural. I think that's why things move so fast with this band, because nothing is tried, nothing is labored over. All the songs you've ever heard from The Drums were started in the morning, finished in the afternoon, written, recorded and done. We just don't sit around for a week trying to write a song.
Connor: Accidents are important. A lot of times things are unintentional or just fall into place. That's what makes it so special – you could never recreate, you could never construct that, had you been predetermined to do it.
Jonathan once said in an interview that the „Summertime EP” was as Americana as possible. What kind of Americana do you represent?
Connor: We are very visually driven people, there is a lot of imagery, a lot of concepts that the four of us understand. Generally it's that spirit that was born in America in the 50ies and still exists: this rejuvenation, this freeing and almost revolutionary time. So I think that we're trying our best to represent that feeling, that spirit and that place in time.
Since the band has only existed for a short span of time: Were you caught off guard with the attention you receive from the media and do you ever feel like the media could be using you for its own hype purposes?
Jacob: It was kind of shocking to us at first because, as we said, the whole band is kind of rooted in selfishness. We're not trying to please anyone except for the four of us, so that many other people liked the songs, was very surprising to us. I don't know what the media's reasoning is or what the motives are...
Connor: I don't even know if that's relevant. Does it really matter why the media adopts it? We need for people to listen to our music and whatever means necessary to get our music out there. We'll use it as much as it'll use us. We can fill each other's weird, perverse needs.
Jacob: At the same time... We've done hundreds of interviews at this point and very rarely does it feel like the person interviewing us is just assigned to do it. It usually feels like they legitimately like our music and they just want to tell other people about it. It's never felt like part of this machine-beast sort of thing. It's always felt like there's a heart in it and that's a comforting thought.
Posts
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen