Revolt of the Apes’ interview with Kadavaris up now at the official Austin Psych Fest 2014 website. This band has probably forgotten more great riffs than many bands record in their lifetime; their second album, “Abra Kadavar,” is an absolute monster and highly recommended.
Read the entire interview here, and look for the complete text to show up here in the very near future. Here’s an excerpt:
Are all three members of Kadavar from Germany originally? How would you characterize your adolescence in Germany? How much or perhaps, how little do you that think where you grew up influenced not only your interest in music but in the type of music you’ve come to play in Kadavar?
Our bass player is from France, but Lupus and I are German. My adolescence … I think I grew up pretty late. On the one hand, my mother had a record collection which could have been the reason, but especially within the last years my interest for older rock strongly developed and become an inspiration, not only music and sound-wise, but also from the production side. When I listen to music, I love when I can hear the musicians character – the way they play their instruments. But aside from The Beatles and a few other acts, my mother’s music wasn’t my growing up soundtrack. I listened to punk and hardcore music. I come from a small town in western Germany where you could go to shows and also play music. Everybody had a band when I was fourteen. You could express a lot with just a few chords. That was good to start. Even if I’d say I didn’t have a clue how to make music back then, this is an important part of my life as a musician.
We ask this in part to learn more about Kadavar, but also because Germany is one of only a few countries that can, by name alone, evoke a certain kind of sound, with what is commonly called ‘krautrock,’ or perhaps more pleasingly, ‘kosmische’ or even ‘Deutsche Elektronische Musik’. Was this type of music important to you in your personal musical evolution, even though Kadavar’s sound is much more riff-centric? Is there anything exciting or compelling to you about the current state of musical affairs in Germany?
T: Krautrock has definitely been important and influential for us as a band since the beginning. At one point you’ll come across that chapter of German music and it will soak in if you are interested in the history of music and sound. I think we are in a way looking for something cosmic in our music, but we choose very simple and straight ideas as basic elements of our music and play them in a real rock context. When we are just messing around in the studio, we are often sounding like an evil version of Neu! and Guru Guru. The repetitive elements in bands like them made me listen to beats in a different way, for example. It can teach you to really dig deep into something entirely simple. And that’s something I am always looking for when we write songs. Elements that won’t get boring if you repeat them over and over, even if we don’t do it exactly like that in a finished song.
Germany’s musical landscape is weird. Everything mainstream or successful is REALLY bad; I don’t even want to talk about it. At SXSW last year, the Germans just put some pictures of our fucking president on a flip-chart in the exhibition hall to promote the music of our country because there probably just wasn’t anything better to show. But 90% of the music consumers in Germany seem to want exactly that. The kind of rock music relating more to psych, art or krautrock is still there, or there again, but more as an underground phenomenon. Berlin is a good city for these genres and there’s a growing amount of bands. You know The Blue Angel Lounge probably as they’ve played Psych Fest, but also Mystical Communication Service or Suns of Thyme are Berlin-based bands I follow with interest.
Revolt of the Apes is pleased, stoked and chuffed to support Austin Psych Fest 2014 through a series of interviews with many of the artists involved, answering the kind of ridiculous questions you’ve come to know and – maybe – love. Many more coming soon.
Revolt of the Apes 
Leave a Reply