Interview with Kaizers Orchestra in Berlin - English Version

(Kaizers Orchestra)

16.11.2010 von Shirin K

It’s a cold rainy November day in Berlin but that’s okay when you got an interview appointment with two members of the world’s greatest live-band – Kaizers Orchestra from Norway in fact. Vocalist Janove und bassist Øyvind are on a mini tour to promote the upcoming album "Violeta Vol. I" (the first in their Violeta-Violeta-trilogy). Now what makes this band so unique is probably the way they combine their energetic rock-music with the exotic and off-key sounds they borrowed from the Underground world of the gypsies, the mafia and the lunatic asylums. Kaizers Orchestra are one of the most famous Scandinavian bands, in Norway and Denmark they attract thousands of people to their concerts. And it doesn’t seem to matter at all that they sing in Norwegian: Also outside of Scandinavia there is a huge and loving fan-base. Maybe it‘s because their live-shows are so exceedingly impressive and explosive, at times even bizarre, that the lyrics suddenly seem to make sense after all, or maybe it’s just because they simply are the coolest band on the planet ... Whatever it maybe, check them out on their tour in March/April 2011!

From left to right: Janove Ottesen, MHQ-Editor Shirin Kasraeian and Øyvind Storesund of Kaizers Orchestra after the interview in Berlin.

Hello Janove, hi Øyvind. Welcome to Berlin. What have you been up to in the last months and years after you took a long pause from touring?

Janove: Well we spent the last years making a new album and we ended up with three albums. We were finished with the first album so early that we just continued to make songs. The concept we’ve been working on grew during the process. Now we have three different albums – music wise – but one story – lyric wise.

Are you finished with all the material?

Janove: Yeah, Volume one and two of the Violeta-trilogy are recorded and 90 percent of Volume three is finished as well.

What does the new Kaizermusic sound like?

Janove: I have the same feeling as after the "Maestro" album. That was the best Kaizer album until then, because we managed to do what we had set out to do in the first place and do it well in the second place. We didn’t even try to do it again. Right after this we changed the producers and the studio and the sound and the musical style to a little bit softer, smoother pop on the "Maskineri" album after that. Something different that didn’t compete with "Maestro". We actually needed that time from 2005 until now to come up with the good ideas and material, for a good Kaizer concept in the future. And now we’re here. I think this Volume one is like "Maestro" but even better. In my opinion. It’s the core of Kaizers Orchestra, we’re older, more confident. Now we know exactly what we want to do and we’re very well prepared. It took us only 14 days to record the Volume one. And we just had a good time. It wasn’t a struggle this time, it was just so easy to record it.

So, the trilogy is based on one story?

Janove: It’s one big story. But it doesn’t have a beginning or an end. You just have to put the puzzle together after listening to all three albums.

Tell us about the story then...

Janove: Yeah, the short version is: there is this small family, a mother, a father and a daughter – Violeta. And they live together and the guy can’t take it anymore to live with his wife Beatrice so he kidnaps his own daughter and hides somewhere in the world. He leaves Beatrice alone in their house, where she stays for seven years, crying and drinking, like an autistic person. She doesn’t leave the house for seven years. She fills up buckets with her tears, one bucket a year, so after seven years she has seven buckets of tears (Editor: one of the new songs is called "Sju bøtter tårer er nok, Beatrice" – Seven buckets of tears are enough, Beatrice). In the end she decides to track down her ex-husband, have her revenge and get her daughter back. That’s the story. There are 30 songs, 30 lyrics and they are all like scenes in a movie. It takes place in an alternative world, a bit real but with fiction on top of it. The mother and the daughter for instance have the same kind of ability: The mother can go out in the garden and plant dreams like flowers. And they grow and the daughter can come back later and pick the flowers and share the dreams and visions of the mother.

Janove und Øyvind playing new songs.

The last albums were full of strange and obscure characters as well. Are we going to meet any of those characters from the old Kaizers universe again?

Janove: No, that’s a different story. This has nothing to do with the old days, the war, the mafia or the gypsies. It’s a new story. Feels like it’s somewhere between Tim Burton and David Lynch, the Coen brothers, Tarantino – or Emir Kusturica still. It’s a combination of those kinds of filmmakers.

Have you tried new instruments on the trilogy?

Øyvind: Yeah, we have one: bottles. (laughter)

Plastic or glass?

Øyvind: Glass of course! There is nothing better! And I also have a new kind of bass, it’s a Bass pedals and it makes 50 percent of the bass sounds. I use it on "Hjerteknuser" (Editor: "Heartbreaker") for instance.

Janove: Yeah, it helps to boost the... eh... lower end of the music. Most people won’t be able to hear it because they don’t know the difference. But they will see it!

Øyvind: You’re supposed to use your feet, but I’m going to use my hands!!!

Janove: We will also make use of the oil barrels more than ever before. You can’t really hear that either, but you will see it. It’s like when Bob Dylan went electric at one point – now we go electric with the oil barrels. We plug them in to the amp and now they go BOOOM!

So your live show is going to be different from what we know?

Øyvind: Oh yes! I have to practice in front of a mirror, because I’ve always been hiding behind the bass. Now I have to do the pedals – with my hands and all.

Janove: It will look so cool when you do the pedals... Up until now our show has had a certain curve to it; we’ve changed it many times, more than most bands normally do. There is still the same philosophy behind the show, but now there is a new approach, a different buildup. We will probably have to play almost all the new songs and make a completely new setlist. We will also have new looks and moves that go with the new sound. ... The goal is to come up with the perfect setlist for us, the fans and the production. And hopefully, when we try it, we’ll see that it works, so that we don’t have to change it. But also, we won’t say too much about the new show other than it has a completely new look. The production is bigger and better than ever. We will change the look of the stage several times during the show.

Talking about the tour, will there be new cities on your route?

Janove: We decided a long time ago that we don’t want to go into new territories because we want to focus on the countries we already have fans in and try to build it up there. But there are always exceptions. This time we are going to play in Italy, Milano. That’s new, just because it suits the tourplan. It’s nice to have one new city and also a day off there. In Germany we are playing six cities and the summer festivals, which ones we don’t know yet. We are hoping to do the bigger ones this time. Last time we were hoping to play later in the evening or headline smaller festivals. This time we are hoping to play the bigger festivals. ... In Sweden and Denmark it’s just the same places. In the Netherlands we just do Amsterdam. What’s new is probably the venues. Some of the venues are gonna change.

Janove tells, what the new album is about...

What I found really interesting was the campaign for the first Violeta-single "Hjerteknuser" in Norway...

Janove: It was the idea of our promotion guys in Norway. We organized a competition where bands and artists in Norway could cover the song one month before we released ours. They just had the notes and the lyrics and 109 bands sent in their version of the song, so that was a big success. Then we released our single and a lot of people loved the top-three-covers better than ours. That’s cool, because it proves there is a lot of more to that song than meets the eye. It just depends on how you arrange it.

With all the work you have with Kaizers is there any time left for the side projects of the Kaizer members?

Øyvind: I’m going to work a bit with Cloroform but taking things easy there. But I don’t think we are going to play anything or record an album.

Janove: You were on tour...

Øyvind: Yeah, we were. I think I’m going to do some free improvising things, but mostly be with my family.

Janove: And Terje has been working with Skambankt until now and I think he will be finished until Christmas. Then it will be Kaizers Orchestra time!!!!

Really sounds like it’s Kaizer time again!! See you on tour!

Later that day in the Grüner Salon Janove and Øyvind give a foretaste of what will be expecting. Three songs are performed live – with the Jackal at the piano and Øyvind on the bass: "Psycho under min hatt", "Femtakt filosofi" and "Din kjole lukter bensin, mor". The album versions of three songs are played to the audience as well: "Philemon Arthur & The Dung", "Hjertekunser" and "En for orgelet, en for meg". The latter is commented by Janove thus: Since Kaizers actually are a rap-band (which was mooost obvious in this song... ahem, is it?), there was going to be a rap-version of it in each country with a rapper from the specific country. In Germany it will be Prince Pi as I am told later on.

That’s the end of a beautiful day, but what makes it better: Next year there is even more to come. The new album rocks big time and is definitely worth waiting for. As for the tour, little is known but all can be expected!!

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