Cette interview a été réalisée il y a de cela quelques années avec Thorbjørn, qui, à l’époque, était le pianiste du groupe danois Under Byen, lors de leur passage à la Laiterie (Strasbourg). In english sir!

Can you introduce the band ?
We’re an old band that was formed by Henriette and a girl called Catherine 10 years ago. They started out with this romantic idea about string players and stuff like that. At that time there were different members but that’s a too long story. Now the stringers are Nils and Morten on violin and cello ; the other Morten plays drums; Stine as well on the percussion; Sara on the bass; of course Henriette on vocals ; and me on the piano.
We are actually very different, our music backgrounds, the things we’re fond of are very different. I think that’s the exciting part about the band, it’s a mixture of very different approaches to music.

Not too many problems of disagreement etc ?
Of course we disagree… a lot. But we have learned to cope with it, we’re getting better. And [ha ha] the last things, I don’t think we’re gonna, it’s never gonna be smoothed. And I think actually it’s good. We get some things out of this sort of disagreement.
The most difficult situation is when we are recording because all of us are really into it and we all want to do our things.

And this time it’s gonna be on the plate, so it has to be like you want it I guess.
Yeah yeah yeah, it’s really important
At that time it can be quite hard but we have learned to see the good things in it as well.
Well, I’m doing some stuff myself, on record. I think it’s going quite well but I can feel that, when I don’t get influences from ourselves [the band], well it’s difficult to surprise yourself.
I’m trying to get influences from other people, so I think that’s the really fundamental part about this band. People can really surprise each other.

You have an interesting set also, 2 drummers, no guitar. Kind of original. You talked about this romantic idea with strings and so. Did you move far away from that idea ? Because you have electrical sounds and electronic sounds I mean.
You think so ? ha ha
The electronic part, it depends how you define electronic. Because it’s very old-fashioned the way we produce the real sounds that we have. There are no electronic sounds in the drums for example.

I just meant electric instruments, noises, it’s not just strings.
That’s true.
That’s mostly Lars who plays… [laugh with him]… he’s a little bit insane, yeah.
Of course, he likes playing the violin but actually on our last record I think it’s only one or two passages he’s playing, for the rest he plays the saw, and many weird things. And of course that’s a very fundamental part of the sound. It has become so. It’s a good mixture with the more romantic stuff. We can do the aggressive thing as well. And I think that’s very very important.

What about the lyrics, they’re kind of strange… Especially, « det er mig der holder traerne sammen ». That’s a strange title actually..
Very strange [ha ha] yeah.
But at the same time it contains some kind of atmosphere I really like.

It fits to the music
Yeah it does.

They’re all Danish, you don’t sing in English.
No, except some cover versions.

It’s not very common to hear Danish in France, or abroad. French people don’t hear that often.
Yeah, I think it’s never happened before actually.

You’re a bit the representatives of your country.
Yeah, in a way we are. Our country just has to realize it. Ha ha !

I checked your calendar, and you mostly play in France for this tour. And not much in Denmark !
No it’s too small. There’s only Århus and Copenhagen. And Odense, which is already a bit too small.

But the concert hall here in Strasbourg is very small, especially compared to Store Vega, in Copenhagen. Do you organize yourself differently or play differently?
No we don’t think about that. The only thing in Denmark is that we’re doing it special because it’s in Denmark. And we’ve been playing a lot there, compared to France or so. It’s not because it’s a bigger venue, it’s just because it’s Denmark, and our friends are standing there, in front of us. They are our worst critics. They’re always picking us : gnnii [strange sound of anoyment] you’re not doing that well.

We’re always surprised to see famous bands playing in this small place.
But it was actually a very nice job, we really like playing here. We get some special feeling out of playing in a small venue where people are so close and the atmosphere is very intimate. I think we’re actually better at playing in places like this.

So we’re lucky
We are all lucky !

About the Danish language : since you play abroad, have you been asked about singing in English, and have you thought about it ?
The first time we were asked that seriously was at some festival in Århus, a festival where all kinds of business managers and record companies and stuff like that are coming to watch a lot of different bands.
Some guys from London said they were very interested in the things we were doing. They wanted to work with us, but the only thing was: you might consider changing your lyrics to English. And that was it: we won’t do it. But that’s the only time somebody has asked us.
We don’t even consider it.

It’s quite difficult. Even French bands don’t export their tongue easily.
But maybe it’s changing.

Yeah, French is fashionable. But here also, when we get bands playing in « strange » languages, like Danish or Moldavian or so, people come to see, and they are interested by these other cultures.
Yeah, we could not have done this 10 or 5 years ago. I think it was not possible. I think there is some kind of thing going on where people are more open to different languages, or no languages at all.

What are your plans for the future ? Getting bigger ?
We’re thinking about how to survive. We don’t have any need to get bigger, but it’s difficult to survive without getting bigger. We are so many people in the band, so financially, it’s a very stupid thing we are doing (ha ha).

Is this your only job ?
No. For some of us, it is. Not for me. I’m teaching as well and it’s nearly impossible to keep my job because we are away so much. And the others are starting but not really starting. So the situation is not good actually on the long run. We don’t have much choice. Either we get bigger, or we can’t tour.

So you are real artists: people who don’t have the time to do it, but do it anyway.
Ho yeah, at the moment, we are like that, we are sacrificing a lot. So we just have to see what happens. We believe in it. Our only chance is getting bigger so we can earn enough money to survive. But it’s quite a difficult situation because we are so many.

I don’t know if you’ll like me saying that, but you sound like Bjork on some aspects. In the singing, on the bass/drums playing sometimes too.
Henriette does not always like this comparison. But she is influenced by Bjork. I could hear it before I joined the band also. Now it’s more difficult for me to hear it because she has developed her own voice very much and she has a lot of different influences. Some things in her voice are the same, but there are _a lot_ of very big differences. Bjork is always in the high volume, like screaming, very extravert I think. With Henriette, it’s different. Because it’s very intimate, introvert and quiet.

Do you think there is any other influence that can be heard in your music ?
We are very broad, but Talk Talk is definitely an influence for our last record. But that’s mostly for me. I cannot really talk for the others as I don’t really know what they listen to. Later I’ve been influenced by Godspeed You Black Emperor. I know that some people can hear it in our music, I don’t know why because I can’t hear it. But I really love them.

Interview made by D.M.