KoC Page B-Side Interview

(das) Mit ihrem Anfang des Jahres veröffentlichten Debüt-Album "Quiet Is The New Loud" brachten es die Kings Of Convenience neben Alfie oder Turin Brakes ganz an die Spitze des New Accoustic Movements - eine Musikrichtung die die britische Musikpresse vornehmlich für die zwei Norweger selbst ins Leben rief. Von unzähligen Kritikern als die Simon & Garfunkel des 21. Jahrhunderts gefeiert, überzeugte andere die Simplizität des Albums nicht. Die rein akkustisch eingespielten Stücke waren vielen einfach zu langweilig. "Quiet Is The New Loud" war in der Tat mehr leise als laut und im Gegensatz zu Belle & Sebastian etwa fehlten die eingängigen Arrangement, die die Kings Of Convenience in Pophöhen hätten schießen können. Mit "Versus" veröffentlichen Erland Oye und Eirik Glambek nun ein Remix-Album, dass dieser Kritik in vollem Umfang Abhilfe verschafft. Denn durch die Unterstützung befreundeter Remixer werden die Songs zwar nicht lauter, aber allemal vielschichtiger. Dass die Bedächtigkeit der königlichen Herangehensweise dabei nicht durch fette Beats ins Abseits gerät, versteht sich von selbst. So sucht vergeblich wer auf "Versus" einen hitverdächtigen Dancefloor-Stomper eines Fatboy Slims erwartet. Aber wer hätte überhaupt gedacht, dass sich die Kings Of Convenience als Remix-Grundlage anbieten. Mit der Schlichtheit der Songs scheint jedoch keineswegs ein Mangel an Angriffsflächen einherzugehen. Im Gegenteil waren etwa Röyksopp, Andy Votel oder David Whitaker offensichtlich keinerlei kreative Grenzen für ihre Remixe gesetzt. Und so übertreffen die Neuinterpretationen ein fürs andere Mal die Vorlage - auch wenn die Arrangements zum Teil nicht mehr allzu viel mit dem Original gemein haben. So ist der Ladytron Remix von "Little Kids" mehr ein Ladytron Song als alles andere und das Alfie Remake von "Failure" ist eine glatte Cover-Version. Doch dass stört keinesfalls bei dem Gedanken, die Kings Of Convenience endlich in vollem Umfang genießen zu können. Zwar ist Quiet immer noch The New Loud. Endlich lohnt es sich jedoch Stereo zu hören. Alles was sonst nocht wichtig ist, erläuterte uns Erland Oye aus dem sonnigen Norwegen.

Remixing is always an issue, but who could have thought that your songs would be suitable?

We always knew that they were suitable. They are all very simple, some of them are two chord songs. We restrained ourselves very much not to use all kind of instruments. So we knew that it must be easy to add something. You can do a hundred things to it!

Yeah… (laughing) Well, I think and I hope that there are some people who will think that. I know that some people don't appreciate all the energy that we put into making "Quiet Is The New Loud" sound very simple. And these people may still enjoy our melodies but just like… a lot of sugar. So they probably will be more happy with "Versus".

The Four Tet and the Röyksopp remixes have been released on 12 inches for DJs and radio stations. But there won't be a proper single release. I think Kings Of Convenience is more kind of an album-band than a single-band anyway. And the coolest thing about the "Versus" record is that it was the easiest record ever to release.

We wouldn't really do a remix, would we? We probably would just play new stuff around it. But we still would have to use an engineer. I mean, we don't know anything about computers.

Right from the beginning the media considered you as part of the "new acoustic movement". How happy were you with that?

I think it's kind of silly, if someone stands up and says you are like all these other people. On the other hand it's great to be put together with many bands that I think are good. But actually I feel much more as part of a group of all the new bands. I feel as much in common with bands like Alfie and Turin Brakes as with Ladytron.

I mean, even I do different music myself, I really like their music with an early 80ies feel to it. It's just about being a young band in the year 2001 and doing a 2001 version of something you might have heard before. We have all shared the same pool of music. We have heard 30 years of music which Simon & Garfunkel haven't heard. Ladytron have heard 20 years of music that Kraftwerk haven't heard before. I am not really interested in what people in the 70ies had to say, I want people who are young now. I want to hear their voice!

Ever thought about recording a real rock epic just to annoy all the critics?

We could do that and actually we have done this before. But I ask myself why to do so? Actually I am really annoyed with bands that I like that listened to what critics said and play something quite different now. And just because of someone who doesn't like your music you record something completely different, that's ridiculous! You have to listen to the people who like your music. Otherwise you will sound like The Strokes at the end of the day…

I think it will take a very long time. It will probably be released in January 2003. We weren't really completely satisfied with "Quiet Is The New Loud". Our record company sort of said we have to finish now. But we weren't really finished with it. So this time we are definitely not going to release anything that we are not 100% sure that it's the way we want it.

Well, they wouldn't exactly know what you are talking about. People say: "you are a dance label" and they say: "no way, we are a folk label". You say they are a folk label and they go: "no, no we're a dance label". I think a record company should not try to be a dance label. It should try to be a record company that some people really like. Me for example I don't only like acoustic music. I like acoustic music, and then I also like dance music. In that way Source is great, because they have great acoustic music and great dance music.

The diary on your website doesn't have too many entries. How important is the contact to your fans?

I never really had a motivation to keep up the diary. You could do that, but then you would take all the energy away that you would otherwise have to make songs. And I really think the people rather want me to do new songs than communicating with every single fan.

"Unchained Monologue" by Dubstar. It's on the first single of the second album. It's a song on which the vocal is basically talking, reciting quotes about being in a relationship. It's probably the best Dubstar track ever.

Kings Of Convenience versus a lot of sugar