Essex twin?
“Yeah, Essex Twin. I’ve been listening to a lot of that recently. You heard of him?”
Oh….. Aphex Twin. Such is the amusement of cross-national
phone interviews with Sune, multi talented Dane, one half of dark indie
duo The Raveonettes (completed by bassist/singer Sharin). Not
only is it the distance and accents which makes for the confusion, it’s
the fact it could be one of the last acts you’d expect Sune to be
citing as one he’s enjoying at the moment, as his group is one which is
exhaustively described as being more Retro than Topshop’s latest
offering. As will be revealed, The Raveonettes want to be thought
of more than just shamelessly nostalgic, something which is spoken of
far too often. Oh, and whilst we’re shattering presuppositions,
they’re also not as unfriendly as their icy exteriors would have you
believe.
This interview anticipates their third release, (after the widely
acclaimed full length ‘Chain Gang of Love’ and debut EP ‘Whip it
on’). Both were received with a popularity and critical respect
few other acts seem to seriously manage, especially when The
Raveonettes just don’t sound like many of their contemporaries.
The fact is The Raveonettes are heavily drenched in a nostalgic sound,
looking back to the likes of everything from Dylan and the Everley
Brothers to Sonic Youth. And whilst the new album is still paying
homage to these bands which have influenced them, their dark Danish
twist on the music results in something rather unique. Sune sees
the new album especially as a clear progression from the other two,
“I would definitely say it’s a much more modern record in the sense
that it tends to look forward a little bit more than the other records
did. But it’s a fine line, it’s still a mixture of modern and
something very old and very classic. I try and mix these two
things up and I think it worked really well on the new record. I
think you definitely hear the progression and evolution in the music,
but at the same time it’s still true to its roots and where our
influences come from."
Their first release (now infamously) involved the band imposing
restrictions on their song writing, with the ‘no song over three minute
rule’ and three chord songs and the like. The ideas seem to have
got a bit misconstrued along the way though, as Sune is quickly to
explain. Whilst journalists everywhere saw this as some mad
experimental nature, it wasn’t really about that.
“They were basically just a starting point for us to get started back
then. It was something that was blown out of proportion a bit, but it
was just an easy way for us to get started. We’re all over the
place now. But you know, sometimes when you do music, (don’t get
me wrong), you don’t put too much thought into it and it’s something
that comes very naturally to you. You do it and then you can sit
afterwards and listen to it and go ‘wow this reminds me of whatever’ or
‘this is very cinematic’. But in the moment that there’s the
spontaneous creativity or burst of energy it’s just what comes to
mind. I guess it’s just more natural.”
Duos seem to popping up all over the place at the moment, spreading
after a severe bout of successful White Stripesitus. Duos in
music are obviously nothing new, the current focus just makes it seem
some people have never seen a man and woman sing together. Since
that’s where the idea for The Raveonettes came from; Sune wanting to
create male/female harmonies inspired by the likes of Mickey and
Sylvia, or as he describes it “Kind of like the Everyley Brothers, but
with a boy and a girl.”
Sune is quick to explain that whilst The Raveonettes are in essence a
duo, with him and Sharin the core of the band, the term duo is a bit
‘weird’ for him, as “Sharin and I started the band and I write the
songs for me and her so to speak, but we’ve always had other people
play with us and ever since we started out we’ve actually had the same
band play live. So they are all a big part of it but they also
have their own thing on the side. Sharin and I do all the
promotion and this is 100% for us, but for the other players it’s 70%
for them and 30% whatever else they do. We are a duo but we’re
also a band and there’s actually five people in the band now.”
Even more than five in fact on the next record, which features
collaborations with some of the most respected musicians Sune could
basically ever dream of working with, perhaps most notably Moe Tucker
of the Velvet Underground. Rather luckily for The Raveonettes,
she’s a big fan of the band, and thanks to that Sune found himself
getting hold of rare Velvet Underground recordings. Next thing he
knew “we were in Atlanta on tour and called her up and said why not
rent a studio and we’ll record with you. Simple as that!
She played on five songs and that was a truly amazing day and she is a
great great woman.”
Guest musicians aside, the new album still possesses The Raveonette’s
trademark iciness, something which has been commented on from their
static live performances to the darkness of their lyrics. Sune
confirms that the iciness is here to stay, “Absolutely! It’s
really about performing, and a lot of us aren’t really into that
performing part of the deal, it doesn’t come very naturally to
us. Anyway, I think the people should rock out! We’re
playing the music to the people, so you should rock out!” It’s
not really like they have much to worry about visually anyway, The
Raveonettes are a hideously attractive couple, something which could
distract from the seriousness of their music, but it doesn’t.
“Our image thing comes very naturally to us, it’s just who we are; the
way we dress and the way we look. But we are very concerned about
it because we want to present the right thing to people so they don’t
misunderstand who we are. So we put a lot of time and effort into
making sure that the pictures are right and the covers are done right."
The Raveonettes certainly seem to have got it right with the balance of
their flawless image with the music perfectly in an utterly
professional manner. Sune is likeable and friendly, not at all
aloof and snobbish like you could have expected. In a final
attempt to provoke a slightly more hostile reaction, I mention the
band’s appearance on a K-Mart commercial in the US, which has
supposedly divided a lot of fans. Annoyingly Sune’s response
makes him all the more likeable.
‘Yeah so there was a song from ‘Chain gang of love’, called ‘That great
love sound’, that was in a K-Mart commercial in the States. But
we don’t get bothered by anything really. As musicians and as a
band we want our music to get played to everybody in the whole damn
world and with the kind of music we do we have a lot of problems
getting radio airplay which means it’s hard for our music to reach
people. So found that through commercials and stuff like that we
reach a much broader audience. We didn’t get any money from the
K-Mart commercial, but when the showed it they printed our name on the
screen so record sales went up 400% after that commercial. I shop
in K-Mart! I bought some Christmas lights there it’s not that
bad. People have different opinions about commercials and stuff,
but I’m not advertising for the product I’m just getting my song played
so I can sell more records and people will know our music more.’
And you can’t really argue with that.
Ellen Godwin