Raunchy

author PP date 13/06/08

Many Danish metal bands seem to suffer from the same problem of sounding all too Danish, resulting in a sound that\'s difficult to pigeonhole as anything else than just \'metal\'. But not Raunchy. This is a band that has ventured on its own journey throughout its existence, adding pop elements into an industrial/death soundscape for many years now. On their previous releases, you could tell that the band was really close to creating something special, but needed just a little bit more focus on songwriting to get that something out of their songs. Nevertheless, the band has gained quite a following within Denmark (and also internationally), and all their fans are about to be surprised with what\'s easily the best album this band has written today, \"Wasteland Discotheque\". We in Rockfreaks.net were so excited for this release that we decided to get a hold of the band for an email interview, and judging by the answers of vocalist Kasper Thomsen, the band seems equally enthusiastic about their new release.

RF.net: Hi and thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! First off, how are things in Raunchy?
Kasper: Well, things couldn\'t be better actually. We\'re about to release a new smashing record, we have several festivals lined up, we\'re on the bill for MTV\'s Headbangers Ball tour, and we\'re working on some European tours in the fall as well, so things are really great!

RF.net: Congratulations on your new album \"Wasteland Discotheque\". If you ask me, it\'s easily your best album so far. It\'s also the album where you sound most different to your previous material. So let\'s start off with the obligatory \"how do you feel about the new album\" question?
Kasper: Thank you very much. We\'re proud to know that you like the album, it\'s awesome you think that way! And to tell you the truth, we\'re also really excited about the new album as well. We wanted \"Wasteland Discotheque\" to sound just the way it ended up sounding – really dirty, really thrashy, and really melodic – but it was not an easy task. When you want to incorporate all those elements, you\'re balancing on the edge of failure all the time, because you can easily end up sounding phoney and cheesy. But luckily we have been doing this for several years now, so we know what we\'re capable of doing and what we\'re not, you know. \"Wasteland Discotheque\" is in my opinion a fist in the face of limitations and stereotyped metal conventions, and we\'re proud to be a part of the rebellion, hehe…

RF.net: So you\'ve previously been referred to as a hybrid metal band, bringing pop into a typically Danish/death metallish soundscape. Some would call this metalcore (on your previous release, anyway) but on the new album it\'s something different. So to clear up confusion, can you describe to our eager readers what the new album sounds like, and then talk a bit about where the different sound came from?
Kasper: Yeah, we noticed that we got labelled as metalcore on your previous release, but it just made us all laugh, because the genre label was clearly a product of the whole metalcore movement peaking at that time. We have been playing this kind of music since the nineties, so we have been around for years, before the term metalcore even surfaced, you know. So defining us as metalcore is an intentional fallacy in my opinion. The tag \'hybrid metal\' is perhaps more in terms of what we\'re about sound wise. I recently read a review where we were labelled as \'boogie-death\', which I thought was quite accurate actually, hehe. Our new album \"Wasteland Discotheque\" sounds like the soundtrack to the perfect summer with loads of cold beer, combined with thrash, pop music, death metal, electronica, desert rock, Euro dance, sex, and one hell of a good time! I don\'t know where the \'different\' sound came from, but in the band we listen to a whole variety of different genres all the time – from classical hymns to symphonic black metal – and everything in between, and maybe that have influenced our eclecticism. But it has also something to do with the fact that when we write new music we never compromise anything, which is hard work by the way, and we obviously don\'t limit ourselves – if it works, it works, you know… - and by doing that something new, different, and exciting is spawned.

RF.net: I gotta ask you: is this the album where Raunchy REALLY breaks through, not only in Denmark but also internationally?
Kasper: Hopefully, hahaha! Nah, let\'s just see what happens. But it seems like there\'s a growing buzz around the band, and a growing interest for metal in general, and we\'re ready to conquer, baby! We\'re definitely gonna work our asses off this time, play more shows than previously, and just see where the journey takes us really. We\'re really excited about this to tell you the truth, hehe…

RF.net: So the record is called \"Wasteland Discotheque\". Could you talk a little bit about the title, why you chose it, what it means on the album and so on?
Kasper: Of course. In my opinion the title is very representative for Raunchy. When I came up with the idea of entitling the album \"Wasteland Discotheque\", the other guys just agreed with me that it sounded awesome, and it was also in the vein of how we entitled our previous albums with references to the elements in our music. The title also creates some really cool connotations in the vein of films like \"From dusk \'till dawn\" and \"Sin city\", which we all love! But the title is open for interpretation. It has to be. We don\'t wanna tell people how they should understand the concept. It would totally take the mystery away from it, and that we don\'t want to do, you know. But I can reveal that \"Wasteland Discotheque\" is not a concept album with a cohesive storyline. It is more fragmented, where each song is a thematic string within the wasteland term in a metaphorical way. The songs deal with aspects of existentialism, lost love, betrayal, absolute destructiveness, and life in general within a post-modern context.

RF.net: The artwork features a bloody, tattooed man carrying another who seems to be dead in a Ungdomshuset look-a-like decor. Can you explain the artwork and what it means to the record?
Kasper: This time around we took some time to do the artwork the old-fashion way with cover photo sessions of real models and the whole lot! The graffiti displayed on the cover was actually made for this particular photo shoot as well. Lars Christensen is in charge of every artwork aspect in Raunchy and he really does a phenomenal job. When Christensen saw the album title, he almost instantly came up with some amazing and very original artwork to underline the stories of the \"Wasteland Discotheque\". The two persons on the cover have turned into zombies after a night at the wasteland discotheque, and the zombie guy is carrying the zombie girl away to do whatever zombies are doing after a night out in town, hehe… The booklet tells their story, and the front cover is where we leave them for the last time.

RF.net: I saw you guys did a six-day tour in China a few months ago. What did the Chinese think about Danish metal, and how did it come about? Perhaps share an interesting experience from over there as well!
Kasper: The China tour was a very cool thing to experience, and the Chinese fans were hungry for metal. Between 200-300 fans showed up at each show, so in that term, the tour was quite successful. The whole tour was a part of the Music Export Denmark strategy, which featured some of the Danish music organizations. But it started off with us being invited by a huge Chinese metal magazine, who wanted Raunchy to play some shows. But it actually took some 8 months to prepare and work out everything, but it was all worth it. One of the more interesting things was that we played at a school of music (read: rock) before a uniformed crowd, and the class room was packed! A cool experience indeed!

RF.net: You\'re also playing at Roskilde Festival this year! What are your expectations for this show?
Kasper: We\'re SO excited, man! It\'s a dream come true for all of us, and we can\'t wait to bring the fucking party! We have been waiting for this opportunity like forever, and finally we get the chance to rock the fuck out of every single person attending our Roskilde-show. They are gonna be in for a treat, I can honestly tell you that. We are beyond ready, and we\'re confident that it will be an amazing experience!

RF.net: How do you see Raunchy standing against the other metal heavyweights in Denmark? Here I\'m thinking about The Psyke Project, Hatesphere, Illdisposed and so on.
Kasper: Well, I don\'t think, we\'re standing against any of the bands you\'re mentioning, we just have something different to offer. Raunchy is about the metal brutality and the pop melody at the same time, but the bands you\'ve mentioned are very good, and they also contribute with their own things, which is awesome. The Danish scene is strong at the moment with loads of talent and brotherhood. Let\'s keep it that way.

RF.net: How does the future look like from the release of the album?
Kasper: The future looks good. We have several cool things coming up like I mentioned earlier, and we are ready to make all of it the biggest party the scene have ever seen from us. We\'re gonna tour a lot more, and keep the wheels spinning in an overall perspective. Hopefully we\'ll make a video as well, and as we speak we\'re talking to some cool dudes about various concepts and so on – it\'ll be cool, I can tell you that!

RF.net: That\'s it from me, thanks for the interview. Any last comments to your fans & the readers?
Kasper: Thanks for the support and for taking your time to prepare the questions. It was sure nice talking to you. To our fans and to the readers, I just wanna say thank you for all time you\'ve invested in us so far and for your loving support. It really means the world to us. Now let\'s take it to the next level. Remember to pick up \"Wasteland Discotheque\" when it\'s released, and make sure to attend some of our upcoming shows as well. If you bring the bling, we\'ll bring the blood and vice versa!

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.