aaamusic | On 25, Sep 2011

AAAmusic: Hello, first off I will have to ask you about your name – it grabbed my attention whilst scanning the holy pages of Artrocker a few months ago, and I was wondering that as it is so unusual, whether there is any particular meaning or significance behind it?

Ben: Aside from the fact that an ‘unkindness’ is the collective noun for a group of ravens – like a murder of crows – it doesn’t mean anything.  I just heard the phrase one time and loved how dark and forbidding it sounds.  It implies ravens are inherently evil creatures and not to be messed with.  Crows and ravens are definitely the bad guys.

Nina: First time I saw it I remember feeling intrigued, like there was something mystical and romantic about it.

 

AAAmusic: Do you think that being a duo gives The Unkindness Of Ravens a different dynamic that affects your songwriting process or musical output in any way?

Nina: I actually only ever worked in two-piece bands before Ravens, so it is not that unusual for me. However, I do find as a two-piece band, we work incredibly fast and have built a trust where a lot of the work becomes instinctive. We very rarely find ourselves disagreeing with one another, so it’s a lot less complicated and more intimate as a two piece.

Ben: Our drums come from a laptop, apart from that everything else is live, and I don’t want to rely on a backing track any further than that.  So if we can’t do it live then we’re not going to do it, which means there’s a lot of limitations.  But it’s about pushing the boundaries of these limitations that makes it interesting to me.  My creative mindset is kind of Communist, I don’t want too much choice, just what I’ve got to work with.

 

VIRUS – free download by The Unkindness Of Ravens

AAAmusic: As a group, you have a very strong image. Do you feel that your music is part of a “bigger performance” as it were?

Ben:  Yeah absolutely.  Because there is no place where this band ends and our lives begin, this is just what we do.  The overall stylistic aesthetic is an extension of the name, of the sound, of the lyrics; it’s all entwined and strong because it’s real.  Same way I see making videos as an extension of the song-writing.

Nina:  I think our image has been developing since we’ve been a band. We’re constantly growing and refining ourselves, musically and visually. It’s a natural process so it’s not like we think about it all the time.  I find if bands concentrate more on their image than their music, then they’re kinda missing the point and end up more like cartoon characters than artists.

 

AAAmusic: Your music, despite being electro in many ways, can become incredibly visceral to the point of sounding like a full-on rock band. How did you come across your sound?

Ben:  I’ve been playing heavily distorted bass in bands for as long as I can remember.  We’d make all these lo-fi demos that I’d mix, and I’d be listening to the drums and the bass track together and thinking you know – all this needs is a good melody and some attitude and you’ve got a really great, raw, open sounding record here.  If your arrangements are good then the negative space becomes an instrument.  I’d made a lot of electronic music before and wanted to combine that with raw bluesy guitar riffs because at that point I was addicted to the White Stripes.  But I didn’t want any retro element to it – it had to be futuristic and new sounding or there was no point in doing it.  I also wanted to stick up for the bass as an instrument, because it’s been fashionable for a while now for bands not to have a bass player.  I wanted to say I’ve only got this bass and these distortion pedals, and I can kick out more noise than your four-piece band can.

Nina: After we’d been a band for some months, we were asked by Artrocker to write a song that was different to anything we’d ever written, and we gave them a track called Prototype that doesn’t feature any guitars.  At that point we knew there were other avenues to be explored when it came to being electro, and Prototype still tends to be one of the live favourites.

 

AAAmusic: You have your own record label, Sonic Fire Records. Tell us a bit about it.

Ben: When we formed I wasn’t interested in wasting any more time chasing the holy grail of a record deal, especially when I’ve seen people get signed and then stagnate, I just wanted to get our music out there.  I especially wasn’t interested in chasing a record deal during a major economic crisis so we were left with no choice but to start this label.  We have other artists coming on board now too – it’s gonna be a lot of fun seeing how far we can push this.

 

AAAmusic: Now for the obligatory question: what inspires and influences you, musically and lyrically?

Nina: I write a lot of poetry and sometimes a bottle of red wine and a couple of cigarettes will usually do me… but we have been listening to a lot of great bands here in Berlin, as well as talking to some very intriguing people, which usually gets our creative juices flowing.

Ben:  My core influences are pretty obvious – White Stripes, Nirvana, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, The Doors, QOTSA, Leftfield in terms of beats.  These days I get a lot of inspiration from observing popular culture, it makes me want to destroy and create in equal measures.

 

AAAmusic: Given TUOR’s eclectic sound, I’m curious as to know that if you were to curate your dream festival, what bands/DJs past and present would you like to have on the bill?

Nina:  I would learn voodoo to revive the dead rock-stars from their graves and I’d have underground artists play the main stage.  DJ wise, I’d get our Berlin friends to spin records because they have eclectic taste.

Ben:  On my stage, no bands, just musicians from all my favourite bands getting up and jamming total noise music over beats and atmospherics laid down by The Future Sound Of London.

 

AAAmusic: And finally, what are your plans for the future of the band?

Nina:  We are releasing our next AA single VIRUS/VIPER 3 October, followed by our debut Album in the new year.  We want to move to Berlin full-time and eventually get a studio space where we can record, write music, make videos and paint.  Ideally we’d run a bar, with a studio and apartment above, all in one place, right in the middle of Berlin.

Ben: Write music that excites and inspires and see how far we can take this. I get my kicks from playing guitar and travelling, meeting people and drinking with them, so that’s what I’m gonna do.

 

Author: Katie H-Halinski