Interviews: The Raveonettes

I had the great pleasure of interviewing The Raveonettes pre-show at the wonderfully apt former church that, is now Norwich Arts Centre. The acoustics here are great for bands who use lots of feedback and echo. So, along with it only being a 300 capacity venue, I knew we were in for a great night! You can imagine my mood was upbeat to say the least. I found them both to be charming people and very down to earth and equally passionate about their great new album Lust, Lust, Lust.

The Raveonettes

Hi, Sune! Hi, Sharin! (Sune then tells me they have been enjoying a glass of mulled wine at a local hostelry)

M. Can you tell me how you first got together as a band?

Sharin: God, this is such a boring story. We met back in 1999 through mutual friends. Sune had just got back from the U.S.A where he’d been writing all this material and looking for somebody to play music with. He was looking for that boy/girl type thing and we just started playing together and that’s basically the story.

M. I heard you Monday night on the Radcliffe & Maconie show on BBC Radio 2 that’s about the biggest evening radio show in the UK, how was it?

Sune: Yeah, it’s good…actually it’s really good! We’ve done it before, it’s a really good way of doing a radio show. It’s a very relaxed, loose atmosphere, it’s like chat and they sort of say do you guys want to play a song now, it’s not like that 1 minute 38 till your on guys thing. Yeah, they are really nice guys and very knowledgeable and they know their stuff.

M. Do you feel the switch to an indie label gave you more artistic freedom? Vice are obviously happy to have you on board!

Sune: Yeah I guess it does, but we were lucky really with Columbia in the fact that we were basically given artistic freedom with them as well. We were one of the few bands that had that. By the end of the deal though they started to have opinions on things, not so much the music more the visuals like music video’s, a lot of the stuff that we wanted we couldn’t have through them we felt that sucked a bit! Basically, they wanted to create an image of us that was very normal and very nice that kind of boy/girl thing and we had all these weird and wacky ideas which they wouldn’t let us explore. I’m sure Vice will have nooooo problem whatsoever to let us start work on all these ideas. (At this stage Sharin interjects) I think it’s also important to say that one of the big differences between a major label and an indie label is that with the majors, they are such big world wide organisations you don’t find that say for example Sony in France are not going to be so enthusiastic about your material as an indie label. The reason we signed with all the different indie labels was that they have such enthusiasm and are so sincere. Its really important for us to work with these kind of people and feel engaged.

M. I feel this record is somewhat darker “Aly, Walk With Me” is just so Sisters of Mercy.

Sune: Yea Yea, definitely! I feel it’s got that darker sound to it. It started with that song on the album “Lust” which has that darker theme running through it. After that we thought it would be really cool to build the album around that one track. Because we really like that kind of style, a little moody a little introverted, dark, so I guess that’s why all the songs kind of came out like that. The only song which doesn’t really fit is “You Want The Candy” that song would of been better on the previous album but yea its definitely more edgy.

M. I love Lust, Lust, Lust! What is your favourite track?
Sune: That’s a tough one because it changes. I mean you hear the album and you might like a track, then, you play the album live and you might like another track better. I really enjoy playing “Aly,Walk With Me” that’s a nice long song so you can really get into it. Some of the songs are really great but by the time you get into them they are over with that one though you have plenty of time. It’s nearly five minutes long, but that’s one of the songs I don’t really listen to its like two minutes of noise then fuck it! Yea, I much prefer to listen to like three minute songs at home.

M: If you were making a mix for our readers what would be the first three tracks you would choose(at this stage Sune is called away to soundcheck so i carry on with Sharin)

Sharin: I would probably choose something like The Shirelles – “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”. That’s one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Another really favourite song of mine is also “A Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths and then maybe I’m thinking now probably something by Bob Dylan I mean thats pretty eclectic.

M: Right, so you have done any U.S dates prior to coming over here? I believe there are some U.S dates planned to coincide with the album release over there can you give me any details on those?

Sharin: Yea, we were looking through that today,we are probably going to be touring right through March taking in the SXSW festival, we are mainly going to concentrate on the two coasts.

M: Can you tell our readers something you cant find about yourselves on google?

Sharin: Sune,was like a sports fanatic till he discovered music which was not until he was fifteen i guess, he was on the the path to becoming a pro tennis player and i was doing a lot of gymnastics.

Thanks to Sune and Sharin for giving me the time and also to Veronika from The Orchard for her help in arranging the whole thing

Tags: the raveonettes