Silver - Wiesbaden, 26.10.2006

Nein, dies ist kein Interview mit der Elektro-Combo Silver und es handelt sich auch nicht um einen Druckfehler und soll eigentlich Silver heißen!
Silver, das sind Blanco, Peter, Buzter und die beiden Brüder Tommy und Kim. Sie kommen aus der norwegischen Hauptstadt Norwegen und haben gerade erst ihr neues Killeralbum „World Against World“ auf einer kurzen Deutschlandtour präsentiert. In Wiesbaden entstand dabei auch folgendes Interview.

Why did it take you so long to come back to Germany, like two and a half year?

Blanco: Is it that long?

Yeah, Worldturbojugenddays 2004!

Blanco: Yes, it’s true! First of all we were focussing on going to the States, doing our record there. But everything went to hell. I mean, we made a lot of songs, but they were way too commercial, we thought we can fix it that way. When we were listening to the Demos: „No no no no no, this is not Silver!“ So then we had to start all over again and write new songs, so we skipped the whole USA-thing and then we recorded our album in Norway instead. That was kind of like a hard time for us, cause it took very much energy

Peter: It was actually becoming depressing, just to create songs to please important people of big record labels, so I think some of us were very sick and tired of playing in general. But when we got to make this record it brought back the energy in, the joy.

Blanco: We got the spirit back in music and we felt like this is really who we are. So that’s why it took so long to come back I think. We didn’t play many shows in Norway either. In 2005 we played like 20 shows maybe. Maximum 20 shows. We were just focussing on writing songs and most of it went down the drain.

So we won’t have to wait that long next time?

Blanco: No, we are coming back I think in February, hopefully.

Peter: We will back within springtime

Blanco: We are going to Göteborg, Sweden on 17th of February and then we will just make a show in Denmark and go down to Germany and maybe do some shows in the Netherlands. We haven’t booked any shows yet, so we’ll see.

So, that’s the plan

Blanco: Yeah, that’s the plan!

Your new album is less glam and more punk again. Why is that?

Blanco: I think it’s because me for example I used to look like a prostitute but I don’t behave like a prostitute anymore, so I don’t have to dress like a prostitute, you know?

Peter: It wasn’t actually something planned, we just did what we felt it was right. After all it’s a while that we recorded „White Diary“, I don’t know

Blanco: I still like the same bands. I still love Hanoi Rocks and Dogs D’Amour, but I think what we’re doing best is playing straightforward Punkrock, this is what we used to do like we grew up with that kind of stuff. We always had the glam-attitude as well

Yes, it’s different but it’s also clear right from the beginning, that it’s Silver.

Blanco: I agree with that. But I think that the style of music isn’t that different, it’s more the image isn’t, like the way we dress and stuff isn’t that much glam anymore, that’s the biggest difference. But also the sound on the new record compared to the old record. We are doing short Punkrock-Songs now.

The most songs are written in first person, like „I am“…

Blanco: But even though if it’s „I“ and „Me“, that doesn’t always have to be like „me“, it doesn’t have to be personal.

… that was the question!

Blanco: Yeah. I think if you write „I“ it gets more heartfelt, it gets more in your face. But some of it is personal as well. I don’t know why it’s like that, it just happened. The new songs we’ve written for the next album will not be that much „I“, I think it maybe sounds a bit eager

So you’re already working on the next album?

Blanco: We are not working on it, we have just written some songs

Same question here as with coming to Germany: Will it take again that long until the next album will be released?

Blanco: No, I think this time we are more focused, exactly on what we wanna do. We know how to do it now. We’ve tried everything and now we know the formula how to do a good record. It’s gonna be better next time. I hope so, you never know.

Peter: Hopefully it will be recorded before summertime

Blanco: When we come back from the Tour here in Europe and we’re back to Norway then we’ll record the new album. That’s the plan, but I know myself that well that it’s probably gonna take a little bit more time. Maybe, if we are lucky, it’s gonna be fast.

I talked to many people about your band, and many people said „Oh you mean this Christian band?“ Can you explain that?

Peter: I don’t know. I guess it’s easy to get hooked up with the fact if the members of your band are Christians, which is the case with Silver. It’s easy to get stuck with that impression. I don’t feel that Silver is a christian band

I was wondering about it, because it’s not obvious in your booklets or lyrics, except for the Thanks to God, so I don’t know where they get this impression from

Blanco: But still we’ve been influenced by religion. When I listen to old music like Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash I think it’s a very important fact that they sing about god. In a way it’s kind of the Rock’n’Roll words, but not the way Christians are today. I don’t know if I would call ourselves Christians compared to… You know religious people today it’s like Bush and Bin Laden basically. It’s just the same face…

Peter. They are just two different faces of the same sevenheaded dragon

Blanco: But I don’t give a fuck about what people say. If people think this is stupid then I… I’ve always done what I wanted to do. You know people tell us „Do that“, I heard from the states how to behave like „You gotta do it this way“. I’ve never thought about that. I can’t say that we are a christian band, because christian band what I think is like they are trying to save people, but I don’t think that God needs people. He can do it himself. So it’s wrong to say that Silver is a christian band. I don’t really care if people don’t like us because of that. At least they talk about us

It’s not that they don’t like you. If you ask them they say they do, it’s just the first thing that comes to their mind.

Blanco: That’s maybe why so many people heard of us

Probably

Blanco: We suck, we’re christians, man!

That’s not what they said!

Blanco: I know. I think most people just think it’s cool that we do whatever we want to do. Here in Germany we didn’t have any troubles with that. It’s always been one of my favourite countries to play

Peter: I don’t think about it at all

Blanco: I think it’s because people know we are not fake, people know that we are not trying to push any religion on anybody. So I think that people know that we are into this because of the love of music and I think that’s why so many people think that it’s cool. We know our punkroots. We’ve been Punkrock for more than ten years, so I think that people accepted.

From the songs on „World against World“ „Hold Fast“ is very different from the rest

Blanco: Yes

Peter: You mean musically?

Yes, and also the lyrics

Blanco: It’s very positive.

Yeah, most of your songs are very, let’s say dark. Although you’re not using the word dark as often as on „White Diary“

Peter: We started to write the songs on Saturday and writing the lyrics one day after

Blanco: On Sundays, you know. We’re writing the music on Saturdays and lyrics on Sundays - it just ends up like that. The only day we can write lyrics is Sundays. And I think we wrote „Hold fast“ on a Friday, that’s why it’s so positive

Okay

Blanco: Sunday is a hard day, isn’t it?

But you don’t like Fridays! [’ „Only boring people get bored“]

Blanco: Yeah, but that’s just bullshit. - No, it’s not bullshit, but I have the right to change my opinions from week to week and every human has, that’s why I think so many of our songs have like „What? You said this and that in that song“ and „You say this in this and that song“. We are not people that say exactly the same things then two years ago. Still saying the same things just means that you don’t think. You have different opinions

Peter: You learned!

Blanco: Yeah, you learned from living. So sometimes I really don’t like Fridays, that’s true. But when I go to work, when I have a normal life, I like Fridays. I’ve been unemployed, doing the same things every day, then I hated Fridays, cause everybody’s so different.

On „The Stand“ you have Jonas from Amulet as a guest

Blanco: Yes he is on „The Stand“, that is true

Peter: That was at a cool party actually that night in our studio. He brought a bottle of Fernet

So it was not planned?

Blanco: No, we just had a bunch of friends up there.

Peter: We were finished that day recording. We were drinking, having fun and we got in the mood, so we said „Why don’t we record the chorus?“ So we just did it.

When I look at albums from Norway, it’s always the same people appearing

Blanco: Really?

Yes, like Euroboy or Happy Tom to name some examples

Blanco: None of them are on this record.

Is it maybe because everyone knows each other in the Oslo scene?

Blanco: Yeah, everybody knows everybody. I think maybe the last three years have been the best years in the last ten years

Peter: The last ten years?

Blanco: No, I mean the last three years. That’s all I know cause I only lived in Oslo for ten years. The scene is very united. People back each other up. People go to shows and do their stuff together

Peter: It seems like people are getting less obsessed talking shit about everyone. I mean people will always talk shit

Blanco: We do that, too

Peter: Maybe I’m not the right person to say it, cause I’m the worst doing this, but it’s a much friendlier vibe between bands now, I think. People are more interested in introducing good bands to other people instead of talking shit about them

So is it because it is a small scene, or is it just the impression we get here in Germany, because we don’t know all the bands?

Blanco: It’s true. It is a very small scene.

Peter: It’s a small scene. I guess so it’s just natural that they support each other and do guest appearances

Blanco: The scene is a little bit divided. You have this Elm Street scene, Elm Street that’s a pub in Oslo, great bands like Upstrokes, Trashcan Darlings of course cause the singer is working there, Silver, The Cables, Brat Pack, Wonderfools, many bands and if you have this Last Train scene, they are still kind of the same. Last Train is more… ah I think it’s wrong to mention it that way…
I feel kind of like part of the Elm Street Rock’n’Roll scene, but it’s not right to say it’s „Elm Street scene“, but it’s were we drink, isn’t it?

Peter: Yeah

I was also wondering: You’re last name is Nikolaisen and there are so many other people with that name. Is it all your family?

Blanco: Yes, all my family. Maybe not all of them

Peter: Yes, but the ones she is talking about

Yes, I was wondering if it’s all your family or just a common name in Norway

Blanco: There is a Band called Serena Maneesh, you know them?

I’ve heard of them

Blanco: My brother and my sister are in this Band

Peter: And your other sister Elvira

Blanco: Elvira Nikolaisen, she is…

Peter: She is Norways popqueen Blanco: She is big in Norway. We do our different things. We grew up in a family it’s seven kids

And all are into music?

Blanco: Most of them. Just proves how small it is. But we in Silver have two Akerholdts. They are brothers, the drummer and one of the guitar players. And my brother Emil used to play drums for Silver, Kim started after him. And Kim used to play bass with us before Peter started. But that’s six years ago. Cause he is from Sweden. He moved to Norway from Sweden

That’s a good point. In my opinion the best Rock’n’Roll music comes from Scandinavia. I sometimes call it the „Rock’n’Roll gene“ you guys have

Blanco: The Rock’n’Roll gene. No I don’t know, there are many shitty bands up there, too.

Peter: I don’t think bands in Scandinavia are that good. There’s so much things released in the States that are just the same thing

Blanco: In Scandinavia we got many bands to look up to. When we grew up we were listening to Turbonegro, something like that. We were like „Wow, this is so cool, we have to play like them! Nowadays the kids that are 14 or 15 years old they look up to Silver. They have like role models to adapt to and they wanna play to. And if we are good they are gonna be a good band, too

In spite of all the bands being so different you can still hear that they are from Norway

Blanco: Yeah, that’s true. But I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It’s cool that it’s the Scandinavian sound

But it’s not like in the US where for example all those melodycore Bands have different names, but sound the same. You all sound like yourselves

Blanco: You think so? Cool. People would probably say that we don’t. We think we do, too. In Norway there is a totally different scene, too. The most popular bands in Norway now, like my brothers band Serena Maneesh and 120 Days, they are kind of very influenced by bands like Joy Division or Kraftwerk, stuff like that. That’s most popular right now, you know trendy right now. When we started with Silver bands like Turbonegro or Gluecifer where very popular. They are still popular. They still got so many fans. But it’s not very trendy thing anymore. It’s a little bit yesterday. But we are Punkrockers, so we don’t care about trends and stuff like that. We don’t care what the newspapers are writing. It doesn’t matter what’s trendy or not.

You said earlier that Bands are so supportive to each other. So which Bands would tell a German to listen to, that he hasn’t heard of yet?

Blanco: I would say a band of one of my friends, they are all my friends, in a band called Pirate Love, you can find them on Myspace, and Upstrokes are a very good band, they are Streetpunk. I like this new trendy bands, too, like Serena Maneesh and 120 years, they are very good, but it’s something totally different. And I like a band called Lydia Laska

Peter: Waklevoren

Blanco: Waklevoren. Members from different Black Metal Bands. All lyrics are in Norwegian, so maybe you can’t understand anything but it’s very good. JR Ewing broke up, Amulet broke up. But there will be new bands. They will start new bands, all of them.

But you’re not thinking about breaking up?

Blanco: No, not yet

Peter: We still feel that we have something to give. Something to add

Blanco: But if we think we have no more to give we’ll break up too

But not in sight yet?

Blanco: No

Thanks a lot! Was nice talking to you!

Peter: Thank you!

Blanco: Nice talking to you

Bleibt nur noch eine Frage offen: Wann ist endlich Februar???

Silver Homepage: www.thesilverband.com
Silver auf Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thesilverband

von Manuela Schon | 06.11.2006 | Kommentare (0) | Kommentar schreiben