Pinboys

Die Pinboys aus Dänemark sind hierzulande schon länger keine Unbekannten mehr. Das Quartett hat im April ihr Debütalbum released und war nun für einige Wochen auf Tour quer durch Deutschland und Umgebung. Unter anderem hat man Shows mit Fall Out Boy gespielt und hat sich nun für einige Konzerte mit Reel Big Fish und Army Of Freshmen zusammengetan. Sven Launert hat Anne und Anders vor ihrer Show im Bielefelder JZ Kamp am 15.5.2007 getroffen und herausgekommen ist Folgendes…

So, your record has just been released. Are you happy with the result?

Anders: Sure. (lacht) Anne: I would say we are both happy with the result and are also relieved that we finally getting it out and got the work of the last four years out.

The name „Teenage Wasteland“, where does it come from? Does it have a special sense?

Anders: We have the feeling that a lot of teenagers are somehow jumping through life without thinking about it. And I think teenage wasteland is about those teenagers that don’t care and we want them to maybe think a little more about what they’re missing and what their life is about. Anne: We also thought that it’s about dreams and doing what you want and Teenage Wasteland is a place where you’re not fulfilling your dreams and listen to all the grown-ups telling you to become a doctor or something like that. A place where you don’t fulfill your dreams mainly…

How come that you have most of your fans outside of Denmark?

Anne: (lacht) You should ask the danish people about that actually. It’s too bad, but the scene in Denmark is much smaller for punk music. It’s getting there with Fall out boy and Billy Talent and getting more popular, but it was very hard to have a band like this in Denmark, so we had to get out of there to do what we wanted to do.

You also were in the US playing some shows that weren’t that popular?

Anders: We had a very cool tour, it was the very first tour we ever did and we played about eight shows there and had a great time, but the venues…well it was our first tour and we did not release anything, so of course it was hard, but we learned a lot. It was just the thing to do and people liked it.

Do you think your fanbase in Denmark will grow with the release of the album or will they still rather listen to Britney Spears and 50 Cent?

Anne: (lacht) I really, really hope for the first one I must say. That’s what you always want as a band, that the people listen to you and they like you. Anders: And people know us now. They don’t have to like us, but they know the name, because auf interview, reviews and be played a lot of shows because of the CD.

Compared to other bands, your music sounds pretty unique, with the male and female voices. Do you have a definition for your style of music?

Anders: Not really (lacht). I guess we didn’t think of being unique. I think we just liked it the way we do it. Anne: We did not come up with a plan like „Let’s put like this and then it will be cool and unique!“ I think it was more like an accident. Anders: But that was a long time ago…. We don’t think that much about it. Anne: The sound is mainly punkrock and pop-punk, with a touch of other genres. We have a bit of disco in it, but we have some ballads in it also. It’s not like we’re saying we want to this only, we do the music we like and sometimes it has different results, but that’s mainly our genre. Anders: And obviously, having a girl in the band gives us other aspects, I mean we have another element in the music, but we don’t think about it that much that she’s a girl. She’s a guy (lacht), she carries stuff.

So there wasn’t someone who came up with the idea of having a male and a female vocalist in band?

Anne: When we started, I was not always in the band. And before we only had guys in the band. Anders: To start out, I was with Jakob and were playing in another band with only four guys and we needed someone for the vocals and the only one we knew was a girl. So she did only and backup vocals in the beginning and we got used to the idea of having a girl in the band.

You happen to play shows with some big names in the „scene“ like Fall Out Boy and now Reel Big Fish. How does it feel to play with bands, that you maybe used to know from your youth or from MTV?

Anne: It’s a great feeling of course, it’s a sign for us of getting more known. Anders: I remember playing with the Donots for the first time and the Donots are somehow the reason for me to make music. I was like a little boy, it was a bit weird, but if you meet them, they are really nice guys and I’m getting a little more cool.

Who did you work with to make your album sound that professional? I mean, there are other bands on bigger labels that have a real bad sound.

Anne: We recorded it in Berlin with Florian Nowak from 5Bugs in the Daily Hero Recordings studio. But we also had a vocal coach, me and Jakob… Anders: … Jeff Collier, he also did the Donots and Guano Apes. He is from America and now lives in Bochum. Anne: It was something totally different from what we used to do before. First we had to sing and think about what to sing. Now it was easier to just feel what to sing and have someone else to think about it and help to do it better. Anders: And I think we took a lot of time to do it. We took a month to record it and took our time to make it perfect. We didn’t want to make somethink half perfect.

Wasn’t it exciting to record the first album that would be released over a wide area?

Anne: Of course, that is what we have been waiting for. Seeing the response of the people when we come to their countries. For sure, it was amazing. Anders: Especially, we’ve been very well accepted here in Germany with good reviews, but not that good in Denmark (lacht). Like we said before, they think it’s mainstream and even if you take Fall Out Boy, they all get the same bad reviews in Denmark.

What are your future expectations for the record? I guess it will sell pretty good here in Germany, because the people already know you. Do you think it would be successful in Great Britain or maybe if you release it all over Europe in the next months or the next year?

Anders: We just finished the deal with Japan, where we will release in July. We were in contact with people in Benelux and Great Britain, but it was nothing really serious yet. We concentrate on only one territory at a time and take it as it come. Anne: And work hard to release it everywhere. So if Britain would love it, we would love it.

For the future of the whole band, will you aim for major label deals or do you prefer indie labels and keep on making albums like the one you released? Or do you aim for something that’s real mainstream with a producer that tells you what to play so he earns best from it?

Anne: We aim for doing what we love. We would like to be able to live from it and be well known. That is the main goal, that people know who we are and like what we do. So we don’t have to do our little jobs in Denmark. Of course you want to aim for the top. Anders: And I think right now many bands go very well on indie labels. So, I think we will always be on an indie label in Denmark. Maybe we will one day be released somewhere by a major label, but the connection will always be through our indie, so that we always keep control. Anne: We don’t want to sell out. I think it’s very important to stick to who you are, but also to listen to people that know how the business goes. There is a fine line between staying true to yourself and wanting to listen to people that could try to tell you what to do. Anders: I think control is the key word in this. You have to be flexibel, if you want to be successful. Anne: It is commercial of course, you can’t always have it the way you want it. That would maybe not get you anywhere.

After the new record, what comes next? Will you just tour for some time or will you go home to Denmark and start working on new stuff?

Anders: That’s exactly what we’ll do. We’re going into the preproduction of our new album already this summer. We just have some much energy right now and so much lust for making music. We did not have so much material for new songs for a long time. If it will be a whole album, we don’t know. So touring will be not much more than these two weeks, but we’ll be back soon.

So as a last question, is there someting you want to say to your fans? Some „famous last words“?

Anders: We love to come here to Germany, we love the people here. We always feel very welcome here. Anne: And we are grateful to come here. Anders: And we always have a good time and have beer with cool people…. A lot of beer …. (lacht) Anne: We all love meeting people. It’s great to talk to people that appreciate what you’re doing. So the people out there gives us a chance and we’ll prove that we’re worth it. Anders: Thanks to all the people out there who buy our CDs and come to our shows, we’re very grateful.

That’s it for my interview, thank you for your time and have fun on stage!

Anne: Thank you and enjoy!

von Sven Launert | 25.06.2007