Album de la Semaine : Bigbang - The Oslo Bowl

Bigbang

The Oslo Bowl

Interview de Bigbang, par Bear pour Indie Rock Reviews

1. Tell us about the band?

We’re Bigbang from Oslo, Norway. Neil Young on a skateboard..

2. Have you ever been fed up with playing music or with band members, why?

Never been fed up with music, but many times with band members of course. I guess if you really care about music it will get difficult at times since different people tend to hear and care about different things in music.

3. What was your first concert experience? Do you remember how you felt once the concert was over?

My parents took me to many shows, but the first one I remember was seeing B.B. King when I was six in Oslo. More than anything I kept watching the trumpet player in the orange suit because he looked a little like an orangutan with big grey hair.

4. Did you grow up wanting to play music, or when did the whole making albums thing come about and how?

I used to always know that becoming a musician/artist was bound to bring misery and I even said so as a kid after performing on a TV show…. I wanted to become a luthier.

5. What qualifies you guys to be in a band?

We´re stupid and passionate enough.

6. Do you have a favorite song you have ever written? Why?

It varies but right now I would say “Isabel” from the new record…that came out pretty good I think.

7. What is your greatness weakness as a band?

We are about as difficult to market as we are great live I think… we have no style, we´re like God, we just keep trying things the elephant, the banana, ginger etc. Once we get popular we will be associated with a style of music, but as an unknown act critics have a hard time putting us in the right box.

8. What qualities should a successful label or manager have?

They should be able to do what we can´t do, market us and get us a good booking agent in the US!

9. What’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to you in your life?

I almost got beat to death by neo-Nazis in Olso. There were four of them with baseball bats and skimasks… they smashed my grandmothers Opel Corsa too!

10. What’s the first thing you do when the band arrives in a new town while on tour?

If there is time and surf I love that. But most of the time it´s coffee and sandwiches.

11. Have you ever had an audience member give you the willies because they kept looking at you all weird?

I don´t really know the word “willies” but I think the answer is yes. It´s even worse when they come up on stage and are huge and insensitive and want to dance for a long while on stage.

12. Have you ever cried while listening to music? If so what were you listening too?

I do that all the time. Almost any Billie Holiday song will do that to me.

12. If you could re-record, or re-write any song of yours what would that song be?

Too many to even mention. Our songs have so much potential, but only a few come out good – it´s a little like fishing and getting the good feeling all the way to the end is hard.

13. What’s the worst place you have ever played a show at, and why?

There once was a festival in Tønsberg where there must have been evil energy around the stage area. I kid you not my vocals sounded half a note off all the time. The weirdest acoustic phenomena I have ever experienced, and the day before we played this band Aqua played and the singer had a big breakdown and made the news etc…

14. Who was your first crush and what was it like to feel that way for the first time?

In preschool and it was intense… I fall in love all the time, but I’ve kind of given up too.

15. In a perfect world how many albums would you have to sell to be happy?

We sell okay and I think this world is perfect. But the two things don´t have much to do with each other really.

16. What do you guys have planned for the future?

Touring and record making, and hopefully a tour of south america.

17. What music do you listen to when you are having a bad day?

Boogie Woogie greats it works trust me.

18. If you had your life to live over again, what one thing would you change?

I would love to erase the violence and racism that cause so many problems for us still today… but i guess that would require changing many lives… but it´s a hypothetical question regardless.

Line Up :

Øystein Greni
Olaf Olsen
Nikolai Eilertsen

Label :

Grand Sport, EMI

Tracklist :

01 – Like Americans Do
02 – Little Heart Bomb
03 – The Oslo Bowl
04 – Lazy Eye
05 – Love Today
06 – In The Evening
07 – Dandelions
08 – No Place Nowhere
09 – Black Lights
10 – The World Is A Drumkit
11 – Song