A quick chat with The DeadNotes
During their intimate tour a while back, our Interviewer Jan got the chance to have a quick chat with The Deadnotes before their show in Berlin. The DeadNotes have evolved from their former pop-punk style and are currently trying out performing new songs to their most loyal fans.
Check out their single Resorvoir, which was the single to debut a tour show!
You write English music as Germans, was that a conscious decision on your part, along the lines of, this is our thing, or did it happen naturally?
Darius: Well, for me, who mainly writes the lyrics, it was never a question but came totally naturally, because I actually only listened to English-speaking bands, so it was never a question of writing in German. I wrote a song in German once when I was 11. Never before in my life - and I've had this glorious idea for years to release one of our songs in German one day. But not to write it in German but rather a translation that sounds slightly awkward but somehow really cool.
Jan: Basically, put it through Google translator once and then ...
Darius: A bit cooler; but something like this.
Jan: Would definitely have a vibe.
Darius: I hope so. It's a bit inspired by what was already tried in French by a really great band we toured with years ago called Foxing, an American band who released a song in 6 different languages, all in a slightly weird way. Everything in slightly different translations, because art is not so easy to translate, but it has a funny charm.
Jan: If you do that, let us know, we're definitely here for it!
You've known each other since you were kids and I'm sure the question arises whether you do something together as a duo or did it just result from the fact that you know each other and probably have that connection?
Darius: Well, the band hasn't been a duo for that long but only since 2021, so since our old drummer left. At that point the question was very big, how do we continue, do we bring in a new band member or not? But Jakob and I had so much time to just work on new music together like crazy, and we found this idea of not only having a switch, which is musical, because the songs had gone in a completely different direction up to that point, but we also found it very exciting to perform as a duo. Something you don't really know in the rock scene and we thought it would be really exciting to do it like a pop band and to have the opportunity to get as many live musicians on board as possible, to make the whole thing as big as possible and therefore have far fewer limitations.
It certainly sounds like it's worked out well over the last few years. Sinve there’s been that much change recently, how did the name The Deadnotes come about? Is there a story behind it?
Darius: That's always the best question. No, there's no story I can tell you right now. We formed when we were 15 and we thought it was fucking cool and two months later we thought it was fucking shitty. But since we reached the point of having changed our style and after a long phase where I hated my own band name, I came to the point where I thought, it's fucking cool, we're all full of mucker nerds, we're all just weird freaks like that and it's just a really stupid name, but it fits and I really like it now.
It's definitely good that you like the name again now, but it's also understandable that it changes over time and it will probably change in the same way with songs that you're particularly looking forward to playing. Your latest song was released 10 days ago. Is it now that you say, ok that's brand new, we're really excited to play it now or do you have all-time favorites that you've been playing for a long time, where you say, this is the moment that you're particularly looking forward to?
Darius: For me personally, the new songs are always the ones I look forward to the most and that's also the reason why we're doing these shows now. We haven't played a lot of live shows this year, because we've written a lot of new stuff, and we didn't want to wait forever for it all to be released to play again. So we thought, hey, we'll play a few mini-shows to just show new material to people who are close to the band and really into it. That's why the shows are very exciting, because there's a lot of new stuff and at the same time super exciting. I'm really looking forward to it and at the same time it's always old songs that you haven't played for ages, that you sometimes throw back into the set and then realize, hey that wasn't so shit and then you're really into it again.
Jan: And Jakob, how is it with you?
Jakob: I think it's very similar, the new single that we've just released, we've already played it a few times, but I think the songs that aren't out yet, some of them are even more fun and I'm looking forward to them even more when they come out. Yes, so it's nice for all the people who can listen to the songs now.
Darius: Of course it's also dangerous, because if the songs are all received really badly now, then it's like hm...
Jan: That would be a stressful situation, but ...
Darius: Obvoiusly we don't assume that
No, I don't think so either. I mean, it's obvious that you have stage experience. You've also supported other bands before, are you still nervous when you go on stage or have you reached a point where you say you have a certain routine, it's cool?
Jakob: Well, it never stops anyway. I think I'm very tense anyway. That can subside very quickly, but there are also moments when I can't get over it so quickly and then a concert doesn't go so well, at least for me. I don't know what it's like for outsiders, but I'm always particularly nervous. And especially when everything is a bit new and you haven't played the songs a hundred times yet, then everything is a bit more exciting, a bit of an extra kick though. Can also be good, can also help, in any case.
Darius: I also think we are such a fundamentally nervous band and that never subsides and is sometimes very stressful. Today I was running through the whole soundcheck again, stressed to death and probably everyone who was in the venue and didn't know us was thinking oh are they playing their third concert like this? But at the same time, I think, fuck me, if I still have this stupid nervousness and stress after 600 concerts, there's also something nice about it, because it doesn't stop being routine or boring. It's still the case that I look forward to every show immensely because this nervousness is still there.
Leonie: Especially then
Darius: Absolutely
If you could have a dream feature, with one person or a whole band. Who would that be, if you had to pick someone at the top of the head?
Darius: That's a good question. Dream feature... there are so many really great artists. I always think that's a very difficult question, because I am, of course there are some really great artists, there are Bleachers, that's currently Fontaine's DC, who I think are insane, I would do a feature with them straight away, but I'm also a big fan of features that nobody expects, that are totally off the map.
Leonie: With you Jakob?
Jakob: Oh, I can't really think of anything right off the bat. Nah, I'll leave it at that.
Darius: We are in the very privileged position of not being able to make huge features, but because there are two of us in the band, we can always make music with people who are really inspiring for us. That's Paul, who occasionally plays saxophone live with us. And Felix, who plays drums with us, is also involved in writing the songs. These are all people who come from completely different musical backgrounds. And apart from any big features with well-known artists, we are happy and privileged to be able to make music with super inspiring people again and again lately. So, we already have a lot of dream features coming up.
Now, we've basically already arrived at the penultimate question and that is that we're dealing with the topic of belonging in the magazine and that's one of those things in the music industry too. Especially now that the band has changed again, and you've been on the road as a duo for the last few years. Are you at a point where you say, this is the place where I belong now, where I can develop further or do you say, we have found it for now?
Darius: That's very very exciting because that was a very big theme of our last record was Forever Outsider. I don't know if there is a point to arrive somewhere at all, but I have the feeling that we as a band, in our little space for us, have absolutely found that point since the last EP. So an environment of people, a space musically where we feel absolutely comfortable and we know exactly what we want to do. And at the same time, it's also a space that is totally far removed from other scene environments, so in the end we ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere again. But at least in our space, which feels really wonderful for us right now.
Jakob: Definitely, so I think what you said, at least it feels like that now. But I don't really think you're going to end up anywhere completely anyway, and if it's something completely different in three years' time, then we'll probably feel like we've arrived, because we did it for exactly that reason, we've developed in this direction and that direction, so I think you should stay flexible anyway and you want to, you want to try out new things. It's fun and it never gets boring.
Darius: Absolutely and that's why I think we're a band that doesn't want to arrive at all. We want to arrive in our little space, which is temporary and we don't want to arrive in a prefabricated space, we like to build it ourselves. So we simply like to build the place where we feel we have arrived. No matter where it is.
Leonie: So it's more like arriving in flexibility?
Darius: Exactly, that's a very nice term.
Jan: Well we're glad to hear that.
Actually the last question is, we have a playlist from The Unseen Magazine where artists can recommend a song that they feel very strongly about, or they simply enjoy. Do you have two songs where you would say, this is what I can listen to a lot right now?
Darius: Well, I'm listening to SkiAggu featuring Ikkimel - Deutschland with Felix every day right now.
Jan: *child screaming on a nearby playground* I think he actually does too.
Darius: I think so too, that's why I'm dropping it into the playlist now. Just to make the playlist completely hollow.
Jan: Then I'll probably put the song in once from both of you?
Jakob: Not really from me.
Jakob: Then I'll take one song, which one do I take? One from the new Fontaines DC record…definitely, but I don't know which one, Romance. The whole album.
Jan: Let's put it in, yes perfect! Well, then I thank you for your time.
Both: Thank you for coming by.
Jan: Then we'll see you later when you're on stage!
Darius: Of course, absolutely.
WRITTEN BY Leonie &
Jan
I love to capture the emotions of a gig, freezing these moments of joy forever. Growing up listening to music whenever possible it simply made sense to connect the two things i love most in this world - photography and music.
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