Interview to German indie-pop sensation Claire
Interview to Claire Photos by Oscar Tornincasa http://photoblog.oskaro.it for rebelrebelmusic.com
Claire is a five-piece German band from Munich born 2 years ago, when Nepomuk, Messel and Flo – who at that time were working together in a studio – joined forces with drummer Fridl and charismatic singer Josie. Their music clearly finds its roots in 80s synth pop, but with a fresh personality that detaches the band from today’s anonymous plastic pop and puts them in the olympus of future talented pop-stars. We had the chance to interview them on the occasion of their debut UK live shows in London.
Q: Why “Claire”?
Josie: Actually Claire is my second name so that’s one of the main reasons, but the thing is we actually didn’t really think about it, because we were like really looking quite quickly for a name for us and at that moment we actually never thought that we would have to explain why we’re like 4 guys 1 girl and the name is Claire (laughs). So, yeah, it’s hard to explain. I think anyway it’s good, you can remember it.
Q: Your music clearly finds its roots in the 80s electro synth-pop, who are the artists inspiring you?
Flo: I think it’s more the instruments that we use are from the 80s and so 80s inspiration is within the instruments I think. There is no particular 80s artist.
Josie: It’s always really hard for us to name like one particular artist because we’re really into a lot of different stuff also amongst each other. Everyone listens to slightly different music, and so I think it’s really hard to like pin on one name.
Q: How do you compose your music?
Nepomuk: Mostly in the studio, mostly not like in a session, when we’re all together in a room and it’s more on a computer with all the instruments plugged in and just maybe, yes, sometimes it’s just one person or two persons working on the basic structure of the song and then everybody is involved.
Q: How long does it take for one song to come to life?
Flo: sometimes two day sometimes 6 months.
Josie: definitely always the instrumental is first and the lyrics come like after the instrumental.
Q: How would you describe your album “The Great Escape”?
Josie: cinematic
Nepomuk: yeah, cinematic, electronic,
Josie: our first try (laughs)
Flo: we tried to make an emotional album, it’s hard to describe it in few words.
Nepomuk: if we had to say what dish would it be, it would be Bento, it’s Japanese, where there’s a lot of different kinds of stuff in there and the whole mixture makes the meal.
Q: When is it going to be available to the rest of the world?
Flo: we don’t have any dates, it will be available in the world this year for sure, but we don’t know exactly when. Hopefully as soon as possible.
Q: How hard or easy is it to make it in the music industry today?
Josie: well I think you can’t say in one way hard or easy, it’s like every band has its own life history. For us it was… definitely hard work but for us it came more or less very unexpected, because we weren’t like really focused on “ok we want to have success”… we just put things online and for some reason people responded really well to it and we never thought that would happen, so we just slipped into it. If we think that the first step went quite easy, and I think it always depends on the individual how things work.
Flo: I think it depends on the team you have around you. We were really lucky with close family and friends, we have everything we needed, we had it within the inner circle, design, photos, videos and all the stuff and then we met our managers who are really helping us. I think that’s the most important thing for us to handle all the stuff.
Q: What’s the thing you love most in being musicians?
Fridl: I think being here, being able to play in different cities, in different countries, I think that’s one of the most beautiful part of the whole thing. Many of us hadn’t been in London before and to be here and enjoy this beautiful city, it’s one of the best moments you can have.
Nepomuk: also like the moment when your job is like go to the studio and make music. I mean that’s cool, there’s nothing else you have to do but just go wild and do the thing you like.
Josie: there’s also so many different things, like being on stage and losing yourself completely in that moment. Not thinking over before and after, oh ok I have to pack my stuff together… on stage, in that moment, you’re just enjoying it and letting go. It was hard getting to that point, because you learn to feel really comfortable on stage, but I think we’re getting there to completely let loose.
Q: Do you prefer working in the studio or performing live?
Messel: I think it depends who you ask to (laughs).
Josie: I enjoy also the studio, we haven’t been in the studio for a very long time now, so actually I’m also really forward to getting new stuff done. So, definitely live but I’m missing the other part.
Flo: I think it’s basically, the difference in creating music and performing music, both sides are really important. It’s the two sides of being a musician, it’s really important to create new stuff so you can perform new stuff.
Q: What’s the biggest career goal you want to achieve as a band?
Nepomuk: just keep going on as long as we can. So, if people are still interested I think we could go on forever. If we sit here again in 10 years and you’re still there interviewing us that would be a lifetime goal.
