Listen to DATAROCK now!
DATAROCK is one of those bands whose songs you have heard over and over again without realizing it. DATAROCK's music can be heard on iPod, and Coca-Cola commercials, as well as in various games by Electronic Arts (EA); such as FIFA 09, FIFA 10, NHL 08, and The Sims 2: Free Time. We recently had a chance to chat with DATAROCK's Fredrik about their music, history, and future.
So, let's start from the beginning - What is DATAROCK?
DATAROCK is an electro acoustic bonanza of a band formed in Bergen, Norway, almost 10 years ago. Some say we pioneered a new kind of dance music, inspired by New Wave & No Wave, Madchester, and House, back in the days when LCS Soundsystem and The Rapture were doing sort of the same stateside. In the UK, we were later on labeled as New Rave, and started touring with Klaxons, poop Disco and Simian Mobile Disco back in '06. However, we've been named Indie Dance, Disco Punk, Funk Punk, Lo-Fi Pop, Casio Pop, and whatnot, but we've survived all the hypes, and summed up in one sentence, DATAROCK is all THE good that ever happened to mankind compiled into one simple musical expression. We're "DATAROCK" - 30 years of information society living in the peak of the computer age.
Norway seems like such an awesome place to be from. What other artists also hail from your musical playground?
Røyksopp, Annie, Kings of Convenience, Casio Kids, Ungdomskulen and a bunch of black metal maniacs like Gorgoroth & Enslaved.
How have your origins influenced your music?
It has influenced us in the sense that our origin was so far away in time and space from our inspirations that we could create our own mixes.
How long have you been in music and when did you realize this was what you wanted to do?
I guess we've all been doing it as a hobby since we were kids, but we didn't realize we could make it into our profession until the single "Fa Fa Fa" got attention across the world. That totally took us by surprise.
What are some of your favorite songs to perform on stage?
"Fa Fa Fa", "The Pretender", "Give It Up", "True Stories", "Dance", "Computer Camp Love" and "Bulldozer".
What are some of your favorite musical time periods?
The late seventies, early eighties, the late eighties, early nineties, and the early 18th century.
Ditto! How has your experience with Artwerk been?
Artwerk's been unbelievably good to us, and they certainly made us available for vast numbers of new listeners.
Artwerk's relationship to EA makes their music available on many, many games. Your music has been in quite a variety of franchises like FIFA and The Sims. Are you guys gamers?
Not really...
Let's say you are paid to make your own music-based video game -- what would that look like?
Pretty much a remake of Rock Star Ate My Hamster. Check it out at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Star_Ate_My_Hamster.
You should really get that in development - it's a brilliant idea! Let's move quickly, before someone sees this and tries to steal the idea! Tell us a bit about the new album.
It's pretty varied and pays tribute to a wide range of our favorite artists, so you'll find introvert indie, weird instrumentals and extrovert dance tracks side by side. It's produced using nothing but vintage equipment and the sound is much inspired by adult pop sensations of the late seventies, early eighties, such as the Talking Heads, Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, YMO, DEVO, Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, The Fall, Kate Bush, Fela Futi, Giorgio Moroder's productions and even Toto, A-ha, Prefab Sprout and The Smiths.
That is an amazing line-up! Touring?
The whole world! We've played 650 shows is 30 countries now, and just in the US we've done 17 tours of varying size in 3 years, so right now we really enjoy going to faraway places like Japan, Singapore,
Australia, Argentina, Brazil & Mexico.
That's a lot of travel! What are some of you favorite foods on the road?
Whatever we can find that's prepared with a little bit of love.
If you ruled the world, you would...
...force environmentally protective changes upon industry and our private lives, make fair trade a general rule, enforce child protection, increase the punishment of any violent & financial crime,
lower the punishment for drug (ab-)use, better the conditions of elementary schooling and public health care of all sorts, decentralize power to a minimum, make life very hard on producers of weaponry, give
priority to legal prosecution for corruption in all countries throughout the world and make the punishment sting like a bee, hard core quality control all forms of industrial farming and help organic
and biodynamic players. And give tax relief to struggling artists, as they're the poor patrons of the general well-being of mankind.
When can we make you president of the world? Thank you very much for your time and rock on!
For more information about DATAROCK visit their website, datarockmusic.com.