ONE NIGHT WITH DATAROCK.

Music | Johnny | July 13, 2009

A month ago, we had the glorious opportunity to capture the essence of DATAROCK LIVE.
We exclusively present them to you as a photo story and in a candid interview.

What a night it was.

We have always been fans of Datarock, randomly humming “Fa-Fa-Fa” in the shower at times and wishing we could dance with the old man a little more often as they fervently illustrate with one or their songs. But actually getting the opportunity to spend sometime with them and catching their live performance was a different experience altogether.

We were mesmerized with the quartet jumping around in their red jumpsuits and we honestly became part of their red army. The tropical heat took its toll on the band after a while and you can see them undressed for the occasion with the pictures below.

They came, they played and they stole our hearts. They even stayed for a DJ set to keep us dancing on a weekday night, forgetting about our regular routine and focused on their beats instead of the daily beat.

How we wished the night didn’t have to end.

We capture them in their most relaxed moments and sit down with frontman Fredrik Saroea for a one on one about their brand new album RED which was released last month.

More often than not, we like to judge artistes and bands real quick when they say they have come up with a tribute album, influenced by other artists. Whats the point in following others and stealing their style when a band in this day & age is supposed to be highly creative in every part of the process of coming up with a new album?

But what these naysayers have is a lack of discernment, and being influenced by the likes of David Bowie, Talking Heads, Kiss & Prince can hardly do a band any harm in our opinion.

Datarock is just that band to have those as influences and whatever genre you want to place them under, be it Norwegian Pop, Electronica or even New Wave, this band is creating more than just ripples in the music scene.

They document all of their influences in 13 amazing tracks for their album RED, using only instruments and technology manufactured before 1983!
Vintage music equipment for the win!

HERE IS THE INTERVIEW WE DID WITH FREDRIK.

MORE PICTURES BELOW AND DO NOT FORGET TO GRAB A FEW REMIXES WE HAVE OF THEIR WONDERFUL TRACKS TOO!

TASHED.COM: Tell us a little more about the nascent stages of coming up with the brand new album “RED”?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): It was done in 2 different studios in Norway & London with 5 co-producers. It was a long and extensive process but we absolutely love the result and we are happy with the reviews that we have read of so far! It is an album that is heavily influenced by our favorite artists and is sort of a tribute in its own way.

TASHED.COM: You say this album is sort of a tribute/heavily influenced album, who are your main musical influences?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): Scott Walker, Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Morrissey, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, The Police, Kiss and even Prince!

TASHED.COM: Did you guys, as a band, have a lot of freedom in making this album?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): We experimented with all sorts of sounds, and honestly had too much freedom, but we loved the process. We experimented with keyboard sounds, interesting samples, various vintage equipment, all of which were manufactured before the early 80s. We also used digital software, amalgamating both analog and digital sounds for this album.

TASHED.COM: How would you compare this to your previous albums?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): We basically had the same artists as the first album to create RED, but this is a band album to us and is very much a combination of our 1st album and our live album we released sometime back.

TASHED.COM: What are Datarock’s plans for the rest of the year?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): We are going on a world tour of Australia, USA, UK (London), Japan (Summersonic) and Germany. The video for our first single of the new album, “Give It Up” was released not too long ago and we will be releasing the video for another single from RED, “The Pretender” real soon so watch out for it!

TASHED.COM: Would you like to elaborate on the impetus for creating some of the tracks off your new album, RED?

FREDRIK (DATAROCK): SURE!

“The Blog”: The first track of the album which was inspired by Kiss & Prince. We had some real interesting samples for this track and is about modern day and age, and about how we.. the whole world is so connected by the internet.

“Give It Up”: This track is musically influenced by David Bowie, but so many other things as well from Romeo + Juliet to even plays such as Westside Story!

“True Stories”: A total tribute to the Talking Heads, which was the name of an album by them in the 80’s, which was released at the same time as the David Byrne film of the same name.

“Dance”: Just what it says! DANCE DANCE DANCE! A real dancey track.

“Molly”: This track was named after Molly Ringwald, the IT girl of the 80s!

“Do It Your Way”: Inspired by 80s Manchester, and musically influenced by the likes of Charlatans, Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses.

“In The Red”: An instrumental track which encapsulates the whole recession going on.

“Fear Of Death”: Inspired by Morrissey and a tribute to Whitenose.

“The Pretender”: This track was inspired by Modern day and age as well with the whole internet thing and different identities some people have on the internet.

“Back in the Seventies”: Inspired by The Police and lyrically inspired by the early 80’s once again!

TASHED.COM: Thank you for the quick run through!

* At this point of time the band was up for a DJ set and we left them to their own devices and you can see more with the rest of the pictures we have.

MP3 DATAROCK – FEAR OF DEATH

MP3 DATAROCK – GIVE IT UP (KISSY SELL OUT REMIX)

MP3 DATAROCK – GIVE IT UP (WEIRD TAPES VERSION)

-PHOTOS BY EYE OF EDEN

SEE MORE OF THE ALBUM ON FACEBOOK!

SEE MORE OF THE ALBUM ON FACEBOOK!

SEE MORE OF THE ALBUM ON FACEBOOK!

DATAROCK LIVE! PRESENTED BY VILLAINS (SG), HOME CLUB (SG) & ZIRCA.

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