Rock N’ Charity is the name of a series of charity concerts that for the 4th year is gonna hit venues across the country.
Our new contributor Daniela met the guys from Disarray Son in their rehearsal room, preparing for their concert at the next Rock N’ Charity event in Stengade, this coming Saturday, 8. November 2014. (Check out the Facebook-Event HERE).
The guys – Anders Friis, Mads Kieler, Mathias Bust and Lauge Heebøll – have been knowing each other and played together in a cover band before, though Disarray Son was born around 3 years ago, when lead singer Anders joined the project started by the three other members. From then on, they’ve been able to cherish their own sounds and achieved some goals by playing in the context of Roskilde Rising at the last Roskilde Festival.
We had a chat discussing on their future projects, insecurity and how they work together as a band.
Good because Danish: How was starting a band together, after playing in a cover band?
Disarray Son: From the really beginning it went really smoothly. We immediately started to playing rock’n’roll riffs and developing our own songs. We figured out it was easy to find a common ground. We started Blues-inspired and then we moved towards a more melodic side, trying to develop our own sound within it. It took a while, but we ended up with some kind of fusion of everything we stand for. Of course we are always evolving, we have thrown away a couple of songs and it is also important in the history of a band. It’s important to kill your darling, as it made it also possible to find our style within the last year.
How would you then describe your music?
Well, what the mantra has become, is that we only want to call it rock, because nowadays there are so many sub-genres and you get easily confused. Rock is the most clear source and interpretation of rock itself. We got some of the hard stuff as hard riffs, but at the same time we also have some soft-heartened sides, where we get emotional or at least try to show it in our songs.
How has the last years been for the band and what are your future projects?
We are gonna release a 5 track EP in which we put a lot of work and energy. In the last months, we have spent time recording the tracks and now the EP got mixed and mastered in Jutland. It is going to be released at the beginning of 2015 and now we need to figure out what we will do up until the release and afterwards. We definitely see a major improvement in terms of songwriting. But the songs are still within the same culture and style.
How do you work as a band in terms of songwriting?
It is a special way because sometimes one of us brings a riff, a melody, some chords, a chorus, anything – then we jam our way there. Sometimes it’s a whole song or just a glimpse of a song. It is a collective process in terms of songwriting. We want to do it, so that everyone is satisfied and feels their needs and their vision have been satisfied.
For which songs did you make the most agreement, the most community work?
We spend a lot of time deciding what we want or not in our songs. A song that went pretty smooth was “Gold Labeled Love”. I (Anders speaking) did not know if I could create something in that specific moment of my life. Bust came up with a verse – “Baby, can’t you please let me go” – and asked if we could use it in some way. We just started jamming it and all of a sudden we had a chorus. Lauge came in and he added some back-up vocals, and we ended up having an amazing song we were super excited about. To me, the memory of this song was as if we were in a sort of bubble where everything fell into place.
You have been playing at Roskilde Festival, in the pop up concept of Roskilde Rising. How was the experience?
Originally, we were not in the programme. We were building up Dream City, and have been asked if we knew some bands whom would like to play. We got invited to play at the Roskilde Rising pop-up concept the day before Roskilde Festival 2014 started. We actually got confirmed on the Thursday before Roskilde Festival 2014 started, that we could actually play and from then a turmoil of confusion took us. We had to figure out how to exit the festival and bring our own gear and come back – plus, we had to play at Roskilde Festival! And then we were not even sure we could play, because of the rain. Fifteen minutes before the concert, it started to rain and we were afraid we couldn’t play and at the same time we were concerned that people wouldn’t come. Although we were shitting our pants, we wanted to play that gig so much. As soon as the rain stopped, people just started to enter. And as soon as they told us “Ok, guys , are you ready?”, we were ready to rock it. It was the greatest, it was really special because the atmosphere in the Dome was really intense!
You are playing at Stengade this coming Saturday, for the event Rock N’ Charity and this will be the first concert after the one at Roskilde Festival. What does this mean for the band?
After Roskilde Festival we got back to our individual vacation and we focused on the EP we gonna release. We got a bit of a collective frustration actually, because it is kind of a fix. You have all this energy and emotions and we did not have an output to canalize our energies. We were isolated inside the studio and rehearsal room, and while doing that we did not have any response whatsoever. We now just want a feedback. We once had a guy saying: “Yeah, I don’t know if it was great, but, okay, bye!” – it could be positively or negatively, we really want to get a response and finally play live again. Disarray Son is a live band. We get shit done on stage. Fortunately we have three gigs this months (Stengade – 8. November, Beta – 21. November and Tapperiet, 28. November) and we are very excited about it.
Photos by Daniela De Lorenzo
Guest Blogger: Daniela De Lorenzo