Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, indie band Damen recently released their anthemic EP ‘Unemployment, Broke Bones, Death, Baby’. Sitting somewhere between shoegaze and timeless indie rock this brooding and contemplative EP follows on from their debut album ‘Sagrada Famìlia’ and has the power to make you nostalgic for the catharsis of live music.
Greetings Damen! How are you doing today? Welcome to DMC world!
Hey! Thank you for having us! We’re really good thank you!
Can you tell us a bit about how you guys formed the group?
The group was originally formed by Adrian (Drums) and a former member Carl who wanted to restart their old band from back in the day. They called up Gustav (guitar) who also played in the band before and things got going. Gustav found David (bass) at the university who then found Danial (vocals, guitar) singing at a freshman party. This was early 2015. Think we had our first meeting at a bar called Kings Head.
What is the story behind the EP title – does it references any themes found on the songs?
The EP got the name because of the circumstances surrounding the recording of this project. It is all things that shaped our year making it. It’s been a weird year, the pandemic came and shut down the touring plans. During this year Adrian lost his job, Gustav broke his hand which put the recording on hold for a while and also became a father, David and Danial found out they would become parents. It felt fitting to name the EP after what happened during the making of it. Even if some of the songs don’t reference the title we felt like this was a name that represented the EP for what it represented for all of us as a band.
What was your pandemic experience like?
As touched upon previously it’s been a weird year. We had just released our debut album “Sagrada Família” like two weeks before the pandemic started in Sweden. We had a great release party and we made plans for the year playing in different places and then it all stopped. So we started making new music instead and spent the time recording new material. Then later in the year the restrictions became more and more and we got less time with each other as a band and we couldn’t really make music together in the same way we used to. And what started out as a beginning to a new album became an EP because the other half of the album kind of got lost somewhere when we weren’t allowed to rehearse in our rehearsal room anymore because of the restrictions.
Where are you guys based? What’s the scene like there and how was it affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
We’re based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The indie scene wasn’t that alive before the pandemic but it had some really nice places and the city is producing some really great music. Of course the scene has taken a hit. Live music has been pretty much cancelled in Gothenburg and all of Sweden. During a time there was allowed to have 50 people in the crowd and I think Plan B in Malmö in south of Sweden was like the only real venue to still have live shows. But that’s also been dead for a while now.
What are your main musical influences? Who did you grow up listening to?
I think the main influences on our band when we started were bands like The Strokes, Arcade Fire, War on Drugs and Radiohead to name a few. Those were the artists that we all liked which we could form some kind of sound from.
Where is the best place to keep up to date with you?
If you wanna know what we are up to, mostly check in our instagram and our facebook. Also check in our labels social activities.
Thanks for speaking to us today! Can we expect anything else from you in 2021?
It was our pleasure! And hopefully you will see more of us in 2021. Hopefully we will play some live shows again and you can check us out there. That’s what itches the most after this long break! We will probably start writing new material and make that follow up record to “Sagrada Família.”
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D I S C O V E R:
www.facebook.com/damenmusic/
www.instagram.com/damenmusic/
