| Editor: |
Janine, James. Hello and thank you for
taking the time for this little interview.
You are an Australian band but mostly known in Germany. Isn't that
something strange to you, not to be known in your own country, but in a
foreign country?
|
| Janine: |
Not so strange...
I think it happens a lot that bands have to leave their own country to
find where they belong.
It would be nice to have some success in Australia, but we are happy to be
here and to have found where Naked Raven's music is most appreciated, I
guess.
|
| James: |
And also it's kind of logical that we have
most of our following here, because we've actually spent more time touring
here by far than in Australia.
It's just the distances are so great in Australia that touring is very
expensive. So we just really didn't do a great deal of touring in
Australia. We mostly just played in Melbourne and within sort of the east
coast.
So it makes sense...
|
| Editor: |
Do you think the European audience listens
to music differently than the Australian audience does?
|
| Janine: |
Yeah, I think we find a difference with our
music.
When we play our music in Australia the atmosphere is quiet different in
the room. People will still continue to talk and enjoy a drink with your
buddy... |
| James: |
All the social type of things in it... |
| Janine: |
But here people treat it much more like a
concert... |
| James: |
They listen to it... |
| Janine: |
I think it's the classical element as well.
People are educated here to sit and actually listen to the music being
played.
Especially with our music, because it's so dynamic, people here actually
respect that...
And they know what to expect when they come to a Naked raven concert as
well.
|
| Editor: |
While you are quiet well known here, you are
also still a kind of insider tip... |
| Janine: |
We're underground! [laughs] |
| Editor: |
...Not discovered by the music industry, yet.
Do you like that state or would you like to get it bigger? And would your
music work in bigger places?
|
| James: |
Well, you always want to have the opportunity
to play to more people so you can have a wider audience.
We work really hard on the songs, on the arrangements and our performance.
And it's always great when we got a good sized audience to come and see
the concert.
Whether we want to be on commercial radio or commercial television, that's
kind of a different question...
|
| Janine: |
I think, if we could have it all we would love
to have our music available to everybody and play it on commercial radio,
but not being controlled by a record company. Not to have someone who
tells us what kind of music we have to make for the album to get it placed...
|
| James: |
That's always the risk, isn't it?
If you want to work with a major record label, then quiet often you give
up a great deal of control over your own material.
At the moment we have complete control over the sound, feel, the songs -
over everything...
It's a difficult thing. Very few artists are lucky enough to have complete
artistic control and be working with a major label, to my knowledge,
anyway.
|
| Editor: |
We saw it today... After every show you go
out to sign CDs, talk to the people...
How important is this to you and do you think it's important for the
audience as well?
|
| James: |
It's very important for us. |
| Janine: |
Very important and yes, I think it's important
to the audience, too.
I think it's just nice to meet the people who made the effort to come
along...
|
| James: |
We appreciate that people come and see us every
time. None of us takes it for granted.
When we walk into a venue to play and it's a full audience, then we just
feel incredibly lucky.
So it's really important for us to come out and meet people as much as we
can. |
| Janine: |
I guess it's a little bit our way of saying
thank you.
You know, the audience gets to clap for us, but we don't get to clap for
them, but being able to come out and say hi and thanks for coming... |
| James: |
That's a good way of putting it. |
| Janine: |
That means, we can give something back.
|
| Editor: |
Going a bit back in the history of Naked
Raven...
In earlier years your guitarist Russ Pinney wrote most of the songs. When
he left, Janine, you overtook this part mostly.
Do you think the music of Naked Raven changed a lot through this step or is
it still a continuous thing?
|
| Janine: |
I don't know. I'm probably the worst person to
ask...
I think you probably get all kinds of answers from different people. Some
people would probably say the writing has changed a lot, the music has
changed.
I definitely write different to Russ. For start, he plays Guitar and I
don't. So the approach to the songs - they always start with a piano
unless I'm co-writing with a guitarist, but usually it's with the piano.
So automatically you got a different foundation.
But with the instrumentation and... |
| James: |
... our approach ... |
| Janine: |
I think everyone in the band is still really
focused on the Naked Raven sound and keeping that integrity.
So even if the songwriting style has changed... |
| James: |
... we have really tried to remain true to the
core, the sort of foundation to Naked Raven's musical belief or
ethic core.
|
| Janine: |
I don't know. But maybe you should ask people
who buy the CDs...
|
| Editor: |
There also were several changes inside the
band among the musicians in the last years.
Do you think, that this is an advantage that you have new persons getting
new impulses into the band or a disadvantage not to be able to work continuously with the same people?
|
| Janine: |
I think you bring up two very good points and
they both are correct. |
| James: |
It's both... |
| Janine: |
I mean, we would love to have the same five
people all the time, but this lifestyle isn't for everybody and that's why
people have come and gone...
It meant that the songs has been able to kind of change and develop. And I
think that keeps it interesting not only for the band - it keeps the songs
fresh for us - but hopefully keeps it fresh for the audience as
well.
It's challenging and it's time-consuming, rehearsing new people in, but at
the end of the day we always worked with really great players and we are
just fortunate to be able to do that.
|
| Editor: |
This year for the first time you have German
musicians in the band as well. Is that the point, as you just said, people
were in the band and couldn't stay with this kind of living on tour? So
you think it's easier if you have people from here so there is no problem
for them getting "home-sick"...?
|
| |
[Janine & James laughing]
|
| James: |
It's really a big deal to pack up your life, to
give up your life in one place and go and live on the other side of the
world and there is no guarantee that it's going to work out either.
So we couldn't guarantee anyone anything other than we will just go and
come to Germany and give it a best start.
And I think it's entirely understandable that not everyone that was
playing with the band at that time was prepared to give that up.
Janine, Stephanie and I were really committed to that dream, that sort of
taking the gamble, I suppose... |
| Janine: |
And also embracing the experience as well. You
know it's so completely different to Australia, actual being immersed here
and really starting to understand the culture and the history. And it's a
wonderful experience.
|
| Editor: |
You have German musicians in the band now
and you also have another German touring with you: "the man with the red
socks"...
[Janine & James laughing]
I think he does a very good job, too.... |
| Janine: |
Joachim Schwaiger, "the tiger"..
He is wonderful. He is great at his job and he also is a dear friend. Part
of the team.
|
| Editor: |
You usually stay in Berlin while you are
here.
How much did Berlin become a place called "home" for you?
|
| James: |
It feels very much like home. |
| Janine: |
Yeah - Feels like home. |
| James: |
We started coming to Berlin in '96 and we
immediately felt an affinity with the city and with the culture and the
atmosphere.
So it's been a place that we've come back to during the tour for short
breaks or sometimes slightly longer breaks in between tour dates.
And, I guess, we just grew more attached to it over the years.
So it was
really the only choice for us as our base while we're doing all this
touring at the moment.
And it really does feel like home in a lot of ways now.
[To Janine:] Would you agree? |
| Janine: |
Yes, I would agree.
|
| Editor: |
And you also taped your new DVD, that's out
soon, in Berlin. It's called "Home" as well... |
| Janine: |
It is! Yeah, that's right. |
| Editor: |
So it's called "Home", because you
feel home in Berlin... |
| Janine: |
And it's a bit of a home audience as well.
There were lots of familiar faces there... |
| James: |
Yeah, we felt like we were surrounded by
friends and musical family in a way
|
| Editor: |
In former years you always wrote and
recorded new material mostly in Australia. But this year you do it here,
because you're quiet long here...
You started working on a new album with an Australian producer who lives
in Europe..?
|
| Janine: |
Yeah, he actually lives in London and he's a
good friend of us, who we are really excited working with.
He's a classically trained musician, but he's one of these people who puts
his hands to something and he just is brilliant in whatever he does.
He's been quiet successful in the pop field in Australia. He has recently
moved to London and he's focusing now on compositions for film-scores and
something like that.
So we are really excited about working with him because his experience is
so broad and he's got great ears, great musical ears.
It should be exciting. He'll be coming to Berlin to record with us.
His name is James Roche and he's a genius. |
| James: |
Yeah, basically... |
| Janine: |
He really is...
|
| Editor: |
So we will watch out for the new album,
maybe next year... |
| Janine: |
Yeah, next year it will be released.... |
| Editor: |
...and the DVD that we will all watch while
you're not on tour...
Thank you very much for the interview.
A lot of success for the future and may everything go to the direction you
want it to go... |
| Janine & James: |
Thank You... |
