Kaizers Orchestra Interview

Kaizers Orchestra have just put out the new album - brilliant "Maskineri" and thanks to that, we had the privilege to talk about it with the great Geir Guitar Hellraizer Kaizer himself! Let's start right away with the main culprit - Maskineri!

1. What can you tell us about Maskineri? We noticed that the Kaizers overall sound has changed a bit, everything is more mellow and sofisticated. (We totally love it, if we can mention:)

- Thanks! There are a number of factors at play here ofcourse. We have become a better and tighter band, actually we have improved a little for every record we ´ve made, so we just sound a little different now than what we used to. Also, we used a different studio and producer than we did on the three previous albums. In cooperation with Mark Howard we wanted to make more organic and natural sounding album this time, focus more on getting the right sound in the recording phase instead of manipulating everything in protools later. Also we wanted to take a step away from the trend from the last 15 years in the music biz of making everything so crazy loud and compressed. The loudness of modern music recording is killing the organity and dynamics in music, and taking the human being out of the equation. We wanted to bring the human being back in! Maybe that comes across to you as mellow and sophisticated, but actually its just more comfortable and more natural for your ears .

2. What influenced you most when you were making Maskineri?

- Janove is very inspired by american rap, R n´B and hip hop. Most notably in his singing style, but also in the song arrangements. A lot of people can´t hear that, because it´s sort of suttle and hidden behind songwriting that is not R n ´B ish, but those genres have been a strong influence. Apart from that I think we are mostly influenced by Kaizers Orchestras former albums.


3. And what about the album cover? What's it all about? You look like Oceans 6 on that photo!

- Thanks! Can I be Brad Pitt? We are very much into movies, and we wanted to combine Kaizers with a gloomy cinema having a premiere on a great b-movie! like "is this a movie or a band?" kind of thing. The coverpicture is a 3d image, made by a friend of ours, he spent a lifetime on it, and it looks awesome!!

4. Does Maskineri have a big overall theme to it like other albums? Unfortunately, none of us speaks norwegian and it's still too early for fans to have translated the lyrics so we hardly know what the lyrics are about (sorry)

- The english translations will be on our website www.kaizers.no when the album is released abroad, so they are on their way! But no, no overall theme this time. To make another comparison to movies, where "Ompa til du dør" is like the movie "Underground" this one is more like "Four rooms" or "Short stories" or something. We just wanted to make songs that stand for themselves, and do something different from what we´ve done before also in that department.

5. What happened to the gas mask? It's suspiciously absent from album cover except for that poster hanging on the lamp post! You haven't lost it, have you? It's almost looks like it's wanted sign:)

- It´s funny for us that people are so concerned about this gas mask thing. It´s becoming like our Eddie or something, "Where the fuck is Eddie? It´s not Iron Maiden if Eddie is not there!! I don´t know, it´s got nothing to do with the music, but I guess we ´re about more than only music to people. And to answer your question, the mask is still there in our show. It´s our logo and stays in! Now if you don't mind we would love to ask you a couple of questions about touring! We have some questions that have been
itching on our minds ever since we saw you live:

6. First of all, we are wondering how on earth do you pass borders with all the barells and "equipment"? How do you explain to custom officer why you are carrying barrels and gas masks with you? Are they at least a bit suspicious?

- Never had a problem with that. Only crazy country is Switzerlanad where we are not allowed to bring merchandice, and we have to bribe the custom officers. We havent been to the US though, we would probably get in trouble there. Paranoid androids over there.

7. Is it funny when you hear how non norwegian people sing your songs? I know that at least me and my mates always sing along to Kaizers according to what we think we heard on your records, but since we don't know a word of norwegian (though it's a mighty fine language so it's a shame) it must sound totally ridiculous to you when you hear us.

- Don´t worry, we can´t hear you on stage, because everything is so fucking loud. But it would probably be interesting though.... Maybe we could get some new fun lyrics off of you guys´ interpretations...

8. What kind of show can we expect on the new tour?

- A fucking kick ass show by the best band on the planet right now!!!

I Have to go now. Time is running out. Cheers!

Geir

kris // 25/02/2008

PS: Don't forget to buy Maskineri on itunes or the actual vinyl or cd if you happen to live near Norway.