Att nå ut med sin rockmusik idag är inte alldeles enkelt. Konkurrensen är stenhård. En del band skapar egna sid-genres för att på något sätt sätta sin stämpel på rockkartan. Det är ju ett sätt att skapa en unik identitet. I slutändan handlar det om att göra musik man själv står för och att det låter riktigt bra. Det krävs en stor portion passion i det man gör. Det sistnämda tänkte jag mycket på när jag lyssnade på det danska hårdrocksbandet SuperCharger första gången. Deras musik är väldfylld med passion och positiv energi. Jag vill ställa mig och hoppa, studsa och tralla med. På lördag kommer SuperCharger till Stockholm för att spela på Bandit Rock Awards. Då förväntar jag mig en rejäl energipåfyllning för att prata i klartext. För att kunna återberätta storyn om vilka SuperCharger är passade på att få en pratstund med Thomas Buchwald, sologitarrist i bandet.
JL: How and when did SuperCharger become a band?
Thomas: Well that’s a long, and for most people, probably quite boring story. I’ll try to give you the short one. As most other bands, all members in Supercharger played in different bands and projects before forming Supercharger. Some of us already played together and some of us never met before joining the band. Benjamin(drums), Mikkel(vocal) and myself, actually played together before Supercharger. The band that we played in fell apart, and after a while I called Benjamin and Mikkel and asked them if they wanted to start a classic hardrock-band. As funny as it may sound, we are the only 3 100% original members left.
Over the years there has been different members and constellations in Supercharger. I could name them all, but it really doesn’t make much sense…
How ever less than ½ a year ago, Brian(bass), and shortly after Thomas P(rtm guitar), decided to leave the band. It was a real kick in the face to lose two long-time members within so short an amount of time. Both Brian and Thomas had been in the band for many years, and has been with us on both albums and countless concerts and tours. We all split in peace and there is no bad blood between us. It was a personal decision for both of them, but it’s really hard not to see a thing like that as a major set-back. After a lot of thinking and soul searching we all agreed that there was no way this should be the end of Supercharger. We decided to turn the situation from a worst-case, to one that benefited the band instead of crippling it. After a few months of searching and rehearsals with the new guys, I’m convinced that we have succeeded.
We now have Karsten(bass) and Dennis(guitar) in the rhythm-section. They have been playing together in other bands for about 10 years and they are both former lead-singers. This combination enriches the band in a way that we could only dream of. Our rhythm-section is now more tight that ever and vocally it has opened up a whole new world. We cant wait to get out there and rock all of you guys socks of , he he.
JL: Which kind of music did you want to play from the beginning?
Thomas: When we first started out we hadn’t really given it much thought, other than we wanted to form a hard rock band. That was it! We all had pretty different backgrounds, so I think that the combination of us as a band formed the sound. It wasn’t something that we talked about and decided.
JL: Could you describe your sound/music?
Thomas: No.. hahaha. I always get irritated when bands try to explain their music, trying to put them self into all kinds of categories and references to other bands and God knows what. Some how people’s perception of them self is always very different from how other people see them. We play Rock ‘n’ Roll.. straight forward classic rock ‘n’ Roll. Sometimes it is hard and some times soft. Listen to our 2 albums and decide for your self.. hopefully you like it, ha ha.
JL: Has the sound changed alot since the beginning?
Thomas: It most definitely has. The ”new” album is much more melody- and song-minded that our debut-album. I think that we had a lot to prove, not only to the whole scene, but to our selves as well, when we started out. We really wanted to make it clear to everyone that Supercharger was ready to do our thing, and take over the world. Therefore we played faster and harder and more aggressive to make an impression on people. We played every single gig that we could get our hands on (we still do in some extend). Some of the gigs were really crap. But the crappier they were the more we had to work to win the crowd. We learned a lot that way, and still do..
Another thing is that we gradually became better and better musicians. Not only do we play better and more tight now than when we started, but I also think we’re much better at writing now. Especially during the writing of “Thats How We Roll” we learned a lot.
JL: How was 2011 for you guys? Please tell us a little bit bit of everything? Tourwise, release of your album That’s How We Roll?
Thomas: Well we finished all recordings in December 2010, and mixed and mastered our 2nd “That’s How We Roll” in January 2011. Both the recording-process and the mixing was very different from our fist album. Many of the songs changes a lot during the process, and our 2 producers Kristian Thomsen and Anders Ringman had a lot of great ideas and new perspectives.
So, 2011 started out pretty good. A new album out and on tour… here we go. The reviews has been very good in both Denmark and the rest of Europe, but I think a lot of people were surprised about the new album. The sound is so very different from our first album. Handgrenade Blues sounded like it was recorded live, which was the idea at that point. The new album has a much more clean and clear sound.
We did 2 DK-tours and also played some scattered gigs in Germany and Sweden. In the beginning of the summer Supercharger signed a deal with the German booking agency Dragon Productions, and shortly after that, we really began talking to our Swedish contacts. The good people at Bandit Rock took us in and that led to some really cool shows in Sweden too. So despite that we played mostly danish shows, our focus in 2011 has very much been on establishing the band in Europe as well. That and then on making music-videos.
We released 4 videos during 2011 and that has been a blast too. It’s a whole new wold that has opened up for us. At first I think most of us felt a little weird making the videos. The process itself is very non-music and you really have to let go of yourself and give it a go. But I think we are slowly falling in love with that process too, especially after seeing the final result and of course the reactions from the viewers.
JL: I want to talk about the life of touring in a general matter:
JL: Which of your concerts has been the best?
Thomas: That’s a tough one. We played for aprox. 10.000 supporting D:A:D in Copenhagen. It would be easy to pull that one out and say “that was the highlight of our career until now”, but I don’t think it would be true. It was a great show and an amazing experience, but I don’t think it was the best concert.
Other shows that were really great could be Copenhell 2010, Bikini Test in Switzerland with Nashville Pussy and Malmö Festival 2011. They were all really great shows and fantastic crowds.
JL: What is the coolest about touring?
Thomas: The coolest thing about touring is definitely the fact that you never know what the next day is gonna bring. We are still not established enough to have tour-managers and crew to do every single thing for us, so it’s a big challenge to plan and organize a long line of shows in a row. At the same time we take great pride in attending every party and afterparty that we run into ha ha..
JL: What is the craziest thing that have happened in the tourbus or/and on a concert?
Thomas: It's hard to pin out one incident and say “that was the craziest thing that has happened”. We have tried so much and been in so many f***** up situations over the years, that you sometimes wonder, how we ever made it out. I don’t know what is the most f***** up.. driving down a mountain in Switzerland in an auto-camper with worn down tires in the middle of the night in a blazing snowstorm on ice-roads.. or discover that some one has broken into the our bus at 3am in the morning and stole every single passport an ID. Still we had to be in an other country 4 hours later. I could go on for hours… And some things are just to embarrassing and awkward to talk about here, ha ha.
JL: Do you have dreams of playing at a particular arena/club and why?
Thomas: Well… not really. When your younger, you have all these crazy ideas and dreams of where and how you’re gonna play all these big legendary festivals and arenas. I could name places like Monsters of Rock, Wembly Stadium, Madison Square Garden etc. How ever when you get older it doesn’t matter that much any more. It is still OK to have dreams, but in general you just get a little more earthbound. It is always cool to play big venues, but sometimes smaller venues can be more crazy and intense. We don’t dream as much about playing some where any more. Now we just PLAY!. Each step up the latter is victory and create new goals.
JL: Future!
JL: The event of Bandit Rock Awards is about to take place on saturday. What are your aspectation of the event?
Thomas: We are very exited. For what we’ve heard it sounds like a great event and an even better party. We already know quite a few people in Sweden that probably are gonna show up, so we’re looking forward to seeing them and of course, to the event itself. A lot of great bands are gonna be there.
JL: You are also gonna play there, how cool is that?
Thomas: It’s like… whhooaaaauuu maaan! Ha ha ha.. It’s just so very cool for us. Actually the way Sweden has taken us in, is just great. It makes so much sense for us, that our neighbor-country is inviting us to an event like Bandit Rock Awards. We are gonna play a short, but full-blast set, and we promise, you will not be disappointed.
JL: If you are gonna win a prize, how long will the your speech be?
Thomas: Speech…? It’s probably gonna be very short and chaotic, of course I cant imagine that any one will prepare anything. It reminds me of the last time we won an award. When they called our name out, none of us were there he he… Some were out smoking, some on the toilet and others were in the bar backstage. None of us had imagined that we were gonna win. So.. after a while we one by one got up to the podium and got the award.. I cant remember if any one of us had any thing to say..
JL: Besides Bandit Rock Awards, how does your plans for 2012 looks like?
Thomas: For now the plans are simple. Tour, tour and tour. After having spent a lot of time playing in Denmark, we really wanna get out there and do our thing in the rest of Europe..again 😉 We have teamed up with some really good people in both Sweden and Germany and we’re very exited to see where that can take us.
JL: Is there a new album to be recorded?
Thomas: There definitely is, but when, is still unknown. We still feel there is a lot left in “That’s How We Roll”. It haven’t even been out for a year yet. So I think we will start writing new material in the fall and then we’ll see how it goes. I know some of us (myself included) already got a lot of nice ideas and riffs waiting to see the light of day.
JL: How does you Tour-calendar looks like at the moment? Already many bookings?
Thomas: We already have some festivals lined up, and a lot of other concerts in the making. Keep an eye on our tour-calender.
JL: To finish this up, could you please tell some cool and spontanous to our readers?
Thomas: … what can I say, that I haven’t already told ya…? I can tell you what I have spent my time on for the last week or so. We have bought a bus…Hell yeah!!! It’s not much to brag about. It’s old and ugly as hell, but it’s the first tour-bus that we have ever bought. It’s definitely something quite different from the spacecraft-busses that we are used to rent , and we’ll probably regret it, when it breaks down after the first couple of kilometers, but hey… It’s the new “Supercharger-Mobile” – coming soon to a theater near you! ha ha ha
Intervjun gjord av: Jonas Lööw (Rockbladet)
Foto: Pontus Fagerstedt, TheCaddy.dk och SuperCharger
BANDFAKTA – SUPERCHARGER
Bandmedlemmar:
Mikkel Neperus – Vocal
Thomas Buchwald – Lead guitar
Benjamin Funk – Drums
Lars Rygaard – Keys
Karsten Dines Johansen – Bass
Dennis Samaras – Guitar
Hemsida
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Senaste album: That's How We Roll
Aktuella med: Spelning på Bandit Rock Awards
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