The Panzerpappa Special - Interview & more

Live show review:

Review: Panzerpappa Live 16/02/07 by Bj-1 (Bjørnar Lunde)

Intro:

Being one of Norway’s best prog band’s these days, I decided to check out this band. I went to their homepage and surfed a bit and eventually got curious of their further live shows. I found out that they were having one gig in Ås, about 20 minutes south from Oslo (the capital city here) and a couple of hours with train from where I live. I got very exited and got some samples from a couple of their two latest albums, “Farlig Vandring” and “Koralrevens Klagesang”. After listening to those samples (which I found excellent) over a couple of days, I definetely decided to give this band a try, no doubt about that! The days passed and on the concert dayI travelled to Ås with huge expections. After getting off the train, I got inside the local, which actually was a mid-sized cafè combined with an art gallery. The place was named “Gallery Texas” and the people who worked there was very nice, and after paying for the entrance I quickly found a chair by a table facing the (rather small) concert stage where the band’s instruments etc. where placed. There was about 50 people in the audience right before the band made their entrance, not a very big arrangement with other words, but the atmosphere was really good nevertheless. I had talked with some other people for a while (prog music related topics of course) and after a few minutes, Panzerpappa entered the building. They had a bunch of CD’s with them, all being copies of their two latest releases “Farlig Vandring” and “Koralrevens Klagesang”, I went to them and bought both. After a few beers they went for the stage and everything was clear...

 The concert:

After introducing themselves, they started out greatly with “Billettkontollørenes Inntogsmarsj”, a track taken from their first release, “...passer gullfisk”. My jaw was reaching the ground, I had never seen so great musicianship live ever. This is a note band though, everyone but the drummer was reading notes while playing, but still... wow! The band got a nice applause before continuing with the title cut from their newest album, followed by “Snill Sang på Bånd”, also taken from their newest one. At this point I wished the concert would never end. I had a good look at the musicians, they seemed to really enjoy this concert as much as I did and It was really fun to see’em play this über-complex music with ease. They continued with “Hulemysteriet”, “Apraxia”, “Sykkelgnomflåtten” and “Landsbysladder”. On “Sykkelgnomflåtten”, bassist Anders Krabberød used the famous Chapman Stick and I nearly started to drool at this point. Im not a bassist myself, but this really reminded me of Tony Levin’s use of it and Krabberød’s use of it was very impressive. Another impressive thing was Saxophonist/Keyboardist Steinar Børve’s performance. He played fantastickly and even played sax and keys at the same time, which is really difficult among this band’s use of incredibly odd time signatures. Guitarist Jarle Storløkken’s performance made me think of some of Zappa’s floating guitar solo’s during his live shows in the mid-70’s and drummer Trond Gjellum could easily be compared to prog greats such as Bill Bruford or Daniel Denis. After all this thinking, I can now easily rate Panzerpappa as one of the best live bands I’ve seen so far. They finished off the concert with “Ompapaomompapa”, the last cut from “Farlig Vandring” and one of the band’s finest songs. Just as the rest of the concert, it featured excellent instrumentation and blowed the audience away, including myself. Although the gig laster for well over an hour, it seemed way too short though, as with all concerts I’ve been on. Kinda sad, but I’ve promised myself to see’em again. After the concert, I ordered a beer and had a chat with Trond and a couple of the other members. I had a really good time, so good that I nearly missed my train. I thanked for the concert and promised’em to see them again sometime, which I will.

Overall:

The Interview

(questions were gathered from several PA forum members in addition to my own)

• The obvious questions – what are your musical influences? Musicians you admire/appreciate? A current band you like their music?

It's almost impossible to name them all, but some artists are more important in shaping us than others. One common factor in Panzerpappa are without doubt Frank Zappa. Not only musically, but also in his way of thinking about composition and how to use the studio as an instrument. King Crimson and their constant strive to reach beyond the horizon to explore other musical territories, are also important to
us. Samla Mammas Manna and Lars Hollmer are popular among the members of the band. The Canterbury-band like Hatfield and the North and National Health are also favourites of ours. Other artists that in some way or the other are important to us are Univers Zero, Henry Cow, Thinking Plague, 5uu's, Bob Drake, Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt. We also listen to a lot of contemporary classical, pop, electronica, jazz and so on. But as I said earlier, it is almost impossible to name them all. But I think you've got a hint.

• Why did you choose this band name? And the album names? (I know it's
on your website, so feel free not to answer).

I wanted a short and snappy name, and Panzerpappa is easy to pronounce for most people all over the world. The name of the albums are mostly wordplay on Norwegian phrases and book titles that is difficult to translate to another language. But I think it gives us a little aura of mysticism, because we have made words you cannot translate by using a dictionary.

• When did you start playing music? Did you know you want to pursuit it then? Did you learn on your own? How did you arrive to Panzerpappa?

I started playing drums at the age of seven-eight, and I've been singing all my life. As a drummer, I'm mostly self thaught. I've always been composing and making songs, and in 1996 I composed some
sketches on my TASCAM Portastudio that eventually became the first Panzerpappa-songs. I met Steinar in 1997, and we started to compose music almost instantly. This became the foundation of Panzerpappa. All this happened during late 1998/early 1999.

• Why this style of music?

I've always been interested in music that doesn't fit into the regular mold of verse-chorus, and I became interested in progressive rock at the age of 16 and have been into this ever since. These days I listen to and compose a lot of other music too, but the core of the progressive ideology, to explore and strive for something new, have always influenced me. The first progressive band I listened to was
Yes, and I still like their music, especially "The Yes album", "Close to the edge" and "Relayer".

• How the collaboration with you (the band) and Richard Sinclair did come about?

In the spring of 2002, RS was asked by the Norwegian progfanzine Tarkus to come and play a concert in Norway. He needed a backing band, and myself, Anders (bass guitar in Panzerpappa) and Jarle (guitar in Panzerpappa), plus a couple of other guys became the backing band. When we started to write music for Koralrevens klagesang, we wanted to try out vocals on one song, and we thought: "Hey, lets ask RS!" And he was willing to come to Norway and record. We also played a well
received concert at OsloProg05 festival in Norway, September 2005, playing Hatfield, Caravan, RS-solo songs and Vintervake, the Panzer song that RS sings on.

• Is and how does internet illegal downloads affect your albums sales?

It's difficult to say, but all small bands are affected when music is downloaded for free, because the band looses income and therefore money to make more records. So buy our records, don't download them illegally!

• Have you played outside Norway so far? If not, are you planning to? If so where?

No, we haven't played outside Norway and we do not have any immediate plans to do that. We very much like to, but then we need a small tour. To travel to another country for playing just one show, aren't economically feasible. But we're thinking about touring in the summer of 2008. But we won't reveal anything before we have some booked concerts.

• Is Panzerpappa your only occupation? If not, what do you do in addition? How do you manage combining your musical career with your other one?

I'm working full time as a teacher in secondary school were I teach religion, social sciences and Norwegian. To combine music with a full-time job can be a hassle sometimes, but usually it works out
fine. Steinar is married with two children, but he's got beautiful wive that support him and give him time to work with music. Jarle is working full time as a freelance musician and Anders is a full-time
student of biology. So from time to time, Panzerpappa is put on the side. But we've all agreed that we rather take breaks and pauses instead of risking family-life and economy. If you're doing well in
your private life, you make good music and playing in a band become fun. I'll rather have a small scale band that can play some concerts, record an album every other year  for a long time, than taking the
risk of people quitting the band because it become a burden to their personal life.

• Other than music, what other passions do you have in life?

We're all into all kinds of literature and movies, and personally I love to walk in the beautiful Norwegian woods and countryside. The peace of the nature gives me a lot of inspiration.

• I can hear some Canterbury influences in your music, and obviously there's the collaboration with Richard Sinclair. But this is obviously not the only sound in your music. Who is responsible for the fusion of sounds in your music? How do you compose? Do you simply "come up" with a theme, or does it evolve slowly?

All the members of Panzerpappa are inspired in some way or the other by the music of the so-called Canterbury-scene. What I personally like about the Canterbury bands, is their wonderful way of mixing the avant-garde and progressive with the good, old pop sensibility.

Regarding songwriting, all the members are responsible for the music of Panzerpappa, and everybody writes music for the band. We have different ways of composing. I am mostly making rough sketches that the band use as a launch pad for further composing, while Steinar usually bring forward the song more or less finished with note sheets and so on. Jarle and Anders uses a mix of these ways of composing.

• Your music, to me, is mostly optimistic and with a positive approach to life and also with some humour. Are you naturally happy guys? Do you not relate to the more obscure RIO bands, and prefer the happier, humouristic bands like Samla Mammas Manna?

We're a pretty happy bunch of people with a lot of warm and intelligent humour and we're always cracking jokes.  I think the music reflects that in a certain way. I like the humour of the Samlas, but I
also like the dark and gloomy atmospheres of Univers Zero and Art Zoyd, because dynamics make music, and life, interesting.

• In the last album, you thank Anekdoten, White Willow and The Samuel Jackson 5. Are you friends with those bands?

I've been a friend of Jacob Holm-Lupo in White Willow since the late 80's. We come from the same suburb of Oslo (the capital of Norway), and met each other for the first time when we visited a Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe concert in Oslo in november 1989. I have known Anekdoten since 1994. I was one of the promoters of their first concert in Norway in February 1994, and Peter, Anna Sofi and a friend of the band stayed at my flat during the night. Panzerpappa have also been playing support gigs for Anekdoten at quite a few Norwegian gigs. The Samuel Jackson 5 is friends of ours, and Thomas Meidell, one of the guitar players, is also a collaborator in my solo project tr-Ond
and the Suburban Savages. BTW check this band out at myspace.com/thesuburbansavages


• The band has many instruments listed in the last album and in addition there are several guest musicians with various instruments. How do you control all this "mess"? Would you like to enrich more the band's sound?

Well, basically Panzerpappa is the four of us playing 95% of all the instruments, but all of us are interested in getting the right sound for each song, and if we can't play the instrument, we bring someone in to play it. All our music is written down as musical scores, and all of us use sequencers in the composing process. This gives you a pretty good vision on how it will sound, and the "mess" will sound like music and not, well, a mess. But it's important to know the musical language and tools that composition gives you. I think you need to know something about composition, unless you want to use a lot of time figuring out everything through trial and error. I like trying and experimenting, but I think some basic understanding of composition is necessary when making as complex music as ours. So everything you hear on an album by Panzerpappa, is well thought out. We won't include any new musicians, but rather try to enrich the sound by be better at playing our own instruments and by using samples and so on. The sampling technology is so good these days, and it's possible to make sounds that are either extremely close to the real or to make sounds you cannot make on another instrument. I like that very much and would like to delve in to that in the future.

• Whom would you like to do a drum/percussion improvisation duet with if he had to choose between Vander, Bruford, Cutler, Charles Hayward or Stewart Copeland? ((He's a very good and versatile drummer in his own right, this Trond guy, by the way).

Oh, that's so difficult to say, because I like them all very much. Copeland was my first drumming idol and I look forward to see The Police live this august. Christian Vander is almost like a force of nature! His playing is so inventive and powerful. Bruford have always been my "prog rock drummer-icon" because his constant strives for perfection and willingness to always change and try new things,
regarding both technique and equipment. Cutler is a wonderful drummer, and his drumming in Henry Cow and Art Bears is absolutely unique. But if I had to play a duet, I would play with Charles Hayward. He is a bit overlooked by the so called progressive community, but his playing in This Heat and Camberwell Now is of extremely high class. I like his way of supporting the melody and using the drums as an instrument, not only as a rhythm box. He is also thinking of texture and sound and not
only playing a million notes per minute.

• From your albums you seem to me like a band whose sound might be best captured live. Do you do many live shows? Do you enjoy it? Will you consider playing outside of Norway given the opportunity?

We don't do many live shows, and we would certainly have done more shows both in Norway and in other countries. But when we play live, we really enjoy it, because it's always rewarding to get the report from a live audience.

• How do you write and record your music? What's the process behind them?

We record an album when we feel we have enough interesting material to fill a record. We usually don't have any special concepts behind the music, but we try to put on to record music that we feel make up an interesting whole.

All of our albums have been recorded in different ways. "… passer gullfisk" was recorded at a semi-professional studio with 24 track ADAT. "Hulemysteriet" was recorded in the basement of the student
house called Amatøren in Oslo onto a Korg D-1600 harddisc recorder. "Farlig Vandring" was recorded onto 24 track analogue tape. I like the analogue tape format, but I don't like the sound of that album. It's to thin and dry and don't show what we're up to. The reason behind that was basically that we were on our own behind the mixing desk without any experience mixing in the analogue domain.

Because we were so dissatisfied with the recording of  "Farlig Vandring", we decided to build our own recording studio in our rehearsing room. This studio is based upon a Windows PC running Adobe
Audition with a good Terratec sound card. With some additional plug-ins and a good pair of monitors, it was possible to record and mix the album on our own. It took some time, but we're pretty satisfied with the sound of the album.

• The cover art for Koralrevens is lovely. It somehow fits the music (at least to me). Did Steinar have anything particular in mind when he thought of it?

Well, we've always had a certain childish element in our music, and the cover is supposed to mirror that.

• What is the Tronofon?

See the FAQ at the Panzerpappa home page

(I’ll quote here what is written in the FAQ part about that)

Trond explains:
The Tronofon is a very simple string instrument. I wanted to make a instrument of my own design that could give me a  a nee palette of sounds. I also wanted it to be a stringed instrument  that I could play in a percussive manner.

 It's made of an approx. 1 meter long 2X4” plank with three thin bass guitar strings. The sound is picked up through a bridge with a Shadow piezo contact microphone. It can be played with either your fingers, a pick, a bow or drumsticks. The sound can best be characterized as a sort of perverted cello-like sound. On record, you can hear it as a droning sound in the end section of “Kliving i masti…” on “… passer gullfisk”.  I've also been making some drones that've been used live lately. I think the Tronofon probably will end up on our new album in one way or the other..

Update on the use of  the tronofon, february, 2004:
Well, I ended up using the tronofon on two songs on "Farlig Vandring". I used it in the improvisation section in "Farlig Vandring (på tynt vann). On "Ompapaomompapa", a tronofon sample was triggered from an Roland SPD-S sampling pad and processed through  a ringmodulation algorithm  in the SPD-S effect processor

• What's each of the band member's personal favorite release from the band?

We're all pretty satisfied with "Koralrevens klagesang". It has good songs and a good production.

• You've been through several hardship during the existence of Panzerpappa. Did you ever despair? Think, what's the use? What motivated you to go on in spite of all problems?

It may sound like a Hollywood-movie, but the band have never been any particular period of hardship beside the period when Steinar lived in Australia and the two other guys quit because of other obligations. I think we've managed to get along for so long because we make our living by having a day job and therefore can have Panzerpappa as a creative outlet devoid of any need to sell a lot of records. Panzerpappa is basically a hobby for the four of us, and because of this, we don't need to make commercial compromises to sell albums and so on. We make the music we love.

• Are there any other musicians you want to play with?