Wax Lyrical with Spielbergs

 

'Spielbergs is about doing whatever we want to do musically' tells Mads Baklien, vocalist and front-man of the Oslo three-piece. 'By the time we started the band and made our first songs, we had already played in bands for many years.' From debut EP 'Distant Star' to newest works 'Brother of Mine', both Spielberg's experience as tried and tested musicians shines through- most noticeably now for their care-free attitude when conforming- or failing to conform, rather- to a specific scene or label. He continues,'We have a lot of influences, and maybe not as much musically as philosophically if that makes any sense. We are inspired by bands that do not necessarily belong to a specific scene or genre, but that make whatever kind of songs they want.' It comes as a challenge to pinpoint what it is about Spielberg's material that makes them so distinctive, but one must look no further than the hardcore and post-rock acts of their native, right through to nineteenth- century piano scores that they cite as an inspiration on their back-catalogue of music in order to get an idea of their influential range. Their signature power-pop, even punk derived sound is tainted with warmth and fragility, lyrically, melodically, sonic-ally. Album opener 'Five On It' for instance is drowned in shrieking distortion and weighty percussion, while still holding down a beautifully catchy cacophony of vox and guitar lines. On the same body of work includes songs like 'Sleeper', an acoustic number enrobed in childhood nostalgia and hypnotic, reverb laden lead guitar. Latest effort 'Brother of Mine' continues to encapsulate their non-conformist attitude to writing, switching up punk and emo-like anthemics with disparate shoegaze guitar tones thrown into their melting pot of sound.

I spoke with founding member and man at the front Mads Baklein on the records and artists that shaped both the sonic palette and philosophy of Spielberg's attitude and song-writing.

(DH)- First off, can you tell me about an album which first pricked your interest and made you want to start playing music?

(MADS)- 'I started playing the guitar when I was nine years old, aid it was Metallica's The Black Album (Metallica) that inspired me. I taught myself to play the guitars on every song on that album by ear. This lead me to discover the almighty power chord, which again opened up a new world for me.'

- 2010's Distant Star EP sets the tone perfectly for the style of music that Spielbergs create- somewhere between noise-pop and post-rock, drenched in 2000s indie characteristics with ambient guitar sewn in between. When listening back to the EP, which records do you remember having an influence on the writing and production of Distant Star?

- 'By the time we started the band and made our first songs, we had already played in bands for many years. Spielbergs is about doing whatever we want to do musically, and the first EP is simply our first handful of songs. We have a lot of influences, and maybe not as much musically as philosophically if that makes any sense. We are inspired by bands that do not necessarily belong to a specific scene or genre, but that make whatever kind of songs they want. I could name an endless list of bands and albums here, but ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the Norwegian Gods of rock Motorpsycho, Serena Maneesh, The Men's excellent album Open Your Heart. Diarrhea Planet's I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams. Yeah.'

- As a band hailing from Oslo, Norway, are there any Norwegian records old or new that the band enjoy, grew up with or look to for inspiration?

- 'As mentioned, Motorpsycho's Blizzard, Timothy's Monster, Trust Us. Everything by Serena Maneesh. Hardcore legends JR Ewing. And many more.'

- The simplicity and minimalism of your album and EP artwork- particularly that of 2019 debut LP This Is Not The End and the singles off of the album- creates an image of brutalism and heaviness that lends itself well to the music. Whcih record sleeves do you have in mind when creating your own?

- -We do not create our own artwork. We wouldn't know what to do. The first EP as well as This Is Not The End and the Running EP was created by our dear friends and artists Christina Disington and Stig N Andersen. They just needed to hear the music and then they went to work basically. And it worked our perfectly.'

- Production seems to be a fairly important aspect of your music- what is an album that you would say is produced perfectly?

- 'Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump, The Flaming Lip's The Soft Bulletin, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, The Mars Volta's Deloused In The Comatorium, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, Alex G's House of Sugar. I could go on forever.'

- 2019's Running All The Way Home EP is your most recent body of work. Who and what as a band do you recall listening to t the time of making the record?

- 'Running was basically just a project of releasing songs that didn't make the album for whatever reason, but that we still thought was good, paired with a couple of new songs. There was no big conceptual plan to it. I guess I have already mentioned many of my own, at least, big sources of inspiration. 

- An artist or record that inspires you lyrically?

- 'I have a complicated relationship with lyrics. I absolutely love good lyricism, and I have my heroes for sure. But when I am writing songs I always let the melody and the chords and riffs come first, and then I try to fill in the blanks with my 'lyrics'. And funnily enough they all seem to reflect the kind of pathetic, whining, desperate and sad person that I apparently am.'

- You've just released your latest single Brother of Mine, the first single off of your soon to come follow up album to This Is Not The End. Any records that the band are currently listening to that may have fed through onto the single/album?

- 'No, haha. By this point, and I guess from the beginning, we are just making the songs we want to make. Any influence, I think, is more or less subconscious. We listen to a lot of music but rarely discuss what we want to do in words.'

- And finally, your desert island record?

- 'This is of course impossible to answer, but I will go with Pet Sounds. Or maybe Hakon Austbo's piano recordings of the complete works of Debussy.'

Listen to 'Brother of Mine' by Spielbergs on all major music platforms now.