Kultur

München verpasst The Chap

The Chap haben gestern die Rote Sonne gerockt – aber nur 30 Menschen wollten das sehen. Irina hat Keith und Panos danach zum Interview gebeten.

After a brilliant tour de force last night in the Rote Sonne, I sat down with two of the band members, Keith and Panos and asked them about life. There were around 30 people in the audience, barely tapping their feet, so, once again, I was disappointed with the way Munich receives the most wonderful acts today – there were even fewer people than at the Raz Ohara & The Odd Orchestra gig.

The Chap is a band from London (and partially Berlin) that recently signed with Ghostly International; during the last 8 years they classified among the most original and fresh new acts on the experimental-pop (rock) scene. Such a pity, Munich, because their surreal, almost theater-like performance was truly breathtaking. And you missed out on the best cover/adaptation of Dire Straits’ ‘Latest Trick’ on the planet.

So when was the last time you’ve been here?

Keith: Just over a year ago, maybe a bit more than that. It was here, in the Rote Sonne and I think it was on a weekend.
Panos: There were definitely a lot more people.

Are you disappointed?

Keith: Well it was strange because we woke up in the morning, drove here, did 2 radio interviews…
Panos: But we weren’t really surprised, no.

You’re touring with your own van? And how’s the tour going so far?

Keith: Yes, our van. I’m the only one who has a UK license so I’m the only one who can drive it.
Panos: This was actually our second night in Germany. We’ve been to Kassel, that was really nice, we’ve never been there before, never heard of it before, really nice venue. And there were more people than here. But I really did enjoy the set tonight.

Is it just an act or do you truly enjoy your little playful interactions on stage?

Keith: I enjoy them, yes. I mean doing these things is the only way to enjoy playing the same f***ing songs every time. After a while you can’t play them quite well and you need something else to occupy your mind with and have fun. That’s why I found it so confusing that we seem quite unusual doing this, I think other bands must be so depressed…

Panos: I have to enjoy it; I’m away from my kid to do this, so I’d better enjoy it.

Where are the girls?

Panos: One of the girls is my wife and she’s home with our son. She will be joining us in Münster and Berlin. And the other girl, Berit, she lives in Berlin and she had to work so she couldn’t join us for these first gigs.

Do you stick to the same routines or do you improvise on stage?

Panos: It’s like when you listen to classical music, when you look at the conductor – during the performance, the conductor doesn’t have to be there, the orchestra just synchronizes. So after all this playing, we kind of get to know what each of us does.

Who writes the lyrics?

Panos: Sometimes one of us comes up with one whole song and other times we just sit down and we’re like ‘what rhymes with…’ There were a few times when we picked random letters from Computer Music Magazine, used both the question and the answer. So it’s just anything that works really.

Keith: We wrote a lot of songs for which we first had ideas and we didn’t know what to do with them, so we just stuck them together and something new came out.

Panos, nice shorts by the way.

Panos: Yeah, I usually don’t wear shorts, but we had a gig once and it was really hot so I decided that at the next concert I’m taking my shirt off. But being Greek I’m really hairy so you know, having your sweat dripping of your chest hair is not… I don’t want to do that, it doesn’t look good so I went for the shorts. And I actually realized you dissipate heat more efficiently through short pants. It’s my new uniform.

Do you identify with The Chap (magazine) philosophy by wearing that wonderful curly moustache and beard?

Keith: It was just a plan to reduce the time wasted in front of the mirror. It doesn’t really help though, I have to shampoo twice. It was also to sort out the girls who don’t like beards; I mean 9 out of 10 girls wouldn’t look at a guy with a beard twice, so I wanted to find the interesting girls. That’s how I got married.

What’s your inspiration humor-wise? TV-shows, comedians…

Keith: A lot of it just comes from hanging out really…

Panos: It’s interesting because he doesn’t cease to repeat how much he hates American media and still his favourite TV-shows and comedians are American. Like Curb your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and South Park, right? Also I’m a massive fan of early surrealist films, Bunuel and the likes, and watching anything from that area is a great source of inspiration.

Do you live off your music?

Keith: No. I’m a programmer and Panos is a teacher of contemporary music.
Panos: We live off music but I’m talking about music for TV and adverts so it’s not really our music.

Last question: what’s your favourite ethnic instrument?

Panos: My favourite ethnic instrument… I like the mbira.. You can call it many ways, (kalimba for example) – it’s simple, amazing and I love it. Got to run now!