Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Bowl Cuts And Breakdowns: ELECTRIC CALLBOY’s Aussie Arena Invasion
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello guys, I am here with Nico and Kevin of
- 0:04Speaker 1: Electric Callboy. Guys, you guys are one of my favorite
- 0:07Speaker 1: bands ever. I was so nervous today that I cleaned
- 0:11Speaker 1: my whole house as if you guys were going to
- 0:13Speaker 1: come here.
- 0:15Speaker 2: Oh my god. Thank you so much. Yeah, that's the
- 0:18Speaker 2: good thing about a Zoom call. You just have to
- 0:21Speaker 2: tidy up that little square. I'm for example, I'm not
- 0:25Speaker 2: even wearing pants at this point, you know, like, yeah.
- 0:30Speaker 3: You don't need to man. You don't need to.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
- 0:35Speaker 1: I'm joking. You guys are back in Australia and look,
- 0:38Speaker 1: I don't want to curse anything, but it seems like
- 0:41Speaker 1: every time you guys are here, something major happens. Like
- 0:44Speaker 1: I remember Kevin had to fly home one time. Um,
- 0:48Speaker 1: what else happened? You lose dramas. And you miss other
- 0:52Speaker 1: flights as well, like from state to state. I don't know.
- 0:56Speaker 1: How do you guys feel about coming back to Australia?
- 0:59Speaker 3: Well, even if a lot of things like this happened,
- 1:03Speaker 3: we don't have any bad connection to Australia at all. So,
- 1:08Speaker 3: I mean, in the end, that's the good thing about it.
- 1:11Speaker 3: Everything turned out to be really good for us. Everything
- 1:14Speaker 3: is fine. I mean, yeah, Kevin had to leave for
- 1:18Speaker 3: a good reason, but.
- 1:21Speaker 3: That was a very rare thing to happen. It was
- 1:26Speaker 3: actually a good thing to see that we are able
- 1:30Speaker 3: to team up and doing everything we can and making
- 1:34Speaker 3: everything possible. Same thing with that missed flight that we
- 1:37Speaker 3: had when Kevin wasn't there, so we had to take.
- 1:40Speaker 2: A private jet to get there. to get to the show.
- 1:43Speaker 2: We had to take a private jet. Any time that
- 1:46Speaker 2: the band is taking a private jet, I'm not with them.
- 1:49Speaker 2: It was actually not the best experience.
- 1:52Speaker 3: I was shitting my pants, like, for 12 minutes, I
- 1:54Speaker 3: can tell you. But, like, even David leaving Australia and
- 2:01Speaker 3: Frank filling in was a good thing in the end
- 2:04Speaker 3: for us. I mean, so, yeah, like I said, no
- 2:08Speaker 3: bad time. bad connection to that to that memories not for.
- 2:11Speaker 1: Me no no that's right you guys are like have
- 2:13Speaker 1: always made the best out of uh not even bad
- 2:17Speaker 1: situations just situations you just keep going don't you it's
- 2:20Speaker 1: amazing um yeah that's.
- 2:22Speaker 2: A big point because i mean there there are some
- 2:25Speaker 2: shitty things out there you know like bad things can
- 2:28Speaker 2: happen to any one of us but uh it's a
- 2:31Speaker 2: difference how you, how you, uh, face these things, you know,
- 2:34Speaker 2: like when you're trying to, sometimes you're not in a
- 2:37Speaker 2: good mood, of course, but, uh, if you try to
- 2:39Speaker 2: keep your head up high, stay in a positive mood,
- 2:42Speaker 2: you know, then good things happen to you again. It's
- 2:45Speaker 2: for sure, you know? And, uh, I believe in things
- 2:47Speaker 2: like that. It's like positive energy attracts all the positive energy. And, uh, yeah,
- 2:52Speaker 2: that's how we always deal with problems in our band's past.
- 2:55Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Do you know what's funny too? I even hear that
- 2:58Speaker 1: through your music. Um, as heavy as you guys are,
- 3:02Speaker 1: and intense as you guys can be, and as funny
- 3:04Speaker 1: as you guys are as well, there is always been
- 3:07Speaker 1: this positive message, I feel like, deeper underneath the music.
- 3:13Speaker 2: Totally. People, like, when you get bigger as a band,
- 3:17Speaker 2: people tend to ask what you want to present with
- 3:22Speaker 2: your music, you know? What does your music stand for?
- 3:25Speaker 2: And then you have to think of an answer And
- 3:29Speaker 2: our answer has always been, we're not that kind of
- 3:32Speaker 2: band that treats a lot of, I mean, sometimes we do,
- 3:34Speaker 2: but we don't usually treat serious topics, you know? It's
- 3:41Speaker 2: more like our band, it's our band's job to present
- 3:45Speaker 2: a little time out for people of their everyday life.
- 3:49Speaker 2: You know, like we all do have these small and
- 3:52Speaker 2: big problems and sometimes they seem to overwhelm you. But
- 3:56Speaker 2: then it doesn't necessarily need to be an electrocobra show,
- 3:59Speaker 2: but people need an output. People need something to like...
- 4:03Speaker 2: look to the side have a little time out a
- 4:06Speaker 2: little break and then face your problems again and your
- 4:09Speaker 2: you have to recharge your batteries you know and we
- 4:11Speaker 2: always love when people come together peoples of different kind
- 4:16Speaker 2: by the way i come together and just share a
- 4:18Speaker 2: little time out you know recharge batteries and then you
- 4:21Speaker 2: go back home problems will be there again trust me
- 4:24Speaker 2: but you have recharge batteries and that's the point you.
- 4:28Speaker 3: Know like vacation a little vacation from from your brain.
- 4:32Speaker 1: What's going, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. It's funny, something you
- 4:36Speaker 1: touched on just then as well was the different kinds
- 4:39Speaker 1: of people you get at your shows, and I have
- 4:41Speaker 1: seen little kids at your shows, and I actually, the
- 4:44Speaker 1: other day, was on a fan club website of Electric
- 4:47Speaker 1: Corp Week, and someone said they took their grandma to
- 4:50Speaker 1: one of your shows, and I thought that was wild.
- 4:54Speaker 1: How does it feel knowing you have that impact across generations?
- 4:57Speaker 2: Perfect. It's a cool thing.
- 4:59Speaker 3: It's a very cool thing because, I mean, the good
- 5:03Speaker 3: thing is that we are never struggling with any of
- 5:08Speaker 3: our crowds because it's always very peaceful. The people, like
- 5:12Speaker 3: Kevin said, the people just, they're coming to have a
- 5:15Speaker 3: good time, having fun together. A lot of people that
- 5:19Speaker 3: met at one of our shows are friends now. So
- 5:22Speaker 3: they're actually like small groups coming together to a lot
- 5:26Speaker 3: of our shows and It's so good to see that
- 5:28Speaker 3: you can actually go to an Electric Halberd show meeting
- 5:33Speaker 3: old and young people and everybody's having fun. It doesn't
- 5:37Speaker 3: matter what genre you're typically listening to. It's just, I
- 5:42Speaker 3: don't know, like Kevin said, it's just a little time
- 5:44Speaker 3: out and having fun together.
- 5:46Speaker 2: And I love the side fact that I once read
- 5:49Speaker 2: about us that we make a metal music accessible for,
- 5:54Speaker 2: for people. And I liked that because when we started
- 5:58Speaker 2: as a band, it was, there is metal and then
- 6:01Speaker 2: some little side genres. And if you dare to try
- 6:05Speaker 2: too much, it's always like, Oh, you're destroying our metal,
- 6:09Speaker 2: you know? And we never thought that it works like that.
- 6:12Speaker 2: People like music has always, uh, always evolved. Music has
- 6:17Speaker 2: always lived from artists that take something that they like
- 6:22Speaker 2: and add something, you know? And then music changes, and
- 6:25Speaker 2: that's a good thing, I think. And that's why I
- 6:29Speaker 2: like that so many different people, like, oh, I usually
- 6:32Speaker 2: listen to pop music, but with a little metal, it's okay.
- 6:35Speaker 2: You know, oh, I listen to metal, oh, with a
- 6:37Speaker 2: little pop music, I love it as well. So they
- 6:40Speaker 2: all come together.
- 6:41Speaker 1: Definitely, definitely. And I think you guys do that exceptionally well.
- 6:45Speaker 1: Not really sticking yourself into one genre, I don't think,
- 6:49Speaker 1: but that's what's so great about you guys. You guys
- 6:52Speaker 1: also have Ice Nine Kills on this tour with you.
- 6:55Speaker 1: Have you guys picked up anything from them, maybe pre-show
- 6:59Speaker 1: or inspiration or anything like that?
- 7:02Speaker 3: I mean, they are doing something pretty similar to what
- 7:07Speaker 3: we are doing. I mean, like getting dressed up in
- 7:10Speaker 3: different outfits and... being very theatrical, I would say. You
- 7:15Speaker 3: can actually see that their love and their addiction to
- 7:21Speaker 3: horror movies. And they actually just want to bring it
- 7:24Speaker 3: on stage. And they are doing a great job. So
- 7:29Speaker 3: we didn't meet yet. So we're going to meet each
- 7:32Speaker 3: other today, finally. So that was actually one of the
- 7:37Speaker 3: main reasons why we thought it's a good idea to
- 7:38Speaker 3: bring them with us on tour, because it's It's way darker,
- 7:44Speaker 3: way more gory and brutal, I would say. But in
- 7:47Speaker 3: the end, they're doing something very similar to what we
- 7:50Speaker 3: are doing, I would say.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Yeah, it's about entertaining, I think. And yeah, our ways
- 7:56Speaker 2: haven't crossed so far. I'm very excited to see them
- 7:59Speaker 2: for the very first time tonight. Yeah, me too.
- 8:01Speaker 1: I think you guys, I think they're the perfect people
- 8:03Speaker 1: to have on tour with you as well. And we're
- 8:06Speaker 1: so excited for it. And another thing was I actually,
- 8:10Speaker 1: something personal, I saw you guys years and years ago
- 8:14Speaker 1: here in Australia when the crowds were a lot smaller.
- 8:18Speaker 1: And I remember watching videos of you guys performing and
- 8:20Speaker 1: you guys wearing animal onesies. This is like pre-Niko era.
- 8:25Speaker 1: But you guys have since come back and your venues
- 8:30Speaker 1: have gotten bigger and bigger. And now you play sold
- 8:33Speaker 1: out stadium tours everywhere. It's nostalgic. It's also a little
- 8:36Speaker 1: bit sad for me as a fan seeing you, you know,
- 8:39Speaker 1: it's not as intimate anymore, but I can really appreciate
- 8:42Speaker 1: that you guys have grown so much. How does it
- 8:45Speaker 1: feel for you guys, though, going from, you know, the
- 8:47Speaker 1: smaller venues to sold-out arenas?
- 8:50Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, we actually try to keep
- 8:52Speaker 3: that intimacy that you were talking about. I mean, even
- 8:55Speaker 3: though the venues are getting bigger, We still want to
- 8:59Speaker 3: connect with the audience. It's not that we just want
- 9:02Speaker 3: to play our show, not talking to them, not introducing
- 9:05Speaker 3: them to... Yeah, it still should be an experience for them,
- 9:10Speaker 3: and we still want to be on the same level
- 9:12Speaker 3: with the audience. And actually, that's pretty important to us,
- 9:17Speaker 3: to have a.
- 9:18Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 9:22Speaker 3: It should be the same. It should be the same.
- 9:23Speaker 2: That it was back then.
- 9:24Speaker 3: I know that it's not, but I think you know
- 9:27Speaker 3: what I'm talking about.
- 9:29Speaker 2: And there is always a pro and a con to
- 9:32Speaker 2: the same thing, you know, and we love playing bigger
- 9:35Speaker 2: shows because the production gets bigger. You can live out
- 9:39Speaker 2: your ideas much more, you know, but also, as you say,
- 9:43Speaker 2: the intimacy gets lost a little bit and I feel
- 9:45Speaker 2: that and I sometimes miss that and the the worst
- 9:50Speaker 2: thing about it is that you can't actually keep a balance.
- 9:54Speaker 2: You know, there is no up to a certain point
- 9:57Speaker 2: and some people, they don't sometimes, they don't think about this,
- 10:01Speaker 2: you know, we as an artist, like we play a show.
- 10:04Speaker 2: And when it got bigger, sometimes we we went out
- 10:07Speaker 2: to the people we went down to the crowd you
- 10:11Speaker 2: know you do yeah and and and then you you
- 10:14Speaker 2: you just you're sweating you have to take care of
- 10:16Speaker 2: your your health a little bit you know like sometimes
- 10:20Speaker 2: you're struggling with your voice whatever and like being wet
- 10:23Speaker 2: and you get a cold all these things that you
- 10:25Speaker 2: have on your in your head you have a long
- 10:27Speaker 2: tour everybody wants to see the same quality of a
- 10:30Speaker 2: show and but And then you maybe, I call it serve.
- 10:36Speaker 2: You talk to maybe 20, 30, 40 people and these
- 10:40Speaker 2: are satisfied. And then there are 50 other people that
- 10:44Speaker 2: are like, oh, he didn't talk to me. He's a
- 10:48Speaker 2: bad guy. They don't understand sometimes. And then I get messages, oh,
- 10:51Speaker 2: you talk to anybody else but me. So it's sometimes
- 10:55Speaker 2: very hard to keep the balance, you know? And that's
- 10:59Speaker 2: something very sad when we talk about it. honestly about it.
- 11:03Speaker 3: I mean, but what you actually, like Kevin said already,
- 11:06Speaker 3: but what the people need to understand from time to time,
- 11:09Speaker 3: I mean, yes, it's taking care of yourself, but also
- 11:12Speaker 3: you have days after a couple of weeks on tour
- 11:15Speaker 3: where you're just socially exhausted. Like I had, I had
- 11:19Speaker 3: some days where my social battery was completely emptied. There
- 11:22Speaker 3: was nothing left. And then I remember that I went
- 11:25Speaker 3: out and just said, guys, please, Don't be mad with me.
- 11:28Speaker 3: I just want to go to bed and take some
- 11:31Speaker 3: good sleep. I don't want to talk at all right now.
- 11:32Speaker 3: I'm so sorry. But this is something, if you are
- 11:36Speaker 3: having a hard week of work, for example, I think
- 11:41Speaker 3: anybody who has a job can totally relate to what
- 11:45Speaker 3: I said. And I think it's actually fair. So yeah,
- 11:52Speaker 3: it's hard from time to time because you want to...
- 11:55Speaker 3: Kevin is more of a people pleaser than I am,
- 11:57Speaker 3: to be honest. But you want to take care of
- 12:01Speaker 3: the people. You want to appreciate that they are coming
- 12:03Speaker 3: to a show. You want to show them that you
- 12:07Speaker 3: are totally understand that we would be nothing without them.
- 12:12Speaker 3: And this is something, this is actually like part of
- 12:14Speaker 3: that balance, I would say.
- 12:15Speaker 2: And it's not that easy, not all the time.
- 12:18Speaker 1: Let me make it clear that at your shows, you
- 12:20Speaker 1: guys do make sure that you interact. I really feel
- 12:23Speaker 1: like I'm a part of you guys up there at
- 12:25Speaker 1: your shows. You absolutely do make sure that, you know,
- 12:28Speaker 1: you're giving everyone your attention, guys. Like, please don't listen
- 12:32Speaker 1: to the people that say....
- 12:35Speaker 2: We listen to that, you know, and we hear that
- 12:38Speaker 2: and we try to make it as good as we can,
- 12:39Speaker 2: you know, but what Nico says is also true. And
- 12:42Speaker 2: I can totally understand when people come to the shows
- 12:45Speaker 2: the first day or the fifth day and they should
- 12:51Speaker 2: get the same as the people on the last day,
- 12:53Speaker 2: you know, but I'm not the same person at some point,
- 12:57Speaker 2: you know.
- 12:57Speaker 1: And you're one person.
- 12:59Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly, yeah. No, totally not. There are worse things
- 13:04Speaker 2: on earth. Is there a.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Song where you guys feel the contrast between your voices
- 13:09Speaker 1: hits hardest, like the moment it really clicks for you
- 13:12Speaker 1: both live? Because your voices are so juxtaposition, but they're
- 13:15Speaker 1: so beautiful together.
- 13:18Speaker 3: I mean, there are songs that are just hard to
- 13:22Speaker 3: handle live, where we really have to figure out while
- 13:28Speaker 3: practicing and rehearsing how to how to present them live
- 13:33Speaker 3: and how to split the parts. And I think the
- 13:39Speaker 3: latest song that we released, it's called Heart Club, is
- 13:44Speaker 3: the perfect example of that because we have to jump
- 13:47Speaker 3: from the fastest and most brutal, sharp parts to such
- 13:52Speaker 3: a melancholic and beautiful chorus and in the highest tides,
- 13:57Speaker 3: I would say. That song is actually hard to sing,
- 14:00Speaker 3: hard to manage, but everything comes within time, I would say.
- 14:05Speaker 3: So if you play a song for the 10th or
- 14:07Speaker 3: 20th time, it's just, it feels natural, but not right
- 14:11Speaker 3: now because we're going to play it for the third
- 14:13Speaker 3: time today or tonight. So, yeah.
- 14:16Speaker 2: My gosh.
- 14:17Speaker 1: So exciting. It's a great song.
- 14:19Speaker 2: It's all about learning. Yeah, I feel Nico. But there
- 14:23Speaker 2: are songs where it's easier to combine both parts, you know.
- 14:30Speaker 2: But it's always getting used to it. You can practice
- 14:34Speaker 2: and rehearse as much as you want. The truth is
- 14:38Speaker 2: on the stage and this is where you actually learn
- 14:42Speaker 2: the songs because it's a different situation, you're moving differently
- 14:46Speaker 2: and all that.
- 14:47Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually always a process. I mean, even old
- 14:50Speaker 3: songs that we played so many times, Kevin is singing,
- 14:56Speaker 3: just to mention it, Kevin is singing a lot of
- 14:57Speaker 3: harmonies live. He's not only shouting, he's actually filling in.
- 15:02Speaker 2: With a lot of vocals.
- 15:04Speaker 3: And from time to time, there are songs that we
- 15:06Speaker 3: played so many times, and then during the rehearsal, he's
- 15:10Speaker 3: coming up with a new idea or someone else, and
- 15:13Speaker 3: we're just adding something to a song that we played
- 15:16Speaker 3: so many times. And that's actually fun. Fun to hear,
- 15:19Speaker 3: fun to see, and fun to work on. It's pretty cool.
- 15:23Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And look, you guys film a lot
- 15:27Speaker 1: of behind the scenes videos, which as fans, we just
- 15:29Speaker 1: bloody love. Like, it's awesome. You really let us into
- 15:32Speaker 1: your life. But Nico, there was a behind-the-scenes clip of
- 15:36Speaker 1: one of your very first performances with Electric Callboy, and
- 15:40Speaker 1: you were really, really tough on yourself, dude. It was
- 15:43Speaker 1: after a huge performance, and you were like, oh, I
- 15:46Speaker 1: don't know if I sang that well or whatever.
- 15:51Speaker 2: We have evolved a lot with Nico, you know? Things
- 15:56Speaker 2: got way bigger since he joined us. But you have
- 16:00Speaker 2: to imagine when you join a band that has been
- 16:05Speaker 2: around for quite some time, it feels like you have to... Yeah,
- 16:11Speaker 2: it's like jumping onto a moving train, maybe, you know?
- 16:15Speaker 2: And you feel like you have to make up to something.
- 16:21Speaker 2: And I understand the feeling of being not enough, you know?
- 16:26Speaker 2: And I think in a way that's a good feeling
- 16:29Speaker 2: because it makes you go hard on yourself and it
- 16:32Speaker 2: makes you have ambitions. If that wasn't the case, it
- 16:37Speaker 2: maybe wouldn't be important enough for you. But as of now,
- 16:43Speaker 2: we have the same speed, the same level. Everybody knows
- 16:47Speaker 2: each other and we have the balance. Of course, we
- 16:51Speaker 2: still strive for more and we work together for that.
- 16:56Speaker 2: we feel as a unit now.
- 16:59Speaker 3: Yeah, totally. It actually feels like.
- 17:03Speaker 3: I can't even remember not being in this band, you know?
- 17:06Speaker 3: I don't know, it's just crazy. But I remember, I
- 17:10Speaker 3: can tell you the problem, I don't know if it
- 17:13Speaker 3: was a problem, but the pressure that I was putting
- 17:16Speaker 3: on my own shoulders, that was.
- 17:20Speaker 3: I think it's natural, because.
- 17:22Speaker 2: I.
- 17:22Speaker 3: Wanted to deliver. I wanted to show them that they
- 17:25Speaker 3: made the right decision and that I am the right pick.
- 17:29Speaker 3: And so I was really hard on myself. But I
- 17:34Speaker 3: can tell you, we all are still hard on ourselves.
- 17:37Speaker 3: So whenever a show wasn't that good or Kevin didn't
- 17:43Speaker 3: feel good or Daniel or whoever, it's still the same
- 17:47Speaker 3: it's still the same but right now i'm just not
- 17:49Speaker 3: the new guy anymore and it's we can communicate in
- 17:52Speaker 3: a different way and i know my value so it
- 17:56Speaker 3: feels very different and i don't need to show them
- 17:59Speaker 3: anymore what i can or what i'm capable of so
- 18:02Speaker 3: and we're friends so this is um it's it's a
- 18:05Speaker 3: different situation right now than it was so um.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Yeah definitely definitely and when you look back are you
- 18:11Speaker 1: like oh my gosh you can see how far you've come.
- 18:14Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah. This is something that I sometimes think
- 18:20Speaker 2: that I don't like sometimes because, for example, when you
- 18:25Speaker 2: do something for a very first time, very first arena show,
- 18:28Speaker 2: for example, everything is so big and it still is.
- 18:31Speaker 2: But it's like when you have a bag of sweets,
- 18:35Speaker 2: you know, and these are your favorite sweets and you
- 18:38Speaker 2: eat one each day, they stay perfect. they stay special
- 18:45Speaker 2: to you, you know? But if you eat them all
- 18:47Speaker 2: at once, like not taking care of every single piece,
- 18:50Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a waste, I would feel.
- 18:54Speaker 2: And on tour and everything we go through, it sometimes
- 18:59Speaker 2: feels like that waste that we're doing there with experiences,
- 19:04Speaker 2: but we cannot change it because time is like linear,
- 19:09Speaker 2: it's going linear, you know? We can't stop it and say, oh,
- 19:13Speaker 2: We stop it right here and enjoy what we experienced
- 19:16Speaker 2: so far and have the taste, the vibe, and then
- 19:19Speaker 2: go on. It's just very, so many different experiences happening
- 19:24Speaker 2: so fast. And that's sometimes a little bit sad. But
- 19:29Speaker 2: after a while, like after a year, for example, when
- 19:31Speaker 2: we come back from Australia, for example, we're going to
- 19:33Speaker 2: have some time off. And this is going to be
- 19:36Speaker 2: the time where we sit on our sofas at home
- 19:38Speaker 2: and then you're getting goosebumps because you had a gold
- 19:42Speaker 2: award for your album Techno, a number one in Germany
- 19:45Speaker 2: for the new album. You had a great tour and
- 19:49Speaker 2: then you... start to process all the things that have
- 19:52Speaker 2: happened to you, you know, and that's a great feeling.
- 19:56Speaker 1: Good, good. And make sure you do take that time
- 19:58Speaker 1: and rest because you guys do so much, too much.
- 20:02Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes, yeah, it feels like, but we still enjoy it,
- 20:05Speaker 2: but we don't want to overpace, you know, we know
- 20:08Speaker 2: what you're talking about.
- 20:09Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, guys, I wish I had more time. I've
- 20:12Speaker 1: got thousands of questions, but thank you so much. It's
- 20:14Speaker 1: been a pleasure. Good luck for the tour.
- 20:17Speaker 2: Thank you so much. There's going to be a next time, Angela.
- 20:20Speaker 2: There's going to be a next time. I'm pretty sure.
- 20:22Speaker 1: There will be.
- 20:22Speaker 2: There will be.
- 20:23Speaker 3: All right, guys.
- 20:24Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you so much.
- 20:26Speaker 1: Take care. Bye.