Spielbergs Preview 2022 Mad Cool Festival Performance: “We’re Going To Try and Make as Much Noise as Possible”
The post Spielbergs Preview 2022 Mad Cool Festival Performance: “We’re Going To Try and Make as Much Noise as Possible” appeared first on Consequence.
Norwegian rock trio Spielbergs were set to have a massive 2020. After their 2019 debut LP This is Not the End received some rave reviews, the band was scheduled to hit the road in Europe over the summer, complete with an appearance at Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival. Of course, everyone’s 2020 plans were diverted and postponed, but luckily, Spielbergs maintained their spot on Mad Cool’s 2022 lineup, which features Metallica, Florence + The Machine, The Killers, Jack White, Glass Animals, Muse, Alt-J, The War On Drugs, Carly Rae Jepsen, CHVRCHES, Nathy Peluso, and many, many more.
Even better is the fact that Spielbergs have new music in tow — and they’re some of the most powerful songs the trio has ever released. The anthemic “When They Come For Me,” which we recently named as an honorable mention for our Song of the Week list, is an emo odyssey, complete with an irresistible chorus and a healthy amount of fuzz.
Lead single “Brother of Mine” moves at a rapid pace, but each chord change is satisfying and cathartic. This is a band that knows how to operate with a great deal of volume and space, while also retaining the intimacy of three bodies making music in their own special language.
Though that high volume fuzz is certainly apparent in Spielbergs’ discography, frontman and guitarist Mads Baklien maintains that their live shows are even louder. “When we get into the studio, we usually feel a bit more like we have to control the situation and not let it get out of hand,” Baklien says, “But when we get back to the stage, we have a second guitarist and a keyboard player, and we’re going to try to make as much noise as possible.”
That massive sense of momentum is what characterizes the songs on Spielbergs’ upcoming sophomore LP, Vestli (due August 19th), and will make their upcoming Mad Cool set a sight to behold. Though the band’s members have played in Spain a few times before with different bands, this will be the first Spielbergs show in Spain ever. “I remember when I saw the poster for the 2020 festival, I was like, ‘Wow, it’s like Metallica and Faith No More and Billie Eilish,’ and we understood that it had to be big, at least,” Baklien says.
Ahead of their Mad Cool 2022 set, Consequence sat with Spielbergs frontman Mads Baklien to discuss the band’s new songs, playing in Spain, and the excitement of getting back on the festival circuit. Read below for the full Q&A.
Ed. Note: Saturday and Sunday single-day tickets to Mad Cool Festival 2022 are still available to purchase!
You’ll be heading to Madrid shortly to play Spielbergs’ first show in Spain! How are the new songs feeling in the live set?
It feels good! We have a couple of the new singles in the new set and we play a lot of older ones as well. So I think we’re going to wait until the album drops to completely rearrange the set. But we will definitely play a couple, or three, of the new ones.
Had you known anything about Mad Cool Festival before you were booked to play it?
Actually no, I had never heard of it. We were originally booked to the festival in 2020, but it got postponed because of the pandemic. I remember when I saw the poster for the 2020 festival, I was like, “Wow, it’s like Metallica and Faith No More and Billie Eilish,” and we understood that it had to be big, at least.
Well, at least they kept Metallica for this year!
I love Metallica — they’re the reason I started playing guitar in the first place. When I was 10 years old, I picked up the guitar because of The Black Album.
Who are some other artists that have influenced your sound over the last few years and during the making of Vestli?
I think our influences are buried quite deep. We’re not completely aware of what influences us, because we had played in bands for so long and we have listened to a lot of different music over the years. By now, I’m just making songs constantly. Of course, I try to listen to new music as well, but as far as being influenced by it, I don’t know. I can say that bands that influence our band are usually bands like …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and the American band, Diarrhea Planet. I really enjoy bands that are making rock songs, but are doing all kinds of different things with it — we really like that. I know that the new album of ours is going to be a straightforward rock album, but we really are quite an experimental band. We do a lot of — we’re in search of something all the time.
Listening to your music on any kind of speakers, you can really hear the sheer volume you guys are using. How does that loudness translate to a live setting? Do you guys still feel like you can have that massive volume? Or is it a little bit more close-knit since it’s just three of you making music?
Oh, absolutely, I think we are even louder live. Because when we write the songs, we usually are the three, me, Christian on drums and Stian on bass. We spend a lot of time making the songs and we pound it out really hard. And when we get into the studio, we usually feel a bit more like we have to control the situation and not let it get out of hand, so that we can manage it. We try to get it down as controlled as possible, and then we load on feedback and noise and keyboards and whatever we need. But when we get back to the stage, we have a second guitarist and a keyboard player, and we’re going to try to make as much noise as possible. Also, we are a lot more “brutal” when playing live because we really let it all go.
Are you a frequent festival attendee yourself?
Yeah, I love festivals. I used to go to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
That’s a great festival!
When I was in my early twenties, I went to Roskilde and I played in a band back then that was touring a lot in Europe, so I played a couple of festivals at the time. I also went to Primavera in Barcelona. That was probably the best festival experience I’ve ever had. I saw all my musical heroes in three days.
Do you feel that Spain has a different culture around rock music, and music in general?
Yeah, I used to go to Spain quite a lot on tour with the band I played in back then, it was an emo-pop band. We actually got signed on a small independent Spanish label. We went a lot on tour in Spain, and back then, there was a lot of energy around rock music amongst younger people. Since then, I don’t know, but the Primavera festival that I went to had Hot Snakes, they had My Bloody Valentine, they had Animal Collective, it was all around, really good bands, not a lot of pop acts. It was packed with people all the time, so I guess they have a very solid culture around music.
How do you feel about Norway’s culture around rock music?
It definitely it was stronger maybe ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. But we still have a bunch of really great rock bands. And we have a big festival in Oslo called Oyafestivalen, which used to book a lot more rock bands than they do now. But I think at all times, you can hear someone saying “rock and roll is dead” and then someone brings it back to life and it’s like that all the time.
It’s similar in America — but there are a lot of different voices that are bigger in the “rock” scene now than they would be 15 years ago, like Phoebe Bridgers.
I really love her first album, Stranger In The Alps. She’s a great songwriter!
Lastly, what was it like releasing your debut album in 2019, and then having the pandemic sandwiched between that record and your new record, Vestli?
We actually had planned to use 2020 to make songs for the next record. And we also planned on a little German tour, a tour of Germany, and then we were playing Mad Cool and so we had some plans that were postponed or canceled. But it was, at the end of the day, it was a really good opportunity to just relax and try to find out what we wanted to do, musically. For good or bad… we may have actually gotten something good out of it, I think.
Editor’s Note: Consequence is the North American media partner of Mad Cool and will be on the ground during next month’s festival.
Spielbergs Preview 2022 Mad Cool Festival Performance: “We’re Going To Try and Make as Much Noise as Possible”
Paolo Ragusa
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