Since its easter again, the most beautiful time of the year, our interview with easter one of the most beautiful bands of the year. Stine Omar form the north and Max Boss from here, form the berlin based pop band easter:
“Our brothership was intended by the Godlike to bring something bigger to this world. through our music you will, eventually, be able to face the most beautiful ass on the beach.”
Have fun!!
How did you meet?
Stine: Its a story told many times but its a good one, so you’ll have it.
I found max the first time I was in Berlin, December 2005. I was lost and full of hate. I went out from my shitty hostel to see if I could find hope. And then I saw Max through a window in Friedrichshain eating noodles. Our eyes met. I went to the bar next door and had a drink. During this drink, I realized it’s non-alcoholic + I didn’t have much time, so I ran over sober and asked if Max the stranger, wants to hang out with me. The thing is, I normally suffer from a severe case of social anxiety. But Max the stranger was like “ok” and so we were just walking around town the whole night. We didn’t have anywhere to sleep. We were drinking tea. Next morning I was off to Norway and max back to west germany. We stayed in touch.
And what did you find so special about him?
Stine: It was an instant connection, we were real soulmate material. It never happened to me before or after that. I wouldn’t say I found hope in human kind; I don’t think there is, but I found max, who happens to be unique. Max: It was very magical for me too, because I was also very lost at that time. I came here to be a physician, Stine showed me the right path.
Stine: I saved him from becoming a physician.
When did you guys connect musically?
Stine: Max came to the Lofoten Islands in Norway, where I lived, and we started working together; first with video and painting, the music came later. But we did have another music project called Euroshit. It didn’t make it so far outside the studio.
What associations do you have with the word easter?
Max: Umm. We had a good answer for that.
Stine: A slight affiliation with the hanging body of Christ.
Can you talk about the music you’re making at the moment?
Stine: We would like to hear that from other people.
Max: We really haven’t talked much about our music to other people except our brother Allie. We’re pretty isolated northbound. The process of making the new songs was different, we put more work into it. The other stuff was more quickly done and really spontaneous, improvised and unreflected.
I wanted to ask about your lyrics and if theres been a shift in your recent music? They had a darker element before.
Stine: Writing the lyrics goes fast and it’s always just what’s on the mind. If the mind is dark so will the lyrics be.
Max: Before each album, we tried to come up with 3 keywords that we could use as guidelines.
Can you say what you’re looking for when you write the lyrics or what you think about?
Stine: The song Smar came from liking this word. I didn’t know what it meant at first but then i figured it’s a smurf that’s a star, that’s a smar. Then, Max wanted me to do something with five syllable lines. That’s how Smar came. Obviously, its really about soulgazing.
I have some things I don’t want to write about and words I don’t want to use. Its more about what I want to avoid then what I am looking for. Also working on not making it too cheesy because sometimes I’m a little heavy on the metaphor. I must strive to go easier on the metaphorical.
What was the most interesting question on your website for you?
Stine: The latest question I recall goes, “are you swedish?”
Max: Too personal.
Stine: People need to understand it’s a serious service. We get a lot of non-questions. Still, some of those are so good we let them through. My favorite goes, “Please come to sweden ill care of u protect u from all the people that dont understand. please come i love u i adore u.”
Whats something that inspired you lately?
Max: Music if anything. What I’ve been doing most of the time the last couple of months is listening to music.
Stine: I think it was inspiration i felt when I heard that Beyonce references us in DRUNK IN LOVE. The “surfboard surfboard surfboard” she does is copped from our very first song, Surfboard.
Were you always into music and when did you know you didnt want to do anything else?
Max: No, not always. I really had just started when we first met. At that time I was in a punk band. It was the months after we met when I was trying to gather the power to go all the way with music.
You’ve been in Berlin (collectively) for 3 years, do you think your music would have evolved differently somewhere else?
Stine: No. It’s all happening in the studio
Can you live from your music?
Max: Yes, it’s a dream.
Some people associate gender issues with your music, how would you like sexuality to develop in the future?
Stine: I promised myself i would not say anything about gender unless i could say something fresh or interesting. Obviously we would like that there wouldn’t be any gender focus in the future, that gender would cease to exist. There will be no more parrot talk, just love.
What animal could you see yourself as?
Stine: All I can think of is dogs, a big black dog.
Max: I would be a big cat.
Stine: We would be the same size cat and dog.
What do you find sexy?
Max: Flapping nostrils.
Stine: Teeth is my favorite part of the human body and that doesn’t mean they have to be perfect, fucked up ones can be sexy.
Max: Really?
Stine: Not unhealthy teeth, but gap teeth, or small teeth or big teeth.
Max: Bones.
Stine: Teeth are harder than bones, my teeth can crunch your bones.
How does your workflow go?
Stine: It flows and it’s fast, but maybe it’s slowing down?
Max: It’s hard to ignore your history, so if you made music together for two years already, it’s hard to not think what we could do different even though we should just do how we always did it. We used to work very sporadically, but very fast. We would decide to make an album and do it in one month. When we decided it, we did it. But for the whole last year, we didn’t make any new material. We were just doing shows and other art. Now we made 5 songs in one month where as before we would have made an album. It’s an advantage in stretching out the whole thing because you enjoy it longer and can make more videos and drop them all the time on youtube. That’s the best moments in having a band, when you just put it out and watch people watch it. When we put out the last album and made videos for the songs already out but its a better feeling when you make a video for a song thats not out.
When you’re writing a song, do you usually have a visual element or video in mind?
Stine: Rarely. We make the videos only because we want to put the song up on youtube. It doesn’t have to be a great idea to put a video out.
Max: Theres so much more attention when theres a video.
Would you be interested in doing longer videos?
Max: We were thinking about that often, while we were doing the songs, that we want to make a movie again and also do the soundtrack.
Stine: We will make a longer feature for our exhibition in october.
What you think about the future with you guys, where you want your music to go?
Stine: We want our music on the dancefloor.
Max: I just thought about the difference from what you are actually, and what you make the music for. We don’t party so much but still when we play concerts. We play concerts for people that party, so the only time we party is when we are on stage.
You don’t go out?
Max: It’s hard for me to concentrate on anything but success when I’m in that mode. A successful tour means parties, clubs, playing the role to get people to buy albums, guys going “woof, woof, woof” before you even come on stage.
What’s your ideal fun thing?
Max: What everybody likes, making food, watch movies, listening to music.
Stine: Dogs, Big Dogs. I guess being close to animals in general.
Who would you like to interview or to ask some questions?
Stine: Maybe my dead grandfather, Omar. I don’t know much about him, but I carry his name. But he was a party person.
Would you guys wanna work with anybody musically? !
Max: I don’t think it could work. I wouldn’t know how because what would the person do? It doesn’t seem necessary to add anything.
Maybe for a special project. Oh wait, there is this guy who was at our concert. He is a professional marimba player. He has an insane instrument; it’s so huge it goes like this (Max stretches out his arms) and he is crazy dressed.
Stine: He is a teenager.
Interview: Moritz Stellmacher, Tara Baird
Webdesign: Moritz Stellmacher
Moritz Stellmacher
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