The Fuzz After the Buzz
By Andrew Clayman
Published in Chicago Innerview, October 2009
Sune Rose Wagner was not the first man to pour a bucket of distortion over a three-chord surf-rock riff and a Phil Spector beat. In fact, when The Raveonettes burst on the scene as one of “the” buzz bands of 2002, they were routinely described as sonic disciples of The Jesus and Mary Chain—the Scottish rockers who’d helped lay the groundwork for minimalist noise-pop in the 1980s. Four superb albums later, however, Wagner (guitar/vocals) and his Raveonette co-star Sharin Foo (vocals/bass) have actually proven to be more ahead of their time than behind it, as a new wave of similarly-minded bands has followed the Danish duo’s blueprint to indie-rock prominence in 2009.
“When I speak to a lot of these new bands—the Brooklyn bands and stuff—they all seem to be huge Raveonettes fans,” says Wagner, the brooding male foil to Foo’s icy femme fatale. “I’m kind of surprised about how much they really like us. They’re almost in awe it seems. I guess maybe it’s because we’re older than them and been around a while or whatever-- that they kind of look up to us for what we’ve accomplished so far. Some of the stuff we brought to music, people hadn’t done for many years, you know? I think people really respect us for that, and I think that’s really cool.”
From SoCal to SoHo, shades of The Raveonettes’ fuzzed-out retro style can be heard in the sounds of many of this year’s breakout indie acts, from Wavves, No Age, and Times New Viking to that ever growing stable of Brooklyn bands-- Vivian Girls, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Crystal Stilts, and A Place to Bury Strangers, to name a few. Technically speaking, The Raveonettes are a New York band, too, having migrated from Denmark early in their career. But regardless of how much they may be revered by the new class of noise-popsters, Wagner and Foo are not really part of the “scene”—from a geographic or critical perspective.
“It’s hard,” Wagner says. “I mean, in Manhattan, there really is no scene. And that’s where I live. So I never really even meet people who are in bands around here. If you go to Brooklyn, it’s quite the opposite. In order to be part of a scene, though, I think you have to be inside the scene, and since I’m more of a Manhattan kind of person, I’m not really in one. But we are building a recording studio in Brooklyn, so I’m sure I’ll have a lot more contact with a lot of the bands out there.”
Wagner says he’d welcome the chance to get into producing and to take a young Brooklyn band or two under his wing. But in the meantime, he has far more important business to attend to—Raveonettes business. Whether or not they’ve been getting their fair kudos as harbingers of a growing musical movement, the Raves haven’t wandered out to pasture like so many indie buzz bands before them. Instead, they’ve recorded one increasingly dynamic and exciting record after another. Their latest, In and Out of Control, arrives this month on Vice Records.
“This is one we refer to as a ‘proper studio album’,” Wagner says. “It was recorded in a big studio using a lot of instruments, multi-layered songs—a big production, which is what we wanted. In contrast, Lust Lust Lust (2008) was just made in my bedroom using very minimal stuff, you know? I like both things. They both have a certain charm to them. But it’s definitely fun to go in and do a big album like this.”
As for the title In and Out of Control, Wagner says it reflects the circumstances behind the record as much as the content of its songs.
“This was quite a difficult album to make, because we went into the studio with basically nothing. We didn’t have any finished songs or anything. We just set a deadline and said ‘we have to be done in a month and a half and that’s it. We’ll see what happens.’ Well, doing in that way, some days you felt it was good, some days you felt it was terrible. It was all made on the spot, you know? So even when we left the studio and the album was done, we didn’t know for sure if we liked the final product. It was like it was all so fresh and new. But now that I’ve heard it a few times, I think it’s a great album. I’m very proud of it.”
Partly as a result of their scramble to string together a record on the fly, Wagner and Foo wound up crafting their most diverse collection of tunes yet. Admittedly, that’s a relative statement, since their past efforts include records recorded entirely in the key of B flat minor (the Whip It On EP) and B flat major (2003’s Chain Gang of Love). Still, there’s no denying the considerable tonal and textural shifts at work on In and Out of Control, from the ‘60s girl group pep of “Bang!” to the uncharacteristically synthy ‘80s vibe of the anthemic “Last Dance.” One can’t judge a Raveonettes record by its song titles, either, as tracks like “Gone Forever” and “Suicide” are certainly dark, but never depressing—a testament to this band’s unique ability to balance the shadow and light in all their work.
“Yeah, it’s very important for us,” Wagner says. “It’s important to have contrast in music, I think. If it was just one big, gloomy misery melting pot, then I think it would be a little too much to bear. You need to have different elements in it. I think that’s the key. It’s great to have stuff that’s real life, and it’s dirty, and life is misery, and life is painful, and life is suffering and all that stuff. But also life is wonderful, too, if you know how to live it. It’s a great gift. So there are two elements in there.”
The lighter side of The Raveonettes was further showcased this year during the actual recording of In and Out of Control, as fans were given the rare opportunity to peek in on the band in the studio, chat with them online, and listen to fresh demos long before the album hit shelves.
“It’s a nice little treat for the fans,” Wagner says. “Personally, I hate waiting for bands to make albums. You know, you might not hear anything from them for like three years. I just don’t really appreciate that. I think they should keep their fans happy and give them as much music as they can give them. So that’s why we were happy to put out the demos and stuff. When I was a kid and heavily into Nirvana or some band like that—can you imagine if Kurt Cobain had posted cool little demos every time, and you could actually email him with a question and he would actually answer you? It would have been amazing! So that’s how I look at it. I think it’s great. And the fans appreciate it.”
Suffice it to say, The Raveonettes appreciate their fans, too. In an era when even the best buzz bands can fall victim to the fickleness of a trend chasing public, Denmark’s finest rock ambassadors are still on an upward trajectory.
“I think it’s hard for any band to be a buzz band, because there’s a tremendous amount of anticipation,” Wagner says. “When we signed with Columbia, we had only played like ten live shows I think. And so it was very difficult each night to play in front of so many people who were expecting to be blown away by this new buzz band. A lot of people weren’t blown away, because we were really just a new band and still learning our trade, you know? So it was a crazy time and very difficult. I like it so much better now that we’re a really good live band and we have a lot of albums to prove our worth. We were not just a buzz band that people talked about and then forgot about. We’re one of the few bands from back then that’s still going strong. I think that longevity is definitely the key to a successful career, and I think we’ve definitely proved it so far.”
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