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Interview: The Unkindness of Ravens
The Unkindness Of Ravens are back with a new double A-side single Virus | Viper. It's out on Sonic Fire Records, October 3rd 2011. The guys are in Berlin at the moment but took some time out to chat to us about the aforementioned single and their future plans.
Your new AA side single Virus/Viper is out on October the 3rd. Tell us all about it!
Ben: VIRUS is the title track of the album. I'd had the lyrics in my head for over a year as some kind of rap but could never figure out the music. In January when we were recording our album here in Berlin I was messing about with running two drum machines at once and as soon as I got this beat going on I knew what to do with it. We recorded it real quick and loved it so much we made it the title track of the LP. Viper is one of the first songs I wrote for this band and one I love the most, it's sinister and minimalist and it rocks, which is pretty much the blueprint of our sound.
Nina: With VIRUS I remember kind of singing and half talking the lyrics, a bit robotic, because I didn't quite know what the hell I was doing. The beat is so powerful and it always makes me want to get up and go nuts. I then thought some heavy breaths over the snare would make the song more tribal sounding. Viper is one of those songs that I always kind of half sing and scream when we play it live. I don't know why I do it, it's like the song makes me angry or something, like I wanna take revenge, but the song is just a classic dirty grungy rock piece that hopefully makes people want to have violent sex when listening to it.
What was the inspiration for the video?
Ben: Contemporary dance has interested me for a long time now, and it's something I always wanted to explore with this band, especially as Nina has such a unique dancing style herself. We saw Black Swan in Berlin in January and the inspiration just fell into place.
Nina: The pre-production took a good four months, and after the auditions and finding a choreographer I could work out a routine with, I had four excellent dancers and a choreographer who really understood my vision. The main inspiration was Blade Runner meets Black Swan, and we wanted to shoot it up-close in order to give that claustrophobic feeling. So really, it ended up being a compilation of ideas from inspired people and that's when art gets really exciting.
Being a boy/girl duo, you draw comparisons to bands like the White Stripes and the Kills. Is that something you welcome?
Ben: The White Stripes 'White Blood Cells' record changed the way I thought about music in terms of how powerful and raw and soulful a band could be. But for me being a two-piece just means we can move fast, plain and simple. If I listened to The Kills I'm sure I'd love them too, but I consciously avoid doing that 'cause the comparisons are strong enough already.
Nina: Ben and I tend to find ourselves independent to what's happening around us, so when we get compared to other artists we just kind of shrug our shoulders. Although we're a boy/girl band, our sound will remain very different from everyone else and we hope people understand that.
You've been touring and recording in Germany recently. Are the Germans particularly open to your style of music?
Ben: Playing shows in Germany is a lot more of an interactive experience for us than in London. People here dance, and you know, that's kind of the point of what we do. And in general the nightlife in Berlin is so far in advance of England it's untrue. I've heard more good music in three months hanging out in bars here than I ever have in England.
Nina: The Germans show an enthusiasm that we felt was missing in the London crowds. We're not used to people dancing and going mental when we play our set, because London crowds tend to be more jaded. But playing in Germany is seriously a breath of fresh air, crowds here enjoy what we do and they're not afraid to show it. In fact, they're the kind of folk who will make you play all night if they could.
Overall your music is quite dark in tone. Do you see yourselves as the Joy Division for a new generation, or can we expect a brighter outlook in The Unkindness of Ravens future?
Ben: If art is not dark then it's not so interesting to me, same way I need it to express some kind of sense of wonder. So I want what we do to be sinister but also beguiling, which makes us dark yeah, but also full of hope too.
Nina: We're just experimenting. Our entire life's an experiment. I do have a feeling though that we might head more into electronic territory, for a little while at least, but that could be the influence Berlin's been having on us and it is a sound that's been getting me quite excited. I think as long as we stay true with what we like, be it dark or bright, people can make up their own minds.
We can imagine your tunes playing over the end credits of a movie. If you could have one of your tracks in any movie, which would it be?
Ben: The new Bladerunner film will do me.
You've released a lot of singles and an EP last year but there won't be an album until 2012 - what can we expect to hear from the debut album?
Ben: This album has been a long time coming in the sense that we've been putting out singles for two years, but at the same time we've only known each other three years and everything we've done has been off our own back on our own label. It takes a while to figure shit out and now that we've done a lot of that we feel we're in a good place to make the album and get it right. Our Berlin experiences have focused my mind as to where our sound is heading. If I can't imagine something I come up with being played in one of my favorite bars here then I forget it. There's just some intrinsic sense of cool this place has and I'm trying to synthesis that into this record. It's the same kind of thing I hear in Sonic Youth records.
Nina: Our album will basically be a perfect mix of rock, electro and heavy grungy beats. It will take you on a journey of dark love, whirlwind changes, revenge, the choices we make in life and the adventures explored. Our music will always be open for interpretation, our songs are never about just one thing, it’s whatever you make of them. If people are feeling something when listening to our music, then I think it means we're making honest songs. And that's what our album will be, perfectly honest.
Finally, your dream gig line-up (with you on the bill of course) would be...?
Ben: Ravens, Sonic Youth, and QOTSA Desert Sessions all playing half hour sets at The Old Blue Last.
Nina: With the Chemical Brothers DJing, we really dug their film score from that film 'Hanna'.
Ben: You can smoke inside too.
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