THE WHITEST BOY ALIVE: INTERVIEW

Friday 12 December 2008

THE WHITEST BOY ALIVE: INTERVIEW

Written by Taufan

On 29th Nov 08, The Whitest Boy Alive came to Jakarta to perform at Beatfest, along side Steve Aoki, Santa Monica, Agrikulture, etc. Footurama managed to steal their time on the day before the show to have a little chitchat with their front man, Erlend Oye and bassist Marcin Oz.

Interview by Erik Aditya Photo by Anji

How did you get to work with Geoff McFetridge, the guy who designed your album artwork?

Marcin: We met him… I met him in Berlin for the first time. Erlend introduce me. Did you know him before?

Erlend: No. That was the first time I met him.

Marcin: There were this fashion fair in Berlin. And there people from outside the country. And Geoff was there drawing T-shirts on the spot. So that’s where we met him. And Erlend said Geoff’s drawings remind him of how he wrote his lyrics. So we thought it would be a good idea to ask him to do our artwork. Then he showed us his previous work and we liked it. He liked our music also. That’s how it happened.

Read the full interview after the jump..

I saw a video for “Golden Cage” on Youtube. It’s about optical illusion…

Marcin: Actually, that’s a really funny story. There’s this video competition in Italy made by the Italian MTV where people made videos for Golden Cage and this video was the winner. Since then this guy claimed that it was the official video. I think that this video is very random and doesn’t relate, at all, to our music… to “Golden Cage”. So even though he claimed that that’s the official video but the real video for “Golden Cage” is the one Geoff draw.

Erlend: But, actually I think it’s a great video, the one he made. It’s just doesn’t have anything to do with our song. So, it’s more like we made a song for his video. Have you seen the one Geoff made?

Actually, I haven’t. I just clicked that one because it said “Official Video”…

Erlend: Well, it’s NOT the official video. This is like a joke to us. I mean, for him, Mauro Vecchi, the one who made the video… it was so important for him to made the official video that he managed to talked Youtube into putting it on the first page. A year ago, it was on the first page of youtube and it got one million plays.

Marcin: Now it’s almost two million… I wish Geoff’s video got that much but it’s hidden, you know. Geoff made the drawings himself just like we made our music with our hands. He made the video without the help of a computer.

I want to ask you about that. Whitest Boy Alive was originally an electronic dance music project but then it progressed to a band. What make you shift to that?

Marcin: You know there are many ways to make music. When we met, we both were excited about electronic dance music and the way to do it or how other people do it was use a computer to sequenced the music put through the computer. Then we realized that if we want to play this music live we must bring a computer on stage which we thought would be lame. So we were looking for ways to bring the music we’re making without having to bring a laptop on the stage with us. Then we met our drummer and keyboard player in the studio we were using to record the music. It was a coincidence but we found the perfect match.

If The Whitest Boy Alive were to be a human being, how do you think this person would look like and what are the personal traits?

Erlend: Well, The Whitest Boy Alive is supposedly a human being. It’s a name of a picture of a human being who the songs are about. This guy, he grows up and he feels like he’s coming from an unexciting part of the world.

So it’s a male? Could it be a female?

Erlend: It could be anyone.

Marcin: I think it never been explained because every one of us imagined him or her or the boy to be whatever we liked. I mean, you listen to the music and the lyrics and you have a certain picture of it. You may have a different picture from mine. I don’t want my picture to be your picture.

So it’s up to us?

Marcin: Yeah, it’s up to you.

Erlend: Well, it’s not really up to you. It’s like, I know what I feel but I don’t want to tell you what I feel because then you won’t be imaginative.

What’s the story behind the Fred Falke remix of “Golden Cage”? How did that come about?

Marcin: When we release our album in the UK through Modular, they think it would be great to have one of the songs remixed. And Erlend was a fan of Fred Falke…

Erlend: I like his remix for Hot Chip.

Marcin: So we asked him to do a remix. But, I’m saying this for myself, I don’t really like the result. I imagined the remix would come out differently. When I heard it I was slightly disappointed. But I didn’t dare to ask him to change it. So I keep it to myself and in fact it became a big success all over the world and I was very happy. So I am happy in the end but I can never really like it with all my heart.

You did a remake of “24K” that was originally a Morgan Geist track. I like your version better because it’s catchier than the original…

Erlend: Well, I think the original is also an amazing track. And the good thing is now the song has two amazing versions.

You also reminded people that this track does exist…

Marcin: Yeah, that’s also the thing. Because the original track was never officially released and not many people know about this track. So we thought it would be great to bring it up again because it’s such a great song. And we’re a big fan of Morgan Geist and Metro Area and the sound of the production.

Is this your first time working with him?

Marcin: Erlend did things with him before for his solo record and I’ve DJed with him and I have a lot of his records.

Erlend: The four of us have got a different musical taste. But we all agree on Metro Area. So it’s like it is the thing that linked us together.

What about with Kompis?

Erlend: You know what? I’ve made a lot of music with a lot of different people. So it’s hard to like have a say on each and one of them.

But the thing is we can always tell that it’s you because you have a distinct sound.

Erlend: It’s also a good thing that they all got released on different time because otherwise people will notice that they all sound the same. Hahaha… The fun thing is you get to meet all these people and you get to see where they live. You get to go to places you’ve never been before. And several years later when it comes out you can say, “Ah, I remember that time!”

How’s Singapore?

Marcin: It was a great entry to the Asian world. We played a great show.

Erlend: It’s more fun to be here in Indonesia.

Really?

Erlend: Really. Because Indonesia is kind of exciting. It is a place where you can discover something. And they’re open to any kind of tourist. It’s a very good feeling.

I heard you are recording your second album in Mexico?

Erlend: It’s done.

Marcin: It’s done and it will come out in the beginning of next year.

Will it be different from your first one?

Marcin: Yeah, of course…

Will it be better?

Erlend: Actually, I’ve played it at a friend’s house and they said it is better than the first one.

Marcin: We’re going to play a couple of songs from it too tonight.

Allright guys, thank you so much for your time…good luck with the show tonight

Erlend: No problem, see u tonight at the show..