Diefenbach - Danish melting pop

In the room where I meet Kenneth Sarup there are some wonderful posters on the walls and a television switched on. After discussing the beauty of the posters, the Diefenbach guitarist and singer and I start watching and commenting on cartoons, talking about "Set & Drift", the band's new work, during the ad breaks.

Diefenbach. That's a character from the film "Fargo"!

Yes, it is. Besides music, we're very interested in film. When we're not playing, we talk about movies all the time, so it came naturally to us. I've seen "Fargo", one of my favorite films, but also one of the other band members' favorites (bassist Allan Mattsson, who sings on the album alongside Kenneth, Lasse Lyngbo on keyboards, Nicolaj Strøyer Christophersen on second guitar and Stefan Gejsing on drums, ed.), and there's this guy who calls the protagonist on the phone. You never actually see him, but he's very insistent, he never gives up, and it seemed like a great name to me.

Five years ago we had a gig to play and we still didn't have a name, so I suggested it to the others and we all agreed because everyone had liked the film. I think it was a good choice.

And then he's one of those characters... Well, actually he's not really a proper character: he's just a voice on the phone, a couple of phone calls.

That's true, you never see him. Watching the film before we needed a name for the band, I noticed him right away because he's so patient, and it's also a great device in the film to depict Jerry Lundegaard's thoughts, as if there were voices in his head that keep calling him.

You're a Danish band that many European countries, the UK in particular, have always followed closely: you were on the X-Fm playlist and you even allowed yourselves to turn down a slot at Glastonbury Festival.

We didn't turn it down: we were in the middle of recording the album and just couldn't find the time — we would have had to rehearse a lot, travel, play the show and all that sort of thing. We really wanted to play, but it wasn't the right moment. Maybe next year.

What do you expect from this new record?

Actually, I don't expect anything. I wish it a lot, though. We were already surprised to be here in Milan and that you wanted to meet us. It's been a really pleasant experience for us. We honestly don't expect anything. I hope people really like this album, obviously because (smiling) we like it and think it's beautiful.

Your first album (“Diefenbach”, 2001) was entirely instrumental, for your second record (“Run Trip Fall”, 2003) you added vocals on a couple of songs, and now, on “Set & Drift”, your third album, every song is sung. I don't think you were desperate for it: you already had your audience and plenty of media attention. Why a sung record?

Why? That's a good question! At the start, when we began making music, we didn't use vocals simply because we didn't have microphones — it was that simple: no microphones, no singing. It was a bit of an accident at first, but we didn't miss it. Then, while we were recording “Run Trip Fall”, we finished early and had a day to spare... we always have tons of melodies in our heads, because we're thinking about them all the time and singing them to each other. At one point I was there focusing on how to “translate” a melody I had in mind into a guitar part, when someone asked me: “Why don't you just sing it instead of trying to find it on guitar or keyboard?”

For Allan and me it felt really strange to sing, but we decided to take turns so we wouldn't get too bored with it. We only sang to hear how it would come out, and it sounded good. That's why you find vocals on “Run Trip Fall”. People liked it. It was a natural progression for us. The first album came out five years ago, and when you look back at what you were doing five years ago, you realize a lot has happened — so for us, now, singing doesn't feel like such a big deal.

We've always managed to do exactly what we wanted. Maybe the next record won't have any vocals at all, or maybe it'll just be voice and violins. We try to keep ourselves interested and having fun the whole time. I hope our listeners understand this evolution and aren't put off by it, because we'll keep doing new things. We just do it for the fun of it.

People grow, just like you grow.

Exactly, that's our view too. We don't want to keep making the same music over and over: that would be stupid and boring. It's not for us. Some bands, like White Stripes (there's a White Stripes poster hanging on the wall in front of him) — and I mean this in a positive way, I'm not criticizing them at all — it's basically just one rock guitar and a drum kit the whole time, across three albums so far.

(He catches me smiling)

What?

I just remembered something one of the Ac/Dc guys said years ago: “Some people say we've made the same record thirteen times, but that's not true at all: it's fourteen.”

(We laugh)

At least that makes sense! We want to stay engaged. I could even go along with the idea that the next record will be exactly like this one. When the time comes, we'll see.

You and Allan swap vocal parts throughout the record. How do you work together on that? If you even do.

We're very careful about it, because in the end we both have to be able to sing them, so they can't be too low or too high. Let's say there's always someone who steps up to the mic first, maybe during a jam, and sings some nonsense, and then one of us says it should go a certain way, and together we build a good melody intelligently: maybe it's a really tough melody that could use a bit more harmony.

A lot of it happens right there in the studio. Sometimes even while Allan is in the booth recording and I'm outside listening.

From what you're telling me, it sounds like you write songs together pretty easily.

It's easy to write songs together, I'm not sure it's easy to write good songs, but it's up to other people to say whether our songs are any good or not.

We study our melodies constantly, we listen to them over and over, and we sit there looking for gaps, and we just drop in a “ti-ri-ti”.

It was in our heads, also because all the music we've ever listened to was built around the voice: all that Bee Gees and Byrds and Beatles stuff, and Jeff Buckley, and a lot of other things.

Wow, the way you describe it, arranging one of your songs sounds really complicated!

It's different from track to track. Some tracks came together very quickly: an hour or two and they were done. Other songs took six months to finish, and we recorded them four times over.

For instance, “Streetlights”: when we got to the studio we didn't have the whole song yet, so we picked up our instruments and started from the three chords we had, and all of a sudden it was finished and we all agreed on it really fast. Other times, maybe three of us disagree and argue the song could sound a lot better.

“Set & Drift” is a very varied record. You can find rock, folk, pop, electronics, and even progressive in there. It's a great way to make sure the record really appeals to everyone. Was that something you planned?

Absolutely not. It really reflects Diefenbach's musical tastes. We have very different musical tastes. I like samba, and I suggested adding certain percussion parts, just for fun. Everyone can bring whatever they want: that's our philosophy. If it's a good song, it doesn't matter if it's a country song: if it's good, we keep it. We know it might confuse people, especially those who only know our older material.

It wasn't a conscious decision, we just wanted to play as well as we possibly could.

The first version of “The Police”, which is the most acoustic song on the record, was recorded in a very rock version, it almost sounded like a Queens Of The Stone Age song, it was really aggressive. We liked it, but we felt it wasn't the right version. It was almost finished, but we still decided to completely overhaul it, to start over from scratch. The result was a country/folk song.

(As she tells me this, my eyes widen. I'm more than ready to write down my email address and explain the countless ways to send an mp3.) Will there be any chance of hearing this really vicious version?

Maybe as a b-side (I'm getting there slowly).

Look, maybe as a c-side: I don't even know if we still have the recording.

(Rather disappointed)

Oh, no, no, no! Maybe in ten years a box-set will come out! (we laugh)

We just do what we think, at the moment, is the best thing. If you've got a dance track, let it become a dance track. We don't do it to confuse people, even if we realize it might happen.

Just like a good director: he can shoot a comedy and his next film might be a horror or a thriller, but there's always that camera movement or the lighting or something else.

We simply want our songs to sound as good as they possibly can. If a song wants to be a folk song, let it be a folk song.

"Favourite Friend" is the first single, will there also be a video?

Yes, there is, we just finished shooting it. It was interesting: this is our first video. There are tons of special effects, it's almost all shot against a blue screen. We didn't know what we were doing, we just did whatever the director yelled at us to do, and there was actually nothing around us because it would all be filled in on the computer afterwards. It was interesting, but also stressful: "Who knows how it'll turn out!" It came out really well, we're happy with it. A London production company handled it, they're really very good.

We like it, our mums like it. It's got to be good, then!

It'll be added to rotation soon.

Is it true that a journalist left the venue where you were playing in tears because of your performance? What happened?

(He smiles at me and seems quite proud of it!) He didn't leave: he stayed! He was the one who told us, after the show, that he'd been crying. I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I think it was a compliment, especially since he then added that he'd enjoyed the concert.

On your record there was a song called "Pete Townsend"…

We were in this old analogue studio in Copenhagen recording with those big tape reels, and that very equipment used to belong to Pete Townsend. We were just jamming and we liked it so much that we wanted to put it on the record. Choosing the title was pretty straightforward.

Last night I was waiting for my turn to do an interview, and the journalist before me asked the singer the dumbest questions I've ever heard in my life. Leaving this interview aside, has it ever happened to you that you had to answer stupid questions that maybe even got on your nerves?

Not yet. People want to know how, what and when, and they ask that kind of question, and that's fine with me, because I totally get it.

There have been a couple of questions, including "What's your favorite color?" (we laugh), but most of them are good questions, including the ones in this interview.

Ask me again in four days: tonight we're leaving for Paris, then Brussels and Amsterdam, we'll be doing loads of interviews. By Saturday they'll probably have asked me some stupid questions. I'll send you an email.

Let's put it this way: by the time you get to Amsterdam, you'll be able to answer the questions before they're even asked, you'll be able to interview yourself! (We laugh)

Will there be a chance to see you live?

Nothing's planned for Italy. We're off on a four-week tour, we'll be in Germany, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark. I hope to come back to Italy soon to visit it properly, because today we haven't been able to see anything.

And the weather's terrible too!

We were so happy, singing: "We're going to Milan and it'll be sunny!" And, you know, we landed last night and today we had to meet up with some people, so we haven't seen anything. We hope to come back soon.

The interview ends here. But then again, so did the cartoons. On the plus side, I didn't leave him my email address...

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