German indie rock ensemble the Robocop Kraus will stop in Montreal this Saturday as one of three Canadian dates in their North American tour.
Set to play at the Jupiter Room, frontman Thomas Lang foresees “no sleep at all,” when it comes to the start of this new tour. Along with guitarist Matthias Wendl, organ player Markus Steckert, bassist Tobias Helmlinger and drummer Christian Fuss, Lang said the Nuremberg natives are “really refreshed again and we’re really excited to hop on a plane and play some shows in Canada.”
Having had some “time to relax and write new songs [since playing] 70 shows in 80 days,” on the last tour, the Robocop Kraus are ready to show what they’re made of.
“We try to create a certain energy in the room that is always really special for me,” Lang said. “When we started as a band, we didn’t really feel like musicians going on stage,” he said. Lang said the cathartic experience of letting out their musical energy allows the audience to join them in appreciating their music and even go crazy if they so desire.
Their latest studio venture is They Think They Are The Robocop Kraus, an album that Lang explains is “like a snap shot, almost, in time. You go in the studio and you make this one snap shot [but] you could have done it in a different way also.” Each album is completely different but all the albums share at least one thing in common: “We always try to give you the best.”
While they are satisfied with this new record, they are already writing new songs and trying to expand their musical horizons during rehearsal by swapping “instruments all the time [so that] everybody has to play the instruments he doesn’t really know how to play. It’s fun; it’s a different approach,” Lang said.
Singing in English as opposed to their mother tongue of German came naturally to the band, saidLang. “We haven’t really thought about it, I have to admit. It’s just the music we listen to. You know when you start a band, you want to do the stuff that you really like and we mostly listen to English [music],” he said.
In fact, being of German origin hasn’t really made much of an impact on their music either. Lang says that he can’t really answer whether or not his culture has influenced what he does and why he does it. “I don’t know. I don’t really listen to music and think about where it comes from [so] that’s how we try to see our music as well.”
In terms of the differences between European and North American audience reception to their songs, Lang doesn’t think they’re that different. He did notice a difference playing in Japan though, where crowds seem more attentive and polite. “In between songs, they clap and then they stop and really listen and you don’t hear anything. Nobody speaks. In Europe or North America, both use mobile phones,” he said.
The Robocop Kraus have already had quite a bit of international success and as such, breaking into the North American market like some of the other indie rock bands that have recently surfaced, isn’t really a major concern for them. “We don’t break into markets. We just want to go on tour, have fun and play music and meet people. We’re lucky that we can in fact play music and nothing else at the moment,” said Lang.
The Robocop Kraus and guests at are the Jupiter Room on Saturday, March 4, 2006. Tickets are $11 plus taxes and service charge.
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