THE RAVEONETTES

THE RAVEONETTES

Night Terrors

Broody Danish duo The Raveonettes are heading down under with their friends Brian Jonestown Massacre this month, so CHLOE PAPAS has a chat to one part of the pair, Sune Wagner, ahead of their show at the Astor Theatre on Tuesday, May 22.

The Raveonettes have been on the scene for over a decade now, creating their own brand of ‘60’s nostalgic shoegazing and alt-rock and amassing an extremely dedicated fan base worldwide.
When X-Press calls Wagner he has just come off stage in Atlantic City, but is all too happy to chat about their upcoming sixth full-length record. “Well it’s shaping up to be a really fine album, melodically it’s been very interesting. I think it features one of the best songs we’ve ever written, if it turns out the way I condition it. I’m super excited about that. It’s hard for me to get into it because I have a very crazy life right now, and it’s hard for me to focus on writing an album, but you know, I’ll do it and it’ll be good.”
The band’s 2011 album Raven In The Grave was very electronic-based, and heavily focused around synths. Wagner insists that this new album will sounds more like The Raveonettes of old, though won’t be too similar. “The new album is definitely a guitar album, there’s many, many layers of guitar. It’s something that we don’t talk about too much or discuss when writing - we come up with a few ideas for songs then we go down a certain path. There’s not going to be any synthesisers or anything on this new album, it’s strictly a guitar album.”
The Raveonettes are known for their dark, moody instrumentals and lyrics, and Wagner confirms that that won’t change for the band’s new release. He gives us a bit of insight into what goes into creating those melancholic melodies. “I’m mostly just inspired by my own life and the people around me, and the people I encounter. Those ideas just come when I go out. The long dinners and long late-night sessions are just very, very inspiring to me. Because I always think about things when I go out, and it gets to a certain point where you meet weird people or have a strange time,” he muses.
 To tide fans over between full-lengths, the band release an EP, Into The Night, Wagner explains that he and musical partner Sharin Foo think it’s important to release music contstantly. “I think that we have a certain obligation to our fans, and I think what they really want from us is music,” he explains. “So if I can give them as much music as possible, then I think it’s really good. Which is why we’ve released all the B-side rarities and that stuff too. We have some pretty hardcore fans, and they’re really good to us and we try to be good to them. We can only pay people’s generosity by giving them music.”
However, when discussing the comparison between an EP and album, Wagner becomes a little resentful and passionate about writing full records, and the insight caught from his comments shows where his dark song-writing concepts arise. “That idea [of making a full-length] is getting old to me actually, because I’d rather make four really good songs. I like the idea of back in the day when you just put out a single; bands just had one really good song, and then that was it. Because that’s how it works anyway! Most people these days don’t even listen to albums, so who cares what the 11th song on the album is? That’s just my depressing philosophy about albums.”