Klangstof Q and A:
With a lot of musical and psychological kinks ironed out, hailing from the Netherlands, Klangstof leaned heavily in the ad hoc joy of boundless experimentation. Their most recent EP Ocean View is evidence of their evolution. They embraced the possibilities without being tethered to the big stakes of an album or live performance. “Fool’s Rage” gained its languid, intoxicated vibe by recording the music sped up and then slowing it back to its original tempo. Imperfections and limitations often became a starting point for the arrangements: “Silver Cloud”, for instance, used a haphazard guitar take by Salomé as its main thread. We speak to them about their upcoming Manchester show.
Hi All! How Are You Today?
Hey! Really good. We’re all slowly starting to get nervous. New EP, going on tour again, trying to remember all those old songs. It feels good to just be around each other again and just play. Been too long!
How Did You Guys Come Together as a Band?
Koen has started Klangstof in his basement bedroom in Norway when he was a teenager. At the time, he did it all by himself. Years later when one of his songs (Hostage) blew up, he started to look for some people to play the music live. After some trial and error, Erik and me (Wannes) were the ones that stuck and now the three of us write and produce everything together.
You Were the First Ever Dutch Band to Play at Coachella! How Was That for You?
That whole experience was unreal! I’ve never been to a festival that had so many of my favourite artists in one weekend, so it was insane to be a part of it. I remember the tent we played at being empty and being stressing out, but right before we played, it filled right up. People were really into it. Some of us might have shed a tear of joy afterwards (not me).
What Can People Expect From Your Upcoming EP Ocean View?
We were just starting up our 2020 tour when the pandemic hit. We had to cut it short and drive back home from Cologne 🙁 Our album ‘The Noise You Make is Silent’ was released shortly before that, and we put a lot of work into developing the songs to a good live show. During that process, we discovered that some songs actually became stronger when we had to cut down the arrangements to be able to play them live. We liked that so much we decided to make that idea central to our new work; we produced demo’s and started rehearsing them together before they were even finished. The result is more live-sounding arrangements with a lot of pent-up energy.
Back to Touring – What Are Your Experiences of Playing to British Crowds?
British crowds are so much fun!! Always super involved and so much interaction. One of our favourite countries to play at, for sure.
Have You Ever Done a Manchester Show Before? What Are You Excited About When You Perform Here!
The last time we were in Manchester is a few years ago at The Ritz supporting for Jagwar Ma. We’re just super excited to go back and meet some good Manchester people. Hopefully we’ll have some time to stroll around the city and discover some of that Manchester culture as well. We’ve grown so much in the past two years and we can’t wait to finally show the world! 🙂
Listen to Klangstof here:
Tags: Klangstof / Ocean View / Q&A