Offering a strong serpentine groove and QOTSA style beef, ‘Flügge’ is a perverse foray into stoner rock. Bursting with tight production, cosmic conjurations of sound, and hypnotic arrangements, ‘Flügge’ is a distillation of the album that shares its name. The millennial generation is more at liberty to find themselves thanks to the sweat from their parents’ brow, but ironically more lost and held in abeyance than the generations that preceded it. In ‘Flügge’ Odd Couple capture the central paradox of contemporary youth.
In this interview spotlight, we chat with Odd Couple about the new project, their influences, technology, the digital music age and more.
Full Q&A along with links and streams available below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Tammo: We are a Garage-Rock-Psych-Kraut-whatever Duo from Berlin. We are Jascha and Tammo. We are 26 and we are originally from a little town called ”Norden” in the North of Germany.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
I honestly dont know but when I look at our in fluences it seems pretty logic that we do this style of music. We never had a plan like „yeah, lets do this kind of music“. It just happened. If we stay the Course? Well lets see but I guess you will always find a Blues-Vibe in our Songs.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
Flügge we did completely by ourselves and Pressure was recorded with Frank Pop. We weren’t able to experiment so much with sounds when we did Pressure because we didn’t know yet how that stuff work. we recorded everything by ourselves and that was the best decision we made. At that time we recorded Flügge we were sharing a Studio with « Oracles » and « Suns of Thyme ». Unfortunately we had to move out but at that time it was perfect for us. We recorded, mixed and wrote most of the Album in 1,5 months and than i headed off to france with my love.
We tried to use as less effects as possible. Most of the Reverbs on the Voice you hear on this record were recorded in a empty room that gave a natural feeling for room. Of course we had to overdub a lot cause in the end we are just 2 people but the guitars and Drums were recorded live. Once everything was build up I just had to hit record on the table i put next to the drumset. We also had the rule to just save 3 Takes for one Song and to do no cutting in the Mix. Berlin didn’t influence this record in the same way like it did on our first record. But your surrounding always influences what you do and it doesn’t matter if its Berlin or a 500 people Village.
Most of the Lyrics have something to do with our personal social surrounding which we wouldn’t have if we wouldn’t live in Berlin. Vegans, Lazy Students, Hedonists, Arty People, Homeless People, Real Artists, Fake Artists, and and and. But in the end this record is more of a self-study than a social-study unlike our first one.
Do you face challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? How has technology helped you (assuming it helps)?
Wow, this is a huge topic but if it comes to recording I can`t complain. You don`t have to have a lot of money to record your music and that opens a door for a lot of Artists who otherwise wouldn’t be able to record their music. That also means that there is a lot out there and it keeps becoming more and more. Also the Internet made everything way easier and faster to spread your music but as there is so much music being released constantly you are also swallowed by the swamp very easily.
Where can we connect with you online and discover more music?
Well you can find us on Bandcamp, Facebook, Youtube or just simply on oddcouple.de
Anything else before we sign off?
Check out our Split we did with Klaus Johann Grobe from Switzerland for the Record Store Day. We covered each other.
