Recently, Kelsey and Emily caught up with Frederick from DATAROCK when they were on their European tour. Frederick gave us some minutes of his time so we could chat to him about their soon to be Australian tour, how Australian crowds compare to European crowds and whether or not he would let Barack Obama use one of their songs in an ad campaign.
THE INTERVIEW:
Hey it's Fredrik
Hey, how are you?
Good thanks, how are you? It's early morning in Australia?
It's so early. I worked last night, so please bear with me.
It's late night here, it's a 9 hour time difference, so yeah, it's late here in Norway.
How are you feeling? Are you feeling alright?
Yeah I am, we've been touring for around three months. In North America, and Norway. 50 shows over three months.
Yeah, we see you're currently touring Europe, is there a country you haven't played in yet that you would like to?
You know what, we've never played in New Zealand. But we've come to Australia five times so far (laughs). Yeah I guess New Zealand, out of all the countries we haven't played in before. We've only played in 31 countries.
What about Antarctica, would you play there?
If given the opportunity, yes.
The last time you were in Australia was not too long ago actually, have you had the chance to "cuddle a koala" or do any other typical tourist-y things on your Australian tours?
We've never tried surfing in Australia for some reason, I don't think we've spent enough time on the beach.... we all got sun burnt at the Gold Coast though. In Sydney Harbour, we went to the aquarium and we got a picture taken there, it's on our Myspace.
You're coming back to our shores early next year for the Falls Festival and Sunset Sounds, are you excited to be playing the festivals along with some of the other acclaimed artists such as Moby and Yeah Yeah Yeahs?
Yeah, I mean, you know it sounds like a perfect set up for us. Yeah I think, hopefully we should see the same audience.
We see your also playing some sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne, but unfortunately not in Brisbane, which is a shame since we heard your last show with Art vs Science was killer, what's it like playing with Australian bands?
Yeah, we played like three or four shows with them. Yeah, those guys are great. When we DJ we play their songs, we think they are great. That's one of the great things about being on tour actually, you get to know the other act. In Brisbane, we don’t have a sideshow. I have NO clue why.
There's pretty much never any sideshows in Brisbane. We're a sleepy little town.
We have played in Brisbane before on our tours, at a place, I think it's called The Zoo?
Yeah that's the place.
Yeah that's where we played last time. But anyway, my daughter has a best friend, they're almost like twins, they've been playing together since they were born, but in fact she just moved to Brisbane, so my little kid is coming with me on tour and we are going to stay there for three days.
Oh, how old is your daughter?
She's three and a half.
Does she listen to your music, does she like it?
Yes she does, but like a lot of other people, she only listens to Fa Fa Fa. She listens to it over and over. She doesn't listen our other songs as much as Fa Fa Fa. Yeah, I dunno, the kid seems to like it, everyone likes Fa Fa Fa, I don't know what’s going on.
Yeah I think I listened to it when I was fourteen, I remember it being one of my favourite songs at the time.
Yeah, it's really funny. But it's also a favourite of older people. I dunno, it's something about the funky song that just works for three minutes.
How do Australian crowds compare to European crowds?
Oh, Australian crowds are the best crowds. That's the bottom line. Australia was the first country where we played for a massive audience, we played for 25,000 people in Sydney. We've done 650 shows, and our favourite shows would be the American music festival and the shows we did at The Hi Fi bar in Melbourne. There's something about the Australian audience that just, well, I think Australian people like to party the way we like to party.
Your music has been used for a lot of ad campaigns, are there any companies you would like your music to be used for? Say If Barack Obama wanted to use your song "Sex Me Up" in one of his campaigns, would you let him?
(laughs) Sure, if he wanted to. One of the things we find funny about Fa Fa Fa, is that the chorus of that song is, it's kinda depressing, you know: "Cause I'm gonna ride fast, going nowhere, cause I left my pride in the past, I'm gonna ride fast, to where I don't care"
It's kind of negative. If you want to brand your fucking product with that so be it, be my guest. Another funny story is, the number one beer brand in Argentina, which is the country with 200 million people, this beer brand, they wanted to brand their fucking beer with the song "Princess" with the chorus being: "Princess! You got prince ASS, you got a prince of an ass" It's so fucking stupid! If someone wanted to use our songs, you know, that's fine. But you know, our songs are used in an unprecedented number of video games, like Sims 2 and Sims 3, and like four different Fifa games. I mean more than 260 million people have been exposed to Datarock through a videogame.
Your songs have been featured heavily in the game Sims, have you ever actually played the game?
The Sims? Have I ever played The Sims?... Well yes. But have we ever played The Sims on stage? That's a little bit too much. I don't really care about synthesisers or anything, I really care about making songs, the synthesisers are just part of the production. We don't play games much, we travel with toys such as keyboards. The ones you can buy online for like 100 dollars. That's the kind of toys we like.
Have you ever caught your mothers out dancing to your tracks? What do they think of your success?
(laughs) I guess I have seen my mother dancing with my daughter at one of my shows. You know, she's very happy. Yeah they're all very proud, everybody thinks it's very absurd. We started Datarock as a fun, little stupid project, but that took us around the world.
Well thanks for talking to us Fredrik, we hope you have fun on your Australian tour.
I hope you're coming to the show.
We are actually, to Sunset Sounds, so we'll see you there.
Hey, how are you?
Good thanks, how are you? It's early morning in Australia?
It's so early. I worked last night, so please bear with me.
It's late night here, it's a 9 hour time difference, so yeah, it's late here in Norway.
How are you feeling? Are you feeling alright?
Yeah I am, we've been touring for around three months. In North America, and Norway. 50 shows over three months.
Yeah, we see you're currently touring Europe, is there a country you haven't played in yet that you would like to?
You know what, we've never played in New Zealand. But we've come to Australia five times so far (laughs). Yeah I guess New Zealand, out of all the countries we haven't played in before. We've only played in 31 countries.
What about Antarctica, would you play there?
If given the opportunity, yes.
The last time you were in Australia was not too long ago actually, have you had the chance to "cuddle a koala" or do any other typical tourist-y things on your Australian tours?
We've never tried surfing in Australia for some reason, I don't think we've spent enough time on the beach.... we all got sun burnt at the Gold Coast though. In Sydney Harbour, we went to the aquarium and we got a picture taken there, it's on our Myspace.
You're coming back to our shores early next year for the Falls Festival and Sunset Sounds, are you excited to be playing the festivals along with some of the other acclaimed artists such as Moby and Yeah Yeah Yeahs?
Yeah, I mean, you know it sounds like a perfect set up for us. Yeah I think, hopefully we should see the same audience.
We see your also playing some sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne, but unfortunately not in Brisbane, which is a shame since we heard your last show with Art vs Science was killer, what's it like playing with Australian bands?
Yeah, we played like three or four shows with them. Yeah, those guys are great. When we DJ we play their songs, we think they are great. That's one of the great things about being on tour actually, you get to know the other act. In Brisbane, we don’t have a sideshow. I have NO clue why.
There's pretty much never any sideshows in Brisbane. We're a sleepy little town.
We have played in Brisbane before on our tours, at a place, I think it's called The Zoo?
Yeah that's the place.
Yeah that's where we played last time. But anyway, my daughter has a best friend, they're almost like twins, they've been playing together since they were born, but in fact she just moved to Brisbane, so my little kid is coming with me on tour and we are going to stay there for three days.
Oh, how old is your daughter?
She's three and a half.
Does she listen to your music, does she like it?
Yes she does, but like a lot of other people, she only listens to Fa Fa Fa. She listens to it over and over. She doesn't listen our other songs as much as Fa Fa Fa. Yeah, I dunno, the kid seems to like it, everyone likes Fa Fa Fa, I don't know what’s going on.
Yeah I think I listened to it when I was fourteen, I remember it being one of my favourite songs at the time.
Yeah, it's really funny. But it's also a favourite of older people. I dunno, it's something about the funky song that just works for three minutes.
How do Australian crowds compare to European crowds?
Oh, Australian crowds are the best crowds. That's the bottom line. Australia was the first country where we played for a massive audience, we played for 25,000 people in Sydney. We've done 650 shows, and our favourite shows would be the American music festival and the shows we did at The Hi Fi bar in Melbourne. There's something about the Australian audience that just, well, I think Australian people like to party the way we like to party.
Your music has been used for a lot of ad campaigns, are there any companies you would like your music to be used for? Say If Barack Obama wanted to use your song "Sex Me Up" in one of his campaigns, would you let him?
(laughs) Sure, if he wanted to. One of the things we find funny about Fa Fa Fa, is that the chorus of that song is, it's kinda depressing, you know: "Cause I'm gonna ride fast, going nowhere, cause I left my pride in the past, I'm gonna ride fast, to where I don't care"
It's kind of negative. If you want to brand your fucking product with that so be it, be my guest. Another funny story is, the number one beer brand in Argentina, which is the country with 200 million people, this beer brand, they wanted to brand their fucking beer with the song "Princess" with the chorus being: "Princess! You got prince ASS, you got a prince of an ass" It's so fucking stupid! If someone wanted to use our songs, you know, that's fine. But you know, our songs are used in an unprecedented number of video games, like Sims 2 and Sims 3, and like four different Fifa games. I mean more than 260 million people have been exposed to Datarock through a videogame.
Your songs have been featured heavily in the game Sims, have you ever actually played the game?
The Sims? Have I ever played The Sims?... Well yes. But have we ever played The Sims on stage? That's a little bit too much. I don't really care about synthesisers or anything, I really care about making songs, the synthesisers are just part of the production. We don't play games much, we travel with toys such as keyboards. The ones you can buy online for like 100 dollars. That's the kind of toys we like.
Have you ever caught your mothers out dancing to your tracks? What do they think of your success?
(laughs) I guess I have seen my mother dancing with my daughter at one of my shows. You know, she's very happy. Yeah they're all very proud, everybody thinks it's very absurd. We started Datarock as a fun, little stupid project, but that took us around the world.
Well thanks for talking to us Fredrik, we hope you have fun on your Australian tour.
I hope you're coming to the show.
We are actually, to Sunset Sounds, so we'll see you there.
Datarock are heading back to Australian shores at the end of this month for The Falls festival and early next year for Sunset Sounds. Get your tickets to Sunset Sounds ASAP as they are selling out fast - easily the best festival this summer in our opinion.
www.sunsetsounds.com.au
www.sunsetsounds.com.au
Congratulations to Alice Rezende and David Raywood who both won tickets to the Sunset Sounds festival for having the best costumes at our last party.
