Being on the road is nothing new for Denmark’s upcoming rock band ‘Go Go Berlin’, who was in the City recently.
This was the band’s first visit to India and they say they will be taking back a lot from the country.
“Our sound keeps evolving every time we travel and we have become better musicians over time. We take back influences from all the places we have been to. In India, there are so many different kinds of people – rich and poor – that it gives you perspective,” says Christian Vium, the lead vocalist.
The band, which rose to fame on tracks like ‘Raise Your Head’ and ‘Castles Made of Sand’, was started in 2012 by Christoffer Ostergaard, who plays the drums.
He says, “Christian and I played at a bar and the manager asked us to come play again. We didn’t have a band so we contacted all the people we knew; we had just two weeks time to get ready!”
He continues, “We were all in performance school together, and we had played music there and shared great chemistry.”
Talking about their unusual name, ‘Go Go Berlin’, Christoffer says he had read about Irving Berlin at the time when the name came to him.
“I was also fascinated by Berlin, but it doesn’t mean anything, really. And since we liked ‘The Doors’, who started off at Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, we named the band ‘Go Go Berlin’.”
Describing their music, Christian says, “It’s instinct – we just play what comes to us. It’s alive! We don’t play according to popular culture. We play whatever we want to.”
He adds that he is okay with their music becoming pop culture. “Pop culture is when a lot of people follow something and we are okay with that; but we don’t want to follow anyone right now,” he says.
According to Christian, the reason their music is different is because, “We have clever lyrics and we try to catch the feeling of the moment.”
On their debut album ‘New Gold’, Christoffer says, “It’s supposed to be raw, live sounds. We didn’t keep the music industry in our heads when we were composing it.”
The band takes inspiration from music greats such as ‘The Doors’, ‘The Rolling Stones’, ‘Led Zeppelin’, ‘The Clash’, ‘The Strokes’ and more.
The five-member band comprises Anders Sondergaard on the organ, Mikkel Dyrehave on the guitar and Emil Rothmann on bass.
