Die wohl weiteste Anreise zum diesjährigen Owls’n’Bats Festival hat wohl die Formation TRAITRS aus Toronto/Canada. Mit einer Mischung aus Cold Wave und Post-Punk wird das Duo, bestehend aus Shawn Tucker and Sean-Patrick Nolan, am 07.07.2018 in Detmold zu den Füßen des Hermanns zu Gast sein. Mit im Gepäck haben die zwei Canadier ihre zweite EP mit dem netten Namen Butcher’s Coin. Ihr erstes großartige Gastspiel hatten TRAITRS dieses Jahr auf dem WGT in Leipzig. Wir legen Euch die brillante Band an Euer schwarzes Herz, denn wer weiß schon wann TRAITRS mal wieder über den größen Teich kommen. Für euch haben wir Sean-Patrick Nolan zum Interview gebeten.
Probably the furthest arrival to this year’s Owls’n’Bats Festival is the formation TRAITRS from Toronto / Canada. With a mix of Cold Wave and post-punk, the duo consisting of Shawn Tucker and Sean-Patrick Nolan, will be guests at the feet of Hermann on July 7, 2018 in Detmold. With the two Canadiens carrying their secound EP with the nice name Butcher’s Coin. Their first great guest appearance had TRAITRS this year at the WGT in Leipzig. We put you the brilliant band to your black heart, who knows when TRAITRS come again across the big pond. We asked Sean-Patrick Nolan for an interview.
Who is behind TRAITRS?
Nolan: “TRAITRS consists of Shawn Tucker and Sean-Patrick Nolan. We also have a great team of people working with us behind the scenes that make everything possible: our producer Josh Korody, James Lindsay and Paul Lawton from Pleasence Records, Jean-Louis from Manic Depression Records and Marcin Krupa from Alchera Visions.”
How would you describe your music?
Nolan: “I think post-punk or cold wave is the easiest way to describe our sound. We have hints of goth and industrial music peppered in as well. The music itself is quite cinematic also.”
What´s the special of the Band?
Nolan: “We talk a lot about what steps we can take to separate ourselves from all the other bands past and present in this genre. It’s very important to us to have our own sound and identity independent of our peers and the past. That being said, we do try to keep the spirit of the older post-punk bands alive in our sound. There is a sadness and melancholy in all the old post-punk and new wave bands which is sometimes lost or missing in newer bands. So we work very hard to capture that feeling and hurt in our songs. The biggest compliment we receive is when listeners tell us our music moves them emotionally and makes them feel something. That deep emotional connection with our audience means everything to us.”
What would you like to achieve with your songs?
Nolan: “As I mentioned before, with every song we try to achieve an emotional connection with the listener. Before there’s any sound, we usually start with the idea of an emotion, feeling, tone or mood we want to convey with the music and rhythms. Once that is established, we can discover the rest of the song little by little. Hooks and melody are very important to us as well. With Shawn’s vocals, he really pushes himself to make them as catchy and emotional as possible. Shawn has a very evocative voice which makes it a fun instrument to highlight. He loved a-ha, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran and Big Country as a kid, so we aim to be as catchy as they are. It is fucking impossible, those bands set the bar so high. But it’s a goal to keep striving towards.”
Why did you start making music?
Nolan: “As a teenager I was very shy, quiet and awkward. I had social anxiety and no self-esteem so I always felt very intimidated by people. I had a lot of difficulty talking and expressing myself to anyone aside from my closest friends. In a cathartic way, music and performing presented an outlet for me to express the things I couldn’t express in conversations. I started learning different instruments at a very young age and started playing in bands in high school. In some strange way, I found it much easier to perform in front of large audiences than it was to talk to girls, strangers or teachers. It helped me build confidence in myself and feel comfortable in my own skin. For the most part I’ve completely overcome this anxiety, but somewhere that shy and frightened child still lives deep inside me.”
Which bands had an effect on your creativity?
Nolan: “When we started TRAITRS, the bands that influenced us the most were Dead Can Dance, The Sound, Southern Death Cult, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Smiths, Bauhaus, early Cure of course. Figuring out how and why those bands sound they way they do is what influenced our earliest songs. While recording the new album, I was listening to experimental electronic artists like Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, Prurient and Pharmakon. Their music put me in an interesting creative head space so I could go into our own recording with a blank slate.”
What kind of music you listen to at home, on the road or by doing sports?
Nolan: “We seriously listen to everything. Post-punk, hardcore, punk, metal, electronic music, film scores. I was listening to Bitches Brew by Miles Davis a few days ago. I’m really late to the party, but Deafheaven is fucking awesome! I just got into them a few months ago. Shawn is always listening to Danzig, Samhain, Fugazi and Interpol. We get bored easily so we always need something new and fresh to listen to and that changes daily. Podcasts and audiobooks are also really important to me on the road. Sometimes I get sick of music all together and just want to hear people talk for a few hours.”
Wishes for the future? Which goals you have? What´s the next? Tour? Studio? Something completely different?
Nolan: “Our main goal is to play music for a living and support ourselves and our loved ones. Plain and simple. We love writing, recording, performing and touring. Playing music makes us happy and to be able to support ourselves and our families that way would be a dream come true. Our new record Butcher’s Coin just came out so we are touring Europe all this summer and fall. And it looks like we will be heading to the US next year and who knows where else. So come out and say hello. We are really friendly and love meeting all the people that come to our shows. Connecting with our audience is really important to us.”
A band has to pass many ups and downs. So, what was the absolute highlight in the past and what the bitter low-point?
Nolan: “As of right now the highlight is probably playing Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig this year. They gave us a great slot and venue and the show was incredible. It was the culmination of years of hard work and struggle. Signing our first record deal is another highlight as well as our first tour of Europe. Low points? Oh man, there are so many of those hahaha! Last tour we were up for 65 hours straight and I got very drunk after our gig in Warsaw. I blacked out and smashed my head off a cement floor. The next morning I had the worst hangover of my entire life and had to spend it constantly vomiting on a very noisy train filled with screaming children all the way back to Germany for the next gig. The show in Warsaw was incredible but that fucking hangover came from the darkest depths of hell.”
You makes station on 07.07.2018 in Detmold at the Owls’n’Bats Festival. Did you ever hear of the great location in the Teutoburg forests at the feet of the Hermann Monument?
Nolan: “We have heard really great things about the festival and the location. I’ve read a bit of history about the monument and Teutoburg forests and it sounds amazing! History like that doesn’t really exist in Toronto so I can’t wait to see it in person.”
Did you ever played before with one of the other bands of the Owls’n’Bats Festival?
Nolan: “We actually haven’t played with any of the bands oddly enough. We were supposed to play with The Foreign Resort a few times but that never materialized. It’ll be great to finally play with them. We’re also excited to play with Ash Code and Laura Carbone as well. This year’s bill is really impressive.”
What´s the first thought by reading this words?
Music: Chilling. Sad. Otherworldly.
Childhood: Terrifying. Awful. Thank god it’s over!!
Blockade: Upheaval. Uprising. Resistance.
Gig: One of the best feelings in the world. Pure adrenaline. Absolutely nothing compares to it. Total bliss except when everything goes wrong!
Home: Toronto is a funny place that loves building lifeless condos on top of anything historical and cool. Very expensive to live in! There are really amazing neighbourhoods, art communities, venues, restaurants and galleries but Toronto can also be quite cold at times.
Thank you for the little interview.
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