Ein komisches Gebilde ziert das Cover des Debütalbums ‘To The Treetops‘ (hier in unserer Kritik) der Band Team Me…und doch kann man nach dem Hören der Platte nicht abstreiten, dass das visuelle Erscheinungsbild nicht auch zum Sound der sechs jungen Norweger passt. Es wird sich an allen greifbaren Instrumenten ausgetobt, schichtweise Musik übereinander gelagert, sich zum Finale hin in energischen Chören, in voller Euphorie ergangen. Kurz: Ein wilder Strudel musikalischer Ideen. Wohl nicht jedermanns Sache, aber unsere schon, sodass wir uns glücklich schätzen zwei der sechs Team Me-Mitglieder zum Beantworten unserer Fragen gebracht zu haben. Team Me im Bedroomdisco Interview!

1. Band facts:

– Name: Team me
– Band members (names): Marius, Elida, Bjarne, Simen, Skari and Uno.
– Founding year: 2009
– Residence: Oslo
– Current album: “To The Treetops”

2. Questionnaire:

– How did you start making music – had you been forced to play an instrument somehow or was it in your own interest? What was your motivation?
Marius: I think I started playing guitar when I was 12 or something. After I started playing guitar, everything else got totally overshadowed.

– What musical influences do you have?
Marius: Everything from Norwegian Black Metal (1st generation and 2. generation) to pop music such as ABBA. At the moment Im really into “Of Montreal”.

– At first Marius was doing Team Me as a solo-project – at which point did it become necessary to add band members to the line-up and why did you then decide to become a band?
Marius: One of my songs made it to the finals in this demo competition and they basically phoned me up and asked me if i could play some songs in front of an audience. At first I totally freaked out and did not know what to do nor how to react. But after a while I phoned up some of my friends and asked them if they could help me out.

– In which situation did you come up with the name “Team Me”, why did you choose it and what meaning has it for you?
Marius: I had a bunch of songs that didn’t fit in with the other bands I was plying in at the moment, so I decided to give the songs a “home”.

– Was it easy for Marius to give up his solo-power as head of the band and leave the other guys some influence to the sound or is he still in charge of everything?
Marius: Yes, hehe.

– In what situations do you write songs/lyrics/which themes inspire you to write songs?
Marius: Everything inspires me. Being on tour, watching movies, reading blogs, reading books, looking at pictures, meeting new people, getting shit-faced, conversations, sex, listening to music, among many other things.

– How do you normally work on songs? What are the steps/processes, what are the usual problems of finishing a song?
Uno: Up until now Marius writes the core of the songs on an acoustic guitar or piano or something. Then he records a demo of them. And then we finish them and do additional arrangements in the studio as a band. Hopefully we’ll have time to jam and write more as a band as soon as we have some time off tour!

– How would you describe ‘To The Treetops’ to a person who haven’t listened to it?
In short I would describe it as an album of intentionally over-produced, playful, melancholy pop songs, with a couple of trips into space and noise.

– Could you tell us something about the production process of ‘To The Treetops’? How long did it take, where did it happen, what were the difficulties, how did you prepare for it? What was the best, what the worst moment? Most told anecdote?
We basically took the demo sessions and recorded drums and bass and basic guitars on top of the electronics and bleeps and stuff on the demo. Then we locked ourselves into a small studio and tried every possible idea and instrument we had at hand. We had a lot of long days and late nights.

– Was the recording process of your debut album somehow different to how you recorded your first ever EP?
The biggest difference was that we had a producer on the ep, who had his own vision on what the sound should be. We tried many ideas and had fun in the studio with the ep as well, but since we produced the album ourselves, we just did everything that came to mind. We didn’t have anyone to tell us when the ideas were too weird.

– ‘Dear Sister’ is one of our favorite songs – can you tell us what it is about, how it was done and if there is a story behind it?
Thank you! The song is basically about my sister and our relationship. The song was originally a really quiet and stripped down acoustic thing, but after some rounds during the demo process, it ended up as a up tempo pop song.

– We read in an interview to the Norwegian release of ‘To The Treetops’ that you mentioned having already written new songs and thinking about releasing them soon – how did this turn out? Are you already working on a new record?
We recently released “To The Treetops” in Japan, the album is a special edition and contains an additional Ep. The Ep contains 5 previously unreleased songs.

– As a lot seems to be happening in the Norwegian music scene at the time – which newcomer would you advice us to look up and why?
Check out “Dråpe”! Amazing noise pop band!

– Marius is also involved in some other bands – which are those and what about the other band members?
Marius: I`ve got this side project called “SiN” together with my friend Tord from “The Wombats”, and a rock trio called “Jaqueline” with Team Me drummer Bjarne and Morten Wærhaug.

– What are your next plans?
There will be a lot of touring for us in the near future. We are really stoked about the fact that we get to travel around the world, spread our music and make people smile.

– What are you doing if your not making music?
Watching a lot of movies. Building Lego-cities. Riding bikes.

– What did you learn in 2011?
I learned that touring takes a lot of time, but it’s fun. And we’ve become more secure on stage. And how many cool people there are in the world!

– Your Top 3 records of 2011? Why?
Top three is very hard to choose. But three we like are: ‘Rumble in Rhodos-Signs’ of fervent devotion, catchy popcore! Dråpe-ep, beautiful noise! Coldplay – ‘Mylo xyloto’. There’s a reason why they are the biggest band in the world. Amazing songwriters.

– Which song would fit to your actual situation?
‘Mil etter mil’ (mile after mile) by Jahn Teigen. We drive a lot these days.

– Which song makes you dance independent of your situation?
‘Set fire to the face on fire’ by The Blood Brothers!

– How would your ‘Bedroomdisco’ look like?
Total darkness, with some blinking lights from a hidden disco ball under the bed.

– Who did fill out this questionnaire?
Marius and Uno

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyWT-FY9vE