Foto-© Stephan Strache

Im April dieses Jahres sind Arxx als Support von Fletcher unterwegs durch die ganz großen Venues des Landes. Anlässlich ihres Köln-Stopps treffe ich Clara & Hanni. Über den Dächern des Kölner Industrie-Areals rund um das Palladium nehmen die beiden sich Zeit um über ihre Musik, ihr neues, just erschienenes Album & ihren rasanten Aufstieg zu reden. Wir kommen aus dem Lachen nicht mehr hinaus. Es fühlt sich mehr als Plausch unter Freunden denn als Interview an.

Good Boy ist mittlerweile veröffentlicht. Die Platte ist fantastisch. Clara & Hanni haben mehr als gehalten, was sie im April andeuteten…und dieser Tage gibt es auch ein Wiedersehen bei der eigenen Headline-Tour!

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time for this interview.
Clara: Thank you very much. We are delighted that you are interested in our music and that you are giving us a platform and publicity here. That’s really nice.

Congratulations on your single Crying At The Carwash. I like it very much. Would you like to tell our readers something about the story behind it?
Hanni: Last year we found out that we gonna support one of our favorite bands called Muna. It was kind of a big moment for the band. We had a difficult run of things, were everything felt just a bit hard for a while. And so we had this moment, where we got the news and I was picking up my car for the carwash. We just heard the news and just started crying. I was so happy but I was in the carwash, so it was very strange. I had this very surreal moment, where I was in the carwash finding out one of the most exciting news of my life. So we wrote a song about it and about being in a band is very glamorized but also being really hard. And then these moments happen, that change our life and it really happens and is amazing. Playing this Fletcher tour is another one. Because this is another moment, where it feels like our dreams are coming true. When you are imaging you gonna be in a band, this are things you are gonna imaging they will happen. And when they do, you can’t believe it.
Clara: We made like our bucket list about things we want. And we just tap anything off. It is so crazy. It is like our biggest dreams happen, we never thought they will happen. It was so cool.
Hanni: And then we made a song out of the feeling that our big dream had come true.

That just sounds lovely and I’m really happy for you.
How did your dreams come to be? How did the support shows come about?
Clara: We basically had a new booking agent. And we gave him a list of dreams. We never thought it would happen. But Muna was the top of our list. We’ve been trying since years. Perhaps it was the perfect timing.
Hanni: Sometimes everything just fits.

That sounds wonderful.
How do you work on new songs?
Hanni: It is really different now. I was used to working on the songs first and bringing the lyrics and melody to our practice. Then we built the music around it. I write the lyrics and the melody. But everything is different on the new record. We were working and recording on it when I had my vocal surgery problems and could hardly speak. So this time we worked on the music first. Since then, we no longer have any rules. It just happens.

And how do you know when your song is finished?
Hanni: We just go in our rehearsal space and just play and play and play. The moment, where we feel it and I can see us on stage singing it, I know it will fit. If I can never see us performing it, then the song won’t make it.
Clara: And then there’s our producer Steven Ansell. If one of us isn’t happy with the song yet, then the song isn’t finished. We all agree, that we all have to be happy with the song. Steven is also super good at saying, ‘That song is so perfect. Please don’t touch it anymore.’ And then we’re like: ‘But we could still…‘ and then he’s like ‘No. The song is so perfect.’ He is good in stopping us.

It sounds like Steven has a big influence on your sound?
Clara: Yes, he has an enormous influence on our music. We call him our third band member. Every time we have to make a major decision, we contact him: ‘Steven, please help us!’. He is our guardian angel. He is so important to us. He guides us through so many decision-making processes and we trust his opinion and knowledge very much. You got to have that trust in your producer otherwise it won’t work. I think we all got each other.

And where did you find him?
Hanni: We had a great show with Dream Wife. It was our first big gig. We wanted to invite a few people from the music industry. We wanted to start becoming more professional. Then I found out that Steven runs the Jazz Life label. Jazz Life releases the Blood Red Shoes records. But I didn’t realize that he also plays with Blood Red Shoes. Then we met him afterwards and he told us about his band. I then asked ‘What band do you play in?’ and Steven said ‘With Blood Red Shoes.’ Oh fuck.’ Luckily he thought it was funny. We then met up for a coffee and became friends. He is a very nice guy. Very easy to go with.

Sounds perfect.
Hanni: It was.

I love Ride Or Die. What can we expect from your new record?
Hanni: The new record will be called Good Boy. We got way more experimental with our sound. We were really brave. It’s almost going to be a dance record.

They always say that the second record is the hardest. How did you feel about that?
Hanni: It was difficult. But not as difficult as expected. For our first record Ride Or Die we had the most material ever written up to that point. We told our whole life up to that point. Everything flowed into it. In contrast, Good Boy feels much fresher. It was a new challenge. But we were also incredibly busy touring. Touring is our favorite thing. And then one of our tours ended and we thought ‘Okay, let’s try to write new songs.’ So we went into the studio and within a day we had seven new song ideas.
Clara: We felt, we had taken on board every idea. And then we had to do some shifting and fine-tuning afterwards.

How many song ideas were you able to shift through for Good Boy?
Clara: Out of many we ended up with 11 songs, that we thought were coherent and suitable for our new album.
Hanni: We are currently working on our track list and have an idea of which songs will be our singles. Working on the new record also turned out to be very difficult. I had my vocal surgery in February and couldn’t speak at all for around two weeks. The first time I sang properly again was the day before we left for this tour. I really wasn’t sure whether my voice would be okay for the tour again. Fortunately, it was.
But it was difficult for the album writing process. We wrote all the vocals but couldn’t sing them straight away. That was very strange. Now, when we come back home after the tour, we have two days off and have to use them to finalize our record and record the last vocals.

But without being able to sing, do you have any idea what it will sound like?
Hanni: Yes. I got an idea, what it will sound like.
Clara: There was a lot of buzz. Hanni went ‘nnnn’ or ‘nnnnn’. Hanni said, why don’t you sing? But that would sound too bad. Steven was forced to sing once. It was all very rough.

Do you already play new songs?
Hanni: Yes. We are already playing Good Boy and Crying at the carwash on this tour.

Last year in April you played in a small punk rock pub here in Cologne. The place was bursting it seamed. Now in October you’re selling out Gebäude 9, which is at least four times as big. First of all, congratulations on that. And now you are playing support for Fletcher in the Palladium, one of the biggest venues in town. What happened in only one year?
Clara: It’s really, really crazy. Our agency said we had to jump up the next level and just take it with us. On this tour we are playing bigger halls than ever before. It’s all still so surreal and feels like a dream. Just don’t wake up.
Hanni: We’ve played in Cologne a few times now and have always enjoyed it. We’re looking forward to taking the next big step here. And even though our support slots have taken us to even bigger venues, our own headline shows are something special.

Perhaps Gebäude 9 is already too small?
Clara: Perhaps next year we have to play here in the Palladium.

Do you have your own favorite song at the moment?
Clara: For me it’s still Ride or Die.
Hanni: For me too. I still love Ride or Die and often feel the most connected to the audience. I’m currently singing Crying In The Carwash in German. It’s so super funny and feels nice: Weinen in der Waschstraße.

In the 60s, German pop stars translated international hits into German. Katja Ebstein sang Son of a Preacher Man in German, for example, and Karel Gott tried his hand at a German version of Paint it Black.
Clara: We have new ideas.
Hanni: Maybe we should record it.

That would make me very happy. Please also release it on vinyl. But it also works the other way round: the German music project Crucchi Gang around Francesco Wilking translates current German pop songs and turns them into Italian pop songs.
Clara: Wow. That also sounds like a fun project. But it’s probably only really funny if you know the original.
Hanni: We have to hear it in our tour bus.

You are from Brighton. I think everybody now knows DITZ because they supported IDLES. Which Bands do we have to watch?
Clara: Currls are very good. Lime Garden are amazing.
Hanni: CLT DRP. They are amazing. If they ever come near you, you have to see them. Even if you don’t like their records on Spotify or whatever – you have to see them. They are amazing and will blow your mind.
Clara: They are a fantastic band. My friends band Congratulation.
Hanni: Camara. She is amazing.
Clara: She has a huge band with percussions and horns.

Wow. So many bands.
Clara: Brighton is full of really good music.
Hanni: We are just always playing gigs so we miss most of them.

So you get back home to The Great Escape Festival?
Clara: We get back the last day. So we don’t know, if we find time. It’s a shame because we normally love that weekend. It’s really fun to see everybody. Our six week tour ends the day before. I don’t know, if it will be an option.
Hanni: And our tour ends in Dublin and we have lots of friends in Dublin. I don’t think we’ll make it this year. But it’s okay.

Thank you so much for your time.
Clara & Hanni: Thank you so much, it was such a pleasure.

Zum heutigen Start der Deutschland-Tour verlosen wir eine Vinyl zu Good Boy – ihr wollt gewinnen? Dann schickt uns bis zum 25. Oktober eine Mail mit dem Betreff “Arxx” und eurer Adresse an gewinnen@bedroomdisco.de und mit etwas Glück habt ihr bald schon Post von uns in eurem Briefkasten!

Arxx Tour:
18.10.24 München, Strom
19.10.24 Berlin, Hole44
20.10.24 Hamburg, Bahnhof Pauli
28.10.24 Köln, Gebäude 9 – ausverkauft