In two weeks The Woken Trees will play a few gigs in The Netherlands, and after listening to their intriging and dark songs, we at Nordic Vibes got curious about the guys behind the music, so we asked drummer Thomas some questions about the band, their music, the making of their album in a cold cellar and more.

Thomas is one of the founding members of the band, who all hail from the Northern part of Denmark. He explains a bit about the forming of the band: “We have known each other since childhood. Some of us had been hanging around at Maltes (bass) place and watched the movie The Doors with Val Kilmer a late night hour, and that was a groundbraking moment for us. It made a huge impression on all of us. And since we all played instruments by self-taught methods we decided to make a band. Then we moved to Copenhagen as soon as we could, to play music”.

The band name

Of course, a band is nothing without a name. In our ears, The Woken Trees sounds a bit sinister. When hearing the band name, we see dark woods with black trees as high and far as you can see, and then they wake up and haunt you. It turnes out that the band name was inspired by an old song: “It’s a song by The Open Mind, called I Feel The Same Way Too, which was written in 1969. A part of the lyrics is the phrase “the trees will wake up soon..” We liked that image and just rephrased it to The Woken Trees. We like the sound of that, plus it looks good in writing. That it’s sinister doesn’t bother us at all, rather the opposite, as it’s a basic condition that the sinister and dark permeates everything we do”.

Making music in a damp cold cellar

The fact that The Woken Trees created their music in a damp cold cellar in a abandoned and dilapidated villa in Kopenhagen where they moved into, proves this. The band found the villa very easily. Thomas: “It’s pretty weird that we’d been talking about moving to Copenhagen into a house and play music full time, and the first one I asked for a place to live was my old neighboor who was so fortunate to have a villa ready for us. Cheap as hell on top of that!” But it can’t be very healthy, right? Thomas: “We coughed a lot while rehearsing. It’s actually evident on most of our demo recordings!. However, we’re mostly happy about the time we had when we made NNON. We were privileged as we see it. We had our own house where we could rehearse at any time, night and day, every week, without complaints, so that it had to be in the cold cellar is ok after all. Also, it has been a very important part of making the record. In particular because of the constant flow of people playing in the cellar. The creative process was never stopping, it was ongoing for roughly a year!”

Musical inspiration

Besides getting inspiration from the setting in which the band made their music, they also get some inspiration from quite some bands. Martijn compared The Woken Trees to Joy Division in the latest luistertip, while others made comparisons to Interpol and Depeche Mode. Thomas: We have never listened to either Interpol nor Depeche Mode, so they are not influential on our music. Joy Division is a part of our musical education, so to speak, but we didn’t listen to it while making NNON. They’re the inventors of the genre that we happen to find ourselves in, so that we’re compared to them is fitting in a way. The band Wovenhand would be the greatest inspiration for us, together with bands as HEALTH, The Blue Angel Lounge, The Soft Moon, The Warlocks…. we could go on for ages!”

Happy, happy!

Don’t get it wrong though. The guys behind The Woken Trees are not fed up with life or whatsoever. Thomas: “We’re young happy people who enjoy life in many ways. And the balance is right! The dark universe holds a strong expression that we love, and that’s why we use it”.

The Tour: Amsterdam, Breda and Groningen

On May 30 The Woken Trees will kick off their short Dutch tour in Winston, Amsterdam, after this they will rock W2 in Den Bosch, and play the third and last gig up north in the dark basement of Vera, Groningen. Live, the music will sound a bit different from the album. “It will be much more explosive, energic and dangerous. A warning for epileptics is granted”.

The Woken Trees in Winston, Amsterdam
The Woken Trees in W2, Den Bosch
The Woken Trees in Vera Groningen (free entrance!)

Want to win tickets?

This part is in Dutch, since it’s very plausible that only Dutchies want to win tickets 😉

Tickets winnen voor The Woken Trees in Den Bosch of in Amsterdam? Wij geven voor beide shows twee tickets weg! Interesse? Stuur dan vóór 24 mei 2013 een mail naar win (a) nordicvibes.com, vermeld naar welke show je wilt en vergeet niet je volledige naam te vermelden! PS: leuke, grappige, originele en lieve mailtjes worden erg gewaardeerd 😉

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Website The Woken Trees
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