Get set for the Turboweekend!

After playing a showcase gig for Electronic Beats in late 2009, we have been massive fans of the appropriately named Turboweekend. Since the release of their debut album Night Shift, they have ridden a wave of commercial and critical success in their home country. Night Shift’s follow up – Ghost of a Chance – further builds on the template of synth driven club-rock (played very live!) and is set to reach an even larger audience with a re-release later this year prior to a third full length album from the Danish trio. Originally founded by school friends Silas Bjerregaard, Morten Koie and Martin Petersen in 2006, the three band members have been friends since junior school and been playing together for most of their lives.

We caught up with lead singer Silas to see what the trio have been up to and what we can expect from Turboweekend in the next few months.

What can we expect from your upcoming record? Has anything been recorded yet?

Well actually, what we are working on right now is an EP project with some guest vocalists from Denmark, hopefully one from Sweden and maybe also one from Germany. We wanted to do this project before we start on the new Turboweekend album to kind of move ourselves in a new direction and get some inspiration.

And can you tell us who they might be?

Maybe. Yes. We know for sure that Casper Clausen from Efterklang and our friend Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild from When Saints Go Machine will take part in the project.

Do you feel the weight of expectations this time?

Yeah, I do. I mean, one of the reasons why we are doing this EP is because it’s not an official Turboweekend album. We can play around more and try a lot of different things out. It’s a fun thing for us to do. You have mentioned before that there’s a lot of individuality in the band.

Do you struggle in any way to combine all of your different styles?

We have worked together for twelve years, so of course there’s a lot of individuality, but we've worked together for nearly 12 years in different bands, so we know each other very well. We just know when to stop the discussion and get some sleep instead. I feel like in this process now that we are working on new songs, we are more open towards each other’s ideas. Earlier on there was a lot of, like, “Oh, I don’t like that sound, let’s do something else” and then we’d spend a lot of time finding out what that something else was. This time is more, like, “OK, maybe I don’t really understand what is going on, but let’s try it and see where it goes.”

What’s your favourite moment while working?

I think probably the moment is when we are jamming, and we suddenly start playing the same thing. It’s spontaneous, and out of nowhere you get this groove that sounds cool. It’s amazing because it’s not a completely conscious thing that this is happening. It kind of surprises you – that’s a very cool moment.

What’s the least fun part?

The least fun part is when you’ve been working on a piece for too long and it doesn’t go anywhere and you can’t see any solution. Maybe you once liked it when you made it, but now it just doesn’t work anymore and you feel stuck in the process.

What about the Danish music scene? How do you see it and is there a newcomer that you are really excited about?

I think that the Danish music scene has been quite interesting in the last couple of years. A lot of young bands from our generation have been doing some really good stuff. I think that we agree that it’s our generation of people of our age who are defining the music scene right now in Denmark. This is really cool. Personally, I really like Choir Of Young Believers. Jannes is a truly good songwriter and an amazing singer as well. When Saints Go Machine are really good, too.

What is it about Copenhagen and Denmark in general, that has made it such a fertile ground for music?

It’s funny you say that, because I think that Sweden has a much more fertile music scene. I think for a long time an attitude prevailed in Denmark that Sweden has so many great bands and everything that Denmark does, Sweden does it even better. I think that in the younger generation it’s evolving to a kind of “Let’s show them that we can do cool music as well!” attitude.

How do Danish audiences react to Turboweekend? Are there noticeable differences between your audiences in different countries?

I think there are, but only because we’ve been out longer in Denmark. Here, we have a huge fan base that we’ve established these last couple of years. So when we give concerts, of course they are filled and people know the albums because they have been listening to them for two years. So, of course, the vibe is very different. When we come down to Germany, we’re still this new band that nobody really knows.

What do you consider to be your biggest achievement so far?

Maybe when we played at Skanderborg Festival. Our Danish agent booked us to the big stage. At first we were very scared because we thought it would be way too empty in the end. But then 6000 people showed up and the number of audiences is steadily increasing. I think we were all very happy that we were able to play that kind of stage. Who would ever have thought that we would manage to milk the situation perfectly and deliver a great concert?