This interview was originally posted on JackCrute.com, CelebMix’s predecessor, in 2012. We’ve kept it online for archive purposes, but some of the information and content may be outdated.
Dubbed the Fantastic Six, they really are one of our favourite bands of all time. Catchy instrumentals, witty lyrics and a whole load of pop, these Danish beauties will always have a place in our hearts.
With Alphabeat dropping their brand new single, Love Sea, today, we caught up with the band for a world exclusive interview, where they discussed their upcoming album, touring with Lady Gaga and what they thought of David Guetta stealing their name for a tune on his album!
As a band, you guys have come so far since the release of Fascination; what would you say has remained constant and what has changed or developed?
We always develop. And learn. It wouldn’t be fun to do something that we had already done so we are always searching for new sounds, new toys and new inspiration to create new music. “The Beat Is…” was very different to what we did on “This Is Alphabeat” and we have kinda combined the way of working in a big studio with a live setup and the more track based recordings like the slick production we did on our latest album. So we haven’t really changed that much but just worked on all the things we do best.
Overall it’s all about writing amazing long lasting pop songs. “Fascination” is a song you can put on your stereo in 20 years from now and it will still sound fresh. We don’t wanna be influenced too much by what is going on right now in music but always try to find a new goal and make something different, that is also amazing in 10 years.
You teased fans with a tweet a couple of weeks ago saying that you were putting together a special treat that would include some of your favourite Alphabeat songs. Care to spill the beans..?!
Haha. We were talking about possible album titles as our new album is just around the corner. We suggested an “Alphabeat – Best of” release of all the songs that haven’t been singles. So it was actually just a fun little interaction with the fans. We love tweeting with people on Twitter and hear about their thoughts on our music and we do tweet back as you may have figured. But we’ve got a lot of amazing things happening these next couple of months and are actually working on some live footage we did using 16 cameras on stage on our last tour. Will be up soon with some new music.
What would be your ultimate collaboration?
We saw Sam Sparro live in Copenhagen a couple of months back and he is absolutely brilliant on a stage. His vocal has got that old school soul tone, is very much in your face but can also be very soft and fragile. We covered him once for the Radio 1 Live Lounge and did also tour a bit with him in the UK so the one thing we need to do is a triplet..?! Haha.
If we should work with a musician it would be pretty cool to have a proper Nile Rodgers guitar riff on a song. He is so fun on Twitter chatting with everyone and he has send us some pretty nice tweets too. Maybe we should send him a DM about some recording sessions.
Can we ever expect an Alphabeat tour in the UK?
Ever? We toured the shit out of the UK in 2008-2010. But well. We haven’t been back since we moved to Denmark back in November 2010. We really really really wanna go back and tour. And if that is not possible we’re pretty sure that we will do some “One Night With Alphabeat” gigs in London and a couple of the bigger cities maybe for all the Alphabeat hungry popheads. A sold out tour would be a dream come true but it is hard without a major label supporting the campaign of our new album so if we come back and tour the UK it will be something we’d do for the fans.
David Guetta named one of his recent singles The Alphabeat; how did you feel about that?
It’s funny. But it is obvious that he just named it “The Alphabeat” as Alphabeat a freaking brilliant name. Maybe it’s a tribute. We don’t know. But hey, the song is instrumental so it could be named anything and listening to it he should probably have named it “The Daft Punk”. Maybe we should do a song at some point called “The David Guetta” and it will be about Tiesto.
Have you ever wrote any songs in your native language, Danish?
Nope. And it’s probably never gonna happen. Could be fun to try though but it has never been the natural way of writing songs for us. A lot of Danish artists are suddently doing songs in Danish as it has become very popular but to us pop music is about being as universal as possible because we think good pop music should be for everyone. We haven’t got a major label supporting the new album but have decided with Copenhagen Records that our music should be released to anyone who wants to listen. Our latest singles are released on iTunes basically everywhere and hopefully the album will too.
One of my favourite Alphabeat songs has to be Chess. Which song do you guys wish you could’ve released as a single but didn’t?
We actually talked about doing a single release of “Chess” but “Heat Wave” was everywhere in Denmark at that point so it wouldn’t make much sense. We agree that it is an amazing song though and looking back it could have been a fun song to close the single run from that album.
What can we expect from the new album?
A bullion cube of upbeat, fun, unashamed, dazzling, organic, beatlicious and vibrant pop music! We’ve made an album that is actually perfect for a great party whereever you may be and whenever you want to have a good time. No downers, just pure pop!
Is it as nerve wracking releasing your third album as it was your first?
Very nerve wracking! It has been a long journey to get to this point. Moved to Denmark. Got solid ground under our feet. Toured a bit. Then did a lot of demoing and songwriting. Then some recording. Then working on finding the perfect sound. Then some more recording. But at the end of the day it’s been worth all the sweat, blistered fingers and feet, tears and laughs because we love the result and know that we have made the best possible album we could do right now. So the most nerve wracking thing right now is if people out there are gonna love it too. Fingers crossed.
Will there be any features?
Nope. All Alphabeat.
Which music video was the most fun to record?
Our latest video for “Vacation” was a lot of fun to do. The script was good, the vibe on the set was perfect and the day was just smooth. Sometimes you end up sitting and biting your nails because there is nothing to do for hours. The video for “10,000 Nights” was made in a massive water tank that was constantly kept around 10 degrees because of the water in the massive tanks. Cold cold cold day! The video for “What Is Happening?” was also quite fun to make. It was puppeteer and video director Toben Seymour who came up with the idea and we love the result. It’s one of those videos you go back to from time to time, just to find new funny situations.
Do you ever fight over who sings what or what songs should make the album?
Nope. We know when a song is good and when it’s not. We actually had more trouble finding out which song should be the second single as we had 4-5 contenders. That’s pretty nice. It would be worse if we were sitting around a table not saying anything because we only had one choice. It’s been pure luxury but a tough job to decide. Maybe we should let the fans choose the next singles.
What was it like touring with Lady Gaga on the Monster Ball?
The Monster Ball Tour was a big experience for us and it was perfect for us to tour with new songs infront of massive crowds. She was such a nice person and in Dublin she came to thank us for touring with her though everything was chaos on the first couple of nights. Warm, smiling and extremely talented superstar!
We do prefer our own gigs though. It’s always more fun to be intimate with 2,500 people at Sheperds Bush in London or a late night festival gig in Denmark.
What would you consider to be your favourite gig or performance?
We always see Glastonbury in 2008 as a peak in our live carreer. We never thought anyone would show up to an Alphabeat gig at the biggest guitar festival of all time. But when we entered the Park Stage that afternoon it was infront of 15,000 muddy people. The sun was shining the entire gig and then it started raining when we walked off stage. Amazing too see that all our hard work that year had paid off.
The sold out tour in the UK later that year is also a thing we’ll never forget. ABC in Glasgow, the Academies in Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham not to mention the to sold out nights at Sheperds Bush Empire. It was just such a perfect ending to a very long year on the road.
You’re household names in Denmark and the UK – where else to you want to take Alphabeat?
As we said earlier we see pop music as a universal thing. It should be for everyone who wants it. It’s always fun to login to our Twitter account and see new tweets from people in Mexico and Brazil. Apparantly we’re quite known over there. Maybe we should go during the Carnival in Brazil and end up with some gigs in Mexico. Then on to a tour in the US. We have always seen the US market as a place that would be pretty exciting to break but it’s a very tough job and will take a lot of hard work. We did tour the US shortly in 2010 and we know that people want us to go again. So the US would definitely be a place we’d like to take over.
Does negative feedback knock your confidence as a band, especially considering you write the majority of your music yourselves?
People tend to talk negatively about one another online these days not thinking about peoples feelings. Obviously it hurts when someone dislikes your music but then it’s always great that we get 100 times good comments back. It’s only one click away if we wanna see who have tweeted about us and some people don’t think about that and sometimes you end up reading a tweet like one that said: “Alphabeat are fcking shit!”. We actually ended up responding: “Oh yes. A shit with flowers and confetti all over it!” We got no response back from the guy but a lot of our followers loved it. We tought him a nice little lesson and more people out there could learn to think before they tweet or update their Facebook. Be kind to each other, it’s better for everyone. Oh and a good discussion is always better than a ridiculous statement.
What would you like to say to your fans?
That you are all absolutely fantastic! Thanks for all your tweets, comments, pictures, videos and whatever you send our way. We see it all and love talking to all of you whereever you are on the thing they call the World Wide Web..! We hope you’ll stay in touch forever! xAlphabeat
Alphabeat’s new single, Love Sea, is available to download today. Their third studio album, Express Non Stop, will be released September 24th… Exciting!