Siamese On The New Record, Turning Water Into Beer and the Pressure of Relentless Studio Time
With all of the frivolities and festive cheer poured over the Christmas/new year period, it can be easy for the reality of the current climate to be cushioned by a warm blanket of cheap booze and good food. For the boys who form Danish alt-rock outfit Siamese, the reality of the situation still remains as front and centre as ever before.
The band’s fourth full length LP ‘Home’ was released on the 10th of December via the one and only Long Branch Records, and joins a beautifully decorated roster including As Everything Unfolds, Borders, and A Pale Horse Named Death to name a few.
Like many in the scene who entered a fresh album cycle in the middle of a global outbreak, the whys and wherefores of isolation, loss and social frustration are where ‘Home’ finds its feet. Featuring a wonderful array of guest features including Rory Rodriguez (Dayseeker) and Drew York, (Stray From The Path) it’s the stellar production efforts that really make the album stand out from the pack – allowing Siamese to sit back on their laurels and admire their best body of work to date. Make no mistake, Siamese are not a band that fuse a multitude of sounds lightly. Every influence noticeable on the record is hand picked and carefully placed, leading to an amalgamation of genres that creates a sound that sits as one of a kind, and makes the band almost impossible to pin down by even the most experienced critic.
We were fortunate enough to sit down with the band in the days following the album’s release to discuss all things ‘Home’, the members’ ideal superpower and the anxieties caused by constant studio time.
Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to chat with us! You must be fairly inundated since the album dropped!
Not a problem and always happy to do something with a long time supporter like you guys have been.
How have you found the reception from your fan base since the record’s release?
Overwhelmingly good. I am not lying when I tell you that we have yet to encounter one critical comment online about these new songs. That is somewhat an accomplishment. On the other hand we’ve seen so many people come on board. Our numbers have grown 4x since October 2020.
Tell us what was the starting point from Siamese? – Where was the turning point when you decided to make your band a career?
Siamese started making a real turnover around 2019. But both me and Andreas have been professional songwriters/managers since 2016. It really came with Andreas evolving his producing skills up to an international level. To date he has over 20 gold and platinum certifications for his work as a producer for artists including Cheat Codes, Sigala and Becky Hill. The production improvements resulted in much higher quality expectations from the both of us. Now when we do a record, we push it to the fucking limit. For this record we wrote 104 songs before picking 12.
The way you fuse hardcore style elements with more pop-rock related undertones creates a huge sound that not a lot of bands are putting out right now. How do you find balancing the heavier elements of your music with the lighter sounds that you guys layer in?
It’s a natural continuation of our taste buds I guess. Siamese represents very much what we listen to, and what we’ve been brought up with, while also putting in a lot of honesty and hopefully original ideas. We are not trying to sound american/european/australian. We just let our brain do the work and the idea that hits wins. That’s probably why all of our songs cover a lot of different ranges. We’ve never been too concerned with consistency, a lot more about fascination. That’s why we have ‘Sloboda’ on the same record as ‘Erase My Mind’.
Talk us through your writing process for this record. How did you bring ‘Home’ from a concept into reality?
As mentioned above, we’ve been hard at work for a long time. 104 songs were done before we picked the 12 songs we wanted to put on the album. We took our time and isolated ourselves in summerhouses for a long period of time. At one point it was almost a danger to my mental health. Me and Andreas spent four straight days working from 8 in the morning until 3-4 in the night without ever going outside or taking a break. There was just music on all the fucking time. I remember laying in bed on the 3rd night realizing that my brain is completely in overdrive. Overexposed, over stimulated and no way in hell will I get any sleep. We were so driven at that point that it reminded me of addiction. I am never doing that again. I’m sure it was a response to the pandemic. ‘Home’ was an active way of forgetting the world around us, which was only giving us shit news.
What does the title track mean to you?
‘Home’ is the song that set out the style for the rest of the album. I have been mentioning for Andreas that I really wanted to implement the dubstep/EDM sounds with a heavier sound. I remember it clear as day when he played that intro. That song made everything so much easier. This was at the beginning of the pandemic in march 2020, and the first lockdowns gave us the chance to really appreciate our own hometown. So it’s a positive song in a negative time.
You guys have had your music take you all over Europe – have you got a favorite spot you love to play?
We love Japan and Japanese fans. The reception and fan culture there is just off the fucking hook. We are not done touring the world and look forward to hitting the US and Australia someday too. UK peeps aren’t bad either. They are not afraid to share their stories and that makes for some great memories of what our music means to them. Also humour is kinda the same as in Denmark, so in the UK my stage banter works the best there.
In a similar vein, what would you consider to be your favourite show to date?
We played a sold out show in the Underworld just a couple of months ago. That was a very cool culmination of a lot of frustrations. It feels unreal and very reassuring at the same time.
Have you got any UK tour dates you can disclose for next year?
We will be playing Radar Festival and maybe a couple of shows around that date in July. Currently working on a longer EU run in October. I believe the UK is in there as well. But more on that in the new year.
What’s the plan now that the album is out? Is it too early to start thinking about a follow up or do you guys always find yourselves writing new music?
We have 3 songs we haven’t released that we are thinking about doing something with. But first and foremost we need to let these songs sink in with people and hopefully get a lot of new fans on board.
Where do you guys see the band in ten years?
We’ll be old farts by that time, but I will keep going for sure as it is one of the most important things in my life. In 10 years I hope that we can probably do 500-800 cap rooms around the world and have it as a nice little extra income besides doing other music related stuff. We’ve probably released about 3 more albums by that time too.
If each member of the band could have a different super power – what would it be and why?
Ability to turn water into beer. That goes for all of us.
Just to finish up – what’s your favourite track from ‘Home’?
My favourite track is probably Home and Numb.
Siamese – ‘Home’ | Out Now on Long Branch Records
