QEK Junior - Many of the so-called actual 'Hellectro-acts' sound quite similar, and for me it's just boring

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21 Apr, 2009

QEK Junior is a new and surprising band! Hailing from Simmern (Germany) this duo surprises with a kind of old-school electro sound reminding to legendary Teutonic bands like DAF, Die Krupps and other Welle:Erdball. The 80s touch is omnipresent, but never sounds like a pure emulation. The debut album "Ausverkauf" sounds like a kind of 'd�j�-vu', but brings a refreshing piece of electronics. It for sure sounds like an alternative to the dark electronic music and it has been one of the main purposes when this band has been set up. Behind the band name hides a sense of humor proving that both guys really like to have fun! QEK Junior is a band to watch out for! (By St�phane Froidcoeur)

SL: Let's traditionally start the interview by asking you for some essential background information about who you are and how you finally come to set up QEK Junior?

D: QEK Junior are Tobias Dupont and me, Dominic Daub. I started my 'career' as guitarist in several indie-, wave- and goth-bands. From 1998 to 2003 I played guitars for The House Of Usher. I left the band, 'cause I wanted to finish my studies. During the works on my master degree, I started programming simple songs with the old synths and the sequencer I had in my little studio. I released the songs on "Myspace.com" and soon I was asked, if we wanted to play two shows in England. I asked Tobias, an old mate, who worked as sound engineer for The House of Usher, to give me some help on stage, cause I just wanted to sing 'live'.

SL: Do you remind how you guys come to get interested in electronic music? What have been your first experiences with electronic music?

D: Uh, that's hard to say. Visage entered the charts with "Fade to Grey" when I was a child. I heard this song on the radio as well as Kraftwerk's "The Model" or early Depeche Mode and New Order songs. Electronic 'new wave' was quite common in the eighties, wasn't it? On my very first tape I had, there were acts like Duran Duran and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. No electronic acts, but synths were dominating their music. I liked acts like Nitzer Ebb, Die Krupps or Anne Clark in the in the early nineties, as well as guitar-acts like New Model Army or even Metallica. The Prodigy were one of my favorites in the nineties. I always have listened to electronic music, I guess.

SL: What kind of music did you in mind when setting up QEK Junior and what does it say about your sources of inspiration and influences?

D: I think that we only knew 'how not to sound'. Many of the so-called actual 'Hellectro-acts' sound quite similar, and for me it's just boring. We didn't have a master-plan or something. When we recorded "1/0" for example, I listened to Echo West a lot - Dirk Torben Klein is a good friend of mine - Tuxedomoon and Chrome. I guess you can hear it. Strange sound, strange melodies. We didn't want to copy them, but I wanted to record music that creates and transports that special feeling I still have, when I listen to Tuxedomoon for example nowadays.

SL: You claimed to be influenced by alcohol and ephedrine so what is this all about? What does it say about your sense of humor?

D: "'Alkohol and Ephedrin"'- haha... I bought Ephedra when it was still legal in Germany. Maybe you know that you can (ab)use it as a fat burner. One evening I went to a club after two hours of playing squash, and after a while I realized that alcohol and ephedra don't fit together. You don't get tired, but you get drunk and don't realize it. The hang-over afterwards was terrible... I guess our sense of humor is a bit strange, and sometimes it's hard to take or even to understand. On our myspace-page you can find the sentence 'we've had no visitors from Vietnam yet - Charlie don't surf'. You know "Apocalypse Now", don't you?! Guess we can laugh about ourselves.

SL: I personally experience your music as a mix of bands like DAF and other Welle:Erdball! Does this comparison fit to your own perception and tell us a bit more about the bands you've been inspired by?

D: I like DAF a lot, we have seen them on their last tour again and it was great. Welle:Erdball - I don't have one of their albums and just know the songs like "Arbeit Adelt" or "Starfighter [...]" from the clubs. Maybe there are some parallels, but they are not intended. And there are even more 'minimal wave' acts, more unknown ones, we could be compared with. But I'm still listening to Nitzer Ebb, Anne Clark or Die Krupps, but also to New Model Army, The Clash or Dead Kennedys. Too many to mention, I think.

SL: What can you tell about the "Ausverkauf"-album?

D: It contains some songs we have recorded in the last years. And we decided to re-release the sold-out "Kernkrach"-Vinyl-E.P on the album. We named the album "Sell-out" cause some of the vinyl-collectors might think it is a shame to re-release these songs - our kind of humor again. And finally, we've released the album on Danse Macabre after releasing on Kernkrach before, and we now have other possibilities to reach a wider audience. Sell-out... ;)

SL: Tell us a bit more the writing of the album and who's taking care of what in the composition process?

D: Again: we didn't have a master-plan for this album. We released it, when we had the songs together and all seemed well. Usually I write the songs - and Tobias tells me, what we can improve. He has got a special sense for sounds, for example. He always knows which sound fit in and which doesn't.

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SL: Who's listening to QEK Junior and what have been the reactions for so far?

D: We have electro-fans on our concerts as well as punks or goths or what they call 'batcaver'. When we played the Kernkrach-Festival in November, the audience reminded me of the people that went to my favourite indie-club in Koblenz in the early nineties. In that club you met everyone - punks, goths, even psychobillies... I love it, and I don't want to make music for a special scene only. The reactions were fine - we had lots of clicks and plays on myspace and Last FM. I don't know how many cd's we have sold. The press-reactions have been pretty good for so far.

SL: Any particular reason why all of your songs have been sung in German language?

D: It's my mother-tongue. That's it. Even now its hard for me to find the right words in English when I am answering your questions. I can impress things better in a language I really know.

SL: The artwork and especially the cover of your album looks quite 'old-school'-like, but I guess this must have been intentional! Tell us a bit more about the artwork and what does it stands for?

D: The artwork was made by Sabine Schulz who is studying on Bauhaus-university in Weimar. Again it's got something to do with our special sense of humor. You won't find lots of 'clear' information in the booklet. But the QR-Codes work, you just need the right scanner and software. Some can read them with their mobile phones... We wanted an eighties-like artwork, cause the music is eighties like. Only the colors are definitely crap, we wanted fluorescent 'neon'-green and got this dark one.

SL: The name of your band is another intriguing aspect so where does it comes from and what does it means?

D: The QEK Junior is a very small and old caravan produced in the former GDR. We bought one to go to festivals some years ago. But we went on vacation to Middelkerke with it last year, too. The QEK was a kind of underdog on the camping-site, but many people looked and said 'great, what is that'. A parallel to our sound: Old, not modern, but somehow interesting.

SL: You already mentioned to have released a Vinyl-EP in 2007! Is there still a market for Vinyl and especially for the first release of a band?

D: Yeah, definitely there is. It was sold out within a month. Especially in the minimal-scene, Vinyl is more en vogue than cd's. Many people asked us to release the album on vinyl, too. By the way - didn't you wonder about the playtime of the album? It's quite short - but it fits on a vinyl album. Maybe someday we will release a vinyl-edition.

SL: How did you finally join the Danse Macabre group and what do you expect out of this collaboration?

D: We got in contact with Alex, their A&R via Myspace. We released one of our songs on a benefit compilation against racism and intolerance that he produced. After a while we came into business. The funny thing is - they never received a demo-cdr or something like that. They only knew our myspace-songs. And what do we expect? Hmm, to enrich the electronic music scene with strange music against the mainstream. We do not expect to earn loads of money, these times are over.

SL: It seems there's also a deal with COP International so what is it all about?

D: The COP-deal is for us part of the Danse-Macabre-deal. That's it.

SL: Danse Macabre will be always linked to Das Ich, which sounds like a total opposite to your music! Any comment here and what about being remixed by Das Ich?

D: To be honest: If anybody would have told me 15 years ago that we gone release an album on Danse Macabre in 2009, I would have laughed. I mean, I listened to Das Ich and even Relatives Menschsein in the early nineties as they produced something totally new, something that especially didn't copy British goth music. But as you say, we developed backwards to the origins of electronic music - they developed in the opposite direction. And a remix - why not. Listen to "Volle Kraft Null Acht", for example. It works with old Die Krupps-tracks - I guess it would work with our stuff, too.

SL: You guys seem to have already done an impressive number of live gigs! What have been your best live experiences for so far and what might we expect for the coming months?

D: First, we gone play Antwerp on 3rd of April. We are looking forward for that show. The best gigs we played were the Kernkrach festivals. The audience is crazy, minimal-wave-maniacs from all over the world. And the organizer is a maniac as well, playing the Kernkrach-Festival is like playing a gig for some very good friends.

SL: How would you define QEK Junior on stage?

D: We play our songs, have fun and use things like sind-grinder and pneumatic drills to sound a bit more 'industrial'-like. Usually we don't plan a lot and look what will come. Sometimes we work with old movies like "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen M�rder" as a background.

SL: Are you already busy working on new songs and how do you imagine the new songs of QEK Junior?

D: We have already written some new songs, I will record the vocals for a track called "Pervitin" soon. It will be released on a new compilation for Bat Believers, the guys who runs the Gothic Magazin in Germany. This one is a bit more melodic, driven by an MB-33 analog-bass-line. The other ones are typical QEK-songs, I think.

SL: Anything important to conclude like side-projects and other information you want to share with us?

D: Side Projects? No, the work for QEK needs enough time. We are looking for the Antwerp-show and some glasses of Hoegaarden!

Band: www.qek-junior.com / www.myspace.com/qekjunior
Label: www.dansemacabre-group.com / www.myspace.com/dansemacabregroup

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