By Jens Kofoed-Pihl
I grew up listening to THE JAM and CLASH, so it's nice toknow there's at least one band in Denmark that carries on that grand tradition. THE MOVEMENT only been around since 1998, but this Mod trio has already established themselves as one of Copenhagen's hardest rockin', tightest and most welldressed live bands! I had a nice long chat with singer/songwriter/guitarist Lukas Scherfig at a seedy bar in Vesterbro and backstage at Loppen before they supported THE BUZZCOCKS about their new "Move" CD, politics, Mod philosophy/history etc. These guys are totally dedicated to their cause and ideals like no other band! Other Movement personnel includes Kalle Mathiasen, Copenhagen's maddest drummer, and the suave Lars Schædler on bass.
When
did THE MOVEMENT start and has Kalle and Lars been in the band from the
beginning?
It started like 3 years ago. I've been playing in THE ROOSTERS, but there were some problems…
Kalle and Lars weren't involved with THE ROOSTERS?
No. After THE ROOSTERS I went to London with my guitar and just wanted to play. I found some bands. One band was a cover/tribute band who played THE FACES tunes and made some money. And then another band called THE FEW who played original tunes, very THE JAM inspired. But during that year I found out that I wanted to do everything; sing, write etc. Then I thought it'd be easier to go back to Denmark and start a band, also because London is very expensive to live in. Then I went ahead and made a demo with another drummer than Kalle.
That was before your 4 track CDS?
Yeah, that was with Lars on bass. And then we found Kalle.
Let's talk about THE ROOSTERS, you recorded a full length album in 1994/95?
And a couple of singles.
THE ROOSTERS are very Stones-inspired…
Yeah, a lot. Also THE FACES.
But the press wasn't that impressed then, but now everybody's goin' gaga over '60's retro-bands'?
There were a couple of reviewers who liked us, but the audience didn't really get it. They thought we belonged to that Britpop wave, but we were probably too rock'n'roll.
So THE MOVEMENT is a more personal band, where you put more of your heart into?
Yeah, I got some good experiences with the bands but THE ROOSTERS lacked some direction, you know, democracy vs. creativity After that I wanted to form a band with more focus and a clear concept of what we want.
Yeah,
because from the first time I saw THE MOVEMENT, you had big banner with
stars and stuff.
There's more direction when it's only one guy who decides instead of three. And now it's more of a band than a few years back. In the beginning it said on posters; Lukas Schrefig's THE MOVEMENT, but we've found our roles in the band and it works better than THE ROOSTERS. The name MOVEMENT also means movement both on the stage and movement like a people's movement. But now there's more of a concept to it, and we also agree more on what's the ideas behind the band and what we want. I'm of course the main man, but now there's more input from Kalle and Lars. I'm more politically than them, but now they also stating their views of where we should play etc. And that's great.
You're very inspired by THE WHO and THE JAM but especially THE CLASH and their early working class/political issues. That's a thing I like about THE MOVEMENT that unlike 100s of political punkbands, you don't preach on the stage and make speeches. It's first and foremost about delivering a cool rockshow?
Well, we don't want to belong to any political party, it's about a movement. Like THE (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY who talks about getting radicalism back into music with no rules on what you can do. The cool thing about rock'n'roll is that it is a kind of a revolution.
You played at the First May festival at the Danish Communists scene in 2001?
Yeah, but we are not linked to that party. Next summer we'll be playing in Aarhus for youth socialist organizations, and if the Anarchist scene asked us we'd also play for them. I have a personal political opinion, but I like to support the leftwing in general. We are planning to play with the Danish flag on the stage, just the English Mods with their Union Jack flags. You know, the working class combined with the Danish flag. To say; we're also a part of Denmark.
Mostly the rightwing use the Danish flag nowadays?
Yeah, we would like to change the norm. Like the Mod philosophy, support the working class and at the same time dress sharp instead of looking like an outcast of society. Reclaim the symbols of the working class who always put on their best clothes at the First May festival. We have talked about getting some photos taken of us with typically Danish historical important places. I like some of the things the Hippie and Punk movement did, but still, they kinda got too involved in rejecting common values, so that your average worker couldn't identify with them and join demonstrations because the people behind it split people up in how you look instead fight for the working class. That's one of the negative things that the Hippie movement did for the leftwing. I like the contrast of looking sharp and welldressed and still speak your views on things. The autonome punks have turned a lot of potential people away from them by the way they look. They confirm working class people in their prejudice towards them, so there's no dialogue.
So you just don't wanna be another underground band who plays squats?
We don't mind playing in squats…
You talk a lot of classes, ain't the working class dead? I mean, everybody's fighting for a bigger paycheck and screw the others?
Yeah, you're right. The working class is pretty obsessed by materialism, many have racist views etc. but from my point of view you can't change anything without the working class.
But there are more students than working class people coming to your shows, I'd imagine?
Yeah, but the thing is with working class is the issue of who owns the property and the factories, and the working class can decide if they wanna stop and strike. That's power. The have vs. the have-nots. My songwriting is pretty on a personal level instead of blatant agitation. Like describing your everyday on an emotional level.
You recently played to the 10 year anniversary for German punkband TERRORGRUPPE?
It happened after Archi Alert of that band was up here in Denmark to produce our "Move" album because he heard us at Wild At Heart in Berlin and dug our music. Adam Schwart (veteran Copenhagen soundman) heard about Destiny Records were interested in us so he provided his studio for free and later he engineered the "Move" CD, and phoned Arti if he was interested in producing our record. And he said yes and did it for free and stayed in Copenhagen for a week. TERRORGRUPPE is connected to Destiny Records, their guitarist Jaco works for'em, and he's now running things for us now, you know, promotion and stuff. So they wanted us play at the anniversary which also was a great way to promote us, over 4000 people showed up! We will play with TERRORGRUPPE again in the fall, they have just returned from a tour in Brazil.
Are you satisfied with the "Move" CD? It has a very slick production ?
Well, it wasn't the best studio in the world and something with the compressed sound wasn't completely right but all in all we're satisfied with it.
Half of the songs has been out on demo CDs before like "Losing You", "Still An Echo" (in an acoustic version), "Control Your Temper", "Wasted Youth", "Truth Is", and "I Need You"? You wanted them to get a better sound and let people outside Denmark who haven't heard the demo CDs get a chance to hear those songs?
Yes, actually Destiny chose 13 songs for the CD which they thought were our best material. We had more new songs ready. Oh yeah, Destiny and another company, Weird System, has just released a vinyl 7" with us with "No Jobs" and another track from our first demo CD. It will be pressed in 2000 copies, and Weird System will release "Move" on vinyl as well.
As we've talked about before, a good distribution deal is the keyword if you want to go places, and Destiny sounds exactly right for The Movement?
What we really love about Destiny is that it's also a tourbooking firm so they take care everything. They make those huge tours with big names, so it's easier for us that we don't have to deal with both a record company and a tourbooking firm.
I saw you recently at an anti-Iraq war concert in front of the Maersk Corporaton.
We had toured in German and haven't really gotten involved in any of the demostrations, so that concert was quickly put together when we came home. Maersk has a very negative history of supporting the Nazi WWII occupation in Denmark, and the foul treatment of Southamerican Indians, and of course the recent help with ships to the US Army in the Iraqi invasion. It was also a statement about property ownership of who controls the soil under our feet in Denmark. Oil should belong to everyone not just one man's quest for greed and profit.
Maybe that's why a lot of people was surprised of seeing you playing guitar in THE BREAKERS, which many consider a commercial designer pop band?
Well, they're not. It's kinda funny with THE BREAKERS which have been called Mini-Roosters at the Floss bar when we hung out there. The guitarist, Anders, is the kid brother of Mikkel of THE ROOSTERS and singer Toke looks a bit like Theis. They have been to all ROOSTERS concerts from when they were like 12 year old, they have the same kind of musical background as THE ROOSTERS. You could call 'em the 2nd generation.
The Breakers have a manager and just signed to Sony?
Yeah, this guy Alex...
Who plays electro pop?
Yes, he heard'em and stopped playing that kinda music and became their manager, which they were thrilled about. He got'em that Sony contract, and of course they said yes. Anyone would've said yes to that chance. Their album is almost finished and I play leadguitar and wrote 2 of the songs. They are looking for a permanent leadguitarist because I'm only helping them out since THE MOVEMENT is my main priority. They are all big STONES fans and love that period. But when I was in England every band had a manager unlike here in Denmark.
That's not really the Danish mentality, but I reckon it helps bands focus on the music?
Yeah, and then things go a bit faster from just being a band stuck in a rehearsal room, one gig every 3rd month etc. But we don't really have that in THE MOVEMENT. But we want that too. Younger bands have a problem with poltical statements and commercialism, but we know where we come from and we want our message out to larger audience. That 'political dilemma' is pretty absurd to us, in my opinion. That's more passive thinking than active thinking.
Tonight you're playing with THE BUZZCOCKS who's from the same period as your heroes in THE JAM and THE CLASH. Are they an influence on you?
They're good but not a huge influence. But I don't think we're a 1977 retro punkband, our sound is very much 2003 I think. Many German thought we're a retro band but when they heard us they said we're like THE JAM anno 2003. Some of our new tracks are bit more Motown sounding, I love that style, uptempo R&B/Soul.
You have lotsa tourplans for the summer, you're on the Deconstruction Tour?
Again, that's a huge Euro tour organized by Destiny with bands like NOFX, PENNYWISE etc. We gonna play 2 gigs on that tour in Italy which Muttis Booking is also behind, with audiences around 10,000 people. Mutti thought we'd be perfect since the Italian punkscene is very political unlike Denmark due to it's fascist history. The Italian Fascist Party is very visible in today's Italy so it's great we can take a stand against that. We'll return to Italy in September and October with TERRORGRUPPE and others to play more gigs. Mutti has also heard from (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY's promoter and they liked us and contacted Destiny.
Yeah, your sound isn't that far from that band.
So we gonna play with them. We'll also play with THE BRIEFS in German soon.
Great fuckin' band!
Yeah, they got that cool new wave/punk sound and has gotten quite popular. Chances are we also gonna tour with'em again this fall in England. But we got lotsa gigs lined up in the future with bands connected to Destiny.
So you might wanna put Paul Weller on the guestlist, haha.
Yeah, that'd be cool, if he's not out playing himself.