DATAROCK WALKING LIKE A MANCURIAN Settling in to interview Datarock's Fredrick Saroea, one should never assume the standard journalist/artist Q&A session. Speaking from his apartment in Bergen, Norway, Fredrick practically bounces enthusiasm down the phoneline as he freestyles about his latest remix project. "I've just finished our new remix of The Young Knives (British indie rock outfit)." When asked how it sounds Fredrick simply replies "I can tell you by pressing play - are yooooou ready?" For the next couple of minutes the phoneline is filled with a funky bassline and Fredrick's upbeat voice breaking down the different components to the remix. "The only thing we kept was the vocals ... I think it ended up sounding pretty cool ... I'm going to show you something very cool. This happens after a few minutes. We managed to put some Manchester sounding music into it, then it just takes off and becomes more and more dance rhythm." It's this unabashed passion for performance and their craft that has seen the Norwegian act's popularity surge not only in their homeland but also here in Australia, where Fredrick and bandmate Ketil Mosnes enjoy a cult-like status. When queried on his interest in remixing, Fredrick explains that the duo approach Datarock as a self funded, boutique music business. "... we release Datarock ourselves [and handle everything from music to promotion]. If we make a new Datarock song that's just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine you're deciding whether it'll be 7", 12", whether it'll be a download. Who is going to make the video? How are we going to promote it? All of that shit. Are we going to send posters to these guys? Are we going to buy advertisement? And all of those aspects are enjoyable to a certain degree, but it's also very time consuming and it's not what Datarock is all about, which is making music and doing live shows." "So doing a remix, you don't have to be involved in any other aspect of making the song. When you finish the song you don't have to do anymore. You don't have to be involved in the promotional of it, so making the remix is an utterly enjoyable experience ... It's also an extremely efficient way of producing new material." Speaking of new material, Datarock fans may have to wait a little while before they get another full length album from the Bergen duo, with Fredrick predicting a couple of single releases off their 'Datarock Datarock' record to come over the next six months. "It's not going to be released in 2006 that's for sure. The thing is, because we release our music as our own label, on our debut record we didn't have the financial assets to promote it properly in lots of countries. We had to focus on one country and see how it went. So we're still in the process of releasing the debut album in a few countries. We've just released the 'Fa-Fa-Fa' single and a new videoclip. It's like a 16mm production from Australia (the music video) and you can see it on YouTube if you search for Datarock. To be realistic, we're not going to release a new single from the new album till around April, May next year. We could release it immediately but I don't think we should, I think we should wait a little bit." A trademark of a Datarock live performance are the iconic red jumpsuits Fredrick and Ketil bounce around in onstage. The idea for the matching tracksuits came to Fredrick after watching, of all things, a Formula One race. "We started off wearing all white coats on stage. But that was years and years ago. Then a lot of other bands began using white clothes on stage and it became somewhat of a bore wearing white ... then we moved on and wanted our tracksuits to look like Formula One suits. But the F1 suits cost like $A3000 ... we couldn't afford it basically, so we ended up producing these really, really bad stage outfits ourselves. But they ended up looking like clothes you'd put on if you wanted to paint your house - one of the things they're supposed to remind you of is Manchester, because Mancunians can easily walk around in a tracksuit like that." The Matchstick Datarock play the Arena Thursday December 7. The 'Fa-Fa-Fa' and 'Computer Camp Love' singles are available now through Creative Vibes. back to top ^

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