Independence Issue: A Set of New Politics for Music – Band Review
The band, New Politics.
Crowded together in the dark top floor of The Barfly in Camden, the audience had not been especially turned on by the warm up band, but when lead singer David Boyd entered with a half somersault as the smoke machines exploded, the crowd went wild as well.
Never steaming down and at some points almost defying gravity, David set a chaotic and non-stop pace for the band, only stopping his singing to break-dance to the guitar solos. The gig in Barfly was their second of three in London in the bands UK tour before heading to the US for a 30 date trip across the States.
The hectic energy they deliver in their live shows is a trademark that has defined the band since their creation. After writing songs and performing in every style of music for three years separately, David and Soren Hansen (guitar, vocal, keyboard) found they unintentionally formed an alternative rock band after contacting Poul Ameliel (drums) to rehearse some of the 300 songs they had collected together.
At the time, still playing at a hobby level, and starting to doubt if they had any potential beyond that, they said: “Fuck it” (later the bands motto) and entered a music competition among 972 other bands, the “Career Canon” for a spot as warm up act at the Spot music festival.
“We were at a point musically where you could say we had given up, honestly,” David remembered.“We were doing it solely as a hobby. In the back of our minds we might have been holding onto the dream but it was more about the joy of music and having fun. We were trying to help each other out and we ended up experimenting and coming up with a couple of good songs.”
When the phone rang and they had progressed to the second stage, they had still not played live as an official band. Against all odds they went on to win this as well and got their first real gig among the four winning spots at the festival where the threesome played a show so wild Poul and Soren left the stage covered in blood and Poul nearly beheaded a fan with a thrown drumstick.
Deciding to say “Fuck it” to the usual way of starting a music career they then recorded their first album in Soren’s bedroom and moved to New York. Since then they have performed at the South by Southwest festival and have been playing support on the 30 Seconds to Mars tour “Into the Wild”.
Summing up their style and attitude David said: “It’s not that much about technique or skill, but that’s over-shined by the truth in some way. I think people are ready for that. People are fed up with what’s going on in the world. There’s no real answers. There’s nothing solid. There’s no foundation. We feel like that as well. That’s why we write the lyrics that we do. You can almost laugh at life. We’re like ‘Fuck it.’ We are aggressive in our approach and we’re going to throw it in people’s faces. We’re politics. I think our music allows people to let something out. It’s a wake-up call.”
