For the few lucky bands who live to see a career blossom out of their passion, even fewer manage to avoid the hopeless creative stagnation that happens when hobby turns into "work". We all know that as soon as rock n' roll starts to resemble going to the office, there are no winners - everybody's screwed. As the German trio KADAVAR - arguably the hardest working band in European rock - stand on the brink of releasing their fourth full length album, they look back at a seven year long career of doing things the other way around. Rather than this being the time to start talking about how music is just another way of paying the bills, they could not be more in tune with the main reason anybody starts a band in the first place - liberation. Not that they are strangers to neither chart positions nor sold out venues. After being formed in the German capital city back in 2010, the word of KADAVAR playing in a different league from their retro rock-labelled peers quickly spread worldwide, resulting not only in audiences growing past the 1000 mark on their many tours, but also in chart positions for their third and latest album "Berlin" - entering on position 18 in Germany and 21 in the US Heatseekers charts. Highly regarded as one of the most explosive live experiences on contemporary rock scene, their secret seems to be boiled down and brewed from three ingredients: an accessible yet personalized brand of classic rock; a no-frills approach to everything they do ("minimal arrangement, maximum effect"); and that undeniable German tenacity, yet again. "Even in the early years there was somehow an implication that unless we gave it 120 per cent, nobody would ever recognise any of it," says drummer Christoph 'Tiger' Bartelt. "That was one half. The other half was juveline over-confidence!" Him and Lupus both grew up working class, the latter in an over-achieving family of athletes, which fueled his competitive side ("in our family, the second best was the first loser"). Both studied sound engineering after high school, and met in the beer-drenched Berlin underground at night time, as you do. Inspiration struck when the new wave of retro rock flooded the scene in the mid-00's, and together they built KADAVAR
on the foundation of a vintage sound with classic song structure
- a conscious step away from the increasingly heavier
stoner bands of the time (the name itself was inspired by the
American underground heroes DANAVA). "If someone does
a seven minute jam on one riff and sells it as something cool
I think he is just too stupid to write a good song!" Lupus says.
"We wanted to sound more like a heavy garage band. We
still do, maybe now more than ever."
Personality-wise, they couldn't be more different. Lupus is social
and opinionated. An emotional straight-shooter, or "East
German" - as he himself sums it up. Where he wears his heart
on his sleeve, Tiger on the other hand keeps his neatly tucked
inside, only to be exposed to the outside world on stage.
Where Lupus speaks, Tiger thinks.
In between them two balances Simon 'Dragon' Bouteloup, the
bassist who replaced the original member Phillip 'Mammut'
Lippitz. There is nothing German about this Parisian bohemian.
Simon spent his late teenage years drifting around Europe
intuitively - just like his style of playing - later ending up with
the infamous French psychonauts in AQUA NEBULA OSCILLATOR.
He moved to Berlin in 2012 to play with THE OATH,
and joined KADAVAR two years later.
Together the trio form a unique symbiose, challenging each
other to fill the sonic space between them when the curtain
goes up - and to grow even closer after it's gone down. "Being
only three on stage does not give you much margin of error,
so each and every one of us need to kick ass every night.
But at least it gives everyone enough space to express himself,
sonically and physically on stage," Simon says.
In the beginning of 2017 the band prepared to start a new
album cycle by literally rolling up their sleeves and building a
brand new recording studio from scratch. Over 100 square
metres inside an industrial complex in the area of Neukölln in
Berlin is now their creative haven and workplace alike, and
this is where the follow-up to "Berlin" has started to take form.
They might have eased up on the competitive attitude, but
don't believe for a second the hunger is gone. Take it from the
wolf himself: "When you realize you have taken it to the next
level, where you can live from music and see the world - you
work your ass off to keep that. What else should we do? We
are useless in the normal world. And maybe it looks harder
than it is..."
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