Onze laatste liverecensie.
Onze laatste albumrecensie.
Ons laatste interview.
Onze laatste video.
Dressed in a black shirt, leather jacket, and blue, worn jeans, Olley looks tired. "The gig in Paris was amazing," Olley begins. The last time that Six By Seven visited Holland was with their album 'The Closer I Get', playing the small upstairs room at Amsterdam's Paradiso venue. At two in the morning, Six By Seven rocked as hard as they could, with the singer, in all of his enthusiasm, falling from the stage. Olley laughs out loud when recalling the experience. After touring their second album, Sam Hempton (a founding member and lead guitarist) left Six By Seven to concentrate on other projects. "Actually I'd quit the band, and we'd split up," explains Olley, for it to be formed again without Hempton due to "musical differences." After rehearsing new material, the band decided to carry on with - strangely enough - a fuller sound.
Contrary to their second album, 'The Way I Feel Today' starts off with three relatively calm songs and bursts out with 'Flypaper For Freaks', then never calming down as far as intensity is concerned. "Sequencing the album was hard; the softer stuff was better up front." Still, Olley argues, the album is a continuation of the sound of Six By Seven, although now the conscious choice was made to use only an acoustic guitar when the songs were written as acoustic ones, instead of filling them with multi-guitar layers. "We'd search for spaces in the songs and didn't need two guitars. There's more of the Hammond." The songs are more or less - compared to their earlier work - stripped down. "It's easier to get more friendly," says Olley, but the noise is still very much there. "Nirvana even did it as a three-piece!" The new album seems to reflect two extreme kinds of feelings: Untamed anger and frustration face off with pure declarations of love (on the excellent single 'IOU Love') within the time range of 40 minutes. "Within me there's anger and frustration, especially with Sam leaving, and I had a turn-off with my family." Due to differences, family ties broke down, giving Olley a hard time when it comes to falling out, which clearly reflects in the songs. "I let a sister go through hell / I let a mother lose her son," Olley sings on 'Bad Man', the closing chapter of the album. "My private life was weighing out the pain," says Olley, pointing out the love songs with which 'The Way I feel Today' opens. The album can be seen as a kind of diary, he says, reflecting his state of mind. "As an artist you've got to go with the way you feel." And, thinking out loud, "the frustration fits the world around us, doesn't it?"
The uncompromising sound of Six By Seven doesn't make it the most accessible kind of music. This may be one of the reasons that the larger alternative audience up to now still hasn't picked them up. Olley thinks that 'The Way I Feel Today' is the most accessible record of his band yet. "We don't want to be Blink-182; we want to stay underground." Also, certain elements of a darker spirit in the songs don't make it easier to reach a larger audience. "This is the way I feel, and if that's not commercial, well... U2 also was a grower..." Olley philosophises that it's a journey, and this is just stage three. "It'll probably be the next one or the one after that."
The fact that the new album was recorded live gives it an organic sound. "During pre-production, we got fed up with computers," leading to the decision to record everything live. "We had this rule that we'd use no overdubs." After working things out, the band decided to "just go into the studio." The heartfelt intensity and the necessity of the music make Six By Seven an important band. Last year's hype about the "saviours of rock'n'roll", which - among other things - brought forth The Strokes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, produced some nice albums but the need for it wasn't there. "Whatever," says Olley, "The Strokes deserve it. I wish them all the luck." When asked if he thinks Six By Seven are the saviours of rock, the singer says that you only can be a saviour in a twisted world: "Certainly the world is twisted enough for us to be the saviours!"
This twisted world produced the movie 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers', that's for sure. The video for 'IOU Love' is an homage to that movie starring Donald Sutherland. "The next single will probably be an homage to 'The Conversation' with Gene Hackman," Olley says smiling.
After touring with The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Six By Seven will have some time off before once again touring the album. Holland probably won't be a stop during the forthcoming tour. "We can't afford our souls to come across. We need to sell more records over here." The biggest problem when it comes to the promotion of their music is radio, even the more alternative stations. "They won't even play what our fans consider the more poppy stuff we've made. They're only interested in playing Natalie Imbruglia, but we're not gonna change our music just to fucking fit in... Or else we've gotta make fucking shit music!"
http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/six-by-seven/six-by-seven/1418/
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