In our continued efforts to bring you the best bands from anywhere & everywhere may we present the rather excellent Disgroove from Switzerland. A hard rocking post grunge outfit that have toured recently with the likes of Die Happy and McQueen in mainland Europe. We hooked up with frontman Philippe to get the lowdown on the band:
R13:So who's in the band & who does what?
P:It's Tobi on the drums, Franky on bass guitar and myself (Philippe) on guitar and vocals.
R13:For those not familiar with Disgroove how would you describe the band?
P:That's always the difficult part. I'd say we just represent the music we like ourselves. We grew up with the 90's Seattle music and also like the new modern rock bands like Incubus, Foo Fighters, Dredg, Filter...mix that and you'll get an idea.
R13:We first caught up with you on the McQueen tour in Germany back in February, how was that for you guys?
P:We had a great time with the girls and just recently met up with them at the Greenfield Festival in Interlaken. We'd love to tour with them again!
R13:You've also done tours supporting bands like Die Happy & Velvet Revolver (at a festival), have you noticed a build up in your own fanbase yet to the extent where you can do a headline tour? (if you haven't already)
P:We are doing headliner tours in Switzerland, but in other countries it's still difficult. I think with the next record we will give it a try. See, we don't have a major label, so building up a fanbase is hard work, but I believe like this you can keep your fans, they will not just hop on to the next band being hyped by major labels. I see this a lot with bands having a very young fanbase. The kids just like ONE band at the same time, when they like a new band, they forget about the old one.
R13:Prior to Franky you had another bass player (Flipper), who was replaced by Marek & finally Franky; what was the story behind that & did the line up changes hinder the band's development at the time?
P:Flipper got a girl pregnant and couldn't tour anymore, easily explained. We still get along great (although he got her pregnant a second time). Marek was never a real member of the band, he mainly helped us doing the tours. Franky contributes a lot to the songwriting, and he will play bass on the next record. Line up changes always hinder your development, because you have to practice the old shit over and over again, instead of writing new stuff.
R13:Your second album 'Three' was released in Europe over a year ago but has only recently got a UK release, have you had much feedback from the UK & are there any plans to tour that album in the UK?
P:Don't tell that anybody, it's supposed to appear brand new ;-). Since our next album will come out in January 2008 we will focus on touring with the new album. We'd love to come to the UK, hopefully with McQueen.
R13:Were you pleased with the reaction it got in the rest of Europe?
P:We are always pleased with ANY reaction. No seriously, the reactions were very good, especially on the tours with "Die Happy", since we fit musically very well.
R13:Have you started work on the next album & if so how do you think it differs from 'Three' in terms of the overall sound of the band?
P:Yeah, it's almost written and we will record it in September. It believe it rocks even more than "Three", which rocked more than "Down on Myself" (our first album). More fat guitars riffs in there.
R13:We don't hear much about the Swiss music scene in the UK, what's it like at the moment? Do you find you have to play outside Switzerland to get recognition?
P:Yeah, Switzerland is known for cheese, chocolate and mountains, not for great rock bands. We have to play outside Switzerland, because we'd like to play every weekend...and Switzerland is too small for that! You'd be returning to the same club after 10 weeks.
R13:Philippe and Tobi were in the rather good Swiss hardcore band Gurd for four years, why did you decide to leave & have you ever regretted the decision?
P:No, never. We left because we started to get into other kinds of music. After Gurd we didn't do anything for 2 years, until we slowly started again.
R13:What ambitions do you have for the band?
P:Growing the fanbase, so we can do headliner tours that pay off. They don't need to be huuuge, we just want to get more money then we spend. We're not getting rich anyway, but we need a certain amount to keep the whole thing going.
R13:Most bands get the odd bad review, have you had any amusing ones?
P:Of course there are always people who hate your music. Either we are to soft for a metal mag, or to heavy for a pop-rock mag. What I hate the most is to do interviews with people who have no idea about music or music business, which recently happened on TV. Or another interviewer asked us about what bands we like most and what bands we hate. She ended up mixing it all up, with the result that my favourite song is now the "Crazy Frog" song. Great.
R13:Who's got the worst habits (& what are they?) when you're on tour?
P:We recently rented a motorhome for a tour with a toilet. Rule no.1 was to NOT use it for bigger things, if you know what I mean. Tobi was the first who broke the rule, but he had to empty it, haha. His explanation: "I had no choice".