With their 3rd album due for a US release this month and shows booked for for May 14th (Bowery Ballroom) and 16th (Maxwell's), NYC.com caught up with Swede outfit Mando Diao to chat about their approach to writing and recording and what it is that makes NYC the city to perform.
Q: What does it mean to you, playing shows in NYC?
A: We love the New York shows. We feel the music history in the venues and this history hits us, gets into our veins, flows through us and gets out again, painting the walls with a new layer of music history. Unbeatable feeling. There’s also never any time to sleep. The crowd is hip, wild and alert. We’re fans of the New York fans, even those who’re not Rangers fans like us. We love all our fans, you see.
Q: Is there an advantage/ disadvantage in being a Swedish band touring the US?
A: It might be an advantage coming from Sweden since it´s considered a quite hip country, with great music and design and people who speak English well but say strange things. Although we've never seen ourselves as "a Swedish band". We still live in Sweden though – and lovin’ it – so OK, it’s quite a process touring in the US. To cover it you need to spend so much time and money. All the shopping takes time for example. But seriously, it’s all up to the great American people to demand that Mando Diao comes to visit more often. More fans, more opportunities.
Q: In returning to this city that has a real appreciation for your music, what do you hope for most in your live performance?
A: Bowery is a wonderful venue. Nothing can go wrong playing there. We know the crowd is great. It's gonna be a blast in all the ways you can think of.
Q: For people who are not yet familiar with your music, what song (yours or someone else's) most sums up the band?
A: Perhaps "You can't steal my love" or "Amsterdam". Maybe we should call it “New Amsterdam” when we play in New York City.
Q: The new album, Ode To Ochrasy is released in the US on April 24. What can your fans expect from this record?
A: Read the reviews, they’re all great and these people will let you know so much more eloquently. But melody, energy, raw power and not so user-friendly lyrics might sum it up. We all think this is our best album so far. It might also be some others best album too.
Q: Can you describe your approach as a band in writing and recording this new record?
A: Most of the songs were written during tours and rehearsed during sound-checks. We didn't want to learn the songs too well going in to the studio cause then you tend to lose a lot of the edgy live feeling. We started off working with a producer. Tried so many different studios all over Sweden. After a while we just got tired of everything taking such a long time. So we decided to phone up an old back-line tech/friend of ours. He has a tiny studio outside of Stockholm told him that we wanted to record the rest of the album there asap. That’s when we got a real feeling for the album. Everything just fell into place.
Q: Roky Erickson is soon to play a rare show at The Knitting Factory in NYC. Can you describe the influence he's had on your music?
A: Yeah, it must be rare as he’s busy 7 days a week in Austin it seems. We've listened a lot too his music during late night parties in hotels and dressing rooms. Especially the song "Night of the vampire" which Mats has a special very creepy dance to. He's coming out more it seems as he’s playing at the Swedish Hultsfred Festival this summer. Roky that is… Mats has not come out yet. By the way, we’re also performing at Hultsfred, so we will see him there for sure.
Q: If there was one thing you would want someone to leave your show with, what would that be?
A: As all we’ve seen is that people leave in a state of shock with a big smile on their face, it would be interesting with something new. How about if they leave with a new friend or a newfound love? People have been known to fall in love during our shows. That would be very New York to us.