Condor Gruppe
Michiel Van Cleuvenbergen
The current decade has undoubteldly given us loads of good music and numerous great new bands. The power of the web and YouTube, along with some incredibly adequate and illuminating music platforms such as Bandcamp, have lighten up and made known musicians from all over the world, spreading their word to more and more music lovers worldwide.
Condor Gruppe, an instrumental band hailing from Belgium (Antwerp), is definitely such a band. Actually, they are one of the most interesting and striking music groups that the 10's introduced us. Discovered them since their very first release, that is their 4 Track Demo of 2013 and later leaving us totally stunned with their debut Latiduds Del Cavall in 2014, they are one of our most favourites acts over the last 4 years. The band's last year release, A Tribute To Moondog (number 2 on BSMNT's Best Albums of 2016), just put them even deeper to our music hearts. Our love for their music was sealed with our 2015 music compilation Music From The Basement, in which you can find Condor Gruppe's masterpiece song, Ondt Blod.
As you can understand, having one of the band's founding members here for an interview is a great honour. We are so pleased and happy to present you Michiel Van Cleuvenbergen!
The Basement: Hi Michiel, congrats for your recent record, dedicated to Moondog. At first, we would like to know how did it all start for Condor Gruppe. How and when did you decide to start a band ?
Condor Gruppe started in 2012, when Jan and I were thinking of doing a band based on our mutual musical interst. We both played in Creature With The Atom Brain at that time. Creature was more of an alternative rock band, but we both wanted to do something that was influenced by soundtracks and world grooves. So we teamed up with some of our friends and began rehearsing and recording some stuff. We defenitely we’re influence by Bruno Nicolai and Morricone and all the great Italian soundtracks of the 60`s and 70`s;
The Basement: How did you come up with your name ?
The name came from an obscure discotheque in Belgium, we always thought the Condor was a great bird and name. Since there were like 100 different bands called Condor, we had to add something extra. And since we didn`t want to limit ourselves in writing music and we would like to collaborate with as much musicians as possible, we thought it would be good to add Gruppe to the name. We started as a 5-piece band, now we have 7 musicians and maybe one day we will add a whole coir to the band. We`ll see.
The Basement: You compose with inspiration by obscure Italian 70’s soundtracks and spaghetti westerns with surf-music, all dipped in psychedelia. Which bands or artists would you consider as your main influences ?
Like I said, ofcourse Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, but defenitely a lot of Krautrock bands like CAN as well. I listen to a lot of Library stuff. I like the fact that those 70`s Library records have so many different sounds and can create such great atmospheres.
The Basement: Tell us more for your debut back in 2014. We think of it like a soundtrack waiting to be accompanied by a film. Describe your debut to someone that has never listened to your music before.
I think someone described the record as Morricone on LSD, but the record is more than that. It`s soundtrack for an exotic beach walk, or a fuzzy nightride. Easy listening music without the band connotation of ‘easy listening’. We like to create good melodies with a good groove.
The Basement: Well, this is another chance for us to thank you for giving us your incredible song Ondt Blod. And there’s also a chance for us to ask you the back story of it. How was the song inspired and written? And what about the word ondt, we googled it and found that it means “Hurt” in Danish... Are we right ?
Ondt Blod can be translated as Bad Blood or something like that. Since we are an instrumental band, it’s always hard to come up with titles. Most of the time they reflect the mood of the song. Ondt Blod basically was inspired by a demo I once made for a short-movie about the Dodo, the now extinct bird. It was a movie for children and the melody reflects a nursery rhyme for kids. We thought the weird title fitted the weird bird.
The Basement: You self-release your music. Why is that ? Is this a matter of independence or something more ?
We definitely want to keep control over our music. Since most of us come from a DIY hardcore punk background it feels kinda logic to self-release our records. We will probably keep on releasing everything ourselves. But ofcourse we will have to work together with others regarding distribution etc. But we like to keep as much control over our music as possible.
The Basement: Moondog was a charismatic composer and already a legend. How did you come up with the idea of making a tribute to his work ?
A befriended artist was doing an exhibition about Moondog and asked us as well, so we started working on some Moondog songs and tried to give them a Condor Gruppe feel. Since it was so much fun and we put a lot of effort in it, we thought it would be great to release the songs and play some shows with the record. Which we did.
The Basement: What was the sense you wanted to bring out when picking those particular songs through such an extended discography as this one ?
We listened to a lot of Moondog stuff and were looking for the more melodic songs, songs that could fit a Condor Gruppe set. That’s why we chose those particular songs.
The Basement: Who made the production of the album ? We can spot a jazzy and also a kraut orientation. What do you think ?
I totally agree. We recorded and produced the record ourselves. Since Condor Gruppe is as much influenced by Krautrock as jazzy instrumental stuff, it was kinda logic to have 2 different sides.
The Basement: Why do you write music ?
I don’t know; it is something inside of me and probably in a lot of musicians, that wants to create songs, melodies and express musical emotions. When I write the Condor Gruppe songs, I try to create a story and I always have pictures or images in my head, which would fit the song. I try to tell stories and express my emotions through my music. Whether it is a hardcore song or an instrumental song.
The Basement: Ever thought to use lyrics in your songs?
Yes of course, we always try to keep our music as interesting as possible so there’s always the possibility of using lyrics. On Latituds Del Cavall is one spoken word by the way. By the great Duke Garwood.
If it fits we won’t hesitate to use lyrics, but I’m not a singer, so it won’t be me who would be singing.
The Basement: Do you manage to make a living through music ? What things you enjoy doing on your free time apart from making music ?
Well it's kinda hard to make a real living out of it. We're not making mainstream or radio friendly music, so most of us try to combine it with other stuff. I DJ quite a lot and sometimes make some music for theater. Others work in music venues. I am also a part time history teacher. Interesting times nowadays ofcourse.
The Basement: What are your worries about today, globally speaking ? As an artist and citizen of this world.
As an artist I notice it is harder to make a living through music since a lot of clubs and venues in Belgium are taking less and less risk in booking bands. We have a new, right wing government which supports the industry and economics more than culture in Belgium. Ofcourse this has something to do with how the world is evolving right now. A lot of countries in Europe and elsewhere still suffer from the economic crisis and a lot of people start voting on right wing parties. Add to that ofcourse the Syrian crisis. I notice a lot of xenophobia in the world and fear of the 'strangers' in our society. So as a citizen of the world I don't think we are doing a great job right now. And that worries me a lot.
The Basement: Any plans for the near future ? Some gigs ahead or a new record ?
We are currently working on new stuff, which should come out at the end of 2017. We are still playing shows, mostly in Belgium or Holland, but with the new album we definitely want to tour Europe. The new stuff is a little bit darker, maybe a little bit more eastern influenced. I listen to a lot of Japanese and eastern stuff right now so it will probably reflect in the new songs. But Condor Gruppe will still sound the same, a mix between what's good and groovy in the world, from kraut to exotica to library stuff.
The Basement: Thank you for this wonderful discussion. 2017 has just left us, lists with the best music of 2016 were indeed very interesting. Which were your favourite last year albums?
There were a lot of great reissues on labels such as Trunk etc. But i will stick to my favourite new records.
Devandra Banhart - Ape in Pink Marble: great record, Devandra returns to a more stripped down version of himself which sounds great!
A Tribe Called Quest - We got it from here: I like a lot of hiphop since those dudes are so creative when it comes down to sampling etc. I've always been a huge ATCQ fan so I am happy they returned with this great record.
The Gaslamp Killer - Instrumentalepathy: My favourite record of the year. the GLK going from hiphop to psychedelica to kraut to jazz to.... Super crazy but amazing stuff! Live he is amazing as well.
Thank you Michiel !
