Rue Oberkampf
Ladies and gents, allow us to welcome down the Basement, Rue Oberkampf!
The German trio started to release digital singles until they released the EP “Waveclash” (2018). Their magnificent debut album “Christophe-Philippe” was released by the end of 2019 on Young and Cold Records. In view of their eagerly anticipated performance in Death Disco Athens Open Air Festival, we had a rather interesting chat with the band!
The Basement: Hello guys! Thank you for this chat, so good to have you with us. Who are you - your story! How did it all start for the band? How did you guys first meet and decide to make music together?
Basically, we’re all from Passau, a small city at the German/Austrian border. There used to be a goth night every week at a club called CAMERA. Thanks to that place, we’ve known each other by sight since the late 90s/early 2000. However, it wasn’t before ~ 2014 that the three of us really got to know each other. At that time, we all had been DJing in Passau, Munich or other places in Bavaria.
Damien had been playing and gaining experience with synthesizers since quite a while before Rue Oberkampf. He and Oliver, who had a growing interest in synthesizers, too, met one day to randomly work on some sounds. Oliver had been playing the drums on some indie / alternative bands in his youth, but they really didn’t have any plans to start a band.
One or two sessions later, they asked Julia to join them in a session, maybe for adding some vocals . At that time, Julia had been producing one song, called “D” with her solo project SUNDAY VICTIM (which we later completely reworked to turn it to our first own Rue Oberkampf song CAMERA (guess where the name is taken from…)).
In order to make it easier to create a song and to deepen our knowledge of the hard- and software, we started to cover a song we all loved: Melting away by Absolute Body Control
The Basement: The first EP of yours, Waveclash, was rather minimal, while the LP followed, Christophe-Philippe sounded more electronic and relevant. The band is going places, would you agree?
There are two reasons why WAVECLASH sounds rather minimal. First, we’ve been a lot into minimal wave music to that time. Second, we didn’t know a lot about music production. Our production skills evolved a lot since then, but also our taste in music changes over time. We put all our experience and inspiration into our new songs, our music will always be in constant transformation.
The Basement: What should we expect from your live appearances in our country?
Some say, a Rue Oberkampf live gig is a transformative experience. A magical ceremony. Our goal in making music has always been to play the tracks live and electrify the crowd.
The Basement: Let’s assume there is someone who knows nothing about Rue Oberkampf, if any. Describe the band in 3 words.
Watch. Us. Live.
The Basement: What are your musical influences?
Very diverse.. Julia for example started very early to play classic piano, then listened to Metal and Goth.. and I (Oliver) mostly played drums in Grunge and Indie bands in my youth. But all three of us started as DJs long before Rue Oberkampf. Just now Julia is much in Belly Hatcher, VNV Nation and Ohota, Damien really is in Black Metal and Wovenhand and I´m more in techno stuff like French79, Schwefelgelb and Panther Modern.
The Basement: The pandemic situation we all confronted seems to be long gone. How was that period for the band? Was it some kind of inspirational?
First, it was exciting, somewhat scary, something new, probably inspirational.. NEGATIVRAUM was created in that time. But also Happiness… Blanc Poney… two of our darkest songs.
Eventually, it became obvious to us, that we needed to experience the real world to get enough inspiration and motivation for our music. We need to feel the bass and sweaty people at a club, see all those faces in the crowd.. we only can fully enjoy our music when it’s in a live situation.
The Basement: I can’t wait enough to dance to the rhythm of “Moths”. How was the team up with GEISTHA?
We’ve met Geistha at a gig in Mannheim. We instantly had a connection and when Geistha asked us a year later if we’re interested in a collab, we already had thought about it, too. Not only was the collab on Moths exciting, Geistha is also mixing our new songs. Brilliant work ✨
The Basement: What are your long term plans? What are your ambitions for the band?
Easy: Playing the biggest venues of the world and beyond.
The Basement: Do you manage to make a living through music ? What things you enjoy doing on your free time apart from making music?
Honestly, we have almost no free time left. We rarely see our family and friends. Music business is hard these days, we all need to work at our day jobs. Any support from our fans is highly appreciated. If we’re not working at our jobs or with the band, we’re going to concerts, festivals, clubs or enjoy the company of Damien’s two black cats.
The Basement: Thank you guys! See you when you hit the stage of Death Disco Open Air festival.
Thank you, looking forward to seeing you in Greece
