Thieves Like Us interview

Here's the interview of Andy from Thieves Like Us we did just a few days ago.

Where did you grow up ? How was your adolescence ? Did you go out a lot ?
My father was in the army. So we moved every couple of years until I got to high school. Then we moved to a suburb of Denver. The guys who made South Park went to my high school. I had bad social skills. My mother bought my clothes until I was 16 (she had not the best sense of style). I liked science fiction and femme fatales. I was bullied a lot. When I was old enough to go out I would go to clubs and look at women. I was too shy to speak with them. NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED. I buy my own clothes now.



What kind of music did you listen to as a teenager ?
When I was 12 my uncle was on the narcotics squad of a police force in the state of Georgia. They raided a house where they were manufacturing LSD. Everything in the house became pollice property including a pretty diverse collection of cassettes. He sent the cassettes to me as a gift. There was a lot of strange stuff in there like early Cure and Cocteau Twins and Kitaro. I guess I connected with it. Melancholic music made by individuals.

It seems that you travelled a lot in your life. Do you sometimes regret this homeless lifestyle ?
Mmmm. It has given me commitment issues probably. I never have to develop, I suppose. I can just grab my suitcase and move to a new city. But on the other hand, it is pretty fantastic having an awareness of so many cities and so many people. I have heard friends of mine say things like "I could never do that -- what would I do with all my things?". People seem to hoard objects. I think it gives them a false sense of stability.



What's the craziest thing that happened to you in Paris ?
Mmmm. I climbed over a wall into an upscale girl`s pension and made love to a beautiful young 18 year old. I would have for sure been arrested if I had been caught.

Why do you choose to make all your music videos from existing movies ?
Music videos are in general pretty bad. The format has been exhausted in the eighties and nineties. So now you have bands remaking cliche ideas with no budget. The result is dull videos that look like shit. I think we are gonna try to shoot our own videos for the next album, though. But who knows, they might look like shit too.

How did you end up performing Your Heart Feels on an episode of French TV
series Pigalle ?
The director was a fan, he phoned us up and Paris and asked us.



When did you realize you wanted to create music and not just be a DJ ? Was it when you met Pontus and Bjorn in Berlin ?
Actually, I don`t think I wanted to be a deejay. I only wanted to play in a band. But I just hated all the music they were playing in clubs in Berlin. I was travelling back and forth between Berlin and NYC in 2002 and 2003. I was working in a hip hop club in Manhattan. I had to pick up empty bottles and sweep up the dance floor. I was hearing a lot of r and b and hip hop that wasnt getting played in Europe (this was before music blogs and downloading). So I would just ask the deejay what songs he was playing. Then I would come to Berlin every few months and play the same thing. Alternative bands like the Rapture and Franz Ferdinand were really crossing over into the mainstream. Björn, whom I was deejaying with was also interested in producing music. We thought we could make something good. So we bought some equipment. On the seventh day we made Drugs In My Body. It took about six hours.

Have you ever met New Order ?
I met Peter Hook. He was a nice guy. But we are not such New Order fans. I met Vini Reilly from the Durutti Column. That was exciting!



Did you discover any band that amazed you in 2009 ?
Here We Go Magic. Nite Jewel. Christian Naujoks.

The pictures on your album covers are amazing, really different from the average fluo-graphic-design album covers of many electro pop artists. Where do these pictures come from ?
Ever wonder about electro covers? Why is it that music with no persona has a cover with no persona? I like all the Roxy Music covers. Femme Fatales in distress. I also get inspired by photos on Facebook or Myspace and try to recreate them adding some details to give the pics some meaning. If you look closely on the cover to Really Like To See You Again you will see an empty package of Xanax on the ground by her feet.

Thieves Like Us are everywhere :
Website
Myspace
Youtube