Frank: How are you and the band doing?
Lukas: On a personal level, everything is good. Thank you! On a financial level, I and the band are not doing so well. Our "job" is to tour with the band. They have taken our job, our freedom, and our rights. And they have deprived us of our independence.
Frank: Congratulations on the fourth album. What do you want to convey with the album title "Future Freedom Time"?
Lukas: It is a demand!
We want a future! We want freedom and we want time! These demands should be the foundation of any society where human interaction and human (re)connection are prioritized. This is the opposite of what is happening now with the much-discussed “social distancing”.
When people see each other with a mask, it conveys on a psychological level that other people are dangerous!
Keep your distance, be afraid, communicate over the internet (then everything can be checked & censored) and not with real people.
We want "more laughter, more love, more free thoughts"!
Back then, philosophers thought that by the year 2000, people would only work about fifteen hours a week while maintaining and even improving living conditions. This would be made possible by new technologies. The sad reality is that people are more stressed than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Many people are poor and have two or three jobs just to get by. We live in a society without any creativity that simply does not tap into the potential of people.
Frank: THE MOVEMENT has had two new band members for some time now. In the past, the positions on bass and drums have frequently changed. How do you manage to always find such good musicians and integrate them so well into the band?
Lukas: Well, Alexander Page and Sebastian Page are brothers.
Sebastian Page has just started playing bass in THE MOVEMENT. He is originally a guitarist.
Alexander Page is originally a bassist. He only started playing drums when he joined THE MOVEMENT.
We played a lot, and after some time, Alexander said: “Now I have played 100 concerts as a drummer. It works!”
I like changes that lead to something better.
I now know that it is more important to feel comfortable together as a band because we spend so much time together. When you feel good, you can develop personally better. This also applies to playing. When we feel good as a band, we can play even better together. It is important that everyone feels good together. That makes many things easier. Changing a person to fit the band is much more difficult.
The good thing about playing with brothers is that they have a special bond. They always stay connected to each other and will always be friends. Being a three-member band can be challenging.
Frank: THE MOVEMENT has been around for 18 years. For 18 years, I think not much has changed for the better in this world. Is that your view as well?
Lukas: Yes, you are right.
We have experienced many cuts in the social sector (often made by the Social Democrats). That’s why it’s crazy how much money has already been spent because of the Corona crisis.
If the old and sick people had been consistently isolated, then there would have been more than enough money left to allow politicians to live in luxury. The rest of the population could have continued their normal lives.
I believe there is a plan. They want us all to become dependent on the state so that we are under constant control. At the same time, economic performance will continue to decline. They are deliberately destroying the economy.
You can then get some money from the state to survive, but only if you behave the way the rulers want; otherwise, you are lost.
But I am an optimist; I believe this will be a rebirth of something good when people wake up...
Frank: I think many people would like to live in a just or fairer world. Many people have reservations about socialism and communism. Why do people have such doubts?
Lukas: Of course, people have reservations!
There are many variations of the idea of socialism or communism.
Some ideas are good, and some ideas are terrible.
To be honest, I don’t care what the name is.
In some old Indian societies, they didn’t call themselves socialist...
Or in early stages of human civilization, which some call “primitive communism,” people didn’t call it communism or socialism. They just lived it.
The paradox is that I am against the state, in whatever form it may be; capitalist, fascist, even a socialist state is not my thing in the long run...
I don’t want to be ruled by anyone. I can govern myself.
I want a classless society where we work together for each other, in a humane way!
I want a society where everyone can live together as equal individuals. A society that holds together, learns from and with each other, and exchanges equally. Together with nature.
But to bring down the state and throw out the egocentric psychopaths, and then expect a power vacuum? A power vacuum in which the previous ruling class does not fight by all means to regain power is an illusion.
That’s why I can accept a socialist organization of society for a short time until we can set aside the destructive power struggle and focus on our lives, on our future with freedom and time!
Frank: On your last album “Fools like You,” you sing the line in the song “We got Marx” - “We got love, we got hope, we got Marx.” What do you mean by that?
Lukas: I see Karl Marx as a scientist. Just as Newton described gravity, Marx describes the mechanism of a capitalist society. At the time I wrote the song, there were many movements, one big one was the “Occupy Wall Street,” which many good people were involved in. The danger with these movements, however, is that they often fizzle out because they haven’t read Marx.
If you want to fly a plane, for example, learn the laws of gravity.
So if you initiate a movement for social change, you should have these three ingredients: love, hope, and Marx.
That’s what this song is about.
Frank: I think the current crisis can be a good opportunity for a system change. How do you see that?
Lukas: Yes, of course, always! Nothing good comes from stagnation.
At the moment, society is divided. Those who question the official reporting of the Corona crisis are labeled as antisocial, conspiracy theory idiots, etc. The people who were close to them before the crisis, who had a critical view of the government’s work, have suddenly fallen in love with the government. At some point, that will change, of course.
I remember the Iraq War. It was the same. People who said Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction were called conspiracy theory idiots. Now we all know that the official story was not true.
The same goes for Gaddafi and 100 other historical examples; they don’t care about the people, only about (their) interests.
Frank: In the current situation, human rights are restricted, such as the right to demonstrate, the right to travel, etc. Do you think this is right to deal with the crisis?
Lukas: No, it is not!
As I said, we should have isolated the old and sick, not the healthy.
In 2006, some anti-terror laws were introduced in Denmark. They were supposed to be tested for a year to see how they worked, involving surveillance of computers, phones, etc. After a year, there was a report stating that the new laws worked very well.
It was decided that these new laws would remain active, and thus strict surveillance of computers, phones, etc. would continue.
I now fear the same. They say the restrictions will be lifted again; they are only temporary. But who knows?
Frank: What is your stance on trade unions? How important are they in your view?
Lukas: Trade unions are of course very important!
We owe a lot to the trade unions!
But in some Western countries, where the Social Democrats have political and social influence, the large trade unions have become part of the system's preservation at the expense of the working class.
It’s a shame! There are people in the top positions of the trade unions who behave like some of the bureaucrats you see in the European Parliament, with their fat salaries and bonuses for everything.
Frank: How did the songs for the new album come about?
Lukas: We recorded the album quite quickly.
We were in the studio for a week, a few vocal overdubs, and that was it.
The sound engineer Flemming Rasmussen, with whom we worked, is very professional. Flemming produced the first three albums of Metallica, very old school in the best way.
Additionally, on the new album “Future, Freedom, Time,” Nikolaj Torp played organ on three songs.
Frank: Do you write the lyrics and music alone, or do the other two band members also contribute?
Lukas: I write the songs and the lyrics. I first create the melody; without a good melody, you have nothing. Then I get the idea for the lyrics. Then it’s like a puzzle; I have the vision, and then I have to put all the pieces together.
Frank: How are you currently planning your future concerts?
Lukas: They have stolen our spring and summer, so most shows have been postponed to 2021.
I am still counting on some shows in the fall; we have a tour planned in France and many concerts in Germany.
