If only the two guys wouldn’t always downplay everything. GLORIA – as Mark Tavassol and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, the founders of this new band, say – was actually just a hobby. A private pleasure, a fun project. The byproduct that emerged while hanging out and making music in Hamburg one-room apartments. And perhaps it was also the alibi for that from time to time. Toasting to the verse. Leaning back during the chorus.
You could see it that way. But you could also say: GLORIA – that’s a long-kept secret. One that is finally being revealed after years of silence and letting things happen. GLORIA – that’s the band we need so badly that we didn’t even dare to wait for them. In a time when no German wave of any kind is splashing around on the horizon, no young laureate is setting the tone. In a time that is ripe for new music that excites and embraces us and conveniently also kicks us in the butt.
Anyway, GLORIA is finally here. They will release their first album, which is just as beautifully named as they are, at the end of September 2013 via Grönland Records. In November and December, they will go on tour for the first time.
Or, as singer Klaas Heufer-Umlauf puts it: "We followed our feeling. And ended up in something ..."
How do the two know each other? Around 2006, Klaas (host and entertainer) and Mark Tavassol (musician, guitarist of the band Wir sind Helden) met during joint MTV appearances. Unforgettable was the Comet award ceremony, where Klaas smuggled himself onto the stage in a Superman costume during Mark's band’s performance. Such things connect. They went for a beer in Hamburg, talked about all sorts of things, including making music. In 2008, the first joint sessions began. Just the two of them. Lyrics, song, melody remembered, a good riff discovered. One song came quickly like a hiccup, while the next was tinkered with for months. Until in the end, no one knew exactly who had contributed what.
"Nowadays, many things are only done if you pursue a goal with them," says Mark Tavassol. "But with our music, it went the way it should: We just felt like making it." It wasn’t until about three years later that Mark and Klaas even had the idea that the many pieces and fragments could make a good record. Mark took over the production, and the rest went almost by itself.
And now everyone can hear what it sounds like: great German pop that invents the wonderful poses it throws itself into. Colored by British and American guitar stuff of all kinds, by the Hamburg songwriter tradition, and everything else that the two like. No homages – but exactly what has grown around these songs, pieces like "Wie sehr", "Eigenes Berlin", "Zu vage", "Warten", which Mark and Klaas wrote together. A voice from two heads, rough, clever urban poetry, verses for deep nights, sing-along stuff for the best times of the day, lines that you write on your hand to have them ready quickly. Mean, romantic, in doubt what you wouldn’t have thought of. Music that rocks you in great uncertainty. But: It rocks you.
"The most important thing is," Klaas emphasizes: "we would have made this record even if Mark had become a doctor and I had stayed a hairdresser." So without the certainly worth telling backstories. No wonder the two are proud of GLORIA, their new band. And perhaps they are already secretly planning the overthrow of the pop world as we know it. The founding and global spread of Glorianism. But if that’s the case, they would of course never admit it.
GLORIA "WARTEN" Music Video:
http://youtu.be/uBnqHXiTEOI
More GLORIA at
www.gloriamusik.de
www.facebook.com/hoertgloria
GLORIA "Wie sehr - Tour"
26.09.13 Hamburg, Reeperbahn Festival
07.11.13 Essen, Zeche Carl
08.11.13 Hannover, Musikzentrum
10.11.13 Munich, Ampere
12.11.13 Stuttgart, Wagenhallen
13.11.13 Leipzig, Werk2
06.12.13 Frankfurt, Zoom
07.12.13 Cologne, Gloria
08.12.13 Berlin, Lido
