It was about time. The silence was by no means intentional, but rather due to the fact that brothers Henrik and Peter Trevisan and their family therapist Dominik Republik were busy processing the ideas that had been swirling in their heads for a long time into 3 1/2 minutes. After over a year of writing, rehearsing, producing, discarding, and starting over, 11 brand new songs have seen the light of day, and the three twenty-somethings still get along splendidly, allowing themselves to toast briefly with a Kölsch before launching fresh with the new album PASSEN.
Looking back: EMMA6 casually moved their home from Cologne to Hamburg in early summer 2012, living appropriately as a trio in 34 square meters and diving into work. This time with friend, producer, and Wir sind Helden guitarist Mark Tavassol. From day one, each member of the newly formed studio family was able to fully express themselves. They cooked, grilled, cleaned, glued, drilled, played football, watched the Olympics, watched football, babysat the producer's baby, and – almost forgotten – made music. Along with many happy hours, vegetarian fast food, a fire alarm throughout the entire building complex, and a patent for a microphone-equipped baby swing, a new album emerged that can only be compared to its predecessor to a limited extent.
When SOUNDTRACK FÜR DIESES JAHR came out two years ago as a compact one-room apartment, PASSEN appears more like a shared flat. Nevertheless, it is a unit and clearly the later album. The content comes even more to the forefront, the images are consistently melancholic and yearning. It’s about beginnings and endings, about wishes and simple, moving observations like in the title track PASSEN ("We don't want each other anymore // it would be easy and hard // just to fit // love or leave"). Underneath lie quiet electronic beats, androgynous synthesizers, noise, and… hard to say what else is there. But it doesn’t matter, it just fits. The music complements the spoken words, it is the voice of the unsaid. The images are concrete enough for a first association but not so transparent that they would take away the joy of the second, third, and fourth listen. This is also true for the first single release WIE ES NIE WAR, a danced guitar piece that, with its lyrical power ("Can a heart of gold // simply rust?") and its smacking drums, navigates the depths of pop while still arriving exactly where it will stay for a long time, namely in the ear. And it can also be very quiet, like in the heartfelt acoustic song Fast, and very loud with a wink like in ICH HAB DIE BAND ZUERST GEKANNT, a charmingly clever observation of the German music scene, where EMMA6 can no longer be stamped as newcomers (the reader can imagine the quotation marks) at this point. This band has grown up.
So let’s summarize: In a time when record deals are hard to come by and even harder to keep, when even established colleagues catch themselves working with the same four chords for safety, in this time, EMMA6 present their second album. And was it hard? No, say the three, one just has to keep reminding oneself that the second album is always the second one. And let’s be honest, this almost a bit dadaistic pragmatism might be the best attitude one can have. Because a second album must be approached with irreverence, one must try new things and absolutely must not repeat oneself. EMMA6 have managed all of that.
Videos:
EMMA6 "Wie es nie war"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0T0yYYx7MU
Concerts:
LIVE 2013
11.9. KREFELD - Kulturfabrik
12.9. DORTMUND - FZW
13.9. MÜNSTER - Sputnik Cafe
14.9. KAISERSLAUTERN - Kammgarn
16.9. FRANKFURT - Nachtleben
17.9. STUTTGART - Universum
18.9. MÜNCHEN - Backstage Club
19.9. LEIPZIG - Moritzbastei
20.9. ERFURT - Museumskeller
21.9. DRESDEN - Beatpol
23.9. BERLIN - Comet
24.9. HAMBURG - Knust
27.9. HANNOVER - Lux
28.9. BREMEN - Lagerhaus
1.10. KÖLN - Stadtgarten
Web:
www.emma6.de
