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 accidental product that emerged while hanging out and making music in one-room apartments in Hamburg. 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 – this is a long-held secret. One that is finally being revealed after years of silence and letting things happen. GLORIA – this is 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 on 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 experiences create bonds. They went for a beer in Hamburg, talked about everything, including making music. In 2008, the first joint sessions began. Just the two of them. Lyrics, song, melody noted, 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 contributed what. "Nowadays, many things are done only if there’s a goal behind them," says Mark Tavassol. "But with our music, it went as it should: We just wanted to make it." It wasn't until after about three years that Mark and Klaas even thought 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 its own cool poses to throw 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 quite narratable 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.
The debut album "GLORIA" will be released on 27.09.2013 (Grönland/Rough Trade)
GLORIA live
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
Videos
Gloria "Eigenes Berlin"
http://youtu.be/_I-OJBHcZn8
Gloria "Warten"
http://youtu.be/uBnqHXiTEOI
