Yann

0:07HostWelcome to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. My name is Arthur, and today our guest is Jan.

0:12JanHey, my name is Jan. I sing and I play guitar in the psychedelic rock band Trip.

0:20HostI just want to mention to our listeners that if you like what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate this podcast on Spotify. Excellent. I discovered Trip's music on Bandcamp back in 2019, I think. I think it was the album Electric Magic. Oh, yeah. And I think I wrote to you an email asking something like if you want like a video or something. And I think you responded something like for now we're fine or something like this. I don't remember exactly. It was a long time ago. Yeah. And then one year later, unexpected for me, you sent me an email and said like, OK, yeah, sure. We want one.

0:57JanYeah. I remember the video you made. It was one other animated video. And you sent me like this video as an example of what of what you do. And Tommy and Jean-Lou, so the other two guys in the band and me, we just talk a lot. And as soon as there's emails coming, we just discuss about everything. And Tommy, Jean-Lou and I were all super thrilled. And fortunately, you know, the album was out already. And it's always an investment. And so we had to discuss it. But yeah, then we had the other album going and Multicolor Desert in the writing. And then we figured out, you know, let's let's write Arthur and ask if he's good, if he wants to be part of the project.

1:41HostAnd that's it. Yeah. So it was just like you just remembered about me. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

1:46JanYeah. Did you consider other people? So it's it was kind of a tricky situation or a key situation, because it was the first the first visual we ever put on our music. So of course, we thought about lots of possibilities. And in the end, we just feel really, I don't know, connected to what you did to the to this whole kind of patchwork animation. And yeah, then we said, you're the only person we write to really, because when we decided that we wanted to make it with you, then it was short. And we wrote you and we're waiting for an answer

2:23Hostfrom you. And here we are now. Yeah. And actually, I checked all your Facebook, you know, from the history from the very beginning. And I noticed that somewhere around March in 2020, there was like a you had a small promo video of stop animation when you like three of you in a rocket going up. Yeah. Who did that? Tommy did it. Oh, that's cool. Yeah,

2:46Janhe did it. Because we had this whole this idea of this of this animation, we really appreciate it. And back in the days, Jean-Lou and Tommy were living together. And, and then they just tried to make this video. And after this 22nd video, we just all noticed how much work it is. So I cannot imagine how it is to make like a professional animated video for three and a half minutes.

3:09HostYeah, we should say that it's like a classic stop motion animation with the cutout. Yeah, figures. It looks amazing. Cool. Thank you. And that's why I thought maybe you thought about me. But I think that video was after maybe or something like this. I'm not sure.

3:26JanThis I don't remember. But but I know that we always felt attracted by this kind of animation, because it's somehow it's still an old school way to do, you know? Yeah, it's it's an old school way. It's like Disney started. It's like animation really started. And it has a really 70s vibe to it. Yeah, my inspiration for that for in general, like, I mean, I do it on computer, of course,

3:50Hostbut my inspiration is Monty Python and 70s kind of stop animation. Yeah, that's where the humor comes from and all that stuff. Good. But let's we'll discuss the album a little bit later. Let's go back to the beginning. Where did it all start? And I want you to first mention where the band is located, because I think it's interesting, because if you check your Facebook, for example, you'll see two and three languages, you know, like how you post things. Yeah. And for people, it's unusual.

4:22JanWell, not unusual, but quite interesting. So so the whole band started with with Tommy and I, so the drummer and I and Tommy lives in France. And I was living in France at the time as well. But I'm German. And the whole band started just for one gig. And in France, there's this like music festival every year on the 21st of June, 21st of June, sorry. And it was originally just this one gig. And finally, we played the gig and we like to play together. And it was kind of a blues duo black in the style of the black keys a bit in the beginning. Then we planned a tour for two weeks in Europe. And we had our first album out with already some organs and some bass lines to it, just little overdubs to make it more interesting. And a good friend of us, Jean-Lou, proposed then to come with us and to play this, this little organ parts and bass parts really punctual in the set. And we played two or three gigs in the, in the tour. And then it was clear that there is no coming back from it. And then Jean-Lou added Leslie and played more and start singing. And from there on, music turned into a psychedelic, heavy, heavy psychedelic soul music. And there was no turning back anymore.

5:38HostWhat's interesting, I mean, you just mentioned that, okay, we just checked it out. We toured a little bit, we played, but actually there's more to this, to almost every line that you said, right? For example, your first album is not just like an EP, it's around, I mean, Don't Worry Mama, as I understand, it's your first album. Yeah, exactly. 10, 15 songs there, something like this, or I mean, a lot, I would say. A lot, yeah. Like a proper album. And it's like really bluesy. And there's just the two of you, yeah, really black keys. That's what I thought. Inspired. Yeah. And how, how did you record this?

6:12JanI moved from France, moved to Germany and I learned, learned event technician, basically. And in my, I had one teacher of mine who was my acoustic teacher and we really get along. We started to get like big friends with time. And at some point he, he said, you know, he's recording and he heard the music we do with Tommy. And so he was asking if, if he can record us. And we finally, yeah, we said, okay, let's go. And we went to his studio, which is like an old train station he bought.

6:47?What?

6:48JanYeah. This guy won Monopoly. He got a, he, he got a train station in the Parkstraße.

6:55TRIPWow. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

6:57JanYeah. So we went there and it's full of old equipment and he just really said he, he, he believes in what we do and, uh, he wants to record us. He don't want any money for it. And he, he really wants to make vinyl.

7:10HostOoh, I would say it's, I would say it's something sketchy, you know, I would just expect something, something weird, you know, when somebody says, I don't want anything. I want to support you. I mean, I mean, I mean, I know, I mean, it happens like you as an example, but now what I know about the music industry is just like, Ooh, something weird. Maybe he wants to write maybe.

7:33JanYeah. I think that we had turned kind of lucky because back in the days I was maybe 19 or so. Yeah. He really, uh, Christian is his name. He's a really, really good friend and he's been supporting us ever since as much as he could. Yeah. There was absolutely no hook at the story. We just went there, record the album. Uh, he did the mixing. He called friends to do the mastering, but it's all professional people, you know, working like it's their job. And it was just out of pure, uh, friendship and, uh, out of, I don't know, just a big heart. And the, the album came out, uh, just like he said, and now the vinyl is out. And we, since today, I'm not to pay a single, um, a single Euro for it. Yeah.

8:19HostWow. That's, that's, that's a dream come true for some people, you know, like, yeah,

8:23JanI don't, I still, when I think about it, I think it's crazy, but it's the way it's the way it turned out. And this was like the first, uh, the first foot in the door, we say, you know, the first impression. And, uh, and then we said, okay, everything is possible. Then you don't need to have 6,000 euros and, uh, don't need to do everything by yourself. Technically, if this is working out right now, then everything else is possible as

8:46Hostwell, you know? Yeah. I was impressed in the sound, uh, the sound of the album. It, it sounded really good, you know, because usually you expect the, the sound of the first album to be, you're searching for the sound. Yeah. But this was like recorded in a, in good quality. And then, uh, you said you went on a tour, uh, you played on the boat. I wrote down.

9:09JanYeah. So the boat was the first gig really, uh, with, uh, with Christian. What happens is as I was technically a student and it was the year of the, of all the exams, Christian was always asking, like, if we want to play with some bands around in Germany or with his bands, if you could play shows together. But he said, let's do it after the, after the exams because you know, maybe it's not, uh, people don't like it too much. If, uh, we are hanging out on the weekends playing music and I'm standing in the jury then. So technically he said, let's wait for after the exams. And this gig at the boat was one day after I graduated and got my diploma as an event technician.

9:49HostOh, wow. And, uh, maybe tell the listeners what we're talking about. What, what kind of a gig was it?

9:56JanUm, it was, um, what was it again?

9:58HostIt was, let me remind you, it was, uh, Theater Schiff.

10:02JanYeah, Theater Schiff. I don't remember why.

10:05HostIt was, it was the release party of Torpedo Molecules.

10:09JanOh, that's it. Okay. Okay. So Torpedo Molecules is the band of Christian.

10:13?Ah, okay.

10:13JanAnd, uh, Christian liked the music we make and was asking us if we could play, if we, if we want to play on this evening. So we just rented the whole boat, invited his old friends, recorded the whole thing. And after the recording, he listened to the, to the concert with a good trip. And then he said, you know what, maybe we should record an album or so in this same energy, like a live album. That was the whole story. Yeah. Now I remember.

10:38HostSo you had, and it's not, don't worry, mama. It's just a live session. It's a separate thing, right?

10:43JanIt never came out. We wanted to, to, to bring this live session out, but in the end, Christian was listening to this live session and just said, maybe we should go in the studio and make something bigger than just a, just a live situation. Maybe we should go in the studio, record, put some overdubs on it and make, make something bigger out of it, you know?

11:03?Ah, all right.

11:04JanNow, now I remember. Yeah.

11:05HostAnd, uh, you said now you have the vinyl. So you mean you, um, released the vinyl recently

11:11Janor something like this? Uh, the vinyl came, came out a year after recording. It came out

11:18Jan2019 or something.

11:20HostAnd also Christian did that or?

11:22JanYeah, exactly. With his, uh, company called Funky Monks and Records.

11:27HostAh, okay. So they, they printed the whole thing. They ordered, they did the, all the shipping. Did you, did, did the bands participate in the business side somehow?

11:35JanUh, absolutely not. No. Uh, so Holy shit. That's so good. Uh, I mean, we, we made the, the, the, uh, the artwork. I mean, we decided everything technically as well. Um, we decided to, to kind of invented something that's called analog to share.

11:56HostPlease tell us more about this thing.

11:58JanSo analog to share the main, the main idea was that nowadays you can share music with a single click, um, to everyone in seconds. And back in the days when you had vinyl and you wanted someone to listen to it, it was, it was a whole, you know, it wasn't that easy. You had to go there, you had to give the vinyl. You'd never know, is he going to give me the vinyl back? And we found out that sometimes if you print out one vinyl, it would cost you only a few euros more to cuts to, to print another vinyl, like double vinyl or so. And so what we did is we took the artwork on one side, there is the vinyl. And on the other side, there is the same vinyl with the same songs. And there is a little different artwork. And it says like, it's for gifting to people. It allows people to buy a double vinyl for an affordable price and they can give away one vinyl to someone as if they would share it online. It's the same idea. They just share the music, they share analog music and they wouldn't miss this vinyl since they have the same vinyl still, you know?

13:03HostWow. That's, that's a cool idea. And how many vinyls were there? I mean, I mean, of course double, but 300, 500 plus double, I guess. So it's like 600 to 1000, something like this.

13:16JanI guess it was that we did 300 in analog to share and 200, like not to share just a single vinyl and the analog to share in the end costs only five euros more because that's what the prints cost us, you know? So we don't lose any money, but people can just share music.

13:33HostAnd how was it? How was the response? How was everything? You know, it's like a, it's the first time I hear something like this.

13:39JanThe response was, was good because people dug it really. And in the end, if we look at the stocks, there is definitely more of the analog to share that is going because it's a gimmick and because it gives the opportunity to share. Lots of people said, you know, then I'm buying the analog to share and I, and I'm giving the second one to who knows my best friend, my dad, because blah, blah. And people really use it the way we wanted it to. So we're super happy with it. Yeah.

14:05HostI guess local press covered this thing. I would say this is quite interesting stuff.

14:11JanYeah. We were trying to put a patent on it or so, but in the end it's ridiculous money and it's not like we had the idea to share music. So whatever. If other bands want to do it and it's just good, you know, it's.

14:24HostYeah. Putting a patent on something like this would be hard, but I guess you just need to be the pioneers of this idea, like of this philosophy. You need to maybe just put more emphasis on it. Yeah. But it's definitely really cool. Are you planning to do it again?

14:39JanYeah, probably. I mean, what we do when we are, make albums with Trip is the packaging itself is always really appealing and interesting to us. So it's all about gimmicks. Every, every album we put out has something special to it. We would just hate to just bring a CD out with the cover and say, now you can buy it. Don't like it. So every album we do has a special gimmick to it. And this analog to share thing was for now the gimmick of the first album, but at some point that definitely. Yeah. I mean, why not?

15:12HostWhy do you have such love for gimmicks?

15:14JanI don't know if it's, I don't really know. I think it's, I don't, I don't like the idea that an object can be boring or that you can have enough of an object. For me, the best thing is when you, when you take a record out from the seventies, which is around 50 years and you discover little things that, that you haven't seen till then. So you can have an object for like 20 years in your living room. And still, when you take it in your hand, you discover stuff and it's not costing anything else than, than mind energy. I just, I just love it. It's just, just a passion. I don't know. I just like to keep people searching. I like the idea that an object is not losing any value, but it's just taking value every time.

15:56HostYou know, that's what I also like about vinyls. And I like details, by the way, uh, what do you have? What do you own like a vinyl with such gimmicks, you know, that you're proud of or something like this as a good example?

16:08JanUh, I got a, I got an album from, uh, Jan and Dean, you know, it's surf rock, surf rock pop duo.

16:16HostYes. I name. Yes. Yes.

16:20JanJan and Dean. Yeah. Um, and when you opened the album, there's a whole book about the, about this duo, which is really as iconic as the beach boys. I mean, it's the same time and the music is incredible. Some stuff from Jan and Dean is as intense as the Beatles and, uh, just less known. But in the end, when you, when you read this book, it's, you open the vinyl, there's a few pages you can read all about the history of the band. And at some point there's a, a, like a sheet. And then you see which song has been recorded, where, with what instruments, who wrote the song, what car were they driving while recording the song and what, what's the name of the girlfriends were they had. And over time, how much albums they sold. And it's just so much information and ridiculous information. And you see the car, sometimes they have the same girlfriend, sometimes they drive the same car. It's just, it's just super funny. Yeah. You can spend, This is so cool. Hours, you know, on it, just discovering the band on another level.

17:18HostThis is so cool. And I, just before you said girlfriends and cars, I thought, oh, what they just wrote what they were eating in the breakfast or something like this. But when you said the cars and the girls, I was like, ah, there's more, there's idea behind it. Of course you're interested in that stuff. You know, they, they thought about it.

17:35JanIt's really surf rock. I mean, it's, they, if they fit the style and it's just, yeah.

17:40HostYeah. Wonderful idea. If this, uh, if surf music for you is a big influence, uh, because I, it, it feels that I kinda, there's like an influence in the trip music a little bit.

17:51JanYears ago, we started for fun again with Jean-Luc, Tommy and a few other friends, uh, um, a surf rock project where we just cover surf rock and we just play during the summer and we wear flower shirts and we just sing beach boys and, and everything that is surf rock. For the beginning, it was just fun because people dig it. It's rock and roll and, uh, it's always just good fun. But after time you realize shit, those harmonies are so wild and the rhythm is so incredible. The guitar riffs, the sound to it. It's not just fun. It's mind blowing like really. And so with time and with all the gigs we did with the surfing coconuts we called, I think that this whole harmonies and this whole rock and roll rough seventies style and took over to our music. Yeah. Somehow.

18:40HostI really, I really like surf rock, but I'm not so into the surf. I don't know so many bands. Uh, I mean, I know the beach boys and maybe others. I don't want to embarrass myself.

18:52JanThe problem with this whole, with the, um, surf rock and rock and roll in the sixties is that there are so many bands, none of them. I mean, not all of them are selling billions of records, but it's just, there's billions of bands. Really. They all sound quite the same. They all have stuff to them. But if you don't, I all, I just know the main, the main bands. And when I start digging into surf rock, there's so much under styles of this music. There's no way, there's no way that's fully okay and comprehensible not to know the

19:29Hostbands. Uh, let's go back, uh, to the past. Uh, don't worry. Mama was released in 2018 and then it was a duo. It was just two of you. Yeah. And then you went on a tour and Jean-Luc joined you. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, you released electric magic. We did. And so what was the difference between this album and the, uh, previous album? Obviously the

19:53Janlineup change. Yeah. The lineup change was one thing. The main thing was that we didn't go back to where we recorded the first album. Um, but we decided to lock ourself up for two weeks in, uh, a little wood house somewhere in the forest. Uh, because we know, we know the people who had to call to, to just to chill their two weeks and, uh, yeah, then we got into the studio with, with mostly ideas of songs, barely like general ideas. And in two weeks of time, we wrote the whole album as one big chunk of 40 minutes music and recorded it. And after that, Tommy took his bus, he was living in his bus at the time and made a four months travel to Morocco and mixed the album in his bus. That's the whole idea.

20:48HostHoly shit. That's probably a separate story of how he was recording the mixing the whole

20:53Janalbum in the bus. Yeah. That's, that's not, that's a enough, enough story for three books

20:58Hostthis trip. Yeah. Did you somehow incorporate that story into the album somehow like a marriage

21:04Janor something like this? We knew that, that Tommy was going to, to take a little break and go to Morocco while we were recording the album. But besides using a few like Arabic instruments and plans in the music itself, we didn't push it further. I mean, we didn't, it was just Tommy's little vacation, but in the end he was working all day. Yeah. We didn't necessarily do too much out of it. No.

21:30HostElectric Magic, uh, it sounds closer to your latest album. You said there was like some general idea. Did you know, did you, what kind of limitations you want to have, or did you have like a strict concept or something like this, or it just was vague for electric magic? You

21:46Janmean now? Yeah. The main idea for electric magic was just that we wanted to have this, this one piece of music. You can listen like that makes sense to listen to this 40 minutes where you just sit down and the songs, uh, work with one another. And that was the main idea, except, except for this idea of a concept album, there was no limits, absolutely zero limits. We used a ridiculous amount of instruments and did overdubs and, uh, it was really limitless, except that we said we are two weeks in the studio and it has to be a concept album. That was the two main rules and the rest was absolutely open bar. But did you come up with the new songs in this two weeks or you just recorded everything? We had a few songs, song ideas in the beginning, but mostly we wrote the songs there and we recorded the songs there. Uh, we really decided to let, to let it all happen in these two weeks, shut off from the West of the world. Don't technically need any contact to anybody. We had like this two vans back in the days, Tommy and Jean-Luc were living in those vans. They had a little kitchen. We just bought a ridiculous amount of vegetables and rice and, uh, uh, and stayed there for two weeks. And then we knew on this date, we have to stop making overdubs. We have to stop changing things. Then it is what it is. Uh, that's it. Yeah.

23:06HostIt sounds amazing. I read that's the album that I discovered you on band camp, but I really like that album. And I read that you actually did some crowdfunding for this album. Why did you decide to do that? Because for the last album, we had Christian on our back and he was saying straight, don't care

23:24Janabout the money. I got you. And for the second album, there was no one as Christian, but it was our decision. And we had a good amount of friends supporting us and people coming to the shows. And it just felt like a good moment to do so. And we were asking for a thousand euros just to cover most of the costs. And we ended up 1,700 or so. Yeah. It just felt right in the moment. And it definitely felt right at the end because we had such a massive support.

23:54HostAnd you chose a platform, it was called Ulule or something like this.

24:00TRIPUlule, yeah.

24:01HostWhy that one?

24:02JanOh, I don't know. It's, uh, it's like French people do, I guess. All right. Yeah. I guess it's the, it's the most known in France.

24:10HostDid you know about the transaction fees and that they take some percentage from the final thing?

24:15JanI don't, I don't think we knew at the time. And to be honest, it was mostly Tommy that took care of it. And, uh, we, we didn't think too much, maybe funny because it was a second album, but it was our first experience. And so we just, we just did. And I don't remember the, that the fee they took was, was, was too ridiculous or so.

24:37HostYeah. But I'm just asking because how much you thought about the crown funding thing?

24:42JanUh, we, uh, we really liked it because there was this whole part of, um, people can like buy stuff in advance that was really encouraging because when someone like donated 10 euros, it meant that you sold an album already seeing that like a hundred people, uh, were supporting already is just, just, uh, just giving so much energy in a way because you know, wow, the music is, is, is selling and it's not just like someone is giving you just random money and then they need to buy the album. It's just, they buy it in advance, they buy shirts in advance and it's just a big support. Yeah.

25:19HostSo what were your expectations?

25:21JanFor myself, I had pretty low expectations. Uh, I was thinking, wow, a thousand euros because I mean, it was some, some, somehow crazy amount of money. And I mean, you can do a lot of things, uh, with, with a thousand euros. I mean, that's what we thought back in the days. And, uh, I had really low expectations and we, Jean-Luc was like a thousand euros is easy. We can make it. I mean, he had bands before and he did crowdfunding before. So he knew I had zero expectations and I was blown away when I saw that it was a thousand, 700 euros or so. It was almost double as much. It was absolutely crazy. Would you do it again? Funny that you asked because we are thinking of doing it again. Uh, because the last one was, uh, a while ago now and we have not this album that we're recording now, but the next one is probably, yeah, probably something like this is going to happen again. Yeah. With the same amount or more, um, electric magic came out only on CDs. Um, that explains why you need, uh, that less money to bring your album out. But we are really into vinyls, the three of us. And problem is vinyl vinyls costs way more. So we'll have to see. Probably

26:31Hostit's going to be more. Yeah. I keep asking and bothering everybody about the cassette tapes. You know, what do you think about tapes? Oh, we have some already. You have some already. How

26:40Janmany did you make? It's only 50 because we are working with a little, uh, cassette. I don't know how you say that in English. Manufacturer. Yeah. And they just play over your cassettes. They do the designs. And it's a, it's a little organization in our city called Kleiner Salon 22. And, uh, they just did it. It's more again for the gimmick of it because lots of our friends still have shitty cars with only cassette players. So yeah. That's what they hear from other people.

27:05HostThey listen to, if they buy such cassettes, they listen to them in the car. Yeah. For example, in the United States, it's mostly in cars. Yeah. I imagine. In other countries, it's a tape collectors. Such people exist. There are not so many and super fans of, uh, bands if they have. Yeah. So, uh, if you're planning to do this crowdfunding, what would you do

27:25Jandifferently? I cannot really answer this. Mostly we, we think as a tree of us and it's when we sit together and we have a few beers and we discuss about it, that the main ideas come from now. I don't know what I would do differently. Really. I really liked how it

27:40Hosthappens back in the days. Yeah. You have a feel that everything that you do has a super light. You just ease into it in a, in a good way. I mean, is that it comes naturally and that's why it's, it has this natural flow of how the music comes out and how your stuff comes out, you know, the merchandise and everything. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I noticed that you have really cool merch in general, like t-shirts. Oh, thank you. You also made a comic book for the latest album, uh, what happens when nothing happened? Yeah. And what was the decision behind that? Also a gimmick? Also a gimmick.

28:16JanYeah. This is, this has become a big, a big part of us record, um, releasing albums. It's just thinking of gimmicks, really something that makes it special. And for this, it was the artwork is really, is really like dark artwork, red and black by a good painter friend of us. So the gimmick was that the vinyl comes out in the same colors, like splatter black and red vinyl. And that to it, to the album comes a comic that we designed and draw together and where all the texts, all the lyrics are basically people talking in the comic book. So if you sit back, put your vinyl on and listen to it, you can just open your comic book and really read it. And everything you will read, uh, is stuff that we sing. So stuff that you hear as well. Yeah. How many pages are there? It's an average two or three pages, a song, maybe 10 to 15, 15 pages. And every, every song designed by another artist. So it's really, there's lots of different styles to the comic. Yeah. I'm sending you one.

29:22HostYeah. Thanks. People can still buy this comic book on your band.

29:25JanThey can. Yeah. And as well, you know, on shows, but you don't have to, I mean, if you, if you just dig the vinyl and you want to listen to the vinyl, it's all right. The, the comic itself, uh, costs a bit more because printing costs.

29:39HostHow many copies did you make?

29:40JanOh, I don't remember. 500, 500. Yeah. Probably 500. Yeah.

29:44HostWhen we talked about the music video and asked you, should I put something from, from your music? You said like, put this numbers and stuff. Do you have something like this, uh, in the comic book also that they're like secrets, Easter eggs, uh, tied into the music and stuff?

29:59JanYeah. So the, thank you for reminding me. I forgot the, yeah. Um, the last song of the album is called the garden part two. Uh, if you have the comic book, you will have the numbers and you'll have a code to decode the message. Um, but you only get this code in the, in the, um, in the comic book really, but if you have it and you can discover like secrets. Yeah. Again, gimmicks within the gimmicks.

30:24HostYeah. You should, you should like maybe like tell more people, I mean in general, not now, but in general spread out that there are gimmicks around like the stories and secrets, because when I read in your Facebook, it's not so clear that you have, but this is really cool stuff. This is what actual people would like to have.

30:40JanThat's the idea about secrets. Uh, I, I really dig, I really like the idea that someone after he listened, you know, already since a year or so he's listening to the album, he just decides, you know what, let's, let's make it again. Just sitting on his couch, listening to the album and then he finds numbers and then he finds the, and then he's like, what? And this for me is the most rewarding. I don't want to, uh, every time I give the comic to someone, I don't want to tell him what he needs to do. Some people don't see it. Some people see it and they are rewarded, you know, in the end. And I think this is magic. Even if the comic is sitting in your, in your living room for two years and you just discover it afterwards because you listen to this podcast. That's what I really love. It's the little things that keeps on popping and keeps on making an album interesting and modern and up-to-date because things happen, you know?

31:28HostWell, I really like such stuff. I, I really like that. The master of such stuff is Jack White. He's doing lots of stuff. He like, remember he, he put vinyls in the couches or something like this because he was doing upholstery when he was working early days and only like years later, people discovered the vinyls inside of their furniture or something like this. It's something amazing. Crazy, right? The way he does with vinyls that there has double grooves, triple grooves, whatever, like some etching and stuff. That's amazing. We're now talking about the latest album and that's where I also participated in making the music video.

32:06?Yes, you did.

32:08TRIPWhat I call a concept album.

32:09?Yeah.

32:10HostCan you tell people about it a little bit, about the concept?

32:13JanWhat happens when nothing happens is an album we wrote around a whole story. And the story is about technically like the end of the world, if you will. It's the story of a family of a few, a few generations are overtaking in the album and it reflects lots of things that are going wrong nowadays and all packed up in a wonderful psychedelic magic packet.

32:39HostAwesome. You know how to sell it. Yeah. The album is great. Thank you. Thanks a lot. And I think when you sent me the song, you sent me the whole album so I could understand the backstory and everything. And I tried to incorporate, I think, the elements of the story inside of the videos.

32:58?Yeah.

32:59HostWhen I checked Facebook, I noticed that you won Battle of the Bands. It's true, yeah. And you actually had several Battle of the Bands.

33:08JanSo what we had was this main Battle of the Bands in Saarbrücken, the city where I lived. We won this with a price of 2,500 euros, which paid off the whole album. I mean, a big part of the album costs. And since we won this particular Battle of the Bands, we had like a ticket to participate in a German-wide Battle of the Bands. We did participate on this. We took our van, we drove to Magdeburg, which is shitloads of hours away from here. And we played there. And we won the prize of the best songwriting in the competition. That was last year.

33:50HostSo you mean it's the Local Heroes competition?

33:53JanExactly. You could only participate to the Local Heroes competition if you won the Battle of the Bands in your region.

34:00HostAnd what did you win? I think you won something.

34:02JanWe won a recording session in the north of Germany, as well as a publishing deal with a company called Jet Records. We won a couple hundred euros worth of Thomann gear and microphones and really lots of things. A massive package came in and we're still not halfway through using everything we won. Because this publishing deal, again, cuts nothing. And when a single comes out or so, you can just use it. And probably for the next album, yeah.

34:36HostYou know what I also noticed on your Facebook is that you recorded, you made videos of how you made the album. There are three videos. And there's a lot of editing there. It takes a lot of work to make those videos. Are you planning to do something like this for the future project?

34:55JanYeah. The videos, we did them with Tommy. And Tommy is, I don't know, really interested in animation and green screens. And I have lots of shitty ideas like putting extra explosions everywhere and memes. And so we really discovered the whole video making together. It's just so much fun because you can really make something like you want it. It's really straightforward. It's really rough. It's like dumb in a way. But we did it as you would like put a video together of your holidays or so. It's just memories for yourself. And if people like it, then it's just bonus. So we did it for a couple tours as well. And we are definitely going to do it again as soon as we have lots of footage and interesting footage. Yeah. You're like a fun, in a good way,

35:48Hostband. You know, like it's cool to look at you. Yeah, we're having fun. So you should probably try out some TikTok stuff. I keep saying TikTok to all the musicians because it's still, well, it's still

35:59Janfresh. My sister is using it a lot and she's constantly reminding me to do so. I just don't know. I just don't know why I have this natural barrier. And I don't know how to get to it. You know, it's not, it's not a lack of time because I have plenty, but I just don't find the access to it in

36:17Hosta way. I don't know. Most of the people I talk to, they have a barrier to TikTok. I don't have a barrier, but I can't make videos like that. Yeah. Talking about the videos, actually, you went to Hopla Awards for the music video. Yes, exactly. How was the trip? And it was for the one that I made,

36:36Janright? Exactly. Yeah. How was it? Hopla Awards is in the region in France where Tommy and Jean-Lou lives. It's an award for upcoming musicians. And they're not only rewarding videos, they do a lot, you know, for artists. And they put a spotlight on artists, upcoming artists and so on. And it's in Strasbourg. So we know Strasbourg really well, have lots of friends there. And yeah, we went there. It was Corona time. So I assume that it feels better when you're not sitting there with your mask and the place is really packed. There was lots of restrictions, but it was a really cool evening. You know, just sitting there, discovering lots of artists, lots of friends that were there as well. Yeah. Seeing other videos, other approaches of artists, which was just a good evening.

37:26HostYeah. I watched the online session because it was happening live stream. So I participated live. Oh yeah, true. I was like, all right, who's going to give it? Who's going to win? Because for me, it was like, oh, who's going to win? Is it our video or not? Yeah. But there were some videos that

37:41Janwon. Happens. Yeah, it's always funny those evenings. A French comedian said that once. And in such evenings, the place is packed with potential winners. And as the evening goes, the place is filling up with losers, you know, technically. And the guy standing on the stage, he's doing a hell of a job because as the evening goes, he's talking to people that don't really want to sit there anymore. But the guy did a great job and we had a great evening anyways. And, you know, everybody is putting work and money and energy in his work. And it's like it is. And if you cannot please everybody, it's like this video still kick ass. I watched it again this week by myself because I just I'm just proud of the results. How was the response to the video? It was fantastic, really. You know, I said before that it was the first the first image we put on our music. And this is how people visualize the music now. And the video you did was in a way as like fucked up as the music was. It's just really fit. And people really dig it. We like it as well. And the response was fantastic. Yeah, that's great to hear

38:55Hostbecause usually I don't get to hear the response of the people. I just read the comments or something like this or you tell me like everything's done and that's it. And then I move on and I don't really

39:06Janknow how it's going. Which is funny because I mean, technically, the end product is half yours,

39:13Hosthalf ours, you know, I want to ask you about what you're planning to do this year. What are the plans

39:19Janfor the band this year? We are going to record with this year. I mean, next month, probably we are going to record the fourth album. Normally, we do an album a year. But for obvious reasons, it was different last year. So this year, we are going to record a new album, which is technically an acoustic album. Unexpected? Unexpected, yeah. I said technically because like the the backbone of it is acoustic. There's arrangements to it. It's going to be recorded live. But I mean, sometimes there's a dobro that it's plugged in. There is some keys, fender roads and stuff. So technically, it's an acoustic album. But it's just a reflection of the two last years we had. I mean, so is it going to be also a concept album? In a way? Yeah, there is a gimmick, you know, I mean, you know us now, there's going to be some gimmicks, not necessarily a concept album like the last one. This time, the concept is more about time, about how the music was before Corona during and what's going to come after. It's a time based vision based album. So so far, like we do some reinterpretations of old songs, just a few, we have fully new songs written for this acoustic purpose. And there's even some covers, which normally is not what we do. But now being together for two years, keep on playing music, playing music acoustically together, when we sit in the evening and we drink and we eat is a big part of it. So this is going to reflect in the album in a way,

40:59Hostkind of as a big checkpoint somehow, you know, I've seen that you had, you have a lot of recordings, live recordings, like video recordings on radio stations and TV channels. So we have like a lot of experience of playing to the camera. Yeah. Are you planning to do something with that? Because now you're like more experienced than other musicians, I would say. The Corona time was,

41:21Janwas indeed special experience for us, you know, because it was as well our first time playing in front of cameras. But the live gig you see in Mark the book is the last gig on camera to date we did. And it felt better, felt less, less intimidating in a way. Yeah, I think we are comfortable now with the cameras and it's good. We will probably record some videos of it because the album is going to be live, live played. We do not plan on putting it all like a live out or so. This is for now not the idea. But footage from the studio with worked on audio is probably going to happen. But you haven't done any live streaming like on you by yourself? We have done one with quasi live. This is one, one live recording we did. But Jean-Luc and I are strong believers of live music simply. Like the album situation, recording and live streaming is good fun, but the real, the real shit is playing. We just simply do not feel the same doing a live stream than being in a room. Even if there's 500 people on the live stream and 10 people in the room, probably would prefer playing with 10 people in the room because the energy is different. And this is how we, this is the concept. It's playing

42:45?live and loud and having fun. Live streaming, it's just simply not working right. Yeah. So it's,

42:52Janit's a bad time to think so, but it's, uh, but it's honest. So probably we're going to avoid making

42:58Hostlive streams. Yeah. All right. Do you have like a backup plan? We don't know what's going to happen in, uh, in this year regarding the live gigs, but it's possible that there will be not so many. Do you have some, some ideas about that, what you're going to do? So what happens is that this

43:15Janalbum is going to be recorded and it's going to go out anyways. The whole idea of this, of this acoustic based album is that it is more easy to do gigs this way. You know, it's more easy because it's not necessarily, it's not necessarily the same volume or so we are kind of making the best of the, the situation. And punctually there will be as soon as it's possible electric gigs with full power in the loud drums and organs and guitars that for the, for the most time, if this is, if it's the only thing we can do, it's going to be acoustic. When are you planning to release it? Start of the summer probably because I don't know how it is in Austria. You're in Austria right now. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how it is in Austria. Uh, but here last year in summer, the gigs are going to play outside. People have space. Nobody is having a panic attack because of the virus. So outside everything is possible. So we plan on having it in the summer playing as much as we can. And probably next year when November comes and people have to gather inside again, then the numbers are going to be high again. And then the gigs get canceled. Yeah. Have you thought about how you're going to promote it? We have this deal, like this, uh, promotion deal that we won, you know, with, uh, jet records. So this is going to be a big part of it. What did they offer you actually

44:33Hostfor this deal? Approximately like distribution, some kinds or like, yeah, distribution online, online promotion and distribution. So probably you're going to be mentioned in some press plus

44:44Janmerch, maybe distribution kind of. And yeah, exactly. Which is good because we don't have to do it at some, at some point, you know, you have to, uh, to spread the work, focus on yours. And if, if you have the opportunity to work with someone like this, uh, like jet records also,

44:59Hostwe're really happy to do so. And, uh, I want to wish you all the best with the recording of the album and having as many gigs as possible. Oh yeah. Where can people follow trip and hear the music?

45:12JanYou can follow trip on Instagram and on Facebook at rock band trip, and you can listen to trip on Spotify. I would recommend you look for like trip. What happens when nothing happens? Because somehow there's lots of people called trip in the world and band camp, Apple music. If you want to find it, you will find it. And then, uh, you'll have a good time. And I think you have merch also on band camp. Exactly. The merch, we do all the merch ourselves. We have, uh, a little, um, screen printing atelier. Uh, we print everything by ourselves. We can do hoodies and we do the designs ourselves and every color is possible. Just hit us on and ask and everything is possible. Excellent. Which song are we going to hear at the end of the episode? We have to listen to Multicolor Desert

46:01Hostbecause it's obvious. All right, Jan. Thank you very much, man. Thank you very much. I wish you all

46:07Janthe best. Thank you, Arthur. Thank you for inviting me.

46:09TRIPI always will. I always did. All my friends already dead. I'm living in the desert. Multicolored desert.

47:50TRIPThat was a cool song. Thanks, Trip. And thank you for listening to Interceptor Beyond Podcast.

50:02HostDon't forget to follow this show on Spotify. And if you like what you're hearing, don't be queer. Read this show on Spotify. It helps a lot.