New Politics - Interview - June 2015
It’s been a whirlwind ride for pop- rock trio, New Politics. Formed in 2009 by fellow Danes, David Boyd (vocals) and Soren Hansen (guitars and vocals), they quickly garnered a significant following in Copenhagen. However, they soon found themselves in New York after signing with RCA (and picking up Long Islander, Louis Vecchio, to lend his skills on the drums).
Now, they find themselves having toured with some of the biggest names in music such as Fall Out Boy and Pink. Valuable experience according to Hansen: “I think playing those big shows really inspires you and makes you realise how hard you have to work. And what’s more inspiring than playing with bands you’ve grown up listening to?”
This exposure enabled them to grow their fan base - the band’s Twitter account sports an impressive 59,000 followers. And it’s social media that the band relies on to build a relationship with their fans: “Social media is such a good thing; if you are having a bad day, you can just log on and say hi, and you get so many nice responses, and it’s a great feeling. They’re fans of our music, but it’s almost like a group of friends that we’ve created,” explains Vecchio.
But fans aside, their music speaks for itself. You might have heard their catchy hit single, ‘Harlem’ doing the rounds in 2013, however, there’s one theme that comes up frequently in their back catalogue: women. When one particular track, ‘Berlin’, is brought up, Boyd and Hansen giggle mischievously to each other. “Berlin is actually a girl from Berlin...” begins Hansen. “She has a different name, but I don’t want her to know it’s about her,’ explains Boyd before realising he’s let the cat out of the bag. He becomes more serious: “Well, now she knows! But I think it also has a lot to do with the irony of our lifestyle. We’re in a different city every other day and we have these one night affairs with all these cities.” A different city every night must be commonplace for any touring musician - the band are just about to head to Japan for the first time. But they already have other places in mind about where they’d like to go next: “We’d like to go to Australia. We’ve never had a chance to go there,” Soren tells us. When asked if they’d have their picture taken with koala bears, David Chirps, “we’d love to smuggle some home!”
