Claire

Self-confessed ‘Neon Pop’ peddlers Claire are currently inciting sonic carnage across Germany with their effervescent blend of noises.

The five members originally combined for a brief project as a favour for a friend, but enjoyed the experience so much they continued recording and writing together – a process made much easier by the fact the three produceral talents in the band (Matthias Hauck, Nepomuk Heller and Florian Kiermaier) share a studio together.

Hailing from Munich, the quintet weld together electropop hooks and hip-hop beats, crafting music that’s instantly etched into your mind and doomed to circle around your ears forever; if you can resist tapping toes or bobbing your head – or going flat-out MJ on the dancefloor – then you might want to visit a doctor. Claire boast viral tracks, not unlike recent tourmates Chvrches, that contain fragments of easily relatable emotions; they touch upon the kind of everyman topics that are familiar to everyone who’s had dealings with love.

Their debut record is in the finishing stages, ready to be carted out by the end of the year. The first cut from this upcoming LP is ‘Games’, a masterful foray into sun-kissed synthpop (think Mausi), the effort wobbles with pounding bass undercurrents and rollicking indie-dance percussion, instigating ear-to-ear grins and arm flailing. The synth riffs are massive, festival-sized motifs that have the potential to soar out into Fruit Salad coloured sunsets and across oceans of beer-swilling revellers. On top of the wonderful arrangements, vocalist Josie-Claire Bürkle’s flawless, velveteen vocals weave tales of those fleeting will-we-won’t-we moments of electricity. Claire capture the fluttering hearts and breathless seconds at the dawn of relationships; they soundtrack the vital landmarks in romance.

They’re a lovely bunch, to boot. We were lucky enough to speak to the band and delve into their origin story, discuss what to expect from the forthcoming debut and chat about the perfect environment for their music.

Can you tell us a bit about the band? Who does what, and how did you start?

We’re a five-piece band from Munich, Germany. We started with Claire in spring 2012, not yet as a band – that developed later. Nepomuk, Matthias and Flo have worked in the same studio as they decided to start making their own music again. Josie made some singer/songwriter covers with her guitar and Fridl was a drummer in several local hardcore bands. We really started with one song, which a friend of ours needed for his first video/film try. We sat down, produced an instrumental and as we needed a singer, Flo, who knew Josie from years ago, called her and asked if she wanted to sing on this song. She immediately said yes and by the time the last take was recorded we knew that we wanted to do more in this constellation. We – again – sat down and made four more tracks to finish our first EP The Empire. After getting quite good feedback we realised that we have to play live. We wanted to be a real live band, so we decided to search for a drummer. Flo brought Fridl along – we played together in a band once – and everyone was convinced that this could become really fun, so now we’re five.

How would you describe your sound?

It’s a mixture of calm, atmospheric moods as well as motivating, euphoric passages. We really can’t describe our sound in a way that would perfectly fit, so we thought about just calling it ‘Neon Pop’ instead of using tons of words without really hitting it.

What is your plan for Claire? What are your main goals and ambitions?

We already accomplished one big goal – finishing our debut album! Now the most important thing for us is to grow as a live band. We’re not really experienced on stage and there are so many things you have to think about besides handling your adrenaline… And, of course, our debut album will be released this summer and we hope it will give us the chance to do a second one.

Has Munich been a good place for Claire to begin?

We really think so! Nepomuk, Flo and Fridl grew up here and Matthias and Josie grew up next to Munich so we all are connected to this city and really love to live here.

What are its good points/bad points?

The good points are that you can really focus on things here, because there aren’t too many things which can distract you… Furthermore it’s much easier to attract attention in a city with a smaller scene, which leads to the supposed bad points: there are definitely cities with a bigger music scene and more musicians, which is a really good thing.

How do you think you would’ve fared somewhere else in Germany?

Probably not that different. It depends more on the people you work with than where you work.

What’s the local music scene like there?

People in Munich are very open for new music and they supported us from day one, so there is really nothing you could complain about!

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How do you start when you’re writing songs?

In the studio. Someone comes up with an idea or a rough layout and then we start to let it flow.

What’s the most vital element in creating a good song?

One unique sound.

Is it easier writing and recording with your own studio?

There are different ways to approach the process of writing. There are bands or musicians who write while playing in rehearsal rooms and record the song at the end, and there are bands like us, who start to write while recording. You probably can’t say what’s easier in general, but imagining us writing a song in a rehearsal room would definitely be much more complicated.

What types of things influence your writing?

It’s all about the mood we’re in… and that mood can be caused by so many different things: weather, private events, studio atmosphere…

What was the first record you fell in love with?

Flo: Phoenix – Alphabetical
Nepomuk: Beastie Boys – Ill Communication
Josie: Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman
Matthias: Michael Jackson – Bad
Fridl: Michael Jackson – Thriller

And what was the most recent one?

Flo: Flume – Flume
Nepomuk: SBTRKT – SBTRKT
Josie: Bonobo – The North Borders
Matthias: DJ Koze – Amygdala
Fridl: Bastille – Bad Blood

Describe your music in three words.

Dreamy, cinematic, euphoric.

What’s the perfect environment to enjoy your music?

Two possible scenarios:
1. Sunny afternoon / sunset at the lake or at the sea.
2. Going fast with your car on the highway at night.

What’s your biggest accomplishment to date?

Finishing our debut album without physical fighting in the process!

What would be the best thing that could happen to Claire?

Being able to do a second album.

‘Games’ is due for release at the end of the month. How did you write/record it?

By accident…

What’s the song about?

It’s about that weird state before a real relationship could start and no one knows where it’s going to end up. When it’s all about playing and interpreting games. Maybe the ambiguous moment when you don’t know if it teases or hurts you.

Is it a signifier of what to expect on the album?

No :)

How is that coming along?

‘Games’ is just one fragment of what we wanted to express with our whole album. It’s not an exception at all, but in the end we chose this one to be the first single, because we hoped that the summer would finally come back and ‘Games’ seemed to fit perfectly. It’s our anti-rain-dance.

What sort of sounds feature on the album?

Firstly there is Josie’s voice, of course. In the process of checking out different instruments we really fell in love with our new (old) Juno-60, so it took gradually more space on the album. We robbed all the old analogue gear from our friends and also some guitars we could never afford and locked ourselves up in the studio. At some point we went to a great studio in Berlin to record drums as well as orchestral percussion and a ton of percussive instruments. Of course there’s a lot of electronic drum programming involved, too. Also, we really got hooked on fooling around with vocal samples by Josie and Flo as well as sampling in general. We could go on with this list forever, but it would probably bore you to death.

How does it all translate to a live show?

That is the tough part! In fact we’re studio geeks, and by the time we wrote and produced our album we didn’t think of how to get everything on stage because we didn’t want to restrict ourselves. So in the end, our live setup turned to be our studio carried on stage. There are some fixed parts: Fridl is playing all the drums, he has a acoustic set as well as trigger pads, with all the drum samples from the production. Flo is playing all the guitars and Josie is singing. Nepi and Messel are playing our beloved synthesizers. In fact there are too many analogue synthesizers, samplers and midi-keys on stage, but we really don’t want to miss these sounds and make it as live as possible.

What do you aim to achieve with your sounds?

Setting our audience into a specific mood and to escape with them.

What’s the best song to dance to?

‘Games’ is actually pretty dancey, but there will also be more tracks to go crazy to.

What was your first show like?

It was very thrilling… We went to Slovenia for an event, which seemed perfect to play the first time with our full setup. We could see the sea from the stage, and even if it was a bit improvised, because the equipping of the venue wasn’t that good, we had a great first show. Everyone was really relieved when we finished the last song without major fails!

What are they like now?

We changed a lot in our setup and got a little bit of experience. There’s definitely a steady development in our performance as well as in the audience’s reaction, so this keeps us really going. We started to play new songs from our upcoming album, especially more driving songs, so it got a little louder and more energetic.

Where would you most like to tour?

We already played the introducing tour with Chvrches in some German cities and it was great. Touring is really new to us, but we’ve started to love it! It would be very exciting for us to play a tour in a foreign country to see how the people would react.

Are you going to any festivals?

Yes! We will play some German festivals, for example Melt! Festival, which is a huge step for us!

What have you got planned for summer?

Playing as many concerts as possible, waiting for our album to be released and hope that people like it!