Music > Interviews

The Picturebooks

21/08/15

Fynn and Philipp are The Picturebooks, a couple of radical dudes from Germany who love nothing better than pimping their motorbikes, heading out on their skateboards and being joined onstage by strippers. Their music is sexy as hell, and together they’ll be bringing a raw, high energy show to Norwich that will get you all hot and heavy. Think Royal Blood mixed with The Black Keys and Black Sabbath and you’ll be close. Their latest album Imaginary Horse is a dust-caked, sunburnt and filthy collection of tracks which make you long to be out on a Harley somewhere in the American Mid West, your hair flowing in the breeze. I spoke to singer and guitarist Fynn about being shot by accident and how they came to create their own unique sound.

You’ve been together for a good few years now as The Picturebooks. How did you get together initially?

We met at the local skate park. We were the only ones looking like we did and listening to the music that we did. Nobody else wanted to hear David Bowie, Velvet Underground or Minor Threat. It was love at first sight

I read that there was a British army camp in your town when you were growing up so you had some contact with English people through that. What music were you introduced to through that route?

Yeah, we have one of the largest British military airports in Europe 1km away from our studio. Half of our town is British. They were listening to all kinds of music, some good stuff through to weird techno shit. We definitely made a lot of friends through that though.

Your most recent album’s called Imaginary Horse. Where did the title originate?

I used to have an imaginary horse called Pon Pon when I was a child. It was my imaginary friend that was with me the whole time.

Imaginary Horse was recorded in your motorbike garage…was it recorded live? It certainly has that energy to it.

Yes the whole album was recorded in our garage with two microphones 12 feet away from us. Most of the stuff was recorded live and a lot of stuff was improvised, especially the lyrics. We loved the sound in there and after a few attempts in the real studio where everything sounded very normal and boring in a way we gave up, it wasn’t exciting enough.

I can’t find any of the music from your debut album List Of People To Kill online. What was that album like?

Well, we consider Imaginary Horse to be our debut album. The other stuff was kind of like a learning process. It´s not like we´re not proud of what we´ve done back then but it´s a little different and we like what we do now much more.

You’ve been touring a lot, all through Europe and also the States this year. What’s been the most memorable moment so far?

Dude, a lot of crazy shit has been going on whilst we´ve been on the road for two years straight now. Like needing to leave the freeway somewhere between Montana and Wyoming and ending up in a small town that holds America’s biggest Country festival and we found the last room in the whole town right next to a bunch of bad ass bikers, or hanging out in the parking lot behind the club before the show and some weird black car stops in front of us, points out a gun and starts shooting at us and then took off screaming something! Luckily nothing severe happened but I was bleeding because one bullet hit me and Philipp´s ass cheek hurt cos something hit him there. Shit, there’s so much more but it would take books to tell you all these stories!

You have a track called E.L.I.Z.A.B.E.T.H. which is actually my name! Can you tell me the story behind that track?

Well I just improvised those lyrics. We liked the name and it sounded good when we sang it. It was funny the first time, I started spelling the name in the song…we didn´t know if it would work out but it immediately did so we didn´t wanna change it.

Fynn’s dad was a professional skateboarder when he was growing up and you guys still skate now. What’s the best place to skate that you’ve been to whilst on tour?

There´s a No Skateboarding rule on tour. We always get hurt and shit and had to almost cancel a show once for that. We cruise around and stuff but try not to shred too hard. California is the best place to skate.

Your music is unbelievably sexy. What inspires you, and musically, who do you hold up as heroes?

We forbade each other to listen to music for over two years when we started writing and recording the album so we didn’t get inspired by other bands…kind of like “kill your idols” if you know what I mean? We got lost in the desert and built choppers, went skating, hung out with rad people, or we rode on our bikes. These situations made us create our own sound.

Some of the noises on your album are quite unmusical and quite gutteral, but they really work…I’m thinking of the start of Sun and Sands. How do you go about writing songs together?

Well first of all we think less is more. If a song is good enough it needs just one instrument or not even that. We tried to do that with the song Imaginary Horse for instance.  Philipp got rid of all his cymbals after not being able to afford them anymore and wanting to try something new. We started building percussions on our own, tried to use instruments that you don´t find at your local dealership or on the Internet. We were listening to some native American music back then by accident and loved it. I played very old Gibson guitars on the album through a old customised amp without using hundreds of  pedals and stuff. We wanted the rawest sound possible.

Would you ever consider adding to your line up or will it always be the two of you together? You seem to be best friends as well as band-mates.

We are best friends! We hang out everyday. We’ve been through good and bad; nothing can separate us. It will always be just the two of us.

I enjoyed the footage online of when you played at the Dice Magazine Born Free Motorcycle Show pre party, ha ha ha! Was it distracting having strippers onstage?

Fuck no! It was the raddest thing ever! They were super cool and we all partied till the next morning with everyone. That´s the thing, the people in that whole new chopper scene are the coolest dudes on earth. They always help us out and support us in all kinds of ways.

Your music is really raw and it looks like it’s a real experience to see you play live. How do you prepare yourselves for a gig and how do you like to recover afterwards?

Thank you very much. It´s very simple; do or die. If you play as much as we do there is no before or after the show. It´s a bit of vocal warm ups, group hug, high five, beer, water, let´s go!

The Picturebooks play at the Mash Tun on 10th October as part of Norwich Sound & Vision. Tickets  and wristbands from norwichsoundandvision.co.uk.

Lizz Page