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KEEMA: "Rise Up"

KEEMA -  'Rise Up' - The debut studio album from the Danish Rock Band with the rather strange monicker indeed. A collection of ten tracks that blend everything from darn catchy Rock to Metal, Pop, and U.S. Garage music. Find out more about the album and their influences, here's the singer and guitarist of the band:  Kim Hasselberg & Rune Buck...

How has the reaction to your latest CD been?

Kim: So far it has been great. We are getting a lot of positive feedback from our fans. Rune: A cool thing I have noticed is that we apparently don't just appeal to people who listen to hard rock, but we have also gotten some great response from people who normally listen to pop and even some die hard heavy fans.

How long did this CD take to make from start to finish, recording-wise?

Rune: It took a bit longer than one year from the decision to make an album was made and until we had the finished album in our hands. The process began last spring, when the guys decided to make a KEEMA album. As I'd been doing quite a lot of top lining the last couple of years, Kim asked me to co-write a few songs for the album. I of course gladly accepted, as the band rocked. Lucky for me Kim is a terrible guitar player, so he quickly asked me to play on the album, hahaaaa! I met the rest of the band we quickly decided I should join the band instead of just being a gun for hire.

What kind of 'sound', production wise, did you have in the back of your mind, prior to recording

Kim: I was very fascinated by the sound of Foo Fighters' 'Wasting Light' and Staind's latest album because they have a rough, edgy sound in their production and I wanted to take our sound in that direction. I wanted toget a feeling of raw-ness when listening to our album and be able to feel music being played and not just produced.

Rune: We hit kind of a wall in the recording process, as we thought KEEMA was more of a metal band, but as the songs we're recorded and we heard the first raw mixes we realized that we are more of a rock or even pop band. For me the goal of the album was more of a Stone Sour meets Shinedown kinda vibe

What kind of input did the producer have during the process

Rune: The album is produced by the four of us in the band a long with the recording engineer, and almost all decisions concerning the songs structure, lyrics, vocal harmonies and stuff like that was made by the band. Me and Kim recorded all the vocals and guitars in my home studio, so we could pretty much do whatever we wanted.

And are you pleased with the final outcome? (sound - production wise)

Kim: I love the sound we ended up with. After the mastering by Brian 'Big Bass' Gardner it was perfect in my opinion. He managed to get that final edgy touch onto the production.

Rune: Yeah definitely! I think the overall sound of the album has a rather unique sound, and it has capture very well how we also sound live. I think by the time this is printed, there should be some videos from our production rehearsal up on our youtube profile Keemamusic, so you can see and hear for yourself what I mean..

Did the producer (or you) use any (weird) experimental miking and/or  recording techniques?

Rune: The process of tracking the bass and drums was pretty straight foreward. Jack (drums) in one room, and Fussy's bass amp was actually placed in a small room in the kitchen of the studio, and turned all the way up to 11. For most parts me and Kim played along to each take instead of just recording the guitars, and having Jack and Fussy play along to the recording. We then took the tracks to my studio, and spent about a month tracking all the guitars and the vocals. As I had just joined the band, there were some of the songs I had never even played before we hit the studio. I think me and Kim ended up recording the entire album 3 or four times, as we constantly changed our mind regarding how the different parts should be sung, or maybe there was a guitar sound we didn't like.

Kim: Hey, don't blame this on me, Rune. You are the sound nerd who kept changing, changing and changing the sounds and microphone settings? Haha?! All jokes aside today I am happy about all the time we took to record it because it just sounds that most better and right, now.

Please inform us about your favourite songs off the album?

Kim: It's hard to say because my favorite songs changes depending on what mood I'm in. When it comes to listening to the songs the title song 'Rise Up' and the bonus track 'I No Longer Wish To Rule This World' are always a safe bet on my part. When it comes to playing the songs live my absolute favorites are 'Embrace', 'Bliss' and 'Hate' Right at this moment, anyway?!

Rune: Today I think I would have to say 'The Burden' or maybe the first single 'Fighting Everything'. They both have a nice bit of everything in them. A little bit of aggression, nice catchy hooks and they both tell nice stories. But since the songs on the album, in my opinion, are very diverse I'll probably have changed my mind by tomorrow. Live I would have to say 'Embrace' I think?

Any overall theme of mood that you're trying to capture while
writing songs?

Kim: I wouldn't say a theme of mood but for my part I try to write about things I have experienced in life and how I reacted or what I have learned from them. To me it's about sharing my thoughts on life and the world as I see it. I want to write about things, feelings, experiences, dreams, fears etc. that people can relate to ? the overall natural everyday life.

Are there any 'crazy' behind the scenes anecdotes from these sessions that you can share with us??

Kim: You mean like all the naked girls bathing in Jack Daniels in a bathtub when I was recording the vocal parts? Nope sorry? But I imagined it like that! Most of the time it was Rune and I alone in the studio and we are work-a-holics so we were very focused and concentrated (BOOORING). I love the process of recording and working with your songs in so much detail but I also recall how pissed off I have been sometimes on my way home because I couldn't get it to sound like I heard in my head.

Rune: Yeah, or because I asked you to change a note or two! (Laughing) As mentioned me and Kim changed our minds a lot of times during the recording. In fact the day after we finally agreed that we were done, I went back to the studio and re-recorded all my main guitarparts, which are the parts you hear on the album today. We experimented a lot with different vocal mics and running them through various effects or guitar amps during the recording process, but I really can't remember what made the album and what didn't.

Describe the current Danish market for your kind of music

Rune: Uh, that's a tough one. Denmark definitely likes the genre, and there is always a nice big crowd whenever you go out to see a hard rock or metal show. Just look at how many hard rock acts that are booked for e.g. Roskilde Festival each year. As an upcoming band you never know how many people show up at your concerts, but that's a problem bands in all genres have, I guess..

What's the story behind your monicker? (KEEMA)

Kim: It's actually kinda of a stupid story. KEEMA started out as a solo project so I wanted to name it so it sounded a bit like my name and I thought I was creating a new word in a way, but I wasn't? at all? How you tried to google the word KEEMA? 99% of the search results are food recipes. When I came up with the name I didn?t think about googling it but when I did 3 months later I was surprised. I learned that keema is an Indian dish. Fortunately it means minced/chopped meat in Hindi/Urdu so it's still a bit rock n roll, right? Haha?!!!.

How would you describe the new CD to any potential new fan?

Rune: Another tough one? It?s a nice mixture of hard rocking riffs, catchy popish melodies and everyday stories I guess.

Who are your influences and heroes? (music-wise)

Kim: Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys). To me they are three of the best vocalists and songwriters of all times.

Rune: I have always had a rather schizophrenic taste in music, and listen to basically everything. The last three bands I have really been into, and who inspired me the most probably during the writing process of 'Rise Up' are Heaven Shall Burn from Germany, Bruce Springsteen and Crashdïet. Guitarwise I have always looked up to people who have a different or unique approach to the instrument like for Instance Mike Einziger of Incubus, Adam Jones of Tool or Brian May of Queen.
Kim Hasselberg & Rune Buck / KEEMA

Interview by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
Photos from the band's website  www.keema.dk 

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