New Politics have supported all the big names. We’re talking Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, 30 Seconds To Mars, even P!nk (probably the first and last time she gets a mention on Punktastic). But we didn’t know a lot about New Politics themselves, apart from the fact that they are two-thirds Danish (David Boyd and Søren Hansen), one-third American (Louis Vecchio), that they currently live together in Brooklyn, NYC, and that singer David has got some insane breakdancing moves that he shows off when they perform live. They released their second album ‘A Bad Girl In Harlem’ – inspired, not shockingly, by a girl who lived in Harlem – last year and have been out on the road with Fall Out Boy and The Pretty Reckless during their recent UK run. So who exactly are New Politics?
Firstly, as some of you are Danes abroad, what are the good and bad things about being musicians in New York right now?
Søren: Right now, one of the good things is the success of the band. We’re actually not in New York that much, last year I think we played 300 dates abroad. But New York is a city that is filled with so many opportunities, although as an artist you feel the competition too. What’s great is that you can have no money or lots of money but still have a good time, and any type of person you can possibly imagine will walk past you if you stay in one place in New York for a period of time. As a musician, there is so much inspiration there. Hold on a second, Louis is smiling at me weirdly and it’s making me really uncomfortable.
Louis: The most exciting part for me is that Spring is coming. Spring and Fall are my favourite times of the year in New York. It’s an inspiring time. I’m really excited that we moved into a new apartment in a better neighbourhood – which is going to be great for us when we are at home, our ‘zen totality’.
Søren: Just to add, New York is very hard when you’re struggling. We went through a really, really tough period. It’s a fast-paced city and it can become quite heavy when you are struggling. Louis is still smirking at me, can I punch him?
Please don’t punch each other mid-interview. Apologies in advance, but we find you guys quite hard to pin down, musically. Judging from your previous singles, music videos, the two albums – we hear elements of hip hop, to rock, to pop, to pop punk – there’s a little bit of everything going on. Would you agree with that?
Louis: I think you nailed it pretty good, actually. We’re just fans of music and anything that resonates with us, we tend to go with. This album laid the foundation for something new that really works for us. We’re now in a place where we feel established in comparison to our debut album – it was a little scattered, we didn’t really know where we belonged. It was all over the place. Otherwise we’re fans of music, we love all types and that shows in our music. Writing ‘A Bad Girl In Harlem’ was definitely a challenge for us. It was the biggest challenge that we’ve had to date in our life in this aspect of music.
With all these different elements feeding in to your music, we were interested to find out what kind of cliques did you each belong to when you were teenagers? Were you all skaters or emos or did you all belong to totally different groups?
[whole band fall about laughing at each other]
Louis: I was definitely an emo skater boy. [Søren starts singing Avril’s ‘Sk8ter Boi’ at him]. Senses Fail, New Found Glory, that kind of pop punk stuff was my thing.
David: I’m actually a breakdancer, a B-boy. I’m definitely a city kid. So my upbringing was very urban; I was into lots of 90s and 2000s hip hop, grunge and punk. I was into skating, but mainly break-dancing, that was my main thing. I was also into BMXing and DJing was my thing too.
Søren: I was a complete hippie, with dreadlocks. I had lots of wooden necklaces and loose shirts. Hahaha.
It’s good to know you’ve got all the different bases covered in New Politics. Now from an outside perspective, the last few years for your band appear to have been pretty insane. It seems like you got thrown in the deep end, as a fairly new band, going off on tour with some massive artists. Did it feel like that for you?
Søren: We just went with it. And now we’re so lucky to have a chance to release in the UK, which we’re very proud of because of our European heritage. We try not to think too much because when we do things usually go wrong, or at least never work out the way we planned. We try to have fun with what we’re doing. We work our butts off to be the best we can and improve the show and to learn. Our energy is just focused on our live shows or writing sessions, and just trying to be as open as possible in what we do.
Your shows are crazy. What’s your failsafe way to get the people going? Apart from David’s dance moves, of course.
Søren: We’re very energetic and feed off the audience’s energy. Something we learnt from touring with all these amazing bands is to take care of your fans and to give them attention and love. We try to make the show about them and not about us. We’re definitely not shoegazers! We try to be ourselves, have a fun time and repay them for all the love they are giving us.
You are on currently out on the Save Rock and Roll UK Tour with Fall Out Boy, but there’s a lot of hype for MONUMENTOUR in the summer, where you’ll be heading out with FOB and Paramore. How are you preparing for that massive stint?
Louis: We’re trying to stay as grounded as we can as we’re all pretty big fans of the other bands. Just the fact that we’re going to be out on the road with Paramore and Fall Out Boy for three months playing in giant venues; you really can’t prepare for something like that. We’re just going to take it day by day. Sorry – everybody’s laughing at me because I have the biggest crush on Hayley from Paramore.
There is absolutely zero shame in that, she’s beautiful and amazing.
David: Can we tell the story of last time we met Paramore? We played a show in Seattle with them and after the show they came over to say hello. Which was nice, we were really pleased to meet them. But Louis, with his massive crush on Hayley, he just panics and walks away! Hahaha! How cute is that?
Louis, you are probably going to have to prepare yourself mentally because you are about to spend three months with the girl.
Louis: I know, I’m trying to get ready. I’ll go get a haircut, I’ll try to look pretty.
You might have a slight problem with Chad from New Found Glory if you try to woo Hayley.
Louis: Oh yeah! And he’s in one of my other favourite bands, I really am in trouble.
On a total side note; the video Pete Wentz posted of the Mexican Flip Off (back flip competition) between David and Brendon Urie was great. Obviously you are biased, but David who has the best moves, you or Brendon?
Louis: Brendan whooped you bro!
David: No no, I had more height and more tuck than him. He just landed it better than I did. I jumped so high and tucked so much that I couldn’t land it. I almost did a flip and a half.
Louis: You were just TOO professional.
David: Pete Wentz also beat me in the break battle. I don’t what to say – I can’t beat him.
You never know, you guys are the bright young things and those guys are not spring chickens, so maybe you’ll beat them one day.
David: They put it up and get tons of fans to like it. We’re like their little brothers. But we’ll never win against them.
Søren: As you can tell, David’s still a little sore about this. He’s a little bitter.
David: [shouting] I JUST WANT TO WIN!
There’s nothing wrong with healthy competition. Here’s an idea: you seem to love Internet ‘things’ like planking, we see you are into ‘Boyding’ at the moment [where David Boyd stands on his head in various places]. Why don’t you challenge them to a Boyd-off?
Louis: That’s a great idea. That’s what we’re doing.
David: I would love to see Pete do a Boyd.
So before you go to your Wembley soundcheck; for people who are just getting into New Politics, which three songs would you recommend a new fan checks out before coming to your show? Probably the single, ‘Tonight You’re Perfect’, and a couple of others?
Louis: I would go with ‘Harlem’ and ‘Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’. Or maybe ‘Dignity’.
Søren: I would go….yeah what he said.
David: ‘Tonight You’re Perfect’, ‘Harlem’ and ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’.
Louis: Or ‘Dignity’, or ‘Just Like Me’. Just so you can see all the music we’re inspired by but also get the core of our background.New Politics are on tour from now until forever, including Monumentour with Paramore and Fall Out Boy this summer.
GEORGINA LANGFORD