Ska band interviews – Babylove And The Van Dangos – Part 1

You can find the complete interview series with Babylove & The Van Dangos at reggae-steady-ska.com.

Since first hearing Babylove & The Van Dangos at the tiny Sonic Ballroom in Cologne in 2007, those guys from Denmark have been one of my Ska/Rocksteady favourites.

Still a young band then, they were already incredibly good musicians. They could go from loud to low, from slow to fast and back again in a very organic way. They were paying respect to the roots, without being just retro. They were not your typical Ska band. There was a whole lot of smooth and uplifting music happening with them.

In the meantime Babylove & The Van Dangos have come a long way – working with Victor Rice, playing Roskilde, recording with Doreen Shafer from The Skatalites, touring with Chris Murray etc.

When the guys were on tour through Germany to present their third album “The Money & The Time” I was glad to catch up with drummer Mikkel and singer Daniel for an interview. We talked about their experiences in the Ska scene, about Amy Whinehouse, The Skatalites, and a whole lot of different stuff. The interview went on for more than 30 minutes. Thus it will not be published in one piece, but in parts over the next weeks.

Also watch out for the video report with live scenes from the show and extracts from the interview.

We started into our talk with a question that maybe far off. „Still Out There“, one song from their newest album „The Money & The Time“ (released in April 2010 in Germany by Porkpie Records) is about different faces of racism in Sweden (where Daniel is originally from) in the 1980s and generally today. So, I asked about an incident that happened in Cannes a few days earlier, when Danish film maker Lars Von Trier caused a scandal with some remarks about Adolf Hitler. What did they think about the matter?

Mikkel: First of all everyone is used to Lars Von Trier making a scandal everywhere he goes.

Daniel: Everyone in Denmark knows, that’s the way he works. I understand that when you are sitting there (at a press conference) and everyone expects you to do the right thing – you talk a bit about your movie, you say how wonderful all the actors were – the urge to say something totally wrong can be sooo big. Still, I think he shouldn’t have used these words. …

No one thinks that he did this in any way to promote rascism. He’s more like an idiot in a bar. He might say anything like: „Im gonna go home and kill my wife.“ „Yeah, whatever.“

Mikkel: He is really trying to explain in the interview that he is not a racist. He knows he is moving on dangerous ground. These camera shots all around him. When people hear the interview they hear the word „Hitler.“ And then all the focus is on that.

Daniel: While there is no focus on other people who actually have racist beliefs, but try to hide them. … People who are working in politics. Some of them say they work for the democratic system, but are basically racist. Instead of trying to unmask those people the media put all the focus on the village idiot.

You are referring to something that is also said in your song „Still Out There“.

Daniel: This was also about how it was in the 1980s. I was really young then. There was a big Neo-Nazi movement in my hometown. But the good thing was that you knew who the enemy was. It was so visual, because of the clothes they wore … . The real skinhead movement hated the Nazis, because the Nazis took their symbols. But that also made it easy for us to see who the enemy was.

At that point there was one of the biggest Nazi rallyes in Sweden. And it was in my hometown. The people who stood up against this were not an organised Antifa. Just regular people, from the oldest to teenagers, who spontaneously chased everybody out. And there’s a beautiful picture. It became something like „Picture of the Year“. An old woman standing behind a tall skinhead, a Nazi-guy with a Swedish flag. She’s behind him with her hand bag. And the picture is taken just before she hits him in the head with the handbag. She looks really aggressive.

That’s the difference. It was easy to spot the views back then. It is harder now, they are getting more clever and mixing with democratic politicians.

….

More from the interview with Babylove & The Van Dangos in the next weeks. The band is still on tour you can check their tourdates here.

Email subscribers at joescholes.com have the chance to win a copy of the album „The Money & The Time“. Another good idea would be to buy the album.