Interview with Walter Frosch

When I first had the idea to this interview, I had the impression that the members from Walter Frosch - Mike Saxer and Rune Dahl Hansen - were also the only members of YC-CY and would add touring members when they played live. I had built up a picture in my head that the two would alternate between the two bands, which are miles apart in terms of sounds, at rehearsals and during the writing/recording progress.

Next to that, after I had sent out my questions to them, YC-CY had, of course, announced their infinite hiatus/split a few days later. It seemed that the interview was already slightly cursed, as well as being slightly badly prepared.

In any case, I am very delighted to have done the interview with Mike and Rune, I have been listening to both projects a lot recently. They have been very active on the music scene for almost a decade, releasing many albums and EPs and performing across most of Switzerland (as well as Europe and an upcoming tour in the USA with Walter Frosch). Their last releases, Star 10110 from Walter Frosch and Wake Me Up Again from YC-CY displayed not only their evolution musically but also with the production.

I would like to thank Mike and Rune for taking the time to reply to my questions and by providing more fascinating insights especially into how they create music and handle being in two (or more projects).

1/ Introduction

How did you get into music?

Rune: I started playing guitar around 4th grade because most of my friends in Denmark did it, then got bored of it for a few years and got back into playing when I was 16 or 17.

Mike: We always had random instruments laying around my parents house. Like guitars, bongos, keyboards and stuff like that. Both my older sister and my older brother played the guitar at some point. My brother eventually got into metal, punk, skateboarding and all that stuff so I naturally just kind of gravitated towards that too. It really started with drums for me, in 7th grade I think.

Were you in other bands?

Rune: My first “real” band started around 2011, but we were mostly just smoking weed and jamming. After that I was doing recordings on my own on an 8-Track Tascam but never really released anything. I briefly played in a band called Mass Mind and around 2015 I joined YC-CY.

Mike: I played drums in a good amount of bands. Mostly punk bands. I also played bass and synths in a more experimental group called tumortumor.

How did you meet?

Rune: We had some common friends and kept seeing each other at the local skatepark in Schaffhausen. Eventually Mike hit me up on Facebook and asked me to sing in YC-CY.

What was the reason behind starting Walter Frosch after being in YC-CY together? To have a second band but in a completely different genre?

Rune: We enjoy all kinds of music, and we’d been talking about starting a band that had more conventional pop structures for a while. Over the years we tried different ways of doing it until it eventually somehow worked out to finish some songs for an album.

Mike: We were spending a lot of time together during the first years of YC-CY. We were touring a lot, recording and just hanging out all the time. During that time I really got to know Rune and I was really drawn to his musical approach and his interest in all kinds of different genres. I think we share a similar drive for making music and it just felt natural to try and create something from scratch.

Are you in other bands? Is it weird to make music with someone else

Rune: I’m finishing some songs for an ambient project and we have a new project called Worldwide Online Suicide where we just put out a tape with 5 songs that have been lying around for some years. We’ve also been talking about starting a band with some friends from Prague, but let’s see if that really works out haha.

Mike: I’m in a band called Cosmic Vomit. That’s my only band other than Walter Frosch, now that YC-CY is not a band anymore. I’m making music at home almost daily and I enjoy playing in bands, recording ideas and writing songs. So I’m always up for starting new projects. It’s not weird to play music with other people. It can be very exciting and also a good way to learn. I’m very comfortable playing music with Rune and I love it. But sometimes it’s also good to leave the comfort zone and switch it up.

Do you spend time together when you’re not making music?

Rune: Yes we do, but music takes up a lot of the time. I feel like we’re pretty good at doing fun things that have nothing to do with music when we’re on the road with our bands though.

From the first album, Diskothekenbesitzer

2/ Rehearsals

How do you decide which band to rehearse as?

Rune: We only practice when we have a show or to learn new songs.

Mike: With YC-CY the members were located all over the place so it was hard to practice and involved a lot of planning ahead. With Walter Frosch it’s more spontaneous and on a more regular basis. If Rune and I meet up to play music, it will most likely be for Walter Frosch.

Do you rehearse songs from both bands during rehearsal?

Rune: No. There are four members in YC-CY, so that wouldn’t even be possible. We try to separate the two bands.

Do you use different or the same instruments for both bands?

Rune: We use whatever is available to us. We tend to share some things when possible instead of buying new stuff. Our budget is very limited.

What is your rehearsal room like?

Rune: Our practice space is a disgusting basement in Schaffhausen. Recently there was a leak from a drainage pipe and it smelled like piss and shit for weeks. Some friends used to do shows there. We just got a new space in Winterthur though.

How would you compare your first rehearsal together with the last one?

Rune: The first ones were more chaotic and improvised, now we just meet to practice the songs.

Mike: We are definitely more structured now and know at least a little bit what we are doing. In the beginning we were just figuring everything out and it felt more fragile. It was a lot more of just meeting up and seeing what will happen. Now we meet up with a plan or a goal most of the time.

3/ Writing and recording

How do you write songs? Do you have a specific way?

Rune: Both of us write at home in our small studios. Recently we started to meet and come up with rough ideas for songs together, that has been great so far. After that we’ll develop the ideas further on our own and eventually meet up to edit and discuss them.

How do you decide for which band you would like to write/create music for? From feeling? Or do you have specific phases to focus on a certain band?

Rune: I guess it comes in phases. When I finish something I’m usually attracted to the complete opposite. There are so many possibilities and potential projects to start, so I often have to make a conscious decision what I want to pursue further.

Mike: For me it’s not always the same. Sometimes I write stuff just for writing it. I don’t know what it will go to. I sent Rune things before just to check out and he was like “let’s use this for Walter Frosch”. I didn’t even realize that it was an option using it for that project.

Sometimes I write songs just because I wanna try writing a certain kind of song. Almost like practice or a challenge. Just learning about different things and figuring out how stuff works.

But there are definitely times where I sit down and write for a specific project. I feel like it often happens naturally where I sit down and just start playing around with stuff and follow wherever the mood takes me. I’m not too good at forcing it if I don’t “feel” it.

Do you write songs on a specific instrument?

Rune: I usually write songs on a midi-keyboard in Logic, but also on guitar, bass and analog synths. It changes all the time.

Mike: Nothing specific or out of the ordinary. Drums or drum machine, bass, guitar and keyboards.

How have you written so many songs for both bands? Do you have a lot of unreleased songs and ideas?

Rune: I try to write songs every day, I think we both have hundreds of song sketches and ideas on our computers and hard drives.

Mike: I have a lot of time on my hands and not really too much of a social life. So that helps. We both just write a lot of music, so naturally we have a lot of material to work with. There is definitely an insane amount of ideas recorded that never leave our computers or harddrives. Then there is a lot of stuff I sent to Rune that he declined or vice versa. So there are way more songs unreleased than released.

I notice that the production has developed even further on the last EP from Walter Frosch and especially the EP Wake Me Up Again from YC-CY? How would you describe the production of the latter?

Rune: Over time we just get better at music production. Every album and EP taught me a lot of new things. We often end up going for a sort of lo-fi sound rather than working on something for years to make it sound perfect. If an album takes 5 years to make I lose patience and interest.

Mike: Yeah I think that’s just the evolution of things. I learned a lot about recording and production in the past couple of years. A big difference is also the fact that I am finding out more and more what I actually like.

I was definitely in situations before, in a recording studio with professional sound engineers and they just did things a certain way and I had no idea and never questioned anything. Figuring out what I like or don’t like and being able to point it out is still a work in progress for me and definitely very helpful.

I’m not sure how I would describe the production of Wake Me Up Again. To me it feels both mechanical and lively at the same time. In my option the production fits the style of music and the sound. There are probably a lot of things that could be improved though.

Rune: I wish I had known about Logic and Ableton much earlier. All our friends went to professional studios, so that was just the norm for a long time. In that sense I guess we’re late bloomers.

(Photo copyright: Blickwechsel Fotographie)

4 / Concerts

With Walter Frosch have you played live with other live musicians/band members? There are for of you in YC-CY, who are the two other members? How does that work with them?

Rune: Walter Frosch started out as a four-piece live band, but now it’s only the two of us. In YC-CY we’re four people. The other two members are Remo and Gregor. We usually just meet a few days before a tour to practice the songs together.

Have you played with both bands on the same evening or at a festival?

Rune: No, not really a fan of that idea. Don’t wanna take up all the space on a festival bill with my own projects.

Mike: Yeah I agree with Rune there. It would probably also be very stressful to do that.

In which countries have you played with the bands?

Rune: We’ve been touring a lot with YC-CY since the beginning, so we met a lot of people and made some good contacts. That makes it easy to tour abroad now. With Walter Frosch we just said yes to every booking request we got for while, so we never really actively looked for shows abroad like we did with YC-CY in the beginning. But we’ll definitely be touring Europe more with Walter Frosch in the future.

Have you noticed that a band is better accepted in one country than in another?

Rune: Some countries are better for a certain style of music than others. France and Eastern Europe have always been great for YC-CY.

5 / The future

What are your plans for the future?

Rune: When this interview comes out, we’ll have played the last shows with YC-CY. So that project will be on ice for now. We’re doing a tour in the US this fall with Walter Frosch, then we’re playing some shows in Germany and Czech Republic together with Bibione and hopefully some dates in Italy with Sun Cousto. We’re also working on new music that should be out soon.

Mike: Definitely finishing a couple new songs for Walter Frosch and hopefully releasing them soon. Maybe starting to play the lottery.

What advice can you give for other bands?

Mike: Probably just do what feels right and what seems cool to you and have fun with it. Don’t follow some blueprint and copy what is already out there. And chill with the self promotion.

Rune: I agree. There’s no right or wrong.

Links:

Walter Frosch

YC-CY

Cosmic Vomit From Outerspace

Bandcamp