A Band Playing Music that is Hard to Describe in a Few Words - Panicphobia

How and when did you start on your musical journey?
It all started in 2004 when four of the band members began studying musicology at Aarhus university. A danish group called Kashmir was going to play on a Friday, but the tickets were sold out. Being eager to play music instead of "just" listening to it 5 guys decided to do a Kashmir coveract at the university Friday bar - thus warming up the crowd who had tickets and comforting the ones who didn't make it. We - as a group - then evolved into an actual live coveract focusing on re-arranging existing songs in funny ways. For this purpouse we had to replace the drummer since he wasn't really into this project. 2 years later it became clear to us that we wanted more, so the individual band members began bringing ideas for songs, then arranging and strucuring them collectively. Since we had a lot of experience with this kind of process, it felt natural and has remained the essence of what panicphobia "is" today.

What kind of music do you like to make? How would you describe your music?
Everything that comes to mind and strikes us as funny, anti-cliché or disturbing compared to what you would expect comparing it to music written in sort of similar styles or spirit. If anything strikes us as too easy and obvious - we will change it. We would seek to sound like we are actually trying to write and play "new" music - therefore trying our very best not to repeat ourselves. At the same time - as musicians - we hope to sound as if (almost) anything goes (eliminating the easy way of course) - hints labeling the music playful rock, quirky progrock or playcore where this is possible. Maybe like if we are neither rock-, classical- or jazz musicians.

Who is your musical inspiration?
A full listing would be very long but to name a few: David Bowie, King Crimson, Adrian Belew, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Kashmir, Tiger Tunes, Coolsville and Hank. As regarding to the overall sound, the biggest inspiration would probably still be the Danish rock-act Kashmir as they sounded in the 90's. Apart from this, anything from different soundscapes to old arcade and Nintendo games can be used as inspiration for details, cover art or even whole songs.

How do you distinguish yourselves from others?
It's easy - in most cases our music is way better and definitely more interesting and long-lasting! Compared to actual quality music, of course, it varies from artist to artist but in most cases our music could probably be described as more varying in style. We would like to be described as a band playing music that is hard to describe in a few words - so this question is of course hard to answer shortly.

Tell us more about your album on Guitarati. What is the inspiration behind the album?
Our first official release of "Handle With Care - Might Panic" is to be seen as an opening statement of the musicians' views on the art of creating new music. It is a suite in five very different compositions, each of them based so much on a strict, either metrical or expressive skeleton that it could by all rights be described as a conceptual release. Maybe we are questioning why a band always have to have "a sound". Why not have five sounds when you do in fact have five songs!?

Do you write your own songs?
Yes.

Which is your favorite song from your album? What is the story behind it?
All the songs are good in different ways. There are not really any great tales behind any of our songs and the inspiration varies from personal stuff to just making up crazy scenarios and then writing lyrics about them.

Are you working on a new album?
Yes - again in extended play. We have a new drummer now and therefore we needed to create something that sounded like our live act again. It should be finished in late May but extract demos from the EP can already be found at www.myspace.com/panicphobiadk or www.panicphobia.dk. Hopefully the next time we will have the time and money for a full album. But for now we are very proud of our new material.

What is a day like in the life of a musician?
It's not much out of the ordinary. Playing original noncommercial music we all have to work or study and then meet to rehearse in our spare time. But of course we all feel pretty much like geniuses when a new idea emerges - so that's of course something. And trying to be different of course justifies feeling misunderstood when things aren't quite working out for the best - so that's pretty great.

Any parting shot?
No. yes. well , no. That's it for now.