Beehoover are a Rock/Stoner/Doom/… duo band, consisting of Claus-Peter Hamisch on drums and Ingmar Petersen on Bass Guitar. Oh… and they both sing.
We got a chance to ask Claus few questions about the band and its new Album “Primitive Powers” which is now published for free streaming on bandcamp and soon to be released on CDs on February 26 and Vinyl on the April 8.
Have you considered having a track sang in German Language?
Never, really. Perhaps we don’t feel well singing in German because it would sound too elevated for us.
However, we feel quite flattered to have gotten some nice compliments for the lyrics of the new album from native speakers.
Did you ever notice something in common in the characters or interests of stoner/doom music listeners?
As far as we can tell they are more focussed on the music itself than fancy side effects like showmanship. They also seem very friendly, enjoying the positve power of this style. They see themselves as part of a big family.
You have mentioned in a previous interview, that you wanted to have a full band, but it was hard to find people with the same vision, how do you describe that vision exactly?
Both Ingmar and I always had the same sort of music in mind: dynamic, elaborating, open minded, not caring about restrictions like common song structures but about the music itself instead. It’s all about the music.
For you, what do the words “Primitive Powers” mean?
It’s a line from the song “Tickling the Dragon’s tail”, which is the name of an experiment that had been carried out using the “Demon Core”, a bit of plutonium used for researches in the 1940s. Several scientists died from radiation as they didn’t take appropriate care when carrying out this experiment. The song tries to describe this arrogant approach, ridiculing the danger of nuclear power as primitive and controllable by man.
The album artwork, showing the silhouettes of politicians filled with skulls, may give some more ideas for interpretation.
How do you compare this album to the previous ones, especially that you called it “Fucking Great Album”?
There’s no point in making an album you don’t regard as “fucking great” yourself. We know that some people would rather have liked another Heavy Zooo album but that won’t happen. Instead we are happy to have made an an album that has a continuous flow and mood and corresponds to the sound vision we wanted.
Which released albums were interesting for you in 2015 (Maybe a top 10 list) ? Was any of them an influence for “Primitive Powers”?
Honestly, we have no idea what has been released last year. I bought myself some old Mahavisnu Orchestra, Scorpions, Hawkwind, Caribou instead.
What message(s) did you want convey in this album ?
The topics are arrogance on the one and despair on the other side. There are also tracks that are based on real stories like Bombs & Bagpipes or Tickling the Dragon’s Tail. We try to avoid to convey messages, especially political ones.
The track “Anti Zooo” seems to have a close sound to the “Heavy Zooo” album (and the word play is obvious). Is it an unreleased track that could have been on Heavy Zooo?
It’s not an unreleased track. This song makes a little fun of the fact that some people always compare everything we do to the Heavy Zooo album. Of course it’s nice, people like that album, and of course we do too, however we ourselves don’t think it’s an album that sticks out so much.
I have noticed a change of marketing approach , by publishing the entire album material on bandcamp even before the album release (Print) date. Why?
Bandcamp is a good platform to present and publish music. There’s no point in not publishing it before the release. People that want a CD or vinyl will get that, people that want digital will buy it there and if some just want to have a listen they can do exactly that as well.
Do you find it harder to reach listeners recently?
Not really. We have a promotion agency working on the album, hopefully they will raise some attention. In the meanwhile we try to do what we can via social media and internet.
We haven’t seen any Official video by the band since… why ?
There’s a trailer for the new album. Besides that there’s no video. We never felt the necessity for one.
It is great that you have decided to treat some cities with live shows. Why have you selected these in particular? Which cities would you like to play in? Which bands would you like to join on stage?
As we both work full time and have families it’s hard to schedule gigs and tours with family issues and available holidays. We haven’t had success in finding a booking agency so far so we have to do the booking on our own. Everyone knows how hard booking can be so in the end there is not much room for being very selective. However, we try to be as efficient as possible when touring, meaning that we probably won’t drive a couple of hundreds of kilometers to play a birthday party.How hard is it to reach the U.S. for a gig ? I hear there is a major Stoner scene and lots of bands not far from what Beehoover presents , like Mastodon, Red Fang ,Minsk and many others.
We haven’t tried touring the US, it probably doesn’t make any sense at all for us.
Which parts bring more thrill, joy and sense of accomplishment to you as a musician? touring? making the music? or simply listening to it?
All of it really. The whole process is great, creating music, recording it, publishing it, playing it live and listening to it. It’s the process of creating something out of nothing, that’s always great.
