“The absolutely best place for Ungdomskulen to create music is in our organic rehearsal space. But just as important to that place is the discussions, the laughter and general awesomeness in our lives leading up to being there, in a physical form, experimenting and jamming out songs to come. This makes the song-writing process ripe as far as communicating goes. Our rehearsal space is a rectangular room in an old Fisherman’s lodge and it has a direct connection to the nearby fjord, and you can basically jump out the window and land in the water. Each summer we dip our sweaty bodies in the freshness of the salty sea after band practice.
In our space we have a refrigerator that holds a bottle of ketchup and mustard, a sofa and big wooden shelves for storage. We have our amps and our beloved instruments, and the walls are decorated with the most beautiful, exotic posters to draw inspiration from.
In order to create music in this room we need our instruments, our hearts and our ears. We always bring our ears and our hearts to band practice but sometimes we forget to bring our instruments. On those days we just sit and talk about stuff, and that alone can be just as powerful as rock itself.
Depending on the season of the year, we spend a lot of time in our space because the winters can be pretty harsh to fisher-lodges and man. We tend to practice less in that time of the year, but that goes for summer as well, as sometimes it can get too hot, leaving our heroes limp and saggy. On such days we just throw our asses into the water, and stay there til the sun’s gone down.
We are very military about our practices, and we usually get together to make music three times a week for five to six hours at a time. Tuck in your shirt, soldier! In creative terms isolation is important, but for us, it’s not isolation from the world per se, but isolation from distractions such as the internet, girls and internet-girls. Everything else we can handle.
The best thing about our space is that its untouched by the hand of God.”
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Ungdomskulen are Norwegian trio Frode Flatland, Kristian Stockhaus and Øyvind Solheim). Between them they play bass, drums and guitar and their sound has been described as sprawling prog punk and new wave post rock (make up your own mind by listening to tracks on their myspace page.) Currently in the middle of touring 80 towns in 80 days, the band play Whelan’s this Friday, January 11th and the Roisin Dubh in Galway on Saturday January 12th. Their album Cry Baby is out now on Ever Records. For more info, gig updates and music, go here:
Musical Rooms 