Features / Music

In addition to what promises to be a stellar set at Harvest Festival, Beirut has just announced a run of solo shows to boot!

"We are this odd band that kind of suck at being a band... We’re good friends and we play good shows but at the same time I don’t think we’ve ever been good at being that kind of band that puts everything into the one record, and comes out with this complete vision."

"They were like old guys and they just rocked the hell out and they were so amazing. It doesn’t really matter I guess how old you are, it’s how much energy, physical energy you have for it."

Husky Gawenda tells us about some of his favourite things.

"Yeah, the album is coming to completion, just getting into the synching of the tracks on there so I think it’s going to be really special. I’m really excited about it."

“This band still surprises me to this day. I’ve never been in a band that’s accomplished so much in three years.”

At last year’s annual Jägermeister Independent Music Awards, artists not in attendance delivered an inordinate number of acceptance speeches via video message. Bryget Chrisfield makes some predictions based on the assumption that this trend will continue (with a little help from the 2012 RSVP list).

“The exchange of art is perpetually off balance in a sense because the concert is free of any bondage [for the audience] – it’s the end of their day, they’ve finished work, they have a beer in their hand and they are probably trying to meet a girl.”

“But, aside from that – potentially completely false – need to escape this band.”

“It takes over your mind for a year-and-a-half, and then, eventually, it boils down to 44 minutes.”

“The Guardian – that was intense... When we first got there everyone was over the moon because the most critical guy there who apparently just tears people to pieces, he wrote something really, really good about us on like the second day that we arrived, so the whole label was so happy."

"I find myself often staying up late producing music. I don’t know why but it seems once I get past midnight or one o’clock... Then all the hours seem to be flying by. When you hear the birds chirping, that’s always the unsettling part.”