Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: It’s five of us, so we all got our very own musical background. We all started to play our instruments as a child or teen and had some experience making music prior to Kabinett. But the vision of the sound of Kabinett was shaped by the time we spent together. So I wouldn’t say that our childhood affected our musical direction that much, besides us learning our instruments of course.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “Kabinett”?
A: For us, performing live is the most natural and intense way to tell our stories and share our music. We immediately get an emotional feedback from our audience. Can they connect with us and our music or can they not? We give back what we receive – the whole show is like a dance with every single one in the audience. It thrives on that synergy and we think that’s just wonderful. So I’d definitely say that they should come to one of our shows! If they can’t, however, you can still be excited about a lot more releases coming up. We’re playing the “social media game” as well. Just get involved in the musical world we’re trying to create and connect with us and our music.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: We all have our very own musical background, so there is a lot of influence from various artists fueling our creativity. You get everything from Metronomy, Giant Rooks, Arctic Monkeys up to Bilderbuch (which is a great Austrian band). Lately we’re getting more and more into rock music, so stuff like The Killers, Mando Diao, Blackout Problems and even Royal Blood pops up.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, “Pablo.”?
A: If I had to describe it in one sentence, I would say: It’s about making the wrong decisions, going off the rails and having a bad environment. But in the end it’s much more than that. It’s a very emotional and partially autobiographical song that doesn’t have a clear distinction between the protagonist and the antagonist. It really is about life and making mistakes, sometimes even embracing them – but that’s something you have to read between the lines. The message itself is rather clear though: Get your life together and show responsibility.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Intriguing
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording “Pablo”?
A: Writing it was pretty easy honestly. Josê came to me (Manuel) with the story rather shortly after we met. The idea of this song was around for quite some time until we decided to finally get to it – I can’t remember how long it took us, but if I had to take a guess maybe a day or two for most of the song. When we played it together with the band we wrote all the instrumental parts to it and added all the small details. The recording was pretty straight forward as well – we only changed some bits and pieces here and there and the song was done. The hardest part was probably to agree on the final mix since we had like five or six versions in the end.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: Well, to be the next Arctic Monkeys or Metronomy or so. No, but seriously: we want to engage a larger audience and be able to tour not only Germany, but the UK and Europe too! We’d like to take more people on that journey with us, because we’ve got so much more to say, so many songs and stories to write and tell. I wouldn’t say that there is ONE message – we, and our songs, are just too different to agree on one message only.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: To be fair, we’d love to work with all of the artists that inspire us the most, but in the end, that wouldn’t be that interesting for the listener, would it? Probably something unexpected like a duet with Clairo or a hip hop artist. A collaboration with Damon Albarn would be great to see as well – as a producer I suppose.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: Stay persistent, pursue your dream, be kind and never hope for anyone else to be. So in the end it’s only you, your music and what you do with it. Don’t expect other people to do the heavy lifting for you. There are good people in the music industry but you have to look out!
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: You probably mean referring to Kabinett or our career in the music industry? I’d say “Keep doing what you’re doing, because it seems to work out just the way you were hoping for. But maybe put more time and energy into the project from the beginning on because caution and hesitation costs time that you don’t get back!”
