Klaus Johann Grobe
Single
Release Date: 2019
Switzerland
Perhaps one can say that freethinker of the disco throw melancholic slogans on the dance floor. Or a synthesizer organ, drums and a bass try to say what many don’t understand. Or poetry before prose. Or dance before music. Or the things of yesterday in the spirit of tomorrow. Or everything’s contrary. Everything is Klaus Johann Grobe. Everything is duo. Everything is modern. And everything is now. [Bandcamp]
What is the song actually about?
As always the lyrics mostly come last in our productions. So they were strongly influenced by the mood of the track. So it’s now some psychedelic gibberish about city life and the constant restlessness. Talking about ideas and visions and counter culture and actually ending up at the same spot you started before you lose yourself in the nightlife again…
Making of the song? (All that long intro and the amazing beat)
Honest answer? Ok. Our booking agent (who is also a very good friend of ours) wanted something to work with for our autumn/winter 2019 live dates. Quite unromantic I know. We fooled around with some non-musical promo ideas but it ended up being just dull stuff. So «Downtown» came out of nothing and was pretty much done in a day. I sent it to Dani and he gave his full approval. That’s basically it. Just one of those days when everything fits. All we needed was a Saxophone and Flutes so we asked Roman Weissert (he played flute on Liebe am Strand) to join us in Studio to play the flute arrangements and to come up with a saxophone solo (extended version). We ended up recording bass, drums, vocals at the ever great Dala Studios with David Langhard. And we had lots of fun together mixing the whole thing.
Inspirations? (If there are any)
There are always so many different things that inspire a song but I think this one was strongly influenced by the whole french house stuff that came out in the late 90s. I know, it’s not house but it certainly is somehow a very clubby track. That was already a big influence on our «Du bist so symmetrisch» album so «Downtown» felt like a logical consequence and at the same time ending of what we did the last two years.
Song’s significance for you ?
Hard to tell. It was good to release something after «du bist so symmetrisch» to find out if we wanted to continue the whole disco thing. So for us, it felt like a needed track to set an endpoint to our disco exploration. At the same time, it was also some kind of peak of it, which is nice. Now looking back it’s almost a french house exploitation kind of thing, which of course is totally fine. It still has the Grobe touch.
How happy you are with the feedbacks?
Haha, don’t know. Actually I don’t remember too much feedback except close people and they seemed to love it. So all good. We still love the track and that’s all that needed really. We never expect much when we do stuff. I guess that’s a major part we are still able to enjoy what we do. Keeps you young, too.
Lyrics: Downtown
Lyrics
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Photo: Ralph Kuehne 
Photo: Katinka 
