In Conversation with NRY - Are They Ready?

Ahead of their new album 'ON / OFF' due out tomorrow, we sat down for a chat with Germany's NRY.

 

Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Yes, thank you for having us in your mag! We are NRY, a band based in Dortmund, Germany. We are a three-piece group: Jens (vocals, guitar + studio-engineering), Chris (drums, synthesizer + sound-design), Lars (bass, backing-vocals and keys).

 Beside a classic line-up of voice, guitar, bass and drums we also use keyboards and synthesizers to form our special rock-sound.

 

What´s the story behind the band name NRY?

At some point, if you want to be recognised by others, either as a live-band or with online-presence, you need a name for that project. And we looked for a name that fits, what we do and what we want to do. NRY is the akronym for NOT READY YET, so we understand our music as work in progress. We are hungry for more and want to stay open for new ideas.

But of course, we finish songs! Sometimes..!

 

Your upcoming record 'On/Off' is impressive 17 tracks long; what did the writing and recording process look like?

When we three met, there was immediately „magic“ in the air. Literally we wrote the first song in the first session. If we would jam more often, we would have probably tons of songs. So the writing process was pure joy and easily! On the other side there was a kind of stressful recording-process. We started to record the songs live, to capture the musical-moments. But it didn´t work out as we expected, so we started from scratch again. Chris is a machine at the drum-set, holding everything together and Lars and me could add our parts. Short-story: it took us a loooong time to record those tracks. We benefit of the fact, that I run a studio myself. But I spend so many ours recording and mixing so many hours of music! But it was worth it all!!! 

 

Do you have a favourite track on the record?

Honestly everyone of us has different favourite tracks on the record. And when we discuss about what we experienced while listening to the songs, we switch preferences right away until we love every single song. I love it: a double-lp full of favourite tracks!

 

Some of the tracks you´ve released from it so far are highly politically charged, take 'Love Of A Vampire' for example; Do you think, it´s important for bands to adress these issues through their music?

Although the lyrics of 'Love of a Vampire' are highly personal, I indeed think it´s very important to spread lyrics with meaningful words. I can´t think of any dull and meaningless things for our music. The world we live in is full of problems and our personal tiny worlds are full of problems as well. So all my lyrics are charged with life itself. This is all autobiographic, none of em are fiction. And as we express our feelings with music, there is no other way for us. 

 

Are political and social issues themes, that continue throughout the record?

As I said, I write about the life I live and the world I live in. You can always read between the lines and find deeper meanings in the lyrics. But in general, every single word of the record is chosen very carefully and the lyrics are of course full of social issues and transport clear political messages.

 

Talking influences, your music is filled with punk heavy lines and gritty dynamics – are there any artists in particular, that have influenced your direction as a band?

Okay, that would be a long list. With – let´s say – our „Dad´s milk“ , me and Lars got in touch with all the great rock-albums you can imagine. These are still a great influence and I´ve listened to BOSTON five minutes ago. On the other side we all three have joined punk-rock bands in our teenage-years and these rhythms, sounds and attitudes run through our venes as well. And – to make it even more complex – we are open and interested in all kind of other music. If you play around with sound-design you know, what KRAFTWERK did and if you play the piano, you love the sound of Debussy. And especially for the recording process, we took the great rock-albums like „Ziggy Stardust“ and many others as references for sound. Yeah, it would be a long list…!

 

We are a UK-based publication, and as much as we´d love to be, we´re not tuned into European bands as we´d like to be – what's the music scene like in Germany? Any local bands you´d like to shout out?

You can´t name „the music-scene of germany“, or in fact, I can´t name it. There are so many different styles and bands of contrasting genres. I can say, that the scene is very busy, but it seems to be kind of hard for german bands in germany. We are glad to have all kind of bands touring germany but especially for a new band like us, it´s sometimes difficult to get on that train and to join a tour. Sure we have met many Bands we became friends with over the past decades. To name a few I´ll love to shout out „Addicted to machines“, „The Gasoliners“, „Totslager“, „Melting Cap“, „May the force be with you“, „The Pighounds“, and many many others. This list would also go on forever...

We´ve always done our thing to play live, since we are doing it for over 30 years now.: we put on our generator and played outside while inside our skatepunk-heroes were playing. We´ve been on tour several times with various bands of that skatepunk and melodic Punk genre. We visited some friends bands in canada (brand new unit) and in the US (filibuster) and played some shows on the west-coast back in 1999/2000.

We would love to head to the UK next. So just give us a call!  

 

A bit of fun last one – what three words would you use to sum up NRY´s sound?

Sorry, that´s too easy: NOT READY YET !!! Thank you for the invitation! Cheers!