Myre Knudsen – the man behind Denmark’s Myreskaer project – is in Australia to give us a taste of what the Danes have got to offer in the world of psych rock.
The trip down under is not the first for Knudsen – the Danish maestro having previously toured the country a couple of times playing for a punk band. “This is the fourth time I’ve been to Australia. The first time I was here I was playing in a punk band and we were touring around here in 2011. We had a tour of the east coast, so I’ve been a few places here before, but it’s really nice to come back here to do this new project and we’ll see how it goes.”
After many years playing with punk bands, Knudsen developed the urge to broaden his musical horizons and start working on some more psychedelic sounds. “It was a mix between a new interest in music, and expanding my horizons in music. Probably my age too and I kind of wanted to explore more of myself.”
While it’s not every day you hear of Danish psych-rock bands, it’s a scene that’s beginning to take off. “I guess it’s grown a lot over the last couple of years, but it’s kind of been a bit hidden away from most people,” Knudsen says. “For a long time, a lot of people didn’t really know that it existed but nowadays there’s a lot of really good, psych labels around and there’s a lot of good bands coming out and producing stuff.”
Interestingly, Myreskaer’s debut album, ‘Umiddelbart Banalt’, is being released in two different parts. The first half of the album is a digital-only release, with a selection of more lo-fi, ambient style work that started out as a personal project for Knudsen after developing the desire to do something other than just punk.
While the second part of the album is in the process of being recorded with a full band, and Knudsen says he’s enjoying the shift from playing lo-fi songs, bringing out his ideas with a full line-up of musicians. “I love playing with the band – It’s become the main thing now, but I still do a lot of solo shows too. I always say yes to every show that I get offered and after that I can figure out who can play with me.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect about Myreskaer is the fact the band line-up is never the same at any given show. “The show is never the same twice. If the drummer can’t come and play then I’ll play the set in a totally different way. It could even end up as an acoustic set. It’s never certain how the show is going to be.“I’m gonna put a new band together down here. There’s some guys that I’ve been practicing with for the last couple of days. There’s a bunch of my friends who are on tour with their band, so I got them to play in the band with me for my tour too. One of my friends from Australia plays drums so he’s in the band for the Australian tour.”
Written by Matthew Sales
Myreskaer Tour Dates
Thu 19 Mar - Ponyland (Lismore)Fri 20 Mar - The Bearded Lady (Brisbane)
