Raveonettes
Showing Their Roots


The Raveonettes are a band that's never been afraid to show its roots. Whether it's the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Velvet Underground, Phil Spector, or any number of surf bands, girl groups and rockabilly acts from the '50s and '60s, they've got a knack for combining the best of the old with the best of the new and turning it into their own beautiful noise. And filtering the whole mix through a heavenly swirl of fuzz tone, feedback and reverb has helped to elevate the band's dark and romantic songs from the simple to the sublime.

On the Danish group's new album "Pretty In Black"—due out in America on May 3—not only might you find yourself thinking that lead Raveonettes Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo have dredged up some lost Jesus & Mary Chain and Love & Rockets tracks, but you'll also find Velvet Underground drummer Moe Tucker herself dropping in to turn in a little work behind the skins and girl-group legend Ronnie Spector lending her unmistakable voice to a dreamy little track that sounds a bit like something her famous ex Phil might have produced.

Sharin also turns in a cover of the Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back" (co-written by Raveonettes producer Richard Gottehrer), a nod to classic American pop that no modern American band would ever have the cajones to commit to vinyl—or whatever it is they slap music on these days! On top of that, lead singer and songwriter Sune Rose Wagner claims the opening track was written for none other than Elvis—and "The Heavens" does actually have a bit of a "Love Me Tender"-esque quality to it. The King is dead, but long live the King—at least as far as the Raveonettes are concerned…

"I thought, 'If Elvis were alive and asked me to write a song for him, what would I do?' It was a fun way of writing a song actually. And you know you've got to come up with a good song because you're not going to be sending shit to the King!"

The second track, "Seductress of Bums," channels the spirit of the Paris Sisters' classic "I Love How You Love Me." But Sune claims he had an equally unusual source of inspiration in mind—the Polish Prince Bobby Vinton!

"What I like about that song is that it has a very modern-sounding beat to it, almost like an R&B kind of thing. That's really what I was trying to do with the album was to try to take the old influences and spice them up with something that was really new. If Beyoncé were to hook up with Bobby Vinton, this is what it would sound like."

"When I hear a lot of music these days, especially R&B stuff, I sometimes wonder why people don't show their roots a little bit more. I can imagine that Beyoncé Knowles could probably sing Motown really well, and for her to do a modern version of Motown would be so awesome. Sometimes I just don't understand why people don't do it." 

But unlike some of their too-cool-for-the-past peers, the Raveonettes certainly weren't afraid to reach back to their roots for this album, recruiting a few of their personal favorites, including the aforementioned Spector and Tucker, along with Suicide's Martin Rev to join in and lend a hand.

"As we were recording, I made up a list of four people I wanted to be on the record, and three of them were the guys that we got. And the fourth one was Mary Weiss from the Shangri-La's, but nobody made a big effort to track her down. So maybe we'll use her on the next album."

Paging Miss Mary Weiss… please pick up the white courtesy phone!

Another thing that's new for the Raveonettes with this album is the fact that their trademark fuzz tone and feedback treatment that was once applied to everything in heavy doses is a little less ever-present now. The guitars may sound a lot cleaner; but fear not, the mighty reverb is still intact! But with the distortion level dialed down a bit, many of the songs sound a lot pop-pier. And the album also contains a few more slow songs and ballads. Could this signal a change of course for the Raveonettes? Well, Sune claims it's actually a direction the band has been headed in all along.

"You see, not many people know this—this is an exclusive! When we did Whip it On, the 8-track EP, we put that out on a Danish label called Crunchy Frog. And right after we put it out, I wrote Chain Gang of Love, and it was only eight songs as well. The deal was that we would put that out two months after we put out Whip It On. So they were sort of connected. That's why they had the same kind of artwork and stuff. There was a black album and a white album, so that people could put these two records together and have sixteen songs. And that would be it for us, and then we would do music like we do now."

But then the big boys (that's right… American record companies!) came calling, and they had other plans.

"We got signed by Columbia, and they wanted a full-length album out. So we just took thirteen songs and put out Chain Gang of Love, and then we just ended up touring with that for so long, almost two years. So this is the record we actually always wanted to do."

From the beginning, the Raveonettes have always made great pop music with strong melodies, tight harmonies and infectious hooks that would seem tailor-made for radio. Many musical wise men have even commented that "That Great Love Sound" really should have been the great summertime hit of the year. But then there's the issue of all that 'scary' guitar feedback! So despite their pop virtues, American radio airplay has thus far proven to be an elusive thing for the Raveonettes. But Sune seems to have come to terms with that particular state of affairs.

"I can't really think too much about it, because I listen to the radio over here and I go, 'Oh, I understand now why we're not on the radio.' So now I'm more relaxed. I'm not freaked out about it at all. We just do commercials, and we do movies and stuff like that. It's the only way we can sort of get our music out to the people. That's what we have to do."

One of the things they had to do was to offer up "That Great Love Sound" for a big K-Mart television ad campaign that ultimately caused their record sales to jump 400 percent once the ads hit the airwaves.

"That was so good for us. We gained so many fans from doing that. We did some computer games and stuff like that, and these things are very good for us. We want everybody to hear the music, so we've got to do whatever we have to do. I don't really care what it is. If it's a means for people to hear the song, it's fine with me. I don't fucking care what it is."

So with the slightly toned-down sound of the new album, could this be the one that finally gets the Raveonettes over that hump?

"Well, obviously, it's a completely different sound. To me, it sounds a lot more easily accessible and almost radio-friendly, so I'm definitely hoping that radio will come jump on it—both here and in the U.K. I would really, really like to sell a lot of records—that would be really cool. We've never tried that!"

Hmmm…a great band that seems too cool for most folks to get actually selling a shit-load of records…now that would be novel. But stranger things have happened! (See: "Stripes, White" in your pop music encyclopedia)

"We've only existed about three years or so, and we've done pretty much everything. I can't imagine doing anything more that we haven't tried. We've played all the cities all across the world; we've done all the TV shows; we've played with a lot of really great bands; we had the pleasure of honoring Buddy Holly at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame; we hung out with Maria Elena Holly, his wife; we played with Moe; we played with Ronnie; we played with Martin Rev. There's really not much more we can do that's satisfying—except sell a million albums!"

And if there is indeed a God in rock 'n' roll heaven, you will my little Danish friend… you will!