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Andy Interviews... |
It is four years since the release of Senser's debut album "Stacked Up", an album which shaped the lives of many young alternative music loving people. Senser were heralded as the flavour of the month in the music press. Now, as they release their new album "Asylum", the worm has turned. In the time between they have lost several key members of the band, including rapper Heitham, singer Kerstin has taken time out to give birth, and the media at best ridicule, and most often ignore them. Andy Extance catches up with them on tour to see exactly who cares about them nowadays.
"Things are always unpredictable. We have no idea what is going to happen," says Nick Michaelson, guitarist of Senser, about his newly rejuvenated career as rock star. "We're back to doing it the original way we did it, which is off our own backs. If people come to gigs, it's because they want to hear our music, not because of anything the press have said, because we're not getting any press."
Senser split in 1995, with Heitham leaving to form Lodestar and taking Senser's bassist Haggis and drummer Johnny with him. Combined with the years of near inactivity, this would have put Senser to the back of the mind of even the most ardent fan. So, in some ways, they have to do all their ground work again. Nick, however, is still positive about their return.
"In some ways, it was just destined to happen. If it hadn't happened, the band would have just completely split up. So it had to happen at the time it did. No-one's got any regrets. Yeah, we've lost a certain amount of the fanbase along the way, but that's what happens when you haven't released an album since 1994. Makes me feel f...in' old. It's of a concern really, because it's our livelihood, but we're relatively happy, now the bands being run the way we want."
Before the split, Senser were best known for their hard and heavy approach, and mixture of styles. Politically intense lyrics combined with heavy riffing and mad scratching. Now strength is varied with subtlety, and lyrics are on an extremely personal level, quite far away from the anti-fascistic, anti-authority rebellions that comprised each and every other Senser tune. Is the change due to changes in the band's attitude, or merely it's line-up?
"I think a lot of what Senser's attitude was known as was from Heitham. I don't think Heitham's attitude necessarily applied to everyone in the band, although we certainly believed in what he was writing about or talking about. His stance was cool, but his attitude took over the band. We always wanted Senser to be as it is now, a democracy, no ill feelings in the band. It's very difficult to be creative when you've got destructive forces at work. Lodestar split up as well, which is a shame. Their second album would have been brilliant. Some people are just difficult to work with. Two lots of bands within two years, split up for basically the same reasons. A waste of effort, really."
Once Heitham left, after auditioning numerous rappers, the band fell back on its original focus, Kerstin Haigh. Her personality is significantly different to Heitham's, but equally strong. Intensity is still there, but rather than being combined with whirlwind fury, it is offset by a distinct sexuality. All of which may have been highlighted by the birth of Harry, son of Kerstin and John, the lead singer of support band Moke. Was that the reason for Senser's extended break, before they were reborn?
"We had to plan more carefully, and we had to work around it, but it's been fine really," explains Nick. "The baby's out on tour with us, it works out really well in fact. He baby-sits while we're on stage, and Kerstin baby-sits while Moke are on stage. Harry's a good kid. We were trying to finish the album when he was born, so to be honest kid or no kid, things would still have taken quite a while. It did change things slightly, but we just had to work around it really."
"Asylum" was a long time in the making. The handful of songs intended for their second album, written with Heitham, were scrapped. As they came up with more songs for inclusion, they were tested thoroughly at weekend gigs before deciding to put them down on record with electro producer-god Arthur Baker. Long before this happened, the royalty cheques from "Stacked Up" had dried up, and they all had to get money from somewhere. So they claimed the Jobseeker's Allowance.
"We've been signing on since last year. We had to do that. There's no way a band should take four years over an album. The money you're getting from your various sources are not going to sustain you for that long. We've been lucky to sustain ourselves for a certain amount of time. I think now we're back touring and stuff, we'll be back on a wage fairly soon. It's tough. There's a lot of money that needs to be spent on bands. I'm not sure many people realise how much it takes to promote bands and make records. If you can scrape together any sort of living you're doing well. It's a lot easier now there's only five of us, not seven."
In situations like this, the spirit of Heitham returns. Senser are against the government once more.
"The Jobseeker's Allowance doesn't make any provision whatsoever for people in our situation. We will be off the dole fairly soon and back on wages, but you can't tell them that, because you're supposed to be actively seeking proper employment. You can't be self employed. So, consequently, you end up writing a load of bullshit on your Jobseeker's Allowance form. You have to play the game. Looking forward to signing off. It's such a hassle. If the thing where musicians get less hassle to sign on and do what they do happens, that will be really good. If it ever does. We have no choice, we've just got to play the game at the moment, and they don't understand."
Senser have their bases well covered for future income at the moment, so their future success is hopefully well safeguarded. Album, singles, tour, tour merchandising, alter-ego band releases. As Desenser, Senser have been making dance tunes and releasing them to the great edifice that is clubland, and apparently clubland is swallowing them up and saying, "More please!"
"It basically started because we paid people a lot of money to do remixes for us, only to find that we didn't like what they did, or that we could have done better ourselves, at least something more along the lines of what we wanted. We ended up doing our own remixes, and got Desenser together with a few people outside the band. We promo'd a track while Kerstin was having her baby. It's an important side of the band. It unleashes a lot of freedom musically, and hopefully it'll help Senser along the way as well."
However, tonight, Senser's star glowed somewhat less visibly than it has before. Moke opened the night with gusto, with their somewhat conventional rock leanings. John, the lead singer, in looks, style and personality resembled a cross between Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine and Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction. The music was therefore mixed between fired up anger and plaintive crooning, but the audience were not amazingly warm to them.....
If you could call it an audience. It was more like a queue for the bus. I know I've seen more people at the bus-stop outside my house. Senser came out to a wide open space of a dancefloor, and requested that we all come closer and pretend it was a real gig. Considering this, they turned out an amazing performance. Opening with "The Switch" from "Stacked Up", Kerstin showed she could pull off songs from the Heitham era well enough without having to sound exactly the same. They rocked and chilled through one or two more of these mixed into songs from the new album, "Book Of Flies" and the singles "Charming Demons" and "Breed" standing out particularly. Then they turned the knobs on their amps up to 11 and wielding their powerdrills to blow us away with "Adrenaline". The feeble crowd somehow managed to recover themselves from this aural attack enough for an encore, which Senser gladly supplied with "Eject".
Senser have been out of our minds for a long time, and realistically "Asylum" struggles to compete with "Stacked Up". If they can pull out performances like tonight every night, the theory that they can win fans back through their live performances will get stronger and stronger.
Click Here to get more details about Stacked Up; their first album and other material produced by the group.
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