Cinema in Leeds

Datarock knock off our block + WIN CDs

Itchy is a lucky bugger. People feel the need to give us free stuff, and we don’t just mean STDs. One such gift was the imaginatively-titled freaky, geeky, electro-rock-chic-y album Datarock Datarock by Norweigian duo Datarock. We reviewed it in our magazine last year, we saw them live a couple of times, we generally gushed more than a burst pipe. They've cropped up on the new Neon Nights Mixtape compilation, and they’re also playing Roskilde, Benicassim, Reading and Leeds this summer, amongst others. We had to call in an emergency plumber when Fredrik and Ketil got in touch for a chat…

‘When Itchy saw you in London last, you had girls with gaffer tape on their raspberry ripples bouncing about amongst your Casio keyboards. Do you have any on-stage tricks planned to get the grubby festival crowd rocking?  Will anyone be getting their tits out at your summer shows?

We're both contemplating leaving our men's brassieres at home actually – hanging loose and strutting our stuff with our own man-tits out.

Keeping it ‘au naturel’ in true festival style then. Just watch you don’t strain anything while you’re dancing sans underwires. One of our favourite tracks on the Datarock Datarock album proclaims that you 'used to dance with your daddy'. Itchy’s daddy wasn’t always around when we were little. Is it OK to dance with another family member instead? What are the drawbacks and bonuses, of say, having a tango with a hot momma or a pervy uncle who’s had too much sherry like Itchy used to?

Did you now? Well dancing with your mother is OK. Not much to talk about really, dancing with your ma, but that pervy uncle with the sherry, that's something. The drawback of course is that he might not have been quite the Fred Astaire, like Datarock’s dad was, but then again, the bonus was an early understanding of how dancing is really all about sex. Good on you, Itchy darling.

Talking of sex, what would your dream festival lady-magnet tent have in it? How would it be styled to draw in those welly-booted babes?

We'd combine The Thousand And One Nights, Kamasutra and Lawrence Of Arabia with plenty of the original style of boogie known as the shag. In other words, our tent would be all about nasty, dirty dancing.

Well, obviously you won’t be wearing them too much then, but do you ever get bored of donning your custom Datarock burgundy tracksuits? And what do you wear underneath? Itchy can twirl our nipple tassles – can you?

We always go on stage commando, and, if you look closely, you'll see that not only do we know how to twirl our nipple tassles, we know how to rotate our ...pony tails.

You reference late 70s and early 80s culture a lot in your lyrics. One of Itchy’s favourite 80s flicks is The Lost Boys. As bastions of style yourselves, we wondered if you knew how Kiefer Sutherland and friends managed to style their mighty bouffant hairstyles when they were vampires, and thus couldn’t see their reflections in the mirror?

You know, the same question inspired Michael Jackson to write Man In The Mirror. He asks the question, 'Who am I, to be blind? Pretending not to see', and then goes on to describe how vampires '…follow the pattern of the wind, ya see'. So we guess riding their bikes naturally gave The Lost Boys those swanky hairstyles following '...the pattern of the wind'. And even though they couldn't really see their reflection, they still wanted to take a look at themselves metaphorically and make that change into creatures of the night. Nice, innit?

That answer just bagged you an entry in the Official Itchy Book of Legends. We’ll give you a more directly music-related one now as a treat. You sometimes work with ‘damaged instruments’. Sounds painful. Another band Itchy rate, called Psapp, use random stuff they find in their kitchen, kids’ toys, and cardboard boxes to make percussion. Are you playing around with anything new and crazy when working on tunes these days? Any themes you’re thinking about, or artists you want to work with?

We're currently working with Samwell, for whom we wrote the track What What In The Butt. We're also working with the Mix Me DJ, the Bop It, the Nitro Jams Notebook, the media and the industry. The new tunes are gonna be absolutely crazy! We’ve also been listening to Justice, Digitalism, Boys Noize, Para One, Kavinsky and Lo-Fi-Fnk. Newcomer Laurie Anderson is great too. As for non-musical things rocking our world, we’d say bangers and mash, pints of lager, the UK and football sums it up nicely.

Anything you want to add?

We're in love with you, Itchy. We can't sleep. We can't eat. We can't breathe. We need you. Ever since that one time, we can't seem to get you out of our heads. We had our first orgasms that night, you know!'

Itchy were pretty moist too. Wet your own Datarock whistle by catching them live in the UK this summer at Reading and Leeds festivals, or checking out their tunes on the Datarock MySpace page. Their track Fa Fa Fa rubs shoulders with the likes of New Young Pony Club, Gossip, Shitdisco, Hadouken and Kate Nash on the new Neon Nights Mixtape compilation CD, which has been popped from the womb of same houseparty animals that gave us the Back To Mine compilation series. Itchy's stolen five copies of this precious bundle of musical joy to give away to you...

WIN: to get your mitts on your own Neon Nights Mixtape disc, just answer this question:

Riddle us this, riddle us that: what brand is Datarock's keyboard of choice? Is it A/ Mario; B/ Casio; or C/ Dildo?

Send your answer with the subject line 'Datarock' to competitions@itchymedia.co.uk by Friday 31st August.

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