Lister

By Jakob Bagterp
Translated by Nadia Monique Duthiers

The myths about Berlin occupy a central position in music history. David Bowie was an artistic exile here in the seventies and recorded three of his masterpieces with the producer Brian Eno, while Lou Reed had not yet visited the previously divided capital, when he came out with the concept album "Berlin" in 1973. Ten years after a tall and blackclad Nick Cave chanted in the night at the end of Wim Wenders' "Wings of desire"

In November 2007, Liars held a concert in the Berlin's Kreutzberg quarter. They were back at the hotbed of their third album "Drum's Not Dead", recorded in 2004 with the producer David Sitek (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Foals).

Tired of New York

"We moved to Berlin, because we were tired of living in New York, "Liars front man Angus Andrew remembers, and points out the repercussions of 911 as a reason." It was around the same time, that Saddam Hussein was discovered, living underground and with an American led invasion of Iraq, it felt like the right time to escape from the political climate in the US."

"None of us had been to Europe before, "Angus continues. " We were looking for an alternative to the western civilization, which we were used to. Isolation was implied. We couldn't speak German, and felt alienated, in a good way though, because the loneliness turned out to be productive. We hadn't before considered Berlin's status in music history, until we were questioned about it."

The Liars' determined and experimental post punk sound has often been compared to the German Einstürzende Neubauten, who with Blixa Bargeld in front have made the name Berlin synonymous with the sound of power tools. On the Liars ep "There's Always Room on the Broom", they commented on this convergence with a parody on Einstürzende Neubauten's human logo.

"We created humorous graffiti to show a link between what we do and what Einstürzende do, but in this context it's probably not the 'right link', "Angus says and laughs.

Finding a Way Home

Angus Andrew is sitting next to the guitarist before their night concert on Roskilde, only the third band member, the drummer Julian Gross, is missing..

They are on a tour and far from home. Life on the road is not necessarily about finding love, but also about finding a way home, and home is not necessarily the place you're born in. Take Angus Andrew, for example. On the band's MySpace site you can see that he is born in Australia, but lives in Los Angeles with the rest of the trio. Los Angeles is where they originally joined forces as a band, and when this summer's concerts are over, one of them as a warm-up band for Radiohead, they plan to finish their fifth album in L.A.

Aaron Hemphill who, being a surfer, has found his perfect home on Venice Beach, where he daily rides the waves, takes over:
 
"Berlin was a good experience, but we wanted to go back to Los Angeles. In terms of music, LA is like any other big city and not much different than New York, for example," Aaron says "but Los Angeles is my home".