The Foreign Resort - The Foreign Resort is a symbol of restlessness.

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THE FOREIGN RESORT THE FOREIGN RESORT IS A SYMBOL OF RESTLESSNESS

[ Interview with Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen from The Foreign Resort by Diego Centuriรณn ]

THE FOREIGN RESORT IS A SYMBOL OF RESTLESSNESS

As many styles endure from previous decades, post punk is still clearly valid and new bands are appearing on the world scene of this slope of dark and strong sounds. The Foreign Resort is one of those bands raising the flag of the most wildly dark and retro sounds I've heard. We chatted with Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen, who told us more about the band. We hope you’ll enjoy such insight as much as we have.

Hello Mikkel, it's a pleasure for us to speak with you on The Foreign Resort. Since "The American Dream" EP, I have been attached to your sound and am taking advantage of the release of your new single to touch base with you.

When and how was the band formed? Why did you choose this particular band name?

Hi Diego! Thank you for doing this interview!

TFR was formed in 2006, although nothing really happened until 2008, even 2009 when our first album, Offshore, came out. We spent the first couple of years figuring out our sound and learning to play together. That’s why you’ll see a couple of places dating us to begin in 2010. That’s when things started to get a bit more interesting.

There are several stories to the band name. The idea first came up when I lived in Israel and worked in a kibbutz with volunteers from all over the world.

They all came to this kibbutz to do something else than living in their home countries. To try something new. It was our foreign resort, getting away.

And that’s kind of my perception of the band name these days. Getting away from your “normal life”.

Touring is very good for me. Or vacationing. Even driving across Denmark to visit family feels good.

In short, The Foreign Resort is a symbol of restlessness. Of constantly wanting to be on the move.

I have read on many occasions that some people compare you with the “Pornography-era The Cure”.

How do you feel about that?

I guess there is no escaping the Robert Smith reference, even though I am not super comfortable with it. I mean, I like his voice, so it’s a nice reference, but I have read too many reviews just comparing us to The Cure, and especially our EP The American

Dream is nowhere near The Cure’s sound. Actually, the whole reference thing made us become a lot noisier because I tried to get as far as possible from The Cure’s sound. And even then, reviewers still compared us to them. If there’s chorus on the bass guitar a lot of people hear The Cure, New Order and Joy Division. So, we made the song “She is Lost”, which is totally Cure-sounding. I figured, what the hell!

Everyone sounds like someone else and draws inspiration from other bands, and especially reviewers like to draw parallels to other bands. So, let them. Fact is that we rarely listen to The Cure. Very rarely listen to New Order and never to Joy Division. We focus on new music by bands like PRGRM, New Canyons, ACTORS, Drab Majesty, Operators, Tycho, Vaadat Charigim, Bootblacks, Black Marble, Autolux, Cold Showers, Strvngers and Trentemøller. There are a lot more bands out there and my point in making the list long is that, except for Depeche Mode, all of the dinosaurs are not really producing good music anymore. All of the above younger bands have recently created outstanding music that has moved me. They deserve the attention.

While we can find more electro or synth sounds, are you a band geared more towards guitar, bass and drums?

There’s nothing like a good old guitar, bass and drums setup. It’s simple and effective. We don’t have any preferences, except live where we try to at least have a couple of songs per show without electronics. It is nice not being tied up to backtracks all the time. Ask our drummer! He always takes out his in-ears (earphones) when we do those to get the full sound of the band blasting. Dark White, Under Bright Neon Stars and Take a Walk are those kinds of songs. But sometimes we like to add a little bit more, that being programmed synth bass or just layers of strings.

Ten years ago, you appeared on a compilation with bands like Spektr and Joycehotel. What do you remember about that compilation?

Wow! I totally forgot about that compilation. It was actually just a promotional CD we sent out in connection with a tour that eventually never happened because it was too hard to book. Denmark in a nuts-

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hell! I played in both those bands in the past too.

appear. At least I can’t, if it has to be good.

Your first album from 2009 is "Offshore". What had changed for you between the time that this compilation was issued until you released your first album?

I don’t think much changed there. Offshore was professionally recorded and as far as I remember, the songs for the comp were recorded by ourselves and back then we didn’t have the knowledge and experience we have now, so Offshore probably sounds a lot better than what’s on the comp. Ha ha!

Which album brought you more satisfaction?

I think the 2011 EP The Foreign Resort really was a game changer for us. It was the album that defined our future sound. Even our latest single “She is Lost” draws on the sound created in songs like “Orange Glow” and “Torch It”. And “Take a Walk” showed us that we can write songs without electronics.

There have been other albums since then. In these years, what was the one that required the most work?

I am not sure which release was most difficult to write and record. Recording and mixing New Frontiers with John Fryer was the most intense, because we were on a schedule. 10 days in the studio and then mixing done as quick as possible afterwards. That required many hours of intense work every day for a while. It’s hard when we’re talking creativity. You can’t just force things like melodies and lyrics to

The band’s music invites us to take a dizzy trip over a desert route, traveling at a speed that is not necessarily permitted. A bit on the edge of the forbidden.

This sensation of dizziness is present on all of your band’s latest albums and not so much in the first ones. In this regard, what changed with the band?

Maybe we became more restless over the years? Not sure. I guess we’re all attracted to music that reminds you of driving fast through the night. And so that’s the kind of music we end up creating ourselves. I also think we have simplified our expression.

On Offshore we wanted it all. That record is so busy!

Already on the 2011 EP we were going for a simpler

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expression and from The American Dream and on the songs have been written for a trio avoiding overdubs in order for us to recreate the songs best possible live. I think that has made our expression even more simple and more “fast driving”.

You recently released "She is Lost", which, by the way, has an impressive energy and speed that we mentioned before. When will your new album be released?

Thanks so much! We are currently writing and recording new songs for our next full length album.

There is no release date yet as we are looking for the right label to team up with, but we’re hoping to release the album sometime in the spring of 2018.

What can you tell us about this work?

Well, there are still some songs to be written. But we’re trying some new stuff out, while also working with the elements we had on New Frontiers and other albums. We try to mix electronics with very analogue sounding drums, bass and guitars, creating a collision between synth sounds and vintage instruments. We’re not inventing something brand new, but we do believe that our songwriting has improved a lot and that the new songs are very dynamic and ranging from melancholic to aggressive.

Being a band with more than ten years experience and several albums in your discography, what advice can you give to bands that feel that doors never

seem to be open?

Keep at it, if you’re having fun!

The doors have not opened fully for us yet. But we believe it might happen. A lot of bands play to get famous and forget to have fun and why they’re actually playing music. We do it because we like touring and meeting people out there in the world. It’s like a fix to us. It’s our drug. And of course, standing on stage interacting with the audience and seeing them dance. Can’t beat that. So in short, my advice is to figure out what it is that makes it fun for you to play in a band. If you can’t figure it out, then quit and do something else. If you do figure it out, pursue it by all means!

To finish, I’d like to thank you for the time it took to have this interview and have one final question.

What is The Foreign Resort planning for the future? " Well, Canada has just opened up for us, so we’re going back to play a 10-day Canadian tour in September, playing cities like Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton and a couple more. We’re also planning our return to the US in March 2018 for a 3-week tour. Between those we’ll keep playing shows in Europe and get that new album ready for release.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Keep supporting music and stay interested in new bands! Go out to club shows and go up and say hello to the bands! We love to talk and hang out and backstage is boring.

See you out there!

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