“They sound like Jesus and Mary Chain.”

Yeah, who gives a fuck? The Rolling Stones sounded like Chuck Berry and nobody seemed to mind. Plus, Jesus and Mary Chain never made me dance the way The Raveonettes’ newest album, In and Out of Control does. And I seriously doubt JAMC would openly discuss their passion for sausage with a stranger… Suni Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes, however, doesn’t give a damn. Don’t believe me? Read on.

Interview by Kevin Duffel

Time for all the boring music questions first, then the good times later. Sound good?
Yup.

The new album definitely sounds different than its predecessors. Why’d you decide to change the overall sound of this record?
We didn’t have any idea of the change until we were done with the album. It was a very different album to do because we had about 7 weeks to do the whole thing – you know, write, record, mix, and everything. We had no clue about where we wanted to go and how we wanted this to sound. It was all up in the open like a spontaneous experiment and the album just sort of came out the way it did.

How did going from recording in New York apartments to spending a lot of time in the studio affect the album?
When you write at home, you’re sort of writing at your own leisure. I can wake up tomorrow and I don’t have to write if I don’t want to because we’re not spending any money in a studio. When you are in a studio, it’s different because you’re obligated to work every day, otherwise you’re losing money. And also, you do it under a strict deadline because you have the studio booked for a certain amount of time and you need to finish it. Did you go into the studio with zero songs this time around? Yeah. I brought over a lot of little ideas, a verse or a little riff, to Thomas [Troelsen] prior to the recording session for a week or two and we went through all the ideas and discussed which ones we liked. [Then] he said go home and finish them. A lot of the time I wouldn’t have finished it and then we would come up with something in the studio on the spot. We need a chorus, let’s write it – grab a few guitars and let’s do it.

I heard you usually write 3-4 songs a day and had over a hundred songs written for the last album. Why even switch it up and have a co-writer and co-producer when you always did everything on your own?
I think that if Sharin and I make an album a certain way, then for the next one, we should make it a little different. We don’t want to make the same album over and over again. It’s a natural progression for us to say, ok, we made Lust Lust Lust in a New York apartment, why don’t we try to go into a real studio this time around. All the albums are just a reaction to what the latest album was.

You’ve said it was all thrown together very quickly, but this record has a lot of potential for mainstream success and has been featured on tons of tv shows. Is it weird to you that you quit the mainstream label, only to do things on your own and in a quick manner, and in turn that’s actually given you this mainstream success?
Yeah (laughs). That’s something that I don’t think about really, but now that you mention it, maybe. I think that it’s just important for a musician to be left alone a little bit, to have someone just believe in you, to say ‘just go over and do a great album and we’ll put it out.’ We just love being creative and doing stuff.

I think it’s funny that Rolling Stone listed Sharin as one of rock’s hottest females. Do you think that detracts from your music, being that you guys take your work and music very seriously, or do you enjoy the attention?

I think people got a lot of wrong impressions from us, and I might’ve been at fault for that as well. Our initial obsession with aesthetic bands and Hollywood glamour photos from the 30s and stuff made us think, ‘hey what’s wrong with having a nice looking picture?’ I think people took it a little bit too seriously. I know that Sharin certainly hates all these types of things. It’s sort of a stupid thing, but then again, who cares about it, ya know? Who fucking cares? You want to hear a good album, you want to see a good show, and you don’t care who’s on the damn stage or what they look like.

Let’s stray away from the music and professional stuff. Sharin fell into a well of urine as a child and nearly escaped death. Can you think of any worse way to die?
I’m sure there are a bunch. I came very close to drowning in a surfing accident I had in Hawaii. I thought that was about the worst way of going when I was experiencing it. It’s just a little moment in time when you step on the wrong side of the street. These moments are just pretty terrible in general. We had an acquaintance a few years back from Denmark who went up to the Empire State Building to enjoy the view. Some guy shouted out, “Are there any Americans up here?” He said ‘yeah’ just for fun. He’s a Danish guy, but the guy shot him. He killed him. Wow, just because he thought he was American? Yeah, apparently he had something against Americans and he shot him for saying he was American as a joke. That’s what I mean. It’s those little things that are terrible, like falling into a well or drowning in the ocean because your surfboard hit you in the head.

Do you have any good recipes for the kids who can’t afford to eat out during these perilous times?
When I was younger I didn’t have any money whatsoever. A dear friend of mine taught me how to make what they call in Italy, a whore’s pasta. You know, prostitute pasta. All you need to do is buy some spaghetti. You buy a garlic. You fry the garlic in some oil until it’s brown – you want that nutty flavor. You toss the pasta in there with the garlic and some oil and bam you’ve got it. And it all costs you probably $2. It’s a nice healthy and tasty meal. You can always buy some Parmesan cheese as well, but only if you can afford it.

Ok, well what if you finally get enough money to eat out one time but can’t afford the tip?
Sometimes your eyes are larger than your stomach and you buy the most expensive thing on the menu and forget about tax and tip. I suggest you don’t go to the restaurant. You just make the whore’s pasta? I swear even now to this date I still make it about 3 times a week. I’m not even kidding. It’s so tasty and doesn’t cost anything. The smell of golden nutty garlic is tremendous. At least I can afford to buy a nice Parmesan cheese to go along with it, so it brings me a
little joy in life. I highly recommend it. It’s fun cooking at home. It’s actually fun being at home in general. People go out way too much.

I know you DJ from time to time. What songs would you pick to make the best 20-minute dance party?
Well my specialty is actually hip-hop music.

Hip-hop… really?
Yeah, that was the music that I grew up on back in the early 80s. I was break dancing and doing graffiti. If you look through my iTunes library, it’s filled with old school hip-hop. If I had to pick out some songs to throw out there though, I’d go with Beastie Boys “So What Chu Want?” That could be great. You have to play some Wu-Tang Clan. I’d say “Protect Ya Neck” or “Bring The Ruckus” would be good. I think you have to be a little old school too, so Erik B. and Rakim. If you don’t want all hip-hop, i could play a little rock music too. I’d play Depeche Mode. People seem to love Depeche Mode when
you play it.

You occasionally wear eyeliner. In the States, kids are always at risk for being called some homosexual epithet or other. What would you say to them to express themselves? Just go for it?
I say fully go for it. The worst thing you can do is be worried of whatever other people think about you. I understand if you come from a small town, which I do. People pick on you, but eventually you find a group of friends, freaks, or other weirdos you can hang out with. When people yell at you, you just yell back – it’s fun. I guess maybe that’s why I love New York. No one yells at anyone here. Well everyone in a city is too busy to worry about anyone else. When you go to a small town, kids just have too much free time. It’s too much free time, and idle hands are the devil’s workshop. That’s why people get
frustrated and are stupid enough to make little neo-nazi groups and militia groups. They have too much fucking time on their hands if they’re pissed off or bothered by people who live free and fruitful lives. Who spends their time caring about whether someone is gay, black, chinese, or whatever? It’s so mind numbingly stupid that I can’t even express myself. Get a fucking life, ya know? It’s unbelievable.

Everyone always asks what’s in store for the year for you guys, but I’ve got a grander vision – what’s in store for the year 4000? Landing on the moon and colonizing it? What are you thinking? We have that asteroid coming toward Earth… & 2012 is only two years away.
Yeah, well it’s 2029 and 2036 when this thing comes back, so I don’t think we’re going to see much of it. You know, the Russians are building a real Armageddon style spaceship to go out and knock it out of its course, so I think we’re safe. It would be pretty interesting to get a little sweat going though, if someone said it’s actually coming toward Earth. Not that I’m that doomsday type of guy, but I always said I want to see a tornado, the atom bomb, and why not see a big asteroid crash into the Earth?

Ok, well what about 30 years from now? Do you want to be rocking out on stage like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards?
I have absolutely no retirement plan, so I say sure. If I can keep going, that’d be fun – if I still enjoyed it I guess. But I’d definitely always write songs.

Ok, get ready for the big guns. This whole interview has boiled down to this last question. If you were a hotdog and starving, would you eat yourself?
I totally would. You might not know this about me, but I’m from the very southern part of Denmark and grew up with the whole sausage culture. Like German sausages and Southern Dane sausages. My mom serves ten different sausages every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and stuff. I’m all about sausages and hotdogs. I would eat any hotdog, no matter who was in it… or what was in it. I’ll eat it.

Preview some nice tunez from the Raveonette’s latest album right here: