SEISMIC INTERVIEW WITH THE FOREIGN RESORT. LIVE AT THE FUNHOUSE 9.26.16

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this band a few times … and every time I’ve walk away moved by their intensely tight performance and incredibly big sound.
If your in the mood to see a good rock show. Go check out these guys from Copenhagen at The Funhouse on the 26th of Sept. They’re worth it!

I had a chance to chat with lead vocalist Mikkel about touring, favorite things in the USA, and Donald Trump.

So you just finished raising money for the vinyl printing and re-mastering your first EP. With all the things you need money for, and as much as you guys travel overseas (touring the North America Sept-15/Oct 2nd), why was that so important? And congrats on meeting your goal.

Thanks Jason! Like a lot of music fans, we are into vinyl. The Foreign Resort 2011 EP was a milestone as far as us defining our own sound and ever since it came out we have been wanting to release it on vinyl. But with touring and new releases coming we just never had the funding or time to make it happen. Until now, where we are kind of in between releases while still touring in Europe and North America in support of  The American Dream EP. We thought this would be a good time to try and fund the vinyl re-issue and make a special thing out of it, remastering it for vinyl and sending out the new mastering as digital download as well as adding two bonus tracks. This also completes the TFR discography on vinyl and that’s a big accomplishment for us.

Speaking of traveling. You must be one of the most well-traveled indie bands I know, and it’s all out of pocket. Why is traveling abroad so important, and how difficult is it?

Well, first of all, we like touring. If we’re not on the road for a while we become restless. Second, we’re getting a lot better response from The US, Germany and now also Canada than we do back home. To be honest, we probably have more people coming out to see us in cities like Seattle, Boston, Cologne and Leipzig than we have back in Copenhagen. The fans are also more dedicated – and they dance when we play! We love that!

It takes a lot of work to book a tour, but it is fun work and it has become easier with an ever expanding network of friends and contacts throughout North America. It is also very expensive and we spent a lot of money on work visas, plane tickes and rental vans. But that is also getting better. The shows pay better and our crowdfunding campaign last year to finance 3 North American tours, incl. the work visas we currently have, has improved our band economy significantly. We’re still a couple of thousand in the hole after a tour like the upcoming North America tour, but it is worth it. All of it.

Since I’ve known of you guys, you’ve been to Seattle at least 5-6 times? and I’m sure you’ve been here more. What do you love about Seattle? and what do you hate?

We have been to Seattle like 5-7 times. It’s been good every time. First time was back in 2009 and we still crash at Joel and Amber’s place. Only back in 2009 Joel was in Black Nite Crash and today he is in VibraGun. Joel Bergstrom is a fantastic guy. He is definitely one of the things we love about Seattle! In general, it is the people we have met in Seattle that make it such a great city.

If there’s anything we hate, it would be the weather, which is very much like in Denmark. Rain.
Another thing would be the rising house prices that force out the middle class or rather the creative and musically interested. Unfortunately, that is now a worldwide phenomenon – gentrification of the creative class. We even made a song about it calles “Onto Us” from “The American Dream”.

But let’s get back to the good things: The music scene of Seattle. Every time we play in Seattle we meet new great bands. We already mentioned VibraGun and Black Nite Crash. This time we’re playing with Charlatan whose music we really like and at previous shows we loved to play with Season of Strangers, Red Martian and Dacha.

Favorite places in the USA?

Oh man, you’re putting us on the spot here. That’s a difficult question. We love so many places in the US.
Obviously, Seattle is way up there. Portland too. Such great people and music! And very chill. Boston has always been good for us as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles. Boise, ID is definitely worth mentioning too. We played there a couple of times before playing at Treefort Music Fest, which was really awesome! Austin is worth mentioning, but to be fair we have only been there during SXSW.

What kind of foods do you look forward to here, that you can’t get at home … or are just not the same?

We started out with burgers. And we still get plenty of burgers – American style. Especially In N Out, which is luckily spreading from California to Texas, Utah and other states. Not sure exactly what it is but the burgers are just better in the States. On recent tours we started getting food from taco trucks and it is really delicious! So on this upcoming tour we will be getting a lot more Mexican food. And burgers.

Are you working on any projects right now? New albums? 

We are currently writing and rehearsing songs for our next album to be released in 2017. With a lot of touring going on we haven’t started recording yet, but when we return to Denmark after this tour we will start recording the new songs. We’re also looking into recording a couple of cover songs. Not sure about it yet, but we could be covering Willie Nelson!

Give us Americans 5 bands we should be checking out from your neck of the woods?

Let’s do Northern Europe:

Then Comes Silence from Stockholm, Sweden – https://youtu.be/XFkQ3yHB0dQ (great video!)

The Exploding Boy from Stockholm, Sweden – https://youtu.be/3fq66NreVQU

The Entrepreneurs from Copenhagen, Denmark – https://youtu.be/awzTNxXBqCA

Jaguwar from Dresden, Germany – https://jaguwar.bandcamp.com/album/i-ep

Box and the Twins from Cologne, Germany – https://youtu.be/NLGMJRlb7k8

At this point in your musical career, what makes your proudest?

That we are still together as a band and doing all this touring. Most bands that aren’t super big, or at least making a living off their music, split up or remain a band that only plays the occasional local show. We’re all over the place and we can finally feel the hard work paying off, playing larger festivals and bigger venues. Especially in Germany and the US. People are starting to know our name and that makes us proud.

If I wanted to introduce someone to The Foreign Resort. Which song of  yours would I play?

The song that gives the best insight into our music while also appealing to the broadest audience would probably be “Take a Walk” – https://youtu.be/Occr4GpJKAk

Lastly….. Any thoughts on Donald trump?

Donald Trump is douchebag feeding on scared Americans. What’s worse is that you guys are screwed either way this time, no matter if it’s Hillary or Donald. That said, better Hillary. We know so many great Americans that are scared and sad about the current state of affairs. Your politics and American society in general is such a sad story, and we feel sorry for you that these are the choices you have. You can change that though. Bernie got far and there will be others like him. Maybe next time. Don’t give up!

See you out there!