Your name is Uldis Dirnens and you live in Latvia, but at times it seems your life has already been experienced by thousands all over the world. At first the beginning you are made to play the piano although you’d rather set it on fire. Then you stuff it with paper and barter the out-of-tune piano for a moped. Your first guitar is a wreck scavenged from underneath a tank and is fastened with a clothes hanger and filled with stones. But suddenly it seems to you that something might have a purpose in this life. You might be living like so many others, but there are songs only you can write. When the parents complain that you are making too much of a noise you move with your guitar to the bathroom. You like Green Day. And you like the haircuts of Oasis. And the attitude. You change your school and start to learn how to sing only to understand that no one teaches the most important subjects. So you dump the school and learn how to live. And you form a band. For no one else is going to write your songs. And then you find yourself once again without a job, money, girlfriend or shelter – nothing to lose… And without much thought you apply for a phenomenally popular reality show on TV. When they ask for a nickname, for everyone has one, you say you’ll be Detlef, like that guy from the teenage-heroin-junkie bestselling novel We, Children from Bahnhof Zoo set in Berlin in the 70’s. Now you have a roof above your head and a TV camera in your face, but you quickly realize that this is not your reality. You create a ruckus in the studio and leave it with glass shattering behind you. You are back on the street, but you feel like leaving a prison. But a prison also teaches something – at least that your reality is your guitar and your band. And once again you are together with the guys. You like Placebo, but you know there are songs only you can write. 2004 has just begun and your first radio single Četras Sienas (Four Walls) is at the top of SWH* - the biggest radio in Latvia. And five weeks later it is still there… Damn, who would have believed all of this?! Next the going gets even rougher. The first mega hit Četras sienas (Four Walls) is followed by the equally successful Stils nevainīgs (Style Innocent), Blind Actor and The Time Has Come. Together with 9 other self-composed songs these make up the band’s debut album Tu izliecies par sevi (You Pretend to be Yourself, 2004, MicRec). Many consider this album the most exciting example of Latvian guitar rock in many years and it has received critical and public acclaim, as well as several Latvian Music Awards nominations. … After changing members at the beginning of 2006, musically and humanly Detlef’s Zoo feel like they have reached a new level of harmony. Band leader Detlef (his friends still call him Uldis) is best known to public, but he will be the first to note that Detlef’s Zoo is a union of four equal friends and associates. Martins Millers (bass) together with Detlef is a veteran of the band since its formation. ‘The Philosopher of Rhythm’ Marks Ameriks (drums) at first studied percussions at a music school and later participated in the recording of album 15 Episodes of Kuba under the project Kuba and in the recording of Janis Zhilde’s CD Stāvi (Storeys). Kaspars Ansons in his turn can now be grateful that in the children music school he was kicked out of both piano and chorus classes, for only then he found his true calling - the guitar. Since then he has played in numerous bands, punk bands and even in a big band, but in Detlef’s Zoo he finally feels at home. In short, the four of them have no doubt - together they can do things no one else can. With this in mind and prominent British producer (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Futureheads, The Stranglers, the recent sensation of British music scene Young Knives, etc.) and founding member of legendary Gang of Four Andy Gill in charge recording sessions for the new album were started in London at the end of 2006. These sessions mark the most intensive studio experience in life of Detlef’s Zoo so far. It’s a life-changing experience where every new track means exciting revelations for themselves. Experience that has changed them and their music. But despite of everything it’s still the music only Detlef’s Zoo are able to create. Because it’s coming from their own world. From their own world where everyone is welcome. Detlef Zoo will be playing at Pewsey Music Festival, in Wiltshire, on Saturday 16th August 2008: www.pewseymusicfestival.com |
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