SPILL FEATURE: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE WE LIKE IT REALLY STUPID LOUD – A CONVERSATION WITH OLIVER ACKERMANN OF A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE WE LIKE IT REALLY STUPID LOUD

A CONVERSATION WITH OLIVER ACKERMANN OF A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

A Place To Bury Strangers is one of the best when it comes to noise rock. The legendary band consistently puts out ferociously thrilling tunes that deserve to be played as loud as possible. Oliver Ackermann’s vocals are incredibly captivating. The instrumentation is always wickedly awesome, especially the guitars, which often powerfully bombard the listener with their intensity. They also continue to evolve their sound while maintaining their roots. Recently, I chatted with Ackermann about 2024’s Synthesizer, remixes, their new 7-inch releases, and their North American Tour.

“We’re just trying to experiment and create these things that are really fun and interesting for ourselves,” Ackermann says about Synthesizer. Synthesizer sees Ackermann working more with bandmates John Fedowitz and Sandra Fedowitz, the most recent lineup formed in 2021. “The last record was the start of it, but getting the chance to do a lot of stuff with them was really awesome and cool and adds another dimension to this and really brings things way to my past when John and I grew up together, and we were doing these things. It’s a very “welcoming and home kind of feeling.”

Something creative that A Place To Bury Strangers did for Synthesizer is that you can build your own DIY synthesizer from the record cover. “We just on purpose because we were doing this put the synthesizer on every track of the record,” comments Ackermann. “You wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell on a lot of these tracks because the synthesiser is very focused on really harsh noises in itself, so a lot of it is where you’d be like, ‘Is it the guitar? Is it the synthesiser? Who knows what it is?’ Even then there’s a track or two when it’s barely on where it’s just making some crashing noises. But I thought since we came up with the idea of being able to build the album cover into a synthesiser, we should feature it. It just seemed to make sense to sew the whole thing together.”

Synthesizer ranges from insanely harsh, wildly unhinged, and intensely blaring songs like “Bad Idea” and “Fear Of Transformation” to tunes like the new wave/post-punk synth-heavy “Plastic Future”, which sounds like it came from the 80s. “Something that we’ll always maintain with A Place To Bury Strangers is making those really loud, crazy songs,” comments Ackermann. “I feel like that’s important to drive heavy music into the future. For me, it’s really motivating. I hear those songs and it makes me want to do something. Songs like “Plastic Future” hark back to early music that I was listening to, like New Order. There’s something charming and nostalgic about it. When I hear that kind of song, it almost plays a montage of my teenage years in my head.”

One of the standout tracks from Synthesizer is the gothic tinged “You Got Me”, which is sure to have you dancing. The main highlight of the song is the extremely catchy guitar riff. Ackermann tells me the riff is inspired by ‘60s and ‘70s music, particularly punk. “They are playing these kinds of simple riffs or ideas, and if you look at these riffs, you’re like, ‘It’s D A G or something,’ and then what they do is add some sort of element which takes it away from that where they’re weaving around what those notes are,” he shares. “I think that riff really does that where it’s sliding in between what’s on time and not on time. It emulates the movement of your body in a way. I think cool music does that where it makes you bang your head to the music.” Ackermann also shares what the song is about. “Often, we’re spending our time being depressed, thinking about how pissed off we are at all these things happening, all the sadness, all the terrible things constantly happening around us and just all sorts of problems in life. I think it’s important to enjoy yourself with all the shit that is happening and have these moments of love and care with people. That’s what the beauty of being alive is: enjoying these things.”

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Multiple songs from Synthesizer have been remixed by other artists, including Data Animal, The Bodies Obtained, and Eazyhead, among others. “You really get an opportunity to collaborate with artists you really love,” he says. “I really like when people totally transform the songs and make them their own. There’s something so awesome to have bands who I’m really big fans of do a remix. You feel good that they’re honoured enough to do that. You get to hear one of your songs in their style, which is really, really cool.” Ackermann also loves remixing songs himself. “I purposefully destroy the song and rerecord a lot of the instruments, change the tempo, change the pitches of the people singing but still try to keep some of their original elements. I try to push this aggressive kind of music. I think that’s what A Place To Bury Stranger is. It’s that feeling of raw power being pushed to the limit.”

Recently, A Place To Bury Strangers remixed The Dandy Warhols’ “I Will Never Stop Loving You” (featuring Debbie Harry). Guitarist Peter Holmström of The Dandy Warhols asked if they would do a remix of the song. “I was really honoured because it’s a song that Debbie Harry sings on, so it was really magical and an amazing time,” smiles Ackermann. “Being a kid and growing up listening to Blondie and watching Videodrome it was just really insane to get the chance to collaborate. Also been a Dandy Warhols fan. All their stuff is cool. We played shows with them years ago. That was really insane. They’re such cool, awesome, and nice people.”

A Place To Bury Strangers recently released two split 7-inches with The Mall and The Serfs ahead of their North American tour. “When we knew we were going on tour with them, I just asked if they wanted to do a split 7-inch, and they were both stoked to do it,” says Ackermann. “I really like 7-inches – Since I’m such a fan of it, I feel that it holds so much weight and importance with every 7-inch because there’s nothing more of a bummer than getting a 7-inch with some terrible throwaway songs on it. You got to make them good.”

Ackermann is stoked to hear The Serfs and The Mall live. “Both are incredible bands –The Serfs was a dream band I always wanted to go on tour with – Love The Mall,” he comments. “Playing these shows with bands you’re almost intimidated by to go on tour with because they’re so great that really makes me want to make our show even better.”

Trying to match the recorded versions of the tracks in a live setting is not something A Place To Bury Strangers worries about. “If we were just trying to do the recorded versions then it would do an injustice to what potentially the live performance could be,” explains Ackermann. “The recordings are a map in a way for everyone to realize ‘What’s a potential for what this song could be?’ When it comes to a live show, we just really make it our own… We’re a live band that plays without any tracks or anything like that. I just love the feeling, emotion, and seeing the struggle of musicians and being right there with them struggling to make it happen.”

Ackermann tells me all the songs from Synthesizer are fun to play live. However, “Disgust” really stands out. “I love the way that it kicks off like super intense,” he grins. “Those songs are always really fun to play first when you walk out. It’s an interesting scientific experiment when you’re like, ‘Hey. How’s everybody doing?’ You have a smile on your face, and then all of a sudden, lights go out, and BAM! It’s really fun to do that.”

A Place To Bury Strangers is often credited as the ‘loudest band in New York’ and the ‘loudest band in the world.’ If you love loud live music, be sure to catch one of their upcoming shows. “I think for better or for worse, we like it really stupid loud, so you know it just kind of inevitably gets to that place,” says Ackermann. “I want to feel totally out of control at a show.”

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Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz