Giant Rooks
They should be on tour with Milky Chance in the USA and they should be starting their own tour at the biggest venues in Europe. Of course, all of this has now been postponed. And when it comes to Giant Rooks, there really shouldn't be any shoulds. After all, the band has left nothing to chance in its meteoric rise over the last few years. Yet instead of standing on stage, Giant Rooks are probably sitting around their flats in Berlin in self-isolation and discussing in video conferences how they can put the finishing touches on their debut album “Rookery,” which will be released on August 28th, 2020. Before then, their second single "What I Know Is All Quicksand" will be released – a piece of music that contrasts strongly with their first-released indie track “Watershed", but one that still stands up on its own.

Having a deep respect for a debut album is wise. After all, there's often no shortage of impulsive decisions at the beginning or spontaneously made recordings that don't live up to expectations. One thing is clear: Giant Rooks won't be doing that with their debut album “Rookery.” It’s going to be a perfect debut. A debut that sets every note in the right place, a composed album with the right length and the right songs. "We feel ready for this album,” says the band. “Our expectations for the debut were huge. We had to find our sound on stage and on the EPs (The Times Are Bursting The Lines 2015, New Estate 2017 and Wild Stare 2019).”

In 2015, singer Frederik Rabe, guitarist Finn Schwieters, bassist Luca Göttner, keyboardist Jonathan Wischniowski, and drummer Finn Thomas founded Giant Rooks. Their accomplishments have multiplied impressively since then. They won a 1LIVE-Krone Award, a seven-figure group monthly listeners on Spotify, and have sold out concerts everywhere from Rome to Paris to Manchester. In Germany, they're already filling venues other artists only have on their tour schedules after 15 years in the scene. Yet with just three EPs, Giant Rooks seem to sell them out every time and are probably the most promising band to come out of Germany in a long time. They took their time with their debut. Having played more than 350 shows in recent years has given them endless possibilities to refine their own sound.

With "Rookery", the band freed themselves from the idea of how things are "supposed" to be done. The result sounds unified and whole – sounds like 2020 – and spans a frame of reference that's at least unique in German-speaking countries. The beats always sound like Kanyesque hip hop and the song structures even occasionally bring Bob Dylan to mind. The soundscapes are influenced by Bon Iver. The band playfully combines modern influences with classical structures and classical sounds with modern song structures. When it comes to playing music, as well as listening to it, Giant Rooks aren't looking to fit into any one genre or emulate anyone. “You have so many opportunities to discover new music, artists like Celeste or Joy Crookes, not to mention soul. That's been a huge influence for us,” says singer Frederik Rabe. In terms of content, it's an album that looks questioningly into a world of unrest and isn't looking to offer simple answers. Who am I? And how can I find my role in this world?

Shortly before their celebrated appearance at the Lollapalooza Festival, the band started working on their debut when they moved to Berlin in 2018. However, parts of their music date back much further. Many of the songs on “Rookery” started out as voice messages. When they began work on production, the band listened to a pool of demos, outlines, and set pieces and chose their favorites and the things that really stuck. The best example on “Rookery’’ is "Watershed", which was conceptualized years ago when they were 16- or 17-year-olds. Melodies and bits of lyrics have been with the band for a long time. When writing for "What I Know Is All Quicksand" began, it was a radical idea. "We wanted a song that was very different from Watershed." It needed to be louder, less oriented towards classical structures, freer and angrier at the same time. And indeed, in its verse, the song sounds like a roughened version of Tame Impala. In the scenery, the protagonist wakes up from a nightmare bathed in sweat and locked up in a glass cage. Two drums lay brute fills on top of each other. The other instruments break into the cage only briefly, initially the guitar and bass hold back. The lyrics of the second verse were written in the cinema. “Tarantino was running, blood was splashing on the screen and people were laughing. At that moment, I found it very absurd, absurd and voyeuristic,” says Schwieters. In the chorus, the song escalates into a dynamic climax. In the end, the sun rises again. The wonderfully skewed take with the inner voice was actually just the sound check to test the position of the microphone and made it into the final mix. Because sometimes moments are perfect in that they're imperfect.

Jochen Naaf, who already produced the band’s two EPs, leaves the music's rough edges and corners untouched and allows the band to experiment in order to capture them. “Rookery” was recorded in Cologne and Berlin. Many songs from the album were mixed by the British Dan Grech-Marguerat who also worked on the debut of Lana Del Rey and albums by The Killers and Liam Gallagher. The band pre-produced a lot at home, immersing themselves in a natural, dynamic process. They've been developing technical know-how over the past few years. But most importantly, the vibe must be right. Many traces from the demos made it into the final mixes, giving it light-heartedness and liveliness. It doesn’t matter if it was recorded with a U-47 or the internal microphone of a MacBook. If it's got vibes, it's good. Drums stacked on top of each other are complemented by spatial-sounding percussion. The tracks build up layers. In the studio, the band searches for spontaneity. This creates sounds that have never been heard before. The guitars are pitched in the basement, the bass absorbers in the studio become bass drums. There are also great orchestral sounds. Cellos, trumpets, and combinations of real instruments and samples that create the depth and breadth of the sound. And always in the service of the song, the instrumentation never imposes itself. In general, despite their young age, Giant Rooks are an amazingly mature band. They are 100% aware of what they are doing. What does a 2020 indie rock band have to sound like in order to not get lost in nostalgia? Giant Rooks answers this question with “Rookery.” It's a pointed answer that's mature, full of hits and sophisticated ideas.

The band sees “Rookery” as a space of opportunity and understands the music as a place that could become a home. It's about beginnings, a fresh start, which is accompanied by euphoria but still develops tentatively from a comforting familiarity. The title materialized suddenly… "It felt completely right after it was said for the first time. It was clear to everyone that this is the name of the album!" While the outside world stands still, work continues for Giant Rooks. There's so much to do despite the curfew. The album work needs finalization and the track list, too. It’s set to be a perfect debut, this "Rookery".