Introduction
Today we have an interview with the incredibly fun rock trio Loose Lips out of Oldenburg, Germany. You only need to glance at their photos and music videos to know that these guys know how to make people laugh… What is totally not a joke though is how good they sound! Give this interview with the alt-rock band a read , and dont forget to follow the band on social media!
Interview
Where did the ideas come from for the artwork for this year’s singles (2024)?
Loose Lips – Most of it came from the brilliant mind of “Mel Wilken”. He is an Illustrator and Graffiti-Artist from Hannover and has single-handedly designed all the covers for the singles as well as our upcoming two EPs. We gave him some broad ideas and the song titles, but at least 95% is down to his work painting and laying out all the artworks.
Where did the band name come from?
Loose Lips – Joel came up with it a couple of years prior to the band. Its a derivative of the term “Loose Lips sinks ships”. It was written somewhere on a Billy Talent Poster in his bedroom. It sounded cool and we stuck with it.
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Loose Lips – We ain’t that philosophical. But probably it will land on the jam side or on its feet 😀
What is the inspiration behind the single ‘6 Inch LED Screen’?
Loose Lips – It’s about being on social media or our phones 24/7. Our generation is constantly posting on social media, consuming content all the time. And sometimes we might want to take a step back and reflect how weird this is for a society to be so deeply dependent on a 6-Inch backlit pain of glass that shoots pixels at your face 😀
What plans have you got for the future?
Loose Lips – We are starting 2025 with our next single in March. We will follow our recent “Soft Noise”, which we released in November, with a second one at the end of 2025. We are planning on releasing both EPs together as a double-sided 12 inch Vinyl.
So, you have a song called an eye for an eye. Everyone knows this leads to the whole world going blind. If everyone was blind, in what ways do you think society would change?
Loose Lips – Probably we would feel a lot more again 😀 I don’t know, probably infrastructure would need to change a lot. You wouldn’t want to drive a car blind, right? So probably climate-wise, that would be a great thing. Maybe that would be a way out of global warming.
Your feature length album Melancholia came out in 2023, how was the reaction to that from fans? Do you have plans for a follow-up?
Loose Lips – Reactions were pretty much all positive. It sold pretty well so far on vinyl and streamed well (unfortunately that is kinda more important nowadays). We played a lot of cool shows, probably because of it. And yes, there are definitely plans for the future.
What’s more important, someone at your live show or someone listening to your songs on a streaming platform?
Loose Lips – For us personally, it’s all about the people that take the effort to come to one of our shows. Our music is full of energy, and we also really love playing it live. When it comes to “important in terms of publicity” it’s probably more important that people listen to our songs via streaming platforms.
One person actually coming out to one of our shows is worth a lot more than 1000 streams. So live is definitely the thing where we get the most out of it in terms of “direct feedback” and joy.
What’s the most absurd thing someone in the industry has said about your music?
Loose Lips – They said they like us and will call back later.
Do any of you support any sports teams? If so, which ones, and has it ever caused any issues on match day?
Loose Lips – Enno and Jelto support “unsern VFB” as they call it. It’s a football (soccer) team from our city, They are terrible at the moment, but drinks are kinda cheap at the stadium, so that’s great. Joel supports no teams that he knows of. I think he would enjoy Timber Sports, if he would ever attend, tho.
What are some of your pre-show rituals?
Loose Lips – we don’t really have a pre-show ritual. I guess it’s also kinda weird. Usually we forget to write set-lists and have to scribble it on the back of a sticker last minute. That’s probably also some kind of ritual :DD
Which of you would say comes up with the most out of their ideas? Do they tend to make it into your songs?
Loose Lips – Mostly Joel comes up with Demos, and we listen to them and work on them in the rehearsal space. We have also had a few songs that were just started by jamming a riff or so, but 90% of the songs are mostly from ideas of Joel. It’s also easier because he then can already start thinking what lyrics would maybe fit and so on.
Is there anything about the band that you don’t like?
Loose Lips – Doing taxes :DD That really is stressful every time. And we always forget how to do it again every year 😀
You have travelled back to country and western times… You are about to go into a duel, what’s your tactic to win?
Loose Lips – Probably just count on our experience from the Bullet Video and ride away through the desert. I don’t know, we don’t really do duels in europe.
What song title do you think highlights the band’s creativity the most?
Loose Lips – That would probably be an unreleased song from our alter-ego German punk band called “Die lockeren Lippen”. The Song is called “Die Odyssee des Thomas Beton” and it is about a lonely pariah that society has failed due to his concrete fists.
It’s kinda exactly like Edward Scissor Hands, but with a guy that has both fists stuck in concrete buckets. We have to finish the song in the near future. I guess it’s going to be a banger.
Without knowing, you’re from Germany, we’d have no clue from listening to you. Is this something intentional?
Loose Lips – Joel’s English teachers have done a pretty good job of teaching him his pronounciation i guess:D I mean It’s not really intentional I guess, but also off course we don’t want to be limited to Germany in terms of listeners.
We just want people to enjoy our music no matter where they’re from. And I think as a German it’s quite easy to sound like a German Band, especially when writing or singing lyrics.
But tbh we have gotten the “you sound so international and not German” quite a few times also at concerts. I don’t really know what it is that sounds so “original” in our music, but we should definitely keep that, haha:D
All rights to the songs used in this interview are retained by Loose Lips. All photos were provided by Loose Lips and taken by Connor McBriarty.
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