Think disco/african/electro/funk, served up with a visual puppet show and grated with a side serving of variable colours and that’s just for starters @ the El Mocambo on 5^th August, for all be it, Casiokids are coming to Toronto. Expelling more bleeps than an office photocopier gone mad this band know how to throw a party and strangely enough even know how to land at one. Being picked up by The Moshi Moshi label who’s acts include Bloc Party, Hot Chip and Friendly fire to name a few, the bands luck is like a 200/1 win down at the dogs, and this bliss shows. Ok so some of the songs unfortunately you might not be able to make out the words (that’s because there sung in their native language of Norwegian), but it really doesn’t matter. The electricity the band drive out is enough to keep any freaky foot with a slight sense of rhythm happy and any ear with an audiable sense for great new talent salivating. 

 

I caught up with band member Ketil to see just where the band are at:

 

Ok, Festivals then Ketil believe there have been many of them for you boys this summer.  What has been your best moment/festival/event in the last 2 months?

Oh, that must be our hot air balloon ride at the Hove festival in Norway. It was something I’ve never done before. Quite scary in fact! We landed in someone's garden during a party far from the festival site. Here's a video from when we played a song in the balloon:

http://nrk.no/p3tv/goto/?bcpid=1909243188&bctid=27288461001


 

That sounds amazing, I bet the garden party participants were shocked, where there any other funny goings-on you can recall amongst all the craziness?

Everything is a bit blurry, we've driven 50 000 km around Europe this spring but one random memory that springs to mind this morning is when we stayed at a youth hostel in Kiel on the way to Netherlands. The only other people staying there were this punk band from Finland. We were really tired after driving the whole day and just wanted to go to sleep, but these guys really, really wanted to party with us. Aggressive friendly guys you know? We had to throw their bass player out of the room whilst he was screaming "let's talk about Led Zeppelin! Let's talk about Bob Dylan! The Birds! Anything! Please!".  Later that night they trashed the bathroom, and somehow we got all the blame.


 

Guess that was money down the drain (sorry). Now I see Fela Kuti is a main influence of yours, that’s an excellent choice. You also take samples from cassette books about Africa for your songs, where does this African connection come from?

I think it just comes from a curiosity for music in general. Between 2002 and 2005 I listened to different genres at the Bergen Library systematically, and when I came to the poorly lit "world"-section I found African music from the likes of Fela, Kwela-music, Ali Farka Touré and  Ethiopian Jazz got me particularly excited. With Fela it's so much more than his music though, his ideology and what he's meant for the people of Nigeria is indisputable. I was in Lagos Nigeria the whole of October 2008 making a radio documentary on the legacy of Fela, which also spurred my interest in his music even more. In Bergen and Oslo I run a club night with my friends Geir and Audinho, it’s called Klubb Kannibal, there we get to play a lot of afro and techno music too.

And what of this puppet show Ketil, I hear this helps your audience who don’t speak Norwegian follow the stories behind the songs. They’re incidentally about a starving tribe of African robots, can you tell us a little more?

From the start we wanted to go beyond only being a pop act playing rock clubs, and early in the process this led to the collaboration with Digitalteateret. We've done a couple of work-shops for kids with them and we'll make the music for a play they're putting on at Barnas Hus in Bergen this October. We've done a lot of club shows with the theatre troupe as well, but it's not always feasible bringing them on tour, alas!

Ok and what would be your words of encouragement for Torontonian’s to attend your gig?

There ‘will’ be dancing. I’m looking forward to Toronto gig!  We’re going to meet up with some new friends of ours Thunderheist whom we met playing Netherlands in July. I strained my ankle from all the dancing playing in Switzerland last week, but I think it should be fine for this date. So, yes.. There ‘will’ be dancing ;)

Excellent and one last final question, in 3 words describe:  1. Yourselves as a band 2. Your music and 3. And your dress sense

1. Moveable birthday party    2. Cheerful, danceable, shambolic    3. Variable, colorful, world

 

So basically put on a plate and served up these guys ‘love to dance’, ‘they love to experiment with music’, ‘they’re friendly’ and ‘they just might land a hot air balloon at a party near you soon’, what else excuse do you need to go see them. Any band that can release a song in Norwegian and do well in the UK has got to be worth a taste. So fellow Torontonian’s set your sights high and get a glimpse of this band before they go massive, they’ll have you smiling all the way home like you just lost your virginity.  (http://www.myspace.com/casiokids)