KEEP CAMPING were one of the hottest acts at this year’s SPOT Festival. The Danish band played a concert to release a video. But this video was not just – as most bands do – a music video, it was an entire short film, accompanied by the KEEP CAMPING‘s music. With this the Danes had the buzz on their side and became the winners of the entire festival. NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION talked to lead singer, Mikkel Møl, and now introduces you to the band you might have never heard about before. Why? Because you should definitely know about them!
SPOT is a starting point for what comes next: so what are your plans? What comes next?
Continuing our progress with playing more shows at great venues to establish the KEEP CAMPING sound in people’s minds, and to strengthen our live performance even further.
In fall we have an album coming out that our short film ‘Julia’ is visualizing, so at the moment we are planning a tour to promote the record. A tour that will hopefully bring us to Germany which is a huge dream for us all and an interesting next step.
KEEP CAMPING is a process, and we live to learn, so everyday we get a little bit closer to the core of what we are and who we are going to be.
How would you describe your music to a deaf person?
As a lonesome ship on a hazy river.
What is your main motivation when you write new songs?
Writing, to me, works as therapy and a way of trying to understand the world I’m living in and myself included. Being a human being can be a rather complex experience, and having the time to let your thoughts wander and to dig deep down into the existential questions like ‘what is happiness’, ‘what is love’, and ‘how do I make the most of the time I have on this planet’ is a gift, and that is what songwriting is to me. A gift.
The feeling of having written a new song that you feel strongly about is something everyone should experience. It can sometimes be a struggle to make all the pieces fit, but once they do it’s an out-of-body experience.
Would you rather whisper or shout for the rest of your life?
I guess I would rather whisper. Being around people constantly shouting is a pain. I don’t want to be a pain.
Would you rather be a dragon or have a dragon?
I would definitely prefer to have a dragon. I believe dragons have poor motor skills, which is obviously bad for a musician, but having a dragon, on the other hand, would be truly awesome! Just look at ‘Game of Thrones’: needless to say who has the upper hand there.
If you’d have to choose: which of your senses would you rather lose?
That’s a cruel question. If I had to pick one it would be… Do I have to pick one? Well, I guess it would be tasting. Maybe the only one I could even imagine living without. Hearing, seeing and feeling is out of the question. This is how I experience the world, and this is how music comes to live. Smelling is also very attached to certain memories and certain perceptions of different situations. I wouldn’t want to miss the smell of a summer sunrise. Tasting: you loose this battle, but I’m going to miss you like hell.
The music & culture industry is currently about to redefine itself. Do you feel like being completely and utterly at the its mercy, or should things be seen as a chance for artists?
Absolutely. Once change has occurred there’s no use in looking back anyway. Things change constantly and your main task is to learn how to navigate in these new waters. When it comes to the music industry I believe you should look at new ways of approaching what you want to communicate and to look at new ways of collaborating across media. Our short film ‘Julia’ is one way of doing so.
I actually believe that you more then ever has the chance to shape your own success these days. There are so many opportunities at your feet when it comes to low budget music and film production and an endless access to effective marketing platforms and distribution.
This definitely does not make it easy, but it means that most people have the artistic freedom to express what they want and that is a very powerful tool.