In the multi-coloured polyester clad heyday of cheesy 90’s pop, there was one band who ruled them all. For a good 5 years Aqua was totally inescapable and you could easier ignore clay shoved up your nose than their brand of treacly pop. After a gruelling and exhausting touring schedule the band called it quits in 2001 as the bubble-gum pop bubble burst.
Then something funny happened – they came back. Unlike many of their peers, Aqua reinvented themselves, recorded a new album and have just kicked off a sold out Australian tour. We caught up with the hilarious and charming singer Rene Dif and keyboardist/songwriter Claus Norreen in the lead up to their Australian shows.
“The reception has been quite amazing. We started out doing 5 shows but then they sold out really, really fast. We were very surprised and very happy,” says Rene. When it is suggested that perhaps their tours are a little less wild than the ones during the constant craziness of the late 90’s, there is silence then a huge roar of laughter from both men.
“We all have families and kids and stuff but that is no prevention!” laughs Claus. “Usually we’re away for months and months but this time it’s only for a few weeks so it’s like a holiday. I can promise you one thing, we are not like we were in the old days… we’re a lot wilder actually.”
René agrees, “I’m going to enjoy every single second of our tour in Australia and that also includes going out!”
After the long hiatus, it would have been easy to give up on touring and grow fat off royalties. So why come back? “First and foremost it is because we started out as a band, we weren’t put together. We made the music ourselves, we wrote and produced and performed the stuff ourselves.”
“This whole process of coming back has been gradually evolving over the last couple of years starting out with some tours in Denmark and finding out that the chemistry is still there and then wanting to record new material again. When you have fun doing what you love most in life with your four best friends and you can still do it, it makes sense to keep working,” explains Claus.
Contrary to popular belief, the Aqua split was not fuelled by inter-band love triangle, but from burnout. “We needed a break from the whole thing; to go our separate ways and do something different. There were some really, really hectic years and I guess if we had have continued at that time maybe we couldn’t be here today talking to you and touring again. We needed some space, we have been travelling for like four or five years almost constantly and it was a great and amazing time.”
The biggest surprise is their new sound. Megalomania sees the group explore a harder edge to their once syrupy dance tunes, though this was not a strategic move. “It was quite a natural progression. It wasn’t something where we deliberately sat down and said, okay we’re going to do it like this. The only conscious thing was to kind of bridge the gap between us performing live which is really rocking and hyper energetic and making the sound a bit more edgy and gritty.”
“We are a band who is alive and evolving so some of the songs we have redone the arrangements on and they sound a lot harder. Onstage we have a guitarist and bassist and a drummer so it is not us jumping about and miming to a backing track, it is quite full on rocking, as live as it gets. I think people will be a bit surprised by that,” says Claus
“We didn’t want to turn into an indie band, we had to stay true to our roots,” adds Rene.
So what can audiences expect this time around? “It will be split down the middle. We are promoting the new album but we are playing a lot of old stuff. Some of the older stuff has been a bit updated to keep it fresh for us and the fans as well. We’re trying to arrange it a bit differently to try and put a bit of a modern feel to it. We don’t want this to be an overly nostalgic reunion tour.”
Of the various accolades their music has gotten them over the years, Aqua are particularly proud of one. “We recently got voted the worst song of the 90’s (“Barbie Girl”) by Rolling Stone magazine; it was quite an honour to be number one on that list.”
So all these years later, do they see “Barbie Girl” as a thorn in their side or an ace up their sleeve? “Obviously it is such a huge part of our success that we still love it. It doesn’t feel like, oh we have to do it again… we can sing it back and forth in our sleep it is part of what we are and we stand by it,” says Claus.
Rene continues, “It is still overwhelming when you travel abroad on a holiday and you go somewhere like India and people are like, oh that song. It is quite amazing to have written something that translates to just about every place on the planet. Once I went on a plane from Kathmandu to Tibet and believe it or not the video on the plane was “Barbie Girl”. I was so shocked; I thought, where on the planet can I go where they don’t play it?”
Whether it is for nostalgia or curiosity, Aqua will be well worth a look. Love them or hate them, the ticket sales speak for themselves.
Aqua’s super popular Australian tour has just kicked off – check out the photos from last night’s show in Melbourne.
