Music | Interview: KAKKMADDAFAKKA

You may not get it at first, but say their name out loud and KAKKMADDAFAKKA will make your friends’ heads turn a couple degrees to one side. The Norwegian outfit are a good spirited bunch, who don’t take themselves too seriously, which can be applied to many of their answers in this interview and their music.

Following the well-received 2017 album ‘Hus’, they are now touring current new long player, “Diplomacy” with cool heads. Pounding their indie rock sound through Bergen Mafia Records, there is no slowing down but rather gathering thundering momentum considering their previous albums since 2016.

“I was laying on the balcony boiling and dreaming in the sun. Out of nowhere I felt the urge to go inside and play guitar. Five minutes later I had the song.”

Tracks like ‘Naked Blue’, are a more humbled and mellowed affair than some of the others, hence It’s placement towards the end of “Diplomacy” gives you an idea of the speed they hit when opening with ‘My Name’. Asked to describe it in five words or less, the answer is straightforward from the band, “Relationships, Summer, trips, tour and diplomacy.”

“It was one of those songs that only took five minutes to write. The weather in Bergen this spring and summer made us uber-creative. I was laying on the balcony boiling and dreaming in the sun. Out of nowhere I felt the urge to go inside and play guitar. Five minutes later I had the song. It just felt natural to go with as the first single on the new LP! It represents the sound of this record! And we really like it a lot. 

Hailing from Bergen, Norway, which has a good reputation among European, if not International media for producing some great artists like Chain Wallet, AURORA, Young Dreams and pop sensation Sigrid. The band find it useful to have a concentrated pool of quality; “The music scene in Bergen is very small, and most of the people involved in it know each other! That makes it really fun I guess, everyone’s always talking about their music and everyone knows what everyone’s doing. It also rains a lot, so we spend a lot of time inside!”

Musical influences range extensively for this album, there’s The Beatles on ‘Moon Man’ for instance but also more modern examples, “We’re really fans of most of pop music history! We take inspiration from loads of loads of artists, anyone from The Beatles, through Daft Punk and even Drake. The Beatles’ white album, Daft Punk’s ‘Discovery’, and probably Drake’s ‘More Life’ LP.”

Outside of music, skating is a notable past time for some if not all of the Bergan Mafia rockers. The decks go on tour as well which leads to some interesting places to kill time between shows, “We brought them to Barcelona and after going through the MACBA museum and we skated ‘The Big Three’ which is a legendary street skating spot!”

There you have it, KAKKMADDAFAKKA are back on the road and skating in a street near you.

You can listen to “Diplomacy” now on all platforms and from all good record stores. KAKKMADDAFAKKA play shows in Japan, France, Norway, Mexico, Span and more in the coming months that you follow here.