Life's Better If You've Heard the Seen!

Nobody feels good about breakups.That yucky feeling has been garage-rock gold for decades. But it’s not just the lovey-dovey couples that go south. When bands break up, band members,  too, have to muddle through some ickiness. But sometimes, it motivates artists to do their best ever work.

Such was the case with the breakup for Ania Bohémissa and her husband, Trommla. No, they didn’t break up with each other, but with what was their band at the time, Wer Wie Was.

What they didn’t do, though, was to go splitsville from making cool music. Instead, the two went on to do even better things with their current combo, the Seen! The exclamation point is necessary, by the way, so as not to confuse this group with the similarly dubbed indie rock band from Omaha.

With the old band in the rear view mirror, Bohémissa and Trommla found new bandmates in short order.

“We thought we knew everybody in the music scene, and we thought we played together with everyone in our area, recounted Bohémissa, who along with Trommla talked to Garagerocktopia via email. “But then our hairdresser introduced us to Peter Weidner, who is a brilliant guitar player, so we started the new project.”

“Then we met Max Flower, we talked, and we invited him to our rehearsals. Although he played piano before, he had never played an organ. Still, when he did he immediately had the right sound for us. Then we were lucky enough to win over our friend Victor Guerra, whose band had split shortly before. We’ve been in lot of bands before, but our friends and the audience are telling us the Seen! is the best one yet.”

The Seen! are just one of many bands out of Germany playing some very cool music. One of garage-rock greatest bands ever, the Satelliters, hail from Frankfurt. We should also mention our friends from Augsburg, San Antonio Kid (whose feature is currently the most read story on Garagrocktopia). The Seen! say they are proud to be a part of such a great tradition.

“We have known the Satelliters since the beginning and are pleased that they were able to continue for this long period of time,” said  Bohémissa. “The garage-rock scene in Germany is not too big, but fans are loyal. We are often surprised about open-minded audience is to bands who are new to the scene. This helps us because sometimes it´s easier to play for an audience we do not know.”

 

As with so many of the bands we profile on this blog, the Seen! cite the Beatles as a major inspiration for their sound. But Bohémissa invokes a plethora of music that has stirred the souls of herself and her bandmates.

“Most of us have loved ‘60s music since our early youth and have been participating in the mod culture since then,” explains Bohémissa. “Of course we all like the Beatles and they gave birth to a new sound universe.”

“We are mainly influenced by bands like The Pretty Things, The Small Faces, The Kinks, The Who, Arthur Lee and his Love, The Creation, The Eyes and the early 80´s samplers like Pebbles, Nuggets and Rubble, as well as Soul, R´n´B, Jazz, Blues, Punk and Psych.”

“But influences are difficult subjects to speak of. Sometimes we start to work on a new song and it takes a completely new direction. I think that’s because some influences come unconsciously.”

Coming to know so much of the great music of past eras wasn’t simply just a matter of buying and listening to a bunch of songs. Trommla actually got to rub elbows with some legendary bands.

“He supported several well known garage acts when he was with his former bands, the Oxalic Lynxs and The Time Lapse,” revealed Bohémissa. “Some of those were the Miracle Workers from the United States, the Livingstones from Sweden and the UK band the Aardvarks. So he especially was and is influenced by that sound.”

“A late friend of ours and former guitar player of The Time Lapse was the tour manager for Sky Saxon (the Seeds lead singer) in 1988,” Trommla said. “That European tour was a total disaster, but Sky gave him the inspiration for the title of the album to be released this year: “Time Lapse Now!”   

“I play along with the drums and then sometimes I notice I am stealing the rhythm from another German band, like Ideal,” Trommla added.

The Seen! Finds itself in an enviable position for a garage rock band. As they endeavor to establish their sound and leave their own legacy, they have found themselves at close quarters with some of those very bands from whom they have drawn inspiration, whose music they themselves have long appreciated.

“I´m very happy, that a lot of the original bands are on stage again and now play together with our generation,” said Bohémissa. “A few weeks ago we saw The Sorrows with Don Fardon, who’s 73, in Cologne. They were totally amazing and we felt very flattered that they said that they would play together with us when they come back to Germany on tour.”

In keeping with such wide-ranging influences, the band’s own sound also varies. One of their best songs, “Easy Life Comes,” with its gentle but fun melodies, would comfortably fit into a playlist of songs right from the mid-‘60s. “There’s No Two Ways About It,” with it’s guitar-drive hook, directly recalls the Beatles.

On the other hand, “Since You’ve Been Gone” has the slight punk-influenced edge of garage bands from the late ‘80s. “I Don’t Wanna Be With You (But I Can’t Pay My Drinks)” is a bit punkier still, but with a sense of humor.

And more is on the way. Very soon, the public will be able to get its hot little hands on the band’s first full album, a project that Bohémissa seems quite proud of.

“We are happy about our first release together,” Bohémissa said. “And we are satisfied and hope the people will like our new album, too which just arrived a few days ago. We are busy sending them out. The songs of the album are well chosen to reflect the diversity in our musical taste.” You can hear streaming tracks from the new 10" vinyl  here.

“The opener and only cover song “Big Sensation” is a tribute to an original ‘60s band from Bonn, Cool Stove. “Time of Change” and “Make It Right” are more groove oriented. ‘Make It Right’ is based on Trommla’s idea to use a Bo Diddley rhythm and develop it into a jamming style. “Trouble” and “Since You’ve Been Gone” reflect the raw garage style we all like to play, fast and straightforward.”

For right now, North American fans of the Seen! will have to wait. The band is not yet able to make the trek across the Atlantic.

“Unfortunately we have no connections to the United States,” Bohémissa lamented. “Our next step will be to play abroad in Europe. We have invitations to the UK, including Nottingham, Birmingham and London, and well as Belgium and France.”

 If this sounds like the kind of music you like to hear, please consider checking out our features on the Thingz and the Barbarians. Another feature we'd love to have you look at is our profile of the Hoodoo Gurus.

Alos, we're very proud to announce right here, right now that our next feature will be about an American supergroup, at least as they exist in garage-rock: The Darts. This is a new band whose members include veterans of the Love Me Nots, Motobunny and Brainspoon. If you think any of those bands are cool, which of course they totally are, then you're really gonna dig the Darts. Expect that feature by this weekend. Peace, Out! -- RK