SILK FLOWERS DON'T HAVE H1N1... YET

Are you imagining a tropically twisted Japanese arcade version of Kraftwerk fronted Tom Waits and Ian Curtis reborn as siamese twins joined by the jugular? If so, this post is for you.

Silk Flowers

followed up on their two intriguing 7-inch releases with a self-titled debut full length earlier this year on

PPM

. They also made us

a pretty fantastic mix

a half a year ago. How time flies. Since then I've been strangely drawn to their quirky electro-goth musings that seem to stem from the euro-trashy scenes of the late 70ties and early 80ties – naturally implying that we're dealing with a New York band here. Incidentally they're now wrapping up their first European tour and will be playing Copenhagen tomorrow and we caught them in transit between Cologne and Berlin for a quick Q&A.

Vice: So how did you guys end up playing together?

Ethan Swan:

Aviram and Peter played in a band together called Soiled Mattress and the Springs and I was a huge fan.

Aviram Cohen:

Peter and I had met on an online dating site and Ethan worked at the place where we used to go on dates to, so one thing led to another.

Ah, that old story. So what are you about as a band? Your sound is both misanthropic and cheerful at the same time.

Yeah, we're mostly in between, I don't really want to be too much of either. I guess we're red, white, and blue mixing into purple. But we're also about freedom from mental slavery and pizza.

Pizza. What else goes with your music?

We all like candy bars, but I wouldn't say that's part of our music. Rainbows are cool. There's something about seeing a band of color after a bad rain that makes for a good guideline of living. In that way, maybe nature is something that goes with what we do, but not in the sense that it's natural. More like something that happens and you do what you can to live with it.

I was actually thinking about the cinematic edge to your songs and I know you are all movie buffs, so what movie would you most like to soundtrack?

Ethan:

That Russian movie

The Return

, I would like to re-score that.

Aviram:

The Coen brothers. Their last two movies had really great underlying concepts, that I felt say a lot about humankind. Spike Jonze is great too. I somewhat identify with the relationship between his intention and the final product.

Right, you have to board your plane, can you just give me your high and lows of the year, seeing as it's almost over?

My highs were touring, especially going to the west cost and Europe. That and the No Age album. Lows would be stuff like scarce employment and family woes.

Ethan:

The movie Drag Me to Hell and visiting Mexico for the first time, just barely escaping the H1N1 outbreak. I'd rather not remember the lows.

Well, I can fill that one then: You're coming to Denmark right in the midst of H1N1 frenzy. See you tomorrow!