In their own words they are one of the few cool bands in town. I guess they are not far off since almost every time I’d mention I’ll be interviewing Chuckamuck I got many words of approval for their shows and garage rock sound. They are a hot ticket in this city.

They started simple at school, playing shows wherever, whenever. As long as there would be people to party with, they didn’t care. It’s not about the money they say but for the fun of making music. Soon they will indulge their fans further with a “mix-tape”, a free download containing rough recordings of their new songs, just to give you a taste of what’s in store on their second album that’s still in the works.

I met up with the band at their basement rehearsal room to ask them a few questions.

How did you meet guys?

Jiles: We met first at school. We were class mates when we started to play. We met Lorenz on −

Oskar: − Fête de la Musique

So the two of you already did music together before you met Lorenz?

Jiles: Yeah, we did.

Oskar: One day when Jiles, he was − we were all really bad students − and one time in the music class the teacher got so pissed of at Jiles that he said “Ah Jiles come here. You want to play drums?” and Jiles was, like, [with an excited voice] “Yeah sure, I really want to play drums” and he (the teacher) just gave him the drums. He never played (drums) before and he just could play them immediately. It was like magic and everyone was, like, “Oh, shit, what the fuck?”. I sat there in the last row and thought “Hmmm”.

You (Oskar) were already playing guitar?

Oskar: Yes, I was playing in another band called El Grupo Carabö but they were really shitty. There was a dictator and he just wanted to play metalgrindcore so I started my own band with Jiles.

Was it called Chuckamuck from the start?

Oskar: No it was called Qat, but that was the lamest name ever so we changed it.

And when did you (Lorenz) join?

Lorenz: After half a year, and before Chuckamuck, I played with Neighbours but it wasn’t as cool as Chuckamuck.

 

How old are you guys?

Lorenz: 21.

Jiles: 21 and [pointing at Oskar] 21.

Were you clear about how you want to sound from the beginning or did you have to discover it?

Oskar: (At the beginning) I was kind of limited in my ability to play guitar and sing at the same time. It was something (difficult) so we made very simple, easy music. These days we don’t have so much patience. We just want to get it done and play it and make it cool as possible.

 

Do you find that the audience responds well to your energetic music or did you have shows where people were just standing?

Oskar: Yeah of course. If people who don’t come for us, see us for the first time, without knowing anything, than they are I guess harder to win over then if they are our friends or people who already know us. On the other hand it’s kind of motivating to have people just standing there.

You treat it like a challenge?

Oskar: Yes, a show is like a challenge.

Do you remember any horror concerts that you might have had in the past?

Jiles: In Potze. It was a punk house and they really wanted to do punk hard. They were, like, “Play faster, play faster”.

Oskar: They wanted us to play for an hour and we kind of pissed the punks off cos we just played for 20 minutes and then left. Jiles and I came to the venue early for a soundcheck which lasted for two hours with him going [imitating sound of drums] cos they were too dumb to get the mixing right. The whole thing was called Revolution and it was like a left-wing Antifa thing but they didn’t manage to get many people there. We played in front of 20 exchange students on this huge stage in this stupid punk place just for these 20 people. After 20 minutes we played all our songs and we said “We have no more songs” and then they freaked out “You were supposed to play for an hour” and so we just left.

 

And best show so far?

Lorenz: We had a lot of nice shows and concerts. I really liked the concert in Hamburg at Dockville festival last year.

 

The first time I saw you was about two, three years ago at an Open Mic at Madame Claude. You recently played at Festaal Kreuzberg. Does that change anything for you?

Oskar: We don’t see a difference. I mean we see a difference but we still do that kind of stuff. We would play at an open mic anytime.

And you still do?

Oskar: Yeah we still do that. For example last week I played a show in Hamburg at a small bar, just me on the guitar. It’s nice to do both.

What are the differences between big shows and small shows for you guys?

Oskar: When we started playing festivals last year it was really weird because we had to adjust to the super quick (set up). The first show we did was the opening of the Immergut festival and I’ve never been to a festival before. We had to learn how to play for so many people and then you really kind of have to make everything bigger and more obvious. Whereas when you play for 20 people they get everything just from being so close to you.

 

How did you get you start working with Staatsakt?

Lorenz: I heard that the boss of Staatsakt was looking for German bands. He was searching for some good Berlin or German bands and two friends of his said “Yeah, Chuckamuck check them out”.

Oskar: It was a kind of misunderstanding. It turned out he was looking for a band for a compilation or something and they were trying to see if there are any garage bands in Berlin. For some weird reason there are not that many good bands in Berlin except for Bikes and us, and the Puppetmastaz were really cool, but I don’t think they play anymore. He emailed me “Do you want to come by our label someday. I have big plans” and I mistook him for another guy and so one day I went to the office and since I thought it would be another guy I just came to there and sat down in a chair. Everybody in the office was looking at me and someone eventually asked “Oscar what’s up?”. It was a weird situation and then this other guy luckily also had a job for us, he wanted us to play for the Berlin Festival after show party. After I left the bureau I got an email “Were you there? What’s wrong?”. We almost didn’t get our record deal. I had to go to the bureau again and I sorted it out that the guy who would be Maurice was actually called Jens, and Jens wasn’t Maurice.

But you ended up getting two things, that’s great.

Oskar: That was actually one of our most horrible gigs, since you asked us. This is the first time we played in Festaal and we thought that it would be the coolest thing to open the after show party at the Berlin Festival but of course we played at 9 o’clock for nobody. Also during the show I did something stupid. I jumped off stage and then I couldn’t climb back. I looked totally dumb trying to climb back on stage with my guitar, squeezing my balls. It was really embarrassing.

You managed in the end somehow?

Oskar: To get back on stage? Yes.

But not in a manly way?

Oskar: No definitely not in a masculine fashion. More like douche bag fashion, I guess.

 

You’re planning to release a mix-tape. Tell me about that.

Oskar: We want to release a kind of mix-tape, like a download CD, an EP. We started making demos for the second album and we mixed the demos up with old recordings that we made. One of the things about Chuckamuck is that we do everything ourselves, the videos, artwork, posters, music, everything ourselves. So when we started out we were recording ourselves and we have a really clear idea of how we want to sound so we mixed up all these the new recordings and then we thought “Ah that’s kind of really nice and it would be nice to put this out for free”. If we were to put it out with the label the effort to make it professionally would not be worth it because the sound is so weird. We thought that it’s going to be interesting for a smaller group of people. You can’t really play it on the radio because it’s recorded with a computer and it’s really low-fi, but we really like it and we know that a lot of our fans would really like it too. To make the waiting until the real album shorter we decided to put this really nice little EP in March.

When you say mix-tape you literally mean a tape?

Oskar: No, no. It’s going to be just a download. It will be an album with 8 or 9 songs. We’re not really sure yet and if you listen to it on the internet, you can look at the artwork and you can download the whole thing. We also want to make a physical copy on vinyl for a small label but maybe just 500 (copies) or something.

So it’s a sort of gift to the public.

Oskar: The thing with Chuckamuck is that we’re not playing music to get money, but just have fun and spread the music. When we played shows last year we also noticed that people went most crazy when they knew the songs. They knew how to dance, knew the breaks and everything so we think that if we just put out this album and people know the songs also the shows are gonna be much more fun.

 

What are going to be the major differences between your previous album and the one you’re working on now?

Oskar: The difference between the old album and the new album is that there is going to be a 50/50 thing with the lyrics. 50% is going to be Lorenz and 50% I. On the first album I wrote more. Also we won’t have so many English songs cos all the English songs are just fake songs maybe (we’ll keep) one or something.

Lorenz: It’s like fantasy English.

Oskar: And then on the second album we want every song to sound specifically different from each other. They all should have a different feel and a different theme. Whereas the first album it’s just kind of us live.

 
Why is chaos great?

Oskar: I don’t know because everything else is so boring all the time. Everything organised is boring, most of the time, if you know what’s gonna happen. It also becomes a stick sometimes when we just play the cleanest shows but people expect you to be chaotic or something. A lot of people say that the bands should always give everybody what they want.
(Chaos), is just really fun, trust me. It’s really fun but you can’t force it. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It has to be the right time.

 
Plans for the future?

Oskar: Yeah definitely. We want to move to Switzerland, make a movie, open up a gallery, make our own studio. We want to become more independent and release our friends’ music and stuff. For example this year we want to have our own stage at the Fête de la Musique, somewhere. We had this here and it was really nice. The police came because we played outside, so we closed the door and played in the garden but the police came again. Luckily the guy who’s living above our rehearsal room, this real nice dude, a punk who was studying law at the time −

− as you do when you’re a punk.

Oskar: He was studying law to fight back. He screamed at the police and made them go away and we continued playing in the garden. And then we want to travel the whole world too.

 

Oskar, you play with Jimmy Trash’s band. How did you meet him?

Oskar: We met at a Chuckamuck show, at the second Chuckamuck show. He was friends with our now bass player Jan, aka Mohair Sam, who couldn’t make it unfortunately today. Jimmy became one of my best friends. He also wrote a Chuckamuck song Alcohol.
Do you have any other projects?

Lorenz: I have a small project. A one man band just with a drum kit and guitar and vocals, and with Oskar − ah no, it’s a secret.

Oskar: The secret is that there is a band called the Spongees that we know. We really like them and they hang out with us sometimes. They sound a lot like the Chuckamuck actually. They are also one of the few bands in Berlin that are kind of cool.

Chuckamuck is Oskar (vocals, guitar), Jiles (drums), Lorenz (vocals, guitar), Mohair Sam (bass).

Before Chuckamuck head off on a mini-tour of Germany in April, they’ll make a surprise appearance at Naherholung Sternchen on Saturday, 31st March. Their mix-tape is out on March 18^th.

Photo & Interview: Olga Baczynska

Reach out and touch somebody…

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