Following several years in the underground, the band Riffelsyndikatet (The Riffle Syndicate) has now taken aim at a wider audience – but solely on its own terms.
By Torben Thorsø
Translated by Frederikke Lindholm
“It is all kicking off soon and sure, we have started practising and stuff” says Nicklas Burman with a big grin.
He is both singer and songwriter in Riffelsyndikatet, and his statement is indicative of the band’s initially informal approach to building its career.
Actually, Riffelsyndikatet has existed for several years under the name ‘A. P. Møller Band’: however, at that time guitars were tuned and drum heads tightened only for the sake of playful partying. Before he is supposed to play with Riffelsyndikatet on Pavillion Junior, singer and songwriter Nicklas Burman is at the pub MC Kluud and explains over a beer how the band members have become more serious about their music.
The décor at the pub is marked by as much wear and tear as Riffelsyndikatet’s classic formula of straightforward Rock’n’Roll combined with Danish lyrics that are not afraid to address the social imbalance of society. This formula may have a limited audience, but the most important thing is not necessarily selling records, and Nicklas Burman continues:
“We might be an interlude in Danish rock history but I think we are an alright interlude at that. The most important thing is that we want to create music that we can define ourselves. Then comes the question of whether it has a potential audience“.
The social imbalance
The band has once labelled its music as ‘neo-protest folk song’ but that does not mean that its concerts are all about political preaching.
“We are not a manifesto-band trying to tell people what to do, but there are two sides to our music. One part is our fundamental love of music which is characterised by our approach to simple Rock’n’Roll, and the other part is characterised by lyrics of a socially aware nature in which I can express my frustration and anger with some of the things in society.” He continues:
“In that way we have phases where we go from being angry young men to being bitter old farts”.
The singer hopes that the old farts’ music is able to stir something in the young audience that is often to be seen at their concerts. He stresses:
“On one hand you want to encourage young people to stand up and fight, but they have got to figure out for themselves what exactly they are fighting for”.
On their own terms
The band views its Roskilde concert as an opportunity to gain recognition but it will not consider changing its formula for success.
”It is our chance to gain a wide audience but it is damn well only happening on our terms. We do not want to be a product that is being shaped like others want it to be” says Nicklas Burman who is not expecting that to become an issue at all.
“We are so lucky that we have painted ourselves into a corner, and in that way we have very clearly declared what we stand for”, he says with a smirk and adds that Riffelsyndicatet would rather play an honest concert for a limited audience than sell out for the sake of success.
