We caught up with Swedish rockers Normandie prior to their Reading Festival debut, and with their new album White Flag due for release next month via Easy Life Records we had plenty to talk about!
You’re playing The Pit on this lovely rainy Sunday at Reading Festival, are you looking forward to it?
Anton: If someone would ask us do you want to play the Main Stage today or play a tent I would definitely say the tent. That can bring us a lot of new people who haven’t seen or heard us before!
Phillip: Leeds was awesome and I have even higher expectations for Reading. It’s going to be good fun!
Have you seen any bands this weekend?
Anton: Yesterday we had the day off. We saw some bands on Friday in Leeds. Yesterday was our big day off. We watched Post Malone, Nothing But Thieves, Travis Scott.
Phillip: Some Fall Out Boy too.
Your new record White Flag is released soon, can you tell us some more about it?
A: We released our debut album Inguz in 2016 and we wrote this album since then.
P: It’s been a long time in the making.
A: It feels like we’ve put more effort into it as it’s been two years in the making.
Are there any ‘skip to’ tracks on the release?
P: I like most of the songs on the new records, we took away the ones we didn’t like.
A: We wrote a bunch of songs!
So you’re ready for the next release?
A: We’ll find a way to rewrite them into something better and take the best parts. Some of the songs we chose not to put on the record are some of my favourites, but not the entire songs.
[Lucas appears coffee in hand and is caught up on the question topic.]
Lucas: Yeah I do, Dead.
A: We only talked about the songs we didn’t choose!
L: Oh, I pick Dead. Dead is fun.
A: White Flag and The Bell.
You supported Yellowcard on their last ever tour, how was it?
P: That was just me but it was amazing. I listened to Yellowcard a lot when I was 16/17. To do the final tour with them, we didn’t know about the final tour with them when we got the offer. We just got the tour. That was amazing but when we found out it was the final tour that was mind-blowing. So so good.
Are there any bands you’d love to support?
P: Muse.
A: Nothing But Thieves would be cool as well.
P: They’re up and coming in a big way.
L: I’d say Jimmy Eat World.
We’re at Reading Festival, what would be your festival anthem?
A: The Anthem by Good Charlotte of course!
L: I would actually say Jimmy Eat World – Sweetness.
That’s a good one.
P: Everlong by Foo Fighters.
Finally, what’s on the cards for the rest of 2018 and 2019?
A: We’re going to do a lot of touring this fall, we have the album out in October. We’re probably going to do a headline tour early 2019.
P: That’s all we know for now. Let’s see where it goes from there!
Interview by: Nicola Craig
