What is your name and role within the band?
HEYY! We are Pom Poko: Ola Djupvik (drums), Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit (vocals), Jonas
Krøvel (bass) and Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne (guitar).
How did you start?
Jonas, our bassplayer, got an event gig at a small literature festival here in Trondheim, where they wanted a jazz quartet to play a small set. We didn’t really think much about it until a few days before the gig, when Jonas said “I want to play some punk” and we wrote lots of fun punky songs really fast and played them really loud and quite sloppily. The organizers were moderately happy with our set, and Pom Poko (or Typical Girl, as our name was for that show only) was born.
Where are you based?
We are based in Trondheim (Norway) right now.
Please give an example of your music writing process?
We always write all our songs together, so every song usually starts with one of us having one idea and then we jam together on it until something cool happens. The lyrics are almost always just improvised stuff that ends up being a song. The process from a small idea via a lot of stupid joking to a finished song usually takes more or less one night.
What are you working on right now?
Currently we’re rehearsing for our upcoming gigs this summer and also writing some new songs. We’re also working with a great visual artist to make some killer visual stuff for our live shows.
What is your gear setup?
We have quite a basic setup with vocals, guitar, bass and drums. Ragnhild has a cool chorus pedal-thingy that she uses sometimes, and Martin uses lots of distortion and fuzz pedals together with an octave pedal and some new wave-ish delay stuff. Jonas basically just uses his bass and some really noisy fuzz pedals, and Ola uses bad cymbals with tape and as few other drums as possible.
What do you like to do outside of music and does it affect your music?
Ola likes basketball, Ragnhild likes to sew, Martin likes cooking … and Jonas is studying to be a doctor. It doesn’t really affect our music except that we like our lives to be fun, so we want our music to be fun too. And maybe health consciuos.
How would you describe your music genre?
We would describe it as a really talented kindergarten class finally being allowed to play the music they always dreamed someone else would make.
Do you know any music theory?
Yes we do, all of us have studied jazz music and some of us even learned some big band arranging back in the day. But we like the theory “if it’s cool and fun it’s probably good” more than any other theory about music.
What are your plans for the future?
We are gonna play some kickass shows this summer and keep recording and making songs, and release some new stuff over the summer. We’re also planning on going back to UK for a few dates this fall which will be awesome!
How did you get into music?
We all started with music when we were quite small, and have been involved in everything from tensing bands to blues bands and classical music. There were more or less random things that made all of us start playing and singing.
What are you listening to at the moment?
Right now we’re listening to for instance: Great Walnuts Yonder, Milo, J. S. Bach’s concert for oboe and violin, Vulfpeck, Yellowjackets, Oumou Sangaré, Cashmere Cat’s new album and Moudou Ould Mattalla.
Who are your top 5 influences and icons?
We love lots of artists and bands from a lot of different styles and places in the world, but some of them are: Oumou Sangaré, Deerhoof, Captain Beefheart, Vulfpeck and John Coltrane.
When are you playing next?
Our next show is at a festival in Norway called “Vervenfestivalen”, after that we’re going to Roskilde to play at the great Roskilde festival there.
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