As a pandemic put everything on hold literally everywhere in the world, many bands struggled to find a new path and cope with changes in the music industry, not to mention dealing with unexpected challenges such as canceled shows/tours, travel restrictions, and personal illness. The Foreign Resort, from Copenhagen, was no different. On the eve of this interview, the band was driving to a club in Frankfurt to play a show with Empathy Test after a long two-year postponement. Now, the band is getting back to some form of normal activity and exciting things are happening. Frontman Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen was kind enough to catch us up on what the band has been up to and what is planned for the coming months.
DW: Thank you for speaking with us! You've had some changes in the band's lineup in the last year. Can you tell us more? Introduce us to your newest member!
THE FOREIGN RESORT: We have a new drummer! His name is Alioscha and we are very excited to have him on board for our future live shows as well as writing and recording new songs. Alioscha comes from the band The Natural Disasters where he plays guitar. After Morten left, we played a couple of tours as a duo with programmed drums. A new experience for us, which worked well, mostly because we didn’t have to cancel any planned shows, but also because we could add a new dimension to our live set with different drums to the different songs. But as Steffan puts it, “We’re a rock band, we need a real drummer." This is very true. A drummer adds energy to our music and to our stage performance and a drummer is entertaining to watch. Even though we had the stage sound cranked as a duo, it was somehow never loud enough without drums. So we’re very pleased with being a 3-piece again and ready to tour Europe and North America.
DW: You signed with Canadian label Artoffact for your most recent albums, Outnumbered, in April of 2019 and more recently in November of 2021, OutRemixed. What can you tell us about your experience with this label? How did this partnership come about?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: We were introduced to Artoffact Records by Jason Corbett from ACTORS. We are very happy to be part of the Artoffact family with so many great bands. The people who run Artoffact are super nice and straightforward, which means we know what we deal with and why decisions are being made. If we ask a question, we get a thorough answer. And let’s not forget that Artoffact has helped us to reach even more people.
DW: Tell us about these remixes on OutRemixed! Hapax, Traitrs, Creux Lies, and Bootblacks to name a few. How has it been to collaborate with so many amazing artists?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: It was an interesting and super nice process to be working with so many of our friends. We know and have met in person with all the remixers on the album. Fun fact: We expected the remixes to sound like the bands who did the remix, but this was actually not the case. Instead, the remixes took different directions sounding sometimes like bands that the remixers are into, which was an interesting and great surprise. As a bonus, we are now playing our song “Send Your Heart to the Riot” in Creux Lies’ remix version. We have so to say remixed their remix back to fit a live version.
DW: Can we talk for a moment about the pandemic in Denmark? How are things going? How has the band been coping?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: The pandemic made Denmark shut down like many other countries. But since January 31st this year we do not have any restrictions at all and live music can be enjoyed like it was 2019 again. We managed to keep rehearsing during the lockdowns and when things opened a bit in Europe, we played private house shows for a limited amount of people in Germany. People were really grateful for us playing these shows and we were grateful for being able to play and still get out there. A lot of people did not have this opportunity. At this moment Europe is back to normal with a person here or there catching Covid. But all TFR members have been infected with Covid in 2022, so we’re immune for now and can tour as much as we want. Indeed a nice feeling of freedom as opposed to being trapped due to restrictions. We do understand that these precautions were necessary, but still, it was frustrating to have show after show postponed or even canceled. We are definitely ready to play as many shows as possible now.
DW: During this pandemic, you also released the Rabbit Hole EP with two new songs as well as some excellent covers - Stevie Nicks, Real Life, and Corey Hart. How did that come about? What drew you to cover these particular songs?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: The Rabbit Hole EP consists of songs previously recorded, except for our cover of “Send Me an Angel / Sunglasses at Night”, which is a cover song we have played from time to time since 2015, where we, as part of our Halloween show in Seattle, were asked to cover an 80s hit. We decided to record the song as part of our appearance at Gothicat Festival in April 2020. “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks was a cover we did as a duet with Anna Bouchard from the Texas band Drowner. We performed the song live at SXSW back in 2012 and also recorded the song. Fun times to work and perform with Anna.
DW: We see some US and North American tour dates being announced! What have been your favorite places in the US to visit and to play? Where haven't you played yet that you would like to?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: We are indeed going back to the States this fall! Our double headliner tour with HAPAX kicks off in Boston on September 22, which is a great city to start in. We haven’t played in Boston since 2017, I think. Feels like forever, so it will be great to be back AND we will be playing with André Obin and having DJ Brian L spin music between the sets. It's a privilege for us. It's hard to talk about favorite cities. Every city we have played in has its own thing that we appreciate. The list of cities we haven’t played yet is long, so its also hard to name a particular city we would like to go to. We will however play in Florida for the first time on our upcoming tour when we perform at Absolution Fest 2022 in Tampa! Always great to see a new state in The States.
DW: Do you have some new music in the works? When could we expect a new release?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: We are indeed working on new songs. The writing process has taken a bit longer than we expected since Alioscha needed to be introduced to a pretty big back catalogue. But at this point, we have begun rehearsing new songs alongside adding more back catalogue. Not sure exactly when we will release a new album, but we will most likely release a new single this fall and a full album in 2023.
DW: Thanks again for speaking with us. Lastly, what's a piece of advice you'd give to new artists who are just starting out?
THE FOREIGN RESORT: Don’t drink too much. Be persistent and keep pushing to get out and play shows and meet people. But most important: Be nice to the people you meet out there.
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