We are local music, the German art students, brand new, unreleased, never in your ear hole.
That was punk rock car.
And it was pretty cool.
We're going to talk with the guys from German art students.
It's just a second.
But first, I got to remind you, live in the layers, coming up in just a couple of minutes,
rocker.
I'm excited.
The mighty L. Donk is live in the layer tonight, presented by the Aaron Weber group.
That's right, Jimmy.
I can't wait.
I'll give you a lot of fun.
Jimmy, the German art students, that crazy pop punky band from Madison, they're formed
in 1997.
But Jimmy, it turns out that none of them are German born painters endlessly attending the
University of Wisconsin.
Big news.
They are merely four talented musicians who've managed to stay friends after being in a band
for 27 years.
The German art students are playing with the echo rays at the bur oak in Madison this
Friday, January 12th.
And here in the studio with us tonight, to tell us about their secret to immortality,
our Germany brand new ball one and guitarist Kirkwall of the German art students.
Guten Tag and welcome to Max Ink Radio.
Guten Tag.
Thank you for having us.
Well, thank you for the Guten Tag.
We're vampires.
That's why we are.
We have immortality.
Well, you look good for being vampires.
We do okay.
I'm glad there's glass between us.
Yes.
You can't see my reflection.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, thanks for coming down guys.
The German art students formed in 1997 and after 27 years, the original band is playing
today and being together for 27 years is one thing.
But all original members tell us a little of the band's backstory and what it feels like
to be jamming with the same lineup all these years later.
So we mark our beginning when the four of us got together in 1997, but there wasn't
an incarnation of the band before that that was just Kirk and Andy, our bass player, and
then they had a bunch of exploding drummers.
Yeah, our other drummers exploded.
We don't snuck about spinal tapish.
But yeah, when Annelise and I joined pretty close to each other and after Andy and Kirk
had already written a few songs but hadn't really played out too much, just a little bit.
And so, but the four of us have been together since 1997 and I don't know why.
I just think it's, you know, like most bands, we had our little bit where we thought we
might make it with air quotes, but then we realized that we just were in a band because
we wanted to have fun and we liked each other and we liked hanging out and we liked writing
fun songs.
And like Richard Garrett, we have no place else to go.
Amazing.
So there's a lot of other band.
Well, I wouldn't say a lot.
There's a few other bands in Madison that have been along as long as you all.
I think maybe Eldonc might be one of them, right?
Our first show was with Eldonc.
No kidding.
Yes, yes.
It's so weird that we're in the same room together.
Your first show ever was with Eldonc.
Okay, it's correct.
I just blew my mind away right there.
I know.
Okay, it makes a perfect sense.
How about how about Sunspot?
How many shows have you done with Sunspot?
We actually never played with Sunspot.
Get out of here, reaching out or the kissers.
I think there should be like a long-term Madison rock and, you know, rock and roller band
thing where you just have bands.
There's a litmus test.
I don't think we ever played with mama dig downs.
Or mama dig downs.
Yeah, don't have to be a matinee show, but I was still standing with me.
No, we have played with the gomers, however.
Yes, they are actually have been around longer than us.
But yeah, how many times they broke up for a little while, they're not current.
How many times, if ever were you on the cover of Maximum Ink?
I don't think so.
On the cover.
I used to write for Maximum Ink.
That's how I first qualified the rocker.
But I don't think we're ever on the cover, but we definitely had show reviews and stuff.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, all kinds of breads covered.
Did you think the band would last this long?
I'm not sure we ever thought about it.
No, I don't know.
I was hoping, you know, I'd be playing in the smashing pumpkins by now.
But he's sending his demo tape off.
I am going to send my demo tape to what's Jimmy Chamberlain.
Yeah, hopefully the drummer will like it.
I'm hoping the drummer will like it.
What, what do you think is your secret to being a band?
I mean, many bands only last like say a year or two years.
What's the secret to your immortality?
I think it's expectation level.
Like if you have like a hot young gun who's like, you guys, we got to make it.
I'm sending our demos everywhere.
You know, you know, like I had an old friend say, oh, no, you have the dream.
Oh, I feel bad for you.
Oh, yeah.
So, so our expectation was, this was like our, it's like our model railroading night.
We just get together and this is going to be what we do.
I also think that there's no leader in our band.
We're kind of a band of equals.
We all write.
We all sing.
We all kind of do, we book, we all book shows.
We all do kind of everything.
There's not a star in our band necessarily.
And so I think that really helps.
You know, I kind of made a joke on some of the social media stuff I sent out today
about how, you know, we split our millions equally, just like REM and you too.
And that helps with longevity.
But, you know, there's kind of a grain of truth there that, you know, word, there's not
Kirk and the German art students.
There's not an Elise and the German art students.
We're just the junior German art students.
And we all kind of have an equal share of the band.
And we're just all friends.
And every time we get together for practice, we laugh.
We have so many laughs exactly what I was going to say that the comedy or the, you know,
the, the comedy relief in practice, right?
Even I show us what do you argue about?
What do we argue about that?
That eighth note was just terrible.
And it was a quarter long.
Oh my goodness.
What's the, it's ruined.
I want you to play the drums exactly this way.
Yeah, that's right.
That shuffle beat, I envisioned it being different and I'm going to play you a tape.
Let's, let's AB the drums from something that Johnny Cash's drummer did.
I don't know.
No, we're not like that.
Let me ask you this.
What, and this is not on the script here.
I'm, I always do this.
Let's go off script.
Uh, what is a fact about the German art students that one of your fans may not know about?
Like, uh, you know, there's, there's, you have your fan base.
What's the, what's the fact they don't know about?
I went to an AMway meeting.
I'm sorry.
It was weird.
I felt dirty and I needed a shower.
But yeah, I went to an AMway convention in St. Paul in 1996.
I think that's what convinced me to, you know, play in the German art students, actually.
Okay.
Thank you, DeVos.
Right.
You helped me out.
Wow.
What, tell, tell us something about, um, Madison's music scene around the time the band was starting up.
And what's different that you see in today's scene?
I mean, what was it like way back in the, the late 90s, the mid 90s in Madison?
It's, it's really hard for me to say.
I just remember in general, music got really dark with like when you had like the whole
Marilyn Manson and nine-inch nails thing going on kind of globally and stuff.
So it's kind of like, let's do something on a smaller scale and like Andy and I played
in a grunge band prior to that.
So it's kind of, let's, let's, um, let's not use distortion pedals.
There's just use a tasteful amount of overdrive instead.
Um, so, so I was kind of like, I don't know, it's just taking more of a guitar pop approach.
Andy tells a story about how he used to just go in on, for example, a Thursday afternoon
because he at O.K.'s Kerala, because he knew Kathy was booking that day.
And so he would just walk into O.K.'s at four PM and say, Hey, Kathy, what dates
you got open because we'd like to play a show and you know, something like that
doesn't really happen anymore.
It's like social media.
But yeah, Kathy had her actual handwritten calendar there and she said, well, I can put
you in on January 3rd.
So, yeah, at O.K.'s Kerala, Kurt Randall from Randall, Randy, I'm sorry,
man. That's okay.
From the German R students here with us, eight, four, four, nine, six, seven, two, seven, eight,
nine, the music we just heard is brand new, unreleased.
And I'm very excited about it.
We just heard a punk rock car. Great song.
Thank you, catchy.
And Andy, uh, wrote a lot of our new songs.
He kind of has been going through a very creative period, kind of, uh, a post
divorce creative period.
But it's really we're not the German archents.
We're the Andy Larson.
Yes.
We are.
Yeah.
I'd rather call it a band of money because I've, I've just been outed as, um, no, that.
So anyway, he, we write our songs in a lot of different ways.
Some songs, somebody comes in with, uh, I'm, you know, musical riff,
Kirk, Kirk often comes in with the music riff.
But by the time it gets put through kind of the blender of the German art
students, it always comes out different than it came in.
And so, yeah, I mean, punk rock car is about when Andy used to actually ride
around, uh, when he was a teenager with his friends and they had it.
He had a friend and it was the punk rock car because that's what they would put in
the cassette deck.
And I had a friend like that too.
And she had like a, a little green grum one.
And I think of punk rock car that you could assign that to her.
We all have a pale with the punk rock car.
That's like a, that's like a pacer with all the glass, right?
The thing that I like about that, the thing I like about that song, um, that kind
of evolved, as I was saying, is there's that kind of very poppy, fast beginning,
but then there's kind of that code at the end that's picked me up at past 10.
And that kind of, that wasn't originally part of the song.
And then it was kind of, we were just messing around and that kind of came
together. And it's like, wow, that's like, let's do that.
That, yeah.
And the tracks we're playing tonight, they're not mastered yet.
So we're getting a special preview of this new music from the German
our students.
So when, when is the album scheduled to be released?
And do you have any shows coming up?
OK, I'll take that one at a time.
So we've recorded six songs so far.
We actually are still working on,
kind of rehearsing four more, one of which is a three of those songs are three
parts north by northwest suite, based on the Alfred Hitchcock film.
And we hope to have those kind of together soon.
And then hopefully we'll record those by spring.
And so hopefully we'll have a full album out by summer.
Nice.
We look forward to hearing the, the, the master's version, but these, these
on master tracks sound pretty good, man.
And thank you.
And then we will be playing live next Friday, the 12th of January at the
burrow on Winnebago Street in Madison.
And echo rays will be opening.
Nice.
And that shows, I'm sorry, that was, I was, I was Friday, Friday, the 12th,
8 p.m.
All right.
Hey guys, thank you so much for coming in tonight.
We really appreciate you.
Thanks for having us.
Great to be here.
Wow, 27 years and a new album is coming out in 2024.
How exciting is it to be a fan of the German art students?
As you're, another song from them right now is called Diamonds and
Queens on Maxing Radio.
