You know that stereotypical vision of a German you have in your head? Straight-laced, ultra conformist, following rules to the letter? Well, according to Dave Laney, founder and frontman of the Hamburg-by-way-of-Chicago punk band Auxes, you’ve got it all backwards.
“That is one thing that is pretty strong in the German psyche,” Laney says, calling from his home in his adopted country’s second largest city. “It’s not so critical about how somebody looks or what they’re doing all the time. It lends itself to a kind of freedom. People don’t have to turn 30 and have a job at a bank. It’s more open to alternative ways of living.”
It’s perfect for Laney. He’s been playing music for the better part of 20 years now, and he says he feels no pressure to be living “the so-called adult life.”
Laney says that the non-judgemental nature of German society has helped the European nation become a bastion for artists, noting that his new home not only boasts a world-renowned electronic music scene, but also a thriving punk circuit.
Upon moving to Germany, Laney—who made the leap to be closer to the woman he eventually married—fell in with a collective of like-minded punk rock devotees. They regularly threw DIY shows and worked together to keep the scene alive.
Through the connections he made in the collective he eventually met musicians to play in his project Auxes—which he had started in 2007 with the goal of creating a “band that couldn’t be broken up.”
“The idea with the band name, Auxes—it’s short for auxiliary, and it’s also the name for a special component on a mixing console,” he says. “It would always be a band where the members could revolve. As egomaniacal as that sounds, I wanted to start the band in a way that challenged the ideas of what a band could be.”
And for the first four years of Auxes, that’s exactly how it worked. All told, some 15 to 20 people have helped Laney perform his jagged, post-punk tunes, which recall the gruffness and ferocity of Titus Andronicus crossed with the bright indie-punk bounce of Modest Mouse and shimmering melodic sensibility of early Built to Spill and Dinosaur Jr.
These days, though, Laney has firmed up Auxes lineup, which he is bringing to the Caravan Lounge this Monday. The trio is currently touring behind their August 2014 release, the energetic Boys In My Head. They share the bill with White Lies from L.A., Helen Blood, Oxygen Destroyer and VWLS.
Listen to Boys In My Head:
Boys In My Head by Auxes
Auxes play Caravan Lounge on May 30 at 9pm. More info.
