Construction-and-Destruction-Band indieberlin interview

Construction & Destruction in indieBerlin Interview – Bruised Elbows and Ego

Construction & Destruction are live with The Burning Hell in Marie Antoinette on 2nd November – behold! The indieBerlin interview!

indieberlin: How did you come up with the name Construction & Destruction?

Construction & Destruction: We had just bought an affordable old house by the sea and had to figure out how to keep it from falling apart! At the same time, we were starting a band together. So we found we were building and breaking apart structures, both actually and in song, and thought Construction & Destruction reflected this well. And, it’s alliterative: our initials are C and D, too: Coco and Dave.

+++ Read our indieBerlin review of The Burning Hell live in Berlin +++

indieberlin: How did you get together as a band?

Construction & Destruction: We (Coco & Dave) first saw each other on a bus to a rave in Canada in about 1994, and have now been together for more than half of our lives. Construction & Destruction started in 2005 when we moved to our isolated house near the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada, and really only had each other to jam with..

indieberlin: How does the songwriting process work for you / in your band?

Construction & Destruction: We write songs individually and together. Sometimes the words come first, sometimes the sound.. We love using unconventional sounds (sewing machines, printers, metal grinders, animals) and subjects (female pharaohs, particle science..). There are only ever two of us involved in making our music—we play, arrange, and record everything ourselves. We find it very freeing to have just the two of us present in the studio..

indieberlin: If your music was a movie, which genre would it be in?

Construction & Destruction: Mockumentary Noir! Made with an Indie budget..

indieberlin: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Construction & Destruction: Everything we encounter is fodder for song! Events in our lives; books and music of course. But also archeology, geography (fossils and sea!), science and physics—we love interesting historical narratives and learning about people from the past. Weather, too. And animals. And feelings. Lots of feelings.

indieberlin: What was the last concert you went to?

Construction & Destruction: We were recently at Sappyfest, a wonderful music and art festival in New Brunswick that’s been put on by friends of ours. It takes place in a small town: they shut the main street down to cars and put up a tent and invite really stellar and intriguing music-makers to play.

indieberlin: What was your biggest stage fuck-up?

Construction & Destruction: Coco’s drum stool broke under her once as she was playing and she fell backward. Bruised elbow and ego!

indieberlin: How do you feel about covering a song?

Construction & Destruction: Good! Sometimes, strangely, we feel more liberated covering a song than when we play our own.. There are so many songs to discover—so many hidden songs! Uncovering new angles in known songs is often exciting..

indieberlin: In ten years you look back to today and think:_____________

Construction & Destruction: We all should have left more trees!

indieberlin: Do you dream in colour or black and white?

Construction & Destruction: Colour!