I’m a huge Defend Moscow fan, so today’s video of the day is their forthcoming single, “Die Tonight”, a moody affair for their debut video. Also, enjoy the B-side, “Sign of Life” below.

MP3: Defend Moscow – Sign of Life

We’ve already written a fair bit about Defend Moscow already, so I’ll keep this short.

Download this. It’s perfect pop. It’s a B-Side to their forthcoming single, Die Tonight which is out on Monday, but it’s pretty amazing, and was featured in last week’s NME as a track you should download.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on, give it a go and leave us a comment below to let us know what you think.

MP3: Defend Moscow – Sign of Life

We’ve already covered our love for Defend Moscow here on TGTF before, with their amazing pop that’s more intelligent than your average McFly song.

Time for their second single, “Die Tonight” explores the thoughts that would go through the minds of people informed that a nuclear attack had been launched and certain death was mere minutes away. The B-side isn’t much happier – “Signs of Life” tells the story of sitting beside someone on life support. Who ever said that pop had to be all sunny stories of sex and drugs? That’s not to say that we dislike the tracks, no, far from that – it’s refreshing to be something different to the Katy Perry’s of this world.

Never before did we think that a hook of “and if we run all day we’ll still be far too late / So we know we’re gonna die tonight / The darkness overrides the night” would have such potential, but Defend Moscow do just that with the ace vocals of Jon and Sofie combining to be, well, ace.

Catchy, it’ll have you dancing away like there’s no tomorrow with the buckets of synths, both tracks recalling Depeche Mode, New Order and Brian Eno, but updated to the 00’s.

“Die tonight” comes out on 22nd June on Kids Records. Make sure you get it.

As many of you probably already know, at TGTF we love our pop. We introduced you all to the greatness of Defend Moscow a few weeks back, and were fortunate enough to be able to catch up with Dave, Defend Moscow’s able guitarist about the band and just how such a cosmopolitan mix of people met.

For those who are a bit slow off the mark, how would you describe your sound?
It is electropop with a dash of indie, and a zest of dance thrown in.

How does a band like you, from all over Europe, meet exactly? Surely such great pop doesn’t come from a chance encounter in a bar one night?
We won’t lie – it was pretty random! Myself (Dave, guitar) and Jon (vocals) have been mates since we were about 5 and have always made music together. We did indie and rock bands and even a funk-rap collective (the band the Beastie Boys could have been), but our first love has always been great pop, so we started writing pop songs about 2 years ago. I then met Sofie (vocals) in Bergen through work, who was into the same stuff as us, and had always wanted to come to London and sing pop songs influenced by Russian history (one part of that is a lie). We then met Adam (drummer) through a classic-style advertisement (we met up for the first time at Keele Services where I ascertained that he wasn’t a dodgy random, and even better was very handsome). Finally, Rick (bass) was assisting mixing one of our early demos, we liked him and his extreme Frenchness, found out he could play bass and so was the final piece of the jigsaw.

You’ve toured with some interesting bands – Team Waterpolo, Sam Sparro and Wombats etc. Who was your favourite? Any stand out moments on tour with any of them?
I have to say they were all brilliant. Team Waterpolo were very genuine, nice lads, and have a similar pop sensibility to us. Sam Sparro was a real surprise as we all expected him to be a bit of an idiot after seeing him on telly, but he was actually a lovely guy and made a real effort with us, his band were also lovely and he was amazing live – a bonafied soul singer with some oustanding backing musicians. Plus it was our first experience of big crowds (Newcastle Academy was 2500 people). The Wombats I’d known for a while, and are consistently brilliant live, and have some mental fans, so it was great to play to such an enthusiastic crowd.

All your songs are great pop songs – like McFly for adults. How do you start the songwriting process? Lyrical concept? A riff? Turn of phrase? Or a drug fueled orgy that gives you a hazy idea for a great song?
I have to say I’m a bit of a musical magpie – I listen to a lot of stuff, old and new, and pick out the best bits, and use them as a starting point. Or simply use a great song as a starting point (for tempo, feel etc), or use it to inspire me to try and write something as good. Fortunately none of our songs end up sounding anything like the original inspiration so it works well. I do the backing, then Jon comes in and we do the melody and lyrics together. For example, we have a song called Listen which was my attempt to try and write something as good as Call The Shots by Girls Aloud (I failed, but hopefully came close), and a song called When You Wake was my attempt to try and write a song with the energy and brilliance of Mr Brightside by the Killers (same result!).

All of our lyrics are bitter/sweet – I love the idea of perfect, shiny pop with a seedy/unhappy undercurrent that the Pet Shop Boys do so well.That’s where the Russian/Communist thing comes in – Communism is a perfect, utopian idea on paper, but in reality, there’s an undercurrent of greed, violence, and failure. The human condition is us aiming for something perfect, and either failing, or getting it slightly wrong, and that’s what our songs (hopefully) chime with.

What have you all been listening to lately? Do you all like similar stuff, or is there an argument for who’s music gets played in the studio / tour van / dressing room?
We listen to all kinds of stuff – Sofie worships Britney but also loves stuff like Lykke Li, Rick worships Guns n Roses and Michael Jackson but is also big into stuff like M83, Adam is a closet jazzer and has had Toto and Dave Matthews Band on recently, and myself and Jon always reach for Lionel Richie and Take That when times are tough. Collectively we’re all into Ladyhawke, The Saturdays, Fleetwood Mac, Pet Shop Boys, New Order…..I also love that new Empire of the Sun track…..I could go on!

Defend Moscow’s perfectly preened pop, colourfully tainted with a quirky electro edge is set to soar the airwaves this year. Like so many artists out there right now – such as Little Boots and Frankmusik – Defend Moscow are passionate about nostalgic 80s electro-pop. They cite everyone from Human League, Kylie and Frankie Goes to Hollywood as just some of their vintage influences. Looking for a more contemporary take on the band? Think chart-frequenters Alphabeat, only with a little more spice.

You only have to read the band’s MySpace blog to realise that Defend Moscow aren’t just your run of the mill, chart-friendly electro-pop group making hits about love and heartache. Lying behind hit track ‘Manifesto’ sits a much more deeper meaning. The song, set to be released next month, is infact about the Bolshevik revolutionary, Leon Trotsky and his downfall in the Soviet Union. Pretty intellectual, huh?

The band, who’s routes lay scattered across Europe (vocalist, Sofie Storaas is from Norway, while other band members call everywhere from London to Paris home), have bagged support slots with Sam Sparro, Sneaky Sound System, Team Waterpolo (who we caught them supporting last October) and The Wombats. This year, Defend Moscow are preparing to embark on their own major tour, but until then, you can currently check them out at a few scattered club dates through January and February. See their MySpace for more details, and while you’re there, check out four super awesome tracks the band have uploaded, including single ‘Manifesto’ I told you about earlier.

The band have recently expressed their hopes to lead an electro-pop revolution. Listening to them – it sounds very much possible that they could achieve just that this 2009.

Ever since Academy Music Group have taken over Oxford’s Zodiac venue, I’ve had the chance to catch some amazing bands there – Wombats, Delays, Friendly Fires and tonight, Team Waterpolo. Granted, it wasn’t sold out – far from it – but they still put on a fast, frantic and pretty darned good show.

Defend Moscow opened up the evening, with glorious tunes that reminded me of a mixture between Canada’s Stars, Denmark’s Alphabeat and a few other bands that I can’t quite get my fingers on right now. Surprisingly good for a support act, they really are a band that I’ll have to check out again.

20 minutes later and Team Waterpolo come out – ready and raring to go. Opening with their introductory song “We’re Team Waterpolo”, they plunged their way through a 45 minute set of songs that are just begging to be heard by a bigger audience than the one they got this cold Sunday night.

“We came here to Oxford on the NME tour and just had to come back… you people are gorgeous. We were on the bus on the way in just looking at people thinking “wow”!” joked frontman Fred Davis after their first song. “Sorry if we look a bit sweaty – we got like no sleep last night as me and Lex had a bit of a heavy one!” To be honest though Fred, we’d never have noticed if you hadn’t have told us.

Current single “So Called Summer” was the penultimate song of the night, almost inspiring a mass singalong as Ruggero Lorenzini let off small cannons of confetti. Closing the set with a chaotic “Sink This Ship”, triumphant Team Waterpolo certainly won their match, but will they be back for the new championship next year? Only time will tell.

After the jump: Photos.

Read the rest of this entry »