PLAIINS: ‘One of our goals on the album was that you had to be able to laugh at least once on every song’

Hamburg-based post-punk band PLAIINS have released ‘Row She Said’, a track that shines a light on right-wing fanaticism and its underbelly, marking the third single from their debut album Happy Faces out on 15 August.

The band comprises Chris Reardon (vocals, guitar), Florian Kaninck (guitars), Tal Pinhas (bass) and David Suhlrie (drums). Of their band name, Reardon says: ‘I really love the band Alvvays from Canada and how in their name they had two v’s, I thought it was genius. We’re all massive fans of IDLES and that’s also really cool how it has two meanings. I just put two things together!’

‘Row She Said’ takes a hard look at extremism but in a way that is observational and sharp, rather than preachy: ‘We wanted to write a song that takes a stand but without platitudes,’ Reardon said. ‘It should be poetic, multidimensional, and open to interpretation. Only when you read the lyrics closely and know our background does the full meaning become clear. I love songs like that, especially when dealing with such sensitive topics.’ The ‘she’ in the song symbolises the main character’s homeland – a country that pushes to defend a certain image of sovereignty. Reardon wrote the lyrics primarily from a British perspective – shaped by the aftermath of Brexit – whilst the others also contributed their perspectives.

‘The new album sums up the colourfulness, what the DNA behind PLAIINS is – it leans on certain emotions, from the more fun side to the angry side’

‘This one’s basically about the rise of the AfD (Germany’s equivalent of the U.K.’s far right Reform party) in Germany and Brexit,’ Reardon said. ‘It’s written much more about those more right-wing people, basically. It’s an angry, heavy song! I think we really tried to work hard so that the album felt like an album but still had characters inside it so it didn’t sound like one monotonous book (laughs). The new album sums up the colourfulness, what the DNA behind PLAIINS is – it leans on certain emotions, from the more fun side to the angry side, but there is a kind of insanity to anger, too.’

For Kaninck, ‘Row She Said’ is one of his favourite songs on the album: ‘I really like that we managed to have a really heavy riff and a really heavy song without making it sound metal,’ he said. ‘In terms of the lyrics, I like a lot that we address a really serious topic without being too on the nose, without being “Right wings are bad”; well, of course they are bad but it’s more subtle than that. From an artistic standpoint, we tried to find an angle on the topic, which is a bit more interesting and creative.’ Reardon agrees: ‘Like Flo said, none of us are fans of these kind of overly finger pointing and really surface level lyrics. For us, it’s a little bit boring. Take someone like Bon Iver, there’s so much richness and depth to the lyrics, you know?’

Reardon moved to Hamburg from London in 2021, right in the throes of COVID: ‘I had a solo project and I was signed to a small label in Stuttgart,’ he said. ‘On one of my trips, they flew me over to Hamburg to meet different producers and I just fell in love with the city. It was something like March 2020, just before COVID kicked off big time. I’d been living in London for years and years and was up for a change. And that was it, I just decided I was moving and I did! I moved in July 2020. I had no job, I had barely any money. I survived for the first few months by busking on the street by the harbour. It was a completely life-changing experience and decision. It feels like it was the right thing, doors just kind of kept opening and it never seems like the same uphill fight that it was in London.’

‘It was panic stations beforehand when there are four days to go and you don’t have a guitarist but the show was fantastic!’

Kaninck got a swift introduction to the band when they had a gig to support Press Club in November 2022 when just four days beforehand, the band had no guitarist: ‘Dizzy, our drummer, I knew him from the local scene here,’ he said. ‘He called me to ask if I wanted to play these gigs. So I learned the whole set within four days!’ Reardon interjects: ‘It was amazing, really. Dizzy and I were really blown away, Flo was super focused and ready to go. It was panic stations beforehand when there are four days to go and you don’t have a guitarist but the show was fantastic!’

‘Sports Bar’ is a tongue-in-cheek and gentle poke at sports fanaticism, whilst giving a nod to the very passion that it engenders. The track, which they released in April, has an infectious energy, full of swagger and funny lyrics and it’s impossible not to get pulled in by Reardon’s cheeky delivery in lines such as “It’s not soccer, buddy, it’s my second wife”. It adheres to their mantra that every riff should be singable: ‘I don’t know how the concept was developed, the opening verse and chorus just spilled out,’ he said. ‘By the time it was written, I read through the lyrics and was laughing to myself. This happens a lot when writing, they come very in the moment and I just let it flow and not second guess what it’s about or where it’s going. We wanted to get the tone right, we’re not saying sports bars are stupid. We wanted it to be cheeky and fun and still a bit funny.’

As the track goes: “It’s not soccer buddy, it’s my second wife. Called in sick for my team. It’s my whole life. Key player gotta red card. Half time summit at the pissoire. Sports Bar, team talk. All the chances they missed even I would have scored.”

‘There’s something beautiful about the sense of community and passion for a sports club and I wanted to end the song with a tip of the cap to that’

They’ve leaned on their love of indie and garage rock on this track, taking inspiration from bands such as The White Stripes and Arctic Monkeys but pushing the almost rap-like vocals from Mike Skinner from The Streets. ‘He’s been a constant inspiration, those first two albums, wow, Desert Island Discs for me!,’ Reardon said. ‘I wanted to end the song with a pub-like end of night drunken lullaby. You know when everyone’s battered, arm in arm, and got their half-filled pint glasses in the air and everyone’s singing like it’s their last days on earth. Although ‘Sports Bar’ is a little poke, there’s something beautiful about the sense of community and passion for a sports club and I wanted to end the song with a tip of the cap to that.’

The artwork for ‘Sports Bar’ features three people drinking in a bar with comical paper bags over their head with faces drawn on, which adds to the tongue-in-cheek feel of the song: ‘The imagery I had in my mind is like a cover of a Tom Sharpe book,’ Reardon explained. ‘The illustrator is an artist called Paul Sample, one of my favourites, and I wanted the lyrics to have that over-the-top feeling but also comment on something a little more poignant underneath.’

PLAIINS is all about big riffs, aggression, infectious hooks and unique and crazy vocals from frontman Reardon. Fascinatingly, he typically doesn’t sing as himself, taking on personas and characters depending on the lyrics and mood of the song. ‘Piggies’ (2022), for example, is sung from the perspective of a judgemental protagonist as he organises a house party. Inspired by the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, Reardon transforms into the character in full force delivering vocals with a hint of bitchiness, sarcasm and dogmatism. 


‘In Hamburg, there are a load of these World War II bunkers and they’re just filled with band rooms!’

Moving to Hamburg gave Reardon a push in a new and exciting direction whilst allowing him to experiment more with playing characters in his songs: ‘When I started PLAIINS when I moved here, it was very different to my other project, an indie dream pop thing,’ he said. ‘I remember I was in a bunker. In Hamburg, there are a load of these World War II bunkers and they’re just filled with band rooms! I spent months over COVID building it into a studio to record in and even built a wall, then I lost the studio a few months later. I actually managed to get hold of an old recording console that Die Ärzte used in the 80’s through a friend and I recorded some early demos with it. I was actually next door to the Digitalism guys. I don’t know if you know them but they became really good friends over time. We were deep in COVID and couldn’t do anything. It was miserable but the first EP basically spilled out in three weeks. ‘The Wolf’ was the first song and it felt really weird because – what do you call it when actors get into character? Method acting. It feels like that in some ways. You let the lyrics and the narrative of the song completely envelop you and you just fall into this character. You really try to live inside of that person.’

On other tracks, such as SNVKES (‘Snakes’, 2022), Reardon’s vocals are brutal and aggressive as he passionately sings about the disintegration of a relationship. The disintegration is mirrored sonically, pushing tension forward as the chorus hits, before breaking into a jazz section, tempo change and time signature shift ahead of the second chorus. The main guitar riff is simple and catchy, with Reardon playing second guitar, fattening up the sound. Pinhas’s gnarly bass is equally fat, adding licks throughout the track which dance between the guitars and vocals. Suhlrie’s drumming pulls the track along as he plays roto toms in the drum fills, ramping up the track’s punkiness.

If he could have any guitar, Reardon plumps for a black Gibson Les Paul Custom: ‘With gold hardware and two pickups! I saw the lead guitar player Teppei of Thrice (a Californian rock band) play this guitar when I was about 14 years old and I immediately fell in love with it, as well as with Thrice and all their riff glory! He’s one of my favourite guitars players and they’re one of my favourite bands.’ Kaninck has other ideas: ‘I’d have a vintage Jaguar in Sherwood green or sea foam green because I love the sound of these guitars, the highs are great and really add some dirt to rock tones while still being very defined and clear, it’s just a great energy this guitar can give you. I really love the design, I think they are so beautiful. I think I probably first saw one when John Frusciante played one although it’s not the guitar he is known for. My next more realistic goal is probably a Reverend with P90 pick ups because I really like the guitars they make, they just feel great and I love the sound of P90 pick ups, especially for rock music!’

Hamburg has the reputation in Germany for having THE alternative scene, even more so than Berlin, so I ask them what they most like about it: ‘I remember walking around Sternschanze (a district full of cozy restaurants, cocktail bars and buzzing music venues) when I first moved here, which is like the Hackney of Hamburg,’ Reardon said. ‘I saw ‘Rote Flora’ for the first time, you don’t see buildings like that in England, at least not in the south of England (laughs).’ Kaninck jumps in: ‘It’s also pretty rare in Hamburg but it is is really cool.’ Reardon agrees: ‘I grew up in Reading but ‘Rote Flora’ is a building that was taken over by the punks in the seventies and now the government can’t kick them out (laughs).’ Kaninck weighs in: ‘Now they own the building and all the bar staff are all volunteers. You pay as much as you want for a beer when you go in! It’s one of the first venues I would go partying in when I was 16.’ Reardon laughs: ‘Germany, especially Hamburg and Berlin, from just my experience, feels like it has this DIY spirit. In England or London, at least, it felt like the establishment had already solidified all its walls and structures.’

‘With all of our songs from the upcoming album, we realised that on the surface, the lyrics are always funny and out there and, in a way, ridiculous, bombastic, but underneath it, we’re always talking about something more serious’

Their ability to write humorous lyrics, whilst hinting at something more serious underneath has formed the bedrock of their upcoming album: ‘It’s great that Flo’s joined us in this chat because we really hone those lyrics together,’ Reardon said. ‘We had a really specific vision. With all of our songs from the upcoming album, we realised that on the surface, the lyrics are always funny and out there and, in a way, ridiculous and bombastic but underneath it, we’re always talking about something more serious. We’re all running at a hundred percent and we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. I think we’re all very proud of the album.’

‘Happy Faces’ will be both the album title and title track and has a similar sort of energy to ‘Sports Bar’ with just the right level of sarcasm from Reardon: ‘What I remember is that we had this riff and basic playback, the bones of the song, and you just came up with the words, Chris,’ Kaninck said. ‘You were like: “Ah, I hear Happy Faces” then we just repeated and repeated this. We worked a few sessions on the lyrics, I think two or three. And after the third session, we were looking at the lyrics and thought: “Oh, we’re actually saying something nice!”‘

Happy Faces will comprise 13 tracks: ‘When it came to looking at doing the album, we all sat down and talked about what is it that we do best actually,’ Reardon said. ‘What is it that we do that is the most unique? What is the thing that really gets us going when we’re playing it live or seeing the reaction from the audience? I think the thing that we do that’s the most unique is the kind of fun, crazy out there thing with the more tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Songs like ‘Wooha!’ and SNVKES were the two ones we all put our hands up and were like “These are our favourites, this is maybe what we should be thinking of for the album.”‘ Kaninck weighs in: ‘I think on the album that we have a mixture of that. We have a lot of cheeky lyrics and cheeky verses but we still like the hooks and the choruses, which are sometimes big and singable. That was the vision, to mix it up a bit but to focus on the cheeky PLAIINS DNA, the funny side of things and the really colourful arrangements and chord structures.’

‘I was in a really big Blur phase, I was obsessed with the old school Blur albums!

Other tracks on the album, notably ‘Executive Me’, will offer something very different sonically and hark back to the 90’s: ‘It was a song that I had written on acoustic guitar and I brought it in to Flo and Timon,’ Reardon said. ‘I was in a really big Blur phase, I was obsessed with the old school Blur albums! I was in a very British kind of listening mood, I was listening to a lot of the Kinks and stuff like that. As soon as we started working on this song, Timon said: “Oh, let’s flip the riff around, let’s try this”. We basically had the bare bones of it all the way up until the second chorus pretty fast. The song is written about someone who always has a very negative mindset. The chorus goes: “Nothing good can be this good. The executive of all, I’m the executive of all things negative. Of all things negative.” I tell them that it’s a great line and he grins: ‘One of our goals on the album was that you had to be able to laugh at least once on every song, so there’s a line in the second line, where the weather forecaster’s told the guy in the song that the weather is wrong and he’s gone outside in a jumper and he’s basically swearing to God (laughs). You know what I mean?’ I say it sounds like my dad and they laugh: ‘It’s also in our nature as a group, we really like to have a laugh together.’

They’ve injected some fun at the end of the track, too. ‘At the end of the song, I had this idea that there should just be talking as the outro as it fades into the end of side A,’ Reardon said. ‘I asked the guys to come over to my studio and I gave them four questions. I said we’ll all leave the room and just talk into the microphone. One of them was, what really annoys you on holiday? What do you hate about public transport? Flo, do you remember some other ones?’ Kaninck is thinking: ‘I remember, I don’t know. I did the public transport one. And what I remember is that I was sick. I had a really bad cold for weeks and my nose was still like this, so when you listen closely, I sound very nasal on this outro!’ Reardon laughs: ‘Afterwards, it was a case of us cutting it together and putting it all together as it fades. I hope that has not ruined the surprise, actually, haha!’

If he could go drinking with anyone, Kaninck is quick to say Scottish rock band Biffy Clyro: ‘All three of them!,’ he said animatedly. ‘I love everything about this band.’ ‘What question would you ask them?,’ Reardon asks him. ‘I would nerd out about guitar tones and everything (laughs) and how they can be on tour for something like 25 years and still look so fucking amazing and play so well! I’d ask Simon (Neil, their frontman) how he comes up with so many cool lyrics and ideas, it’s pretty impressive!’ Reardon has other plans: ‘The first one that comes to mind is sitting down with Liam Gallagher to ask him about all his craziest drug stories (laughs) but if I think about it a bit more, I’d probably say Jamie Lenman from Reuben (a former British alt-rock group). I’m a huge, huge Reuben fan and it’s such a shame that they ended after three albums, they were my heroes. I remember when the band ended and I saw the bass player working in Waitrose and I was heartbroken. I got a bit starstruck, it got a bit awkward (laughs), I think he thought: “Why does this guy keep staring at me?!” But I’d like to pick Jamie Lenman’s brain a bit!’

(Photo credit: Arne Beschorner.)