Being in a DIY Band Means a Lot of Freedom, but Also a Lot of Work

Labasheeda means silk bed

Labasheeda is a small town in Ireland whose name refers to the smoothness of the sea sand on the coast. The band name came from our former bass guitar player David Jackson. His ancestors came from Labasheeda. In 2007, David moved to London but I kept the name. When he left, it was a difficult moment for me. I was very lucky that I could continue with current bass player and guitarist Arne Wolfswinkel. We have been writing songs together since then.

When we started touring, it was quite chaotic. At that time, Myspace was new and I found out that it was quite easy to connect with venues through this system. It made it possible to book tours. But it was also very hard to see what the venues were like. Now you can get a good impression from the photos and videos on the websites of the venues. We used to find ourselves in very unexpected situations!

We usually crashed at people's places and the conditions were often quite minimalistic. We did not always get much sleepm of course. Once in France, people had a party at the house we were staying at after the show. Touring like this requires a lot of adaptability.

Now we play bigger shows and the accommodation is usually provided by the venues or festivals. It would have been hard to continue like this but I am happy I have done it. It was great experience and we met so many nice people.

Thanks to years of touring, we have built a network of contacts

I book all the shows myself and that is a lot of work. It has become easier to get shows because we often get invited back to places where we have played. The new album also helps a lot because people like it.

There is a lot of exchange with other bands. For instance, we give each other advice about nice venues or we organize shows together. I like that a lot. During this tour, we will play with Ida the Young in Liberec on 28 May. We played with them in Dortmund as well. I also very much look forward to playing with OTK at Café V lese on 29 May. The first time we played together was already in 2006 at Klub 007 in Prague! Both bands are fantastic, I think the Czech Republic has a very strong scene.

DIY band means a lot of freedom but also a lot of work

Arne and I made most of the album covers together. I studied art and Arne often uses my drawings or paintings for our graphic design. For the upcoming May tour, we also made posters for some of the shows. Besides booking shows, the promotion takes a lot of time as well. That is the downside of doing everything by yourself.

The new album Blueprints has opened many doors for us. Before we recorded the album, we'd tested the songs on stage. We noticed that the response was very positive but we did not expect that the press would call the album a postpunk masterpiece.

We feel we still have things to say

The response to Blueprints was so overwhelmingly positive that after the release, it was hard to start working on new songs. It felt like I had to compete with myself. I need to feel the urge to write a song. But after a while, the new ideas came by themselves and we will soon start recording our new album.

I am very proud of all the releases that we've made. We've released seven full-length albums, three EPs and also two singles. The funny thing is that if you play this long, your songs become your diary. They represent a certain period. After some time, it feels almost like someone else wrote the songs.

You can find our albums on Bandcamp or you can buy them during our shows. In the Czech Republic, we are distributed by Silver Rocket.

Current stops of our tour:

5/25 Kulturfabrik Lina Koch | Ebersbach-Neugersdorf
5/26 Mr Gar | Poznan
5/27 Klub Szalonych | Wroclaw (w/ Skyjoggers)
5/28 Bar Papír | Liberec (w/ Ida the Young)
5/29 Café V Lese | Prague (w/ OTK)
5/30 Alterna | Brno (w/ Bare Escape)
5/31 Stadtteilfest Sankt Pieschen | Dresden
6/1 Kulturhaus Insel Berlin | Berlin (w/ Kitty Solaris)