ABOUT US

 

Who's Nuclear Family?

wedding photo, Townhall of Copenhagen

Nuclear Family is the musical brainchild of Nikolaj Tange Lange and occasional partner in crime, Andreas Tange Lange. Nikolaj writes the songs, programs the sounds, and sings too - and even plays a couple of instruments from time to time. Andreas adds a helluva lotta attitude, killer outfits, and sings along when he remembers. Or sometimes he just stays at home and lets Nikolaj do the whole show by himself. Nuclear Family have played over 100 gigs in all parts of Europe - three times at the Copenhagen Queer Festival, twice at the Berlin Porn Festival, and once at the 50th birthday of Danish movie director Lars Von Trier. They have had music released by Crunk’s Not Dead, Red Tape, Saturator, Broken Mirror, dunst, Araknid, and been on the soundtrack for a porn movie (in which Nikolaj also starred in action). In 2008 they released their self-titled debut album, and in 2010 came the follow-up FUCK MY HE ART.

Where did it start?

In the spring of 2005 Nikolaj and Andreas had gotten involved with the Copenhagen queer activist group dunst. The two had already talked about starting a band, but could neither sing nor play any instruments. But in dunst they got paired up with performer and producer Johnny Warehouse. Like many other dunst members he performed by singing to pre-programmed beats. And on a Sunday morning they sat down together and programmed the beats and synths of the first ever Nuclear Family song "Don't Expose your Children To Sodomy".

And the name?

The name Nuclear Family came up one night while drinking wine in the kitchen of friend and the fellow dunst member Miss Fish. Back then Nikolaj's last name was Lange and Andreas' was Tange. So Nikolaj made the joke that "Tange Lange Band" would be the worst band name ever. They laughed at the name, and Andreas added that it was a good thing they did not have to marry. They laughed again and decided to do it. And so they did on june 16th 2005 at the townhall of Copenhagen. After having finished their second song "Wonder Cunt" with the chorus echoing Phillip Larkin's poem "They Fuck You Up, Your Mom and Dad", they were now officially a Nuclear Family.

And from then on?

The first performance of Nuclear Family was at Queeruption in Barcelona. Later same month they played at the official party of the Berlin CSD. In the beginning most shows were done as part of the infamous dunst performance group. A trash drag army roaming parties both at home in Copenhagen as well as the rest of Europe. Andreas often in grotesque make-up, and dresses worn all wrong. Nikolaj most often in his favourite outfit: pretty much naked, covered in theatre blood and with a furry cat-suit hat. With time the music cas also become more organic and experimental. On the FUCK MY HE ART album they mix traditional synths with flutes, video games, neo-folk drum-samples, and beats made of breaking glass. But the result is still bouncy electropunk as catchy as ever. Songs like "HIV is The New Virginity", "Let's Pretend We're in a Bruce LaBruce Movie", and "All Lubed Up, But Nowhere To Go" all seem written to make you sweat, bleed, cry, and cum.