"We encourage you to rethink your preconceived notions, question authority and create other methods for survival"
This is our motto taken from a sleeve of a record. We are here to spread the word and to learn the world, join us in the celebration of new and not so new bands, join us in the celebration of music.
Though their taut, driving motoric music might scream of
70’s West Germany, Sei Still are, in fact, a five-piece band hailing
from Mexico City. Their machine-like sonic experimentations emerging not
out acid-fuelled jam sessions in some underground communal space tucked
away in this or that German city but, instead, three friends taking a
random trip to desolate Mexican woodland to work on a couple of songs
that would end up leading them to start a fully-fledged band. Now, said
band are signing to London-based label Fuzz Club to put out their self
titled debut album, due for release April 10th
.
It
was Lucas Martin (Guitar/Vocals), Mateo Sanchez (Guitar/Vocals) and
Andres Lupone (Bass/Vocals) that would embark on that formative woodland
excursion but, now fleshed out into a full band, they’re also joined by
Sebastian Rojas (Synth/Organ) and Jeronimo Martin (Drums). The record
itself also bolstered by the production of Hugo Quezada, who they
describe as “an icon from the Mexican underground scene and a true
synthesizer aficionado.” As well as the given indebtedness to bands like
Can, NEU! and the minimalism movement, together, Sei Still say that the
album also take great inspiration from “Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’, ‘Easy
Rider’ (the concept of the road has always been a present image of our
collective imaginary) and the aesthetics of Spanish new-wave bands like
Aviador Dro and Décima Víctima.”
Sesiones con Martin Delgado 105.3FM - Sei Still
Though delivered
with Sei Still’s own distorted touch, the album’s eponymous
opening-track ‘Blumenkriege’ recalls Stereolab at their most Kraut; the
unrelenting motorik instrumentation overlaid with lush ethereal vocals
courtesy of close friend Mabe Fratti and swirling analogue synths. ‘El
Camino’, which they say “represents the group’s idea of movement,
something that’s never static and is always changing, like life itself”
is a driving
NEU!-esque wig-out, propelled by a sharp
repetitive bassline so tight you can physically feel the tension
building and building, never letting loose for a second. That propulsive
energy is carried through to ‘Emision’ and paired with menacing
feedback-heavy guitars and ominous atmospherics.
In
the album’s second half, songs like ‘Fortuna’ and ‘Television’ fuse
those motorik sensibilities with eerie spoken-word vocals, hypnotic
synths and phaser-heavy guitars that drag the bands sound into more
psychedelic territory. The album then wrapping up with the penultimate
‘Ladron’–a piece of dark manipulated drone a la Spacemen 3–and the
sprawling 10-minute album-closer ‘Tácticas de Guerrilla Urbana’ which
stretches the Sei Still sound to its outermost limits, in the most
gloriously trance-inducing way.
Now signed to
European label Fuzz Club and ready to transmit their angular Krautrock
to a trans-Atlantic audience, Sei Still have spent the last few years
cultivating a notorious reputation in their native Mexico, sharing the
stage with the likes of Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo, Holy Wave, Institute,
New Candys, 10 000 Russos and Lorelle Meets the Obsolete.
This is the fifth chapter of a series of interviews dedicated to italians bands currently creating and performing on very high levels of quality. I was introduced to The Gluts most probably through Fuzz Club releases or any other youtube channel I follow and I liked it almost immediately, but like most of the bands for whom I develop some kind of admiration, besides liking what they're producing, what has fascinated me is the way they present themselves to a live audience.
They played in Portugal in 2017 at Reverence Santarém.
2019 is the year of Dengue Hypnotic Fever, an album almost as strong and raw as they're live performances. At Eindhoven Fuzz Club the word was that they signed one of the best shows there, and for the looks of videos on youtube, I'm almost inclined to agree.
Showing a great deal of noise since the release of Warsaw in 2014 were you can find songs like Bad Man, Enemies or darker ones like Don't Tease Me Please or Vietnam, we can also identify this certain darkness that I mostly relate to a new interpretation of eighties post-punk that has spread all over europe and from wich The Gluts were one the first bands emerging. Listen to Estasi, released in 2017, or watch the Fuzz Club Sessions with the Gluts from 2018. And if you're still having second thoughts on these four italians listen to Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip as loud as you can handle it! For all said before here's the interview with the Milanese band The Gluts, to give us a broader picture of what is happening in Italy, and more specifically with them!
Songs
to Nowhere – When and how did you met and began playing together?
The Gluts - The Gluts were born in 2013 when Marco and Nicolò - who
are a peaceful version of Gallagher brothers, respectively the
guitarist and the frontman met Claudia. She was asked if she had
known any bassist available around, she replied “That’s me” and
the band was built up. Three years later, after two drummers, Dario
joined the band after being “stalked” by Nicolò since the
beginning.
The Gluts - Come To Fire
STN
– Why did you call
yourselves The Gluts?
The
Gluts -
The name comes from the artistic series made by Robert
Rauschenberg,who
worked with and displayed several abandoned and industrial final
goods that weren’t sold because the offer was much higher than
demand. The reason behind the choice was bound to the will to express
a kind of excess, a noisy excess.
STN
– Were there any differences between the making of Dengue Fever
Hypnotic Trip and your previous works? The Gluts - Maybe the main difference is that we had the
opportunity to work with a producer for the very first time. We chose
Bob De Wit and he chose us, it was a mutual pick, or bet, and it did
go very well: he helped us with some new fresh ideas during the
recording sessions. He’s the best we could have ever asked.
STN
- How did you got acquainted with your current label?
The
Gluts - Claudia was brave enough to write directly a message
to Casper by Facebook Messenger. He listened to us, he liked us and
sent us the contract the day after. A kind of a magic.
STN
– Last year Fuzz Club released a Fuzz Club Session of The
Gluts, how did you choose the songs to feature on it, what was the
criteria?
The
Gluts - That was quiete simple: we had a new album out and
we were touring around Europe, so we picked up a bunch of the songs
we were performing, preferring the ones that could better return
multiple shades of our sounds.
The Gluts - Fuzz Club Sessions - That's Me
STN
– Can you talk a bit about some of your songs and how they came up;
I would like to suggest E. The Real Punk Rocker, Come To Fire
and Don’t Believe in Fairy Tales... The Gluts - Well, regarding the lyrics and the title of E. The
Real Punk Rocker are a kind of a joke and tribute to a very famous
italian songwriter, whose real name is Edoardo. He has nothing to
share with the punk music scene, but we don’t usually listen to
him, unless when we find ourselves stocked in the van for hours.
Concerning Come To Fire, we wanted to experiment with drum machine
and the song came out almost immediately.
STN
- In your own terms how would you describe your music? The Gluts - It’s not as easy as it seems. Probably it would be
appropriate saying that it is a dark, obscure and angry energy that
resides in our deeper and inner selves, which is given an external,
noisy and punk musical shape.
The Gluts - E. The Real Punk Rocker
STN
- How would you describe your individual parts on the creation
process of your songs?
The
Gluts - The individual parts are almost every time the
preliminary work: it never happened that we found ourselves play an
entire song entirely written from the beginning to the end by only
one of us. It’s a collective work that could require a month for a
song or just one night session.
STN
- Who looks after your artwork?
The
Gluts - We can barely draw a line, so the artwork is
always looked after by a special guy, really creative and versatile.
His name is Paolo Proserpio, who worked with Alessandro Comotti for
the DFHT’s artwork.
STN
- Your first release was a really DYI thing, do you still do things
like that or you step into another level? The
Gluts -We did
believe in our record, we received proposals from several record
labels which were simply crazy, so we decided to produce and print it
by ourselves. It was a reckless decision but the right one in the
end. By the time of second press, things had changed we got a
reasonable deal with German label Nasoni Records.
The Gluts - Enemies
STN
- Where did you all learn to play? Did you have lessons
or anything like that?
The
Gluts - Do
we really know how to play properly?
STN
- Did you had previous experiences before The Gluts? The
Gluts - All
of us. Claudia had two musical experiences before entering The Gluts:
a all-female band called “The Cocos” and a power trio called
“TSO”, meanwhile Dario played in a band with a fake French name,
“gouton rouge”.In
his 20’s Marco had played as guitarist and main vocalist for
several years in “Gasnervino”, a pure punk rock band. About
Nico’s experiences, well, it’s much better not to say anything
more.
STN
- How did you buy your first gear?
The
Gluts - Working
hard and grabbing from our dads’s gear. We are lucky enough to have
all our fathers still playing in their own bands too!
The Gluts - Fuzz Club Session - Ponytail
STN
- Can you tell us how was your first rehearsal?
The
Gluts -Our
first rehearsal with Dario on drums was really hot and exciting. It
sounds like we matched on Tinder and went out for a date, it was
awesome, but in the middle of the hottest week of that summer.
STN
- How was it your first tour in Italy? The Gluts - We simply don’t tour in Italy, We’re interested in
playing sometimes around, but it never happened that we played three
days in a row in Italy. We do not fit very well in the Italian scene.
STN- How the local music scene for you? Are
there venues that were anyway crucial for you? The Gluts - Narrowing the field to Milan, there are few good places
for live music, it depends on your musical tastes, but unfortunately
there’s still no crucial Italian venue for us.
STN
- What about internet and new technologies impact on music? What’s
your opinion our ideas about what has changed in these last 15/20
years in music, was it for the best? The Gluts - This is a question that would need an essay to be given a
proper answer, but our opinion is that internet and social media did
and does really help bands to emerge, naturally not always, and
create new social and musical bonds around the globe. The
“music-scapes” is not local anymore, not only at least, but
everything could be lasting less because there’s always something
new that is eager to come out.
STN- How’s the interaction between bands?
The Gluts - Mutual respect, admiration and affection, mostly by
social medial and in the backstages.
STN- What
Italian bands most influenced you?
The
Gluts - CCCP is by far the italian band that influenced us
as individuals and musicians.
STN - What other musicians or artists influenced or influence you? The Gluts - Maybe too many to recall all of them and write their
names down, but we can confess you that during the last months
interpersonal relations in the band were somehow heavily influenced
by the fictional characters and dynamics of GOT.
STN
- How are the radio and press in Italy? I mean regarding the
underground scene…
The
Gluts - We can name you four radio stations that push for
emergent bands: Lifegate Radio, Never Was Radio, Radio Popolare,
Radio Raheem and Radio Kaos Italy. Some friends of us work in all of
them except in the first one, and they always give their best to let
the listeners discover some new good music. We can also name you
Radiophonic programs that we listen to sometimes, like Tropical Pizza
on Radio Deejay and Babylon on Radio Rai2, which are two of the most
important radio stations in Italy.
At
the end, none of them can broadcast our songs, kind of too heavy
stuff in Italy.
The Gluts - Fuzz Club Sessions - Squirrel
STN
- Are you connected to other musical projects or do you have other
occupations other than music?
The
Gluts - Actually no, we do not have other musical projects.
STN
- Could do us a short resume for dummies of Italian music?
The
Gluts - (From the 60’s and so on, Luigi Tenco,
Fabrizio De André, Lucio Battisti, Ivan Graziani, Franco Battiato,
only speaking about the song singer-writer current. The latest one is
definitely the most experimental italian popular composer and singer.
Apart from it, there’s too much to say. Hope you don’t mind if we
skip it.)
STN
– “Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip” was out in April. What
are your expectations for it in the long term?
The
Gluts - We want it to be considered for what it is, the
greatest record of 2019 ;)
The Gluts - Bad Man
STN –
If
you could time travel, were would you like to go see a show or play?
The
Gluts -
If we had only one individual occasion Dario and Claudia would agree
and probably they would catch up at Nirvana’s performances at
Reading Festival or at the Paramount Theater. Marco would go for Jimi
Hendrix, just to hear in person the fuzz effects he used to play,
while Nicolò instead, would likely go for Sex Pistols in the 70’s.
On the other hand, if we had to make a colegial decision we would opt
for Joy Division, without any shadow of a doubt. STN
–
When
can we expect a show from The Gluts in Portugal?
The
Gluts - Actually,
we played in Portugal, two years ago. It was our experience in
another part of Europe but Italy.We’d
like to come back, but nothing on the horizon right now, sorry.
The Gluts at Fuzz Club Eindhoven'19
STN
– Name the last song or band that completely blew your
minds!
The
Gluts - Well, lately we are all listening to “tunic”. Really
like their attitude.
STN
– The last word is yours!
The Gluts - Thanks for the interview Isabel Maria! For those who
spend their time to read too. Listen to us, follow us on FB and IG
and see you around, maybe in Eindhoven. (FCB19)
Os
SerVo estrearam-se em Portugal no inicio deste verão. Esta estreia
foi proporcionada por uma excelente parceria entre o Sabotage Club e
a Fuzz Club que traria várias bandas portuguesas e também
internacionais ao palco do Cais do Sodré em duas noites. Uma
sucessão de desaires e coisas menos boas levou a que o festival se
viesse a resumir a uma noite onde actuaram os SerVo, Pretty Lightning
e os portugueses 10 000 Russos. Apesar de tudo foi uma noite
fantástica e a estreia dos SerVo não deixou nada ao acaso nem o
crédito por mãos alheias, desde as luzes preparadas pela banda à
projecção que se via quer no fundo do palco, quer outra mais
pequena projectada apenas no amplificador de um dos músicos. A sua
sonoridade que se pode situar nos meandros da nova vaga de post punk
atinge o seu máximo potencial ao vivo, e se por agora, foi difícil
encontrar alguma matéria sobre a banda, é seguro dizer que muito
provavelmente daqui a um ano não será bem assim. O próximo disco
já está perto de ser editado e a expectativa é alta.
Songs
to Nowhere – How did you got acquainted and began to play?
SerVo
- Louis (bass) and Arthur (guitar) know each other since
they’re born. They began to play music together in high school.
Hugo (drums) joined the band a bit later.
STN
– What does it mean SeRvo?
SerVo
-It is
the name of a song from the BJM. I think, at the beginning, we just
liked the way the word sounds. It’s
quite difficult to find an adequate band name and we thought this one
was not completely bad.
STN
– How would you describe the music you do?
SerVo
-It's
hard to tell. We sometimes say “psych / cold”, but it doesn't
really mean anything. Some people call us “postpunk” or
“shoegaze”. The thing is that we use a lot of reverb, delay and
fuzz but still try to avoid the “psych” stereotypes.We
like to describe it as ambient, mechanical and violent.
STN
– Could you disclose us a bit about your song Love#2 or anyother
you would like to talk about?
SerVo
- It's
all about love and being ready to love.
STN
– Where did you all learn to play? Did you have lessons or anything
like that?
SerVo
-We
mostly learned by ourselves. Our drummer used to learn the clarinet
when he was a child, but it is not something that's really usefull
for the band.
STN
– Can you tell us how was your first rehearsal?
SerVo
-We
don't really remember the first rehearsal, but we're almost sure it
sounded awfull.
STN – How was it your first
tour?
SerVo
-For
our first tour, we were with another band called Greyfell, we went to
the east of France and Switzerland. It was mostly in squats and
self-managed venues. It was cold and there were as many dogs as
people during the shows, but we had fun.
STN
– How the local music scene for you? Are there venues that were
anyway crucial for you?
SerVo
-We
live in Rouen, which is not a very big city, there is not many venues
but we've been supported by Le 106, a local venue where we can
rehearse too, and the people who work there are really helping all
the local bands. The other venue is Le 3 Pièces, which is a bar with
a small scene in the cellar. We have to confess we spend a lot of
time there. But there is actually a lot of bands in Rouen, and the
scene starts to be really interesting. We created a collective with
some friends that is called SOZA. It is meant to gather bands we like
in Rouen.
STN –
Which bands most influenced you?
SerVo
–To
name a few ones : -
Black lips, A Place to Bury Strangers, Metz, Holograms, Dead
Skeleton, Scrap Dealers and especially the opening song of Pokemon ..
STN
– Could do us a short resume for dummies of French musical scene?
SerVo
-There
is a lot of bands, and some of them are actually really good. One of
our favorite french band is Korto, you definitely should listen to
their album.
STN
– If you could time travel, were would you like to go see a show or
play?
SerVo
-In
the future. Or maybe for dinosaurs.
STN –
“The Lair of Gods ” was out in 2016. When can we expect a new
álbum?
SerVo
-We
already recorded the new album. We're currently working on the mix,
and we'd like to release it by the end of the year.
STN
– You’re playing in Portugal in the last week of June, can you
disclose what’s to be expected in your shows here?
When I began thinking about an interview with a band I always try to remember which song of theirs brought them to my attention and when. Because I obsessively deal with music it’s not that hard to have a specific memory attached to almost every band I like. I remember listening to some songs maybe around 2013/2014, made some research on my playlists and mixclouds and I think I found the song that made me listen to New Candys. Pretty sure it was Blackbeat, Anyway it doesn't really make a difference, I would end up catching them sooner or later as they are also with Fuzz Club and especially because they already played some of my favorite festivals, (is it wrong to have favorite festivals even if I've never been there? I really don't care!)
New Candys
The truth is that more than 10 years have passed since their first steps in Venice, three lp's and two Ep's, at least that I'm aware of.
The way they sound the things that they're sound evokes in my memory is very vast and diverse, sometimes as dark as it can be, and others like light itself could hurt. New Candys assume they're ideas and present their inspiration; La Cicatrice Intérieure was a point of inspiration for the visuals of Bleeding Magenta, or that some of the inspiration of As Medicine came from "Maya Deren’s surrealistic films together with the Patent Medicines’ period, when drugs compounds were sold pretending to be medications with exclusive ingredients".
No excuses, check the videos and the links to discover more! New Candys are now touring europe, with The Warlocks and the Dandy Warhols, don't miss it!
Songs to Nowhere –
How did New Candys’ current lineup form?
Fernando: Dario and
I have been in the band since the beginning. Andrea recorded Bleeding
Magenta and put a lot of passion and ability into the creation of it,
so he naturally become a permanent member of the band soon after the
release of the record (because the original lineup couldn’t tour
anymore). When the band eventually needed a new bass player, we
thought about Alessandro since we were friends and shared very
similar taste and attitude towards making music and art in general.
STN –
What happened with the previous members of the band?
Fernando: I like to
think that Desire Lines by Deerhunter is the right answer to this
question.
STN –
Which is the song or album that you believe gave you more exposure
and why.
New Candys - We think our latest
album, Bleeding Magenta. Thanks to it we have been able to tour
Australia, North America two times and more of Europe of course.
Compared to the other records, in this album we have achieved the
sound that we initially had in mind.
New Candys - Blackbeat
STN -
Where do you get the inspiration for lyrics like "Excess"?
Fernando: For
Excess, they came from a personal experience of mine but most of the
lyrics could be inspired by images and dreams.
STN –
New Candys have been playing since 2008, what has changed in the last
11 years?
New Candys - It could sound
romantic, but we’ve become more aware of the importance and power
of music throughout the years, especially in the latest ones. Having
the chance of traveling a lot and connecting with people who
appreciate your music is really special and precious.
STN –
Who does your artwork?
Fernando: I take
care of the albums’ artwork.
STN –
Do you have any favorite songs that you perform during your shows?
New Candys - The new ones are always the funniest to play, in the latest tours we
played a couple of new songs we wrote together that will be featured
in the new album. Playing old songs that haven’t been played live
in awhile is fun too.
STN -
Are there songs you never played live?
New Candys - Yes, there are some:
Nibiru, Sermon, Lunar Day and The Outrogeous Wedding Part 2. We are
looking forward to playing some of them in future.
New Candys - Sun is Gone ('Till day returns)
STN –
Did you get some inspiration from oriental roots in songs like Salar
and Nibiru from Stars Reach the Abyss (2012) or Sermon (Bleeding
Magenta, 2017)?
New Candys - Not really, we have
always been listening to rock bands playing Indian inspired music,
but not original Indian music. We started to play the Sitar thanks to
Brian Jones, George Harrison and Anton Newcombe.
STN –
Could you tell us the story, if there’s any, behind The Outrogeous
Wedding I, II and III ?
Fernando: Those
three songs were kinda incomplete and I had this idea of creating a
medley directly in the studio, leaving space for improvisation. The
marriage of the three songs is forced, this is why the wedding is
outrageous - written Outrogeous because it’s the Outro of the
album. After watching “My Life Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn”,
where you can see that he films chronologically, I thought about
taking the same approach to music, and that’s how the medley has
been made. We had a lot of fun recording it!
New Candys - Bleeding Magenta
STN –
What about Bleeding Magenta (Reprise)? How did it happen?
New Candys -When we were
practicing the song, we ended up with two versions and couldn’t
pick one. They were both interesting for different reasons, so we
included them in the album. We also changed the key and speed to
diversify them more.
STN -
Where and how did you all learn to play?
New Candys - We’re all
self-taught, Dario had six months of drum lessons in the beginning.
STN - How did you buy your first gear?
Fernando: My father
bought me my first electric guitar and amp when I was 16 (I was able
to play with the headphones so I wasn’t bothering anybody).
Dario: My parents
bought me my first drum kit in 1998 from my drum teacher. The drum
kit I’m playing with now was my second kit that I bought in 2009.
Andrea: My parents
bought me my first acoustic guitar at 8 years old. I got my first
electric guitar when I was 16 with my own money. It was an Epiphone
335.
Alex: When I was 10
my family asked me if I wanted a guitar or a videogame for my
birthday or something like that. My first real guitar I bought with
my grandma’s help.
New Candys Live on KEXP
STN -
Can you tell us how was your first rehearsal?
Fernando: When the
band started we were missing a drummer, we tried a couple drummers
before Dario joined. I remember the first time we played all together
and thinking “Now we’re sounding right!”. Everything started
coming together sonically from there.
Dario: I remember
that before our first time playing together I was given a playlist of
various songs to listen to and I learned one of the songs to play
together. At the time, I didn’t really understand the type of music
we were playing but I knew I couldn’t have found a cooler band to
play with. Andrea: I was excited to play guitar again after several
years. I was really focused on trying to get the right sound, messing
with the pedals and playing at first an EKO Cygnus, then decided to
customize a Barracuda.
Alex: I had to learn
the bass parts before practicing with the rest of the band. I
remember we were in a rush because we had a gig coming up in a couple
days.
STN -
How was your first tour in Italy? And your first international tour?
New Candys - Italy is not really
fun to play, and we didn’t really “tour” it. We always played
shows during weekends, but all over the country. As an Italian band
singing in English there’s no point to tour Italy extensively in
our opinion, we prefer to put all our efforts to play abroad, it’s
much more exciting and satisfying. As an European band we consider
playing another continent an international tour. Therefore Australia
was our first, and there’s too much to write here regarding that
tour. The experience in the end was one of the best.
New Candys - Welcome to The Void Temple
STN -
How’s the local music scene for you?
New Candys - There is none.
STN -
How’s the interaction between bands?
New Candys - Also none.
STN -
What Italian bands most influenced you?
New Candys - Jennifer Gentle and
Verdena.
STN -
Could you do us a short resume for dummies of Italian music?
New Candys - Since we don’t
listen to Italian music, we lack the expertise to answer this
question.
STN -
How are the radio and press in Italy? I mean regarding the
underground scene…
New Candys - They don’t exist,
and if they exist they can fuck off because we haven’t noticed
them, and since we are one of the few Italian bands frequently
playing abroad, there must be something wrong in our country. I’ll
give you an example: after a show in Italy an Italian guy came to us
and said he discovered us on KEXP. We think it’s crazy that we need
an American radio to be discovered by Italian people.
STN -
How did you got acquainted with Fuzz Club?
New Candys - They wrote us to
feature our song “Metdown Corp.” on The Reverb Conspiracy Vol. 3,
then we sent them our second record and from there we started to
collaborate.
STN -
If you could time travel, where would you like to go see a show or
play?
Fernando: I recently
got into Nine Inch Nails. My friends Lorelle Meets The Obsolete told
me about one of NIN’s touring guitarists named Aaron North. He was
crazy and played around with feedback a lot, I would have liked to
see them in that period.
Dario: 100 Club Punk
Special, Oxford Street, London. September 20/21 1976.
Andrea: I would go
back and see a Nirvana/Melvins show in Tacoma, WA in 89’.
Alex: The Jesus And
Mary Chain back in the eighties when they were playing for 25 minutes
and then rioting. But also a show at the Andy Warhol’s Factory with
the Velvets.
STN –
Bleeding Magenta was out in 2017. Are you already working on
something new?
New Candys - Yes, we are shooting
for a 2020 release.
STN -
When can we expect a New Candys show in Portugal?
