Entrevista : Yndi Halda/A Lily

Tive o prazer de trocar uns mails com o James Vella, membro de Yndi Halda e A Lily. Em relação a Yndi Halda, só tenho a dizer que são umas das maiores bandas do underground mundial,e A Lily, o projecto a solo, tem tanto de delicado como de inspirado.

It has been three years since Yndi Halda's debut, "Enjoy Eternal Bliss" was released and critically acclaimed. What have you been up to since 2007?

James - As a band, we’ve actually been working quite steadily for the past three years. We toured all the territories that our first record was released – UK, Europe, Asia, the US – and began writing the follow-up to that record, but we’ve done so sporadically, more part-time than bands usually tend to. The members of this band don’t spend a lot of time together – we all live far away from each other – and we’ve all been busy studying or working for the last few years, and so the work we’re able to do with yndi halda is a little spread out.

How different is the new stuff that you have been writing,compared to "Enjoy Eternal Bliss"?

James -To us, it seems very different. Of course, it’s the same 5 people working on the music, and so I’m sure there will be a lot of noticeable similarities, but we’re a little older now, a little more musically aware and capable. I’m really excited about these new pieces of music, they’re my favourite songs we’ve ever written and there is only a little bit of work left before they’ll be ready to record.

The new songs are vocal – we’re not an instrumental band any more – and it seems like the extremes of the first set of music are being simultaneously pulled in their own direction: the pop parts are a lot more pop now, and the classical-influence stuff is a lot more classical-sounding.

When are you planning to release a new album?

James -We have no strict release plans. We’ve just finished a set of demos of most of the new tracks, which should give us some idea of direction for the record itself, but we’re mostly just allowing Jack and Brendan to finish university for the moment, so we can start working on the album all together once we have a little more time. I’m hoping we’ll be finished by the end of the year, but there’s still a lot of work left to do.

A writer from the Silent Ballet said of your debut : "Few bands have come out of the gates with such passion, and this is why Yndi Halda has gathered such a following." .Does that ( and the rest of of press and fans ) pressure you guys in any way,when composing new songs?

James -There is a lot more pressure this time around than with the first album. The first set of songs was written while we were at school, an entirely unknown band recording its first tentative steps. I think it must make some difference to how we write and what we end up writing, but I don’t think we really find ourselves feeling nervous at all, more just more selective…perhaps because we don’t want to let people down, or perhaps because we’re just more mature songwriters now and so are more capable of composing exactly what we’d like to.

In the last few years the post-rock scene became a lot bigger. In an endless market of post-rock bands, what do you feel that you bring to the genre?

James -We don’t really think of ourselves as a post-rock band. None of us listen to “post-rock” music very much (we do all like bands like Do Make Say Think, Tortoise, Talk Talk, Labradford, Sigur Ros etc., but this isn’t by any means our genre of choice), and none of us really intended to make post-rock music. I understand why people consider us a “post-rock” band, but it’s not something we concern ourselves with. It’s never on our minds that we need to bring anything novel to the genre, because we don’t really follow it or consider ourselves within it.

Our favourite bands in the genre are generally bands from the first wave of post-rock, the bands that really defined the genre and sounded like nothing else at the time. I guess this is my impression of post-rock, that it was interesting and exciting at one time, but I can’t really think of any current bands that fall within the genre that I listen to often.

About A Lily. You plan to release a new album, "Joy and James: the songs I lost in the fog" by the end of the year. What can you tell us about it?

James - I’m really excited about the new A Lily record. It’s been with me for around 10 months now, and it feels great to have it finished. It’s currently being mixed, which will take a couple of weeks, and then I’ll figure out the release plans. In a sense, it’s a concept record, with one major theme running through it, and a few motifs that appear and reappear in various forms. I recorded the whole thing in my home set-up, apart from a couple of drum parts and some piano, and have some friends playing woodwind, brass and string arrangements – some of these friends are joining the live band, which will be touring once the record is finished.

Your debut "wake:sleep:" and follow up "I Dress My Ankles With God's Sweetest Words" are two very different albums, one electronic release and the closer to folk music. What influenced you this time, to write " Joy..." ?

James - Musically, the album is a lot more pop-centric than the previous records. The first album was written largely on a computer, while the second was an acoustic record that I wrote while I didn’t have a working computer. This new album is somewhere in between. I gained enough interest in acoustic music from God’s Sweetest Words to continue using real instruments as a foundation rather than addition, but remembered how much I missed making drum loops from home recordings when I started using a computer again.

I’ve never really written a “verse-chorus-verse” album, and I really wanted to do something like that on the A Lily record. Something that I can experiment with and have fun with, but that structurally resembles pop music.

Besides Yndi Halda and A Lily, you are also the owner of O Rosa Records. What is you main goal, with the label?

James - The main goal of the label is to return something to music in general. I feel like writing music is a beautiful thing, but something that’s necessarily very insular and a little anti-social, especially the way I write, alone at home. I wanted to do something in music that takes in more people and looks outward, and so for me the ideal way to do this is to release other people’s music, to present unto the world something that I feel it can benefit from.

Recently, however, I haven’t been doing so much with O Rosa. I work in music during the day and wouldn’t want to spread my efforts too thin. I’m maintaining the label’s back catalogue and making sure everything that’s been released previously is getting attention, but I don’t plan on releasing anything new anytime soon, unless something really special comes up.

How hard is to keep a label running,in the age of mp3s and digital music? In a time when anybody can download an album in a couple of minutes, do you believe that packaging and design/artwork are getting more important than before ( pre-internet! ) ?

James - I’m a huge fan of packaging. Maybe it belies the current climate, but I never download music rather than buying it. I always much prefer something tangible that I can hold. I appreciate that the immediacy is desirable, especially now than anything is potentially available at any given time, but I’m hoping that there are enough people who share my opinion and will continue to buy physical formats.

I don’t think that packaging is necessarily any more important than before – I’m not sure this will convince people to wait for a CD or vinyl rather than downloading, - but for me it always has been important.

What are your plans for the future?

James - Current top priorities are finishing and releasing the new A Lily and yndi halda records, and then touring both. Feels like a lot of hard work ahead…!

Entrevista : Moloken

Moloken.São suecos, tocam algo que fica entre o sludge, o doom e o post-metal. Estrearam-se nestas lides com o belo EP "We all face the dark alone", em 2008. Lentos,sujos e feios,os 15 minutos que compõem o EP são do melhor que já ouvi dentro do género. Agora, em Setembro de 2009, a banda lança o LP "Our Astral Circle". Que melhor desculpa podia eu querer para falar com a banda?

Pereira - Please introduce yourself, your band and explain to us what Moloken is all about.

Jakob - I’m Jakob, the drummer in Moloken. The band represents a mix of different influences and ideas from the early 90’s death/doom scene, the progressive rock from the 70’s, the alternative hardcore scene and many other things. I guess what defines us is that we use the bass in an unconventional way in how Nicklas plays, and how we intertwine that with minimalist guitar stems and our usage of pounding heaviness of controlled chaos.

P-You guys released recently your debut LP, "Our Astral Circle". Can you tell us about the recording process and the thoughts behind the songs?

J-We entered the XL studio the day after the gig at House of Metal 2009 was done, and continued to work there for eight more days, after which the recording was finished the material was sent once again to Sven Engdahl to do his magic thing in the mixing process. Musically the record has a variation of songs, some being very slow and perhaps soft, another one being fast and violent, and another one being introspect and dark. The common link behind these compositions is our notion that nothing is to be given a certain value unless we want it so. In other words: We tend to play with our own expectations – what might seem to be a good intro or a good verse might turn out to be something completely different in the end. It all depends on how we approach the material and how we play it together, as Moloken by nature is a collective effort. The lyrical themes of Moloken have a broad variation of expressions and thoughts. What unite them is the mixture of human fear and fascination of the unknown and different negative impressions that surrounds life and the world we live in.

P- What are your plans for the rest of 2009?

J - We’re going to have a release party in Umeå the 3^rd of October on Droskan, and between the 17^th till 31th October we’re on our Europe tour, which visits Belgium, Germany and Sweden. In November we’re going to arrange a festival in a small town outside of Umeå, the Holmsund Deathfest festival.

P - How is it going for a young band like yourselves; is it easy to "survive" nowadays in Sweden, playing Doom/Sludge?

J -If you mean survive as in terms of living off your music, then no, it’s certainly not easy. It’s not even possible. If you mean survive as in terms of managing to get gigs and support, then sure. Almost anything is possible, as long as you’re willing to work for it. There are many bands in Scandinavia that creates excellent music but never gets anywhere due to their own lack of interest or peoples nature of having multiple projects going on at the same time, which results in less focus on their supposed-to-be main band. That’s my opinion, anyway.

P - What are the main differences between your EP "We All Face The Dark Alone" and "Our Astral Circle"?

J- When we recorded Our Astral Circle we had a clear picture of what we wanted to do. The sound is more raw and natural, which meant a big step away from the sound we had on the EP. The guitars and drums sound much better than on our EP (which we recorded on a weekend) plus that the Bäckström brothers really performed excellent vocals on the album. We’re all very proud of this album and how it sounds!

P-I know that there were some line-up changes in the past. What happened?

J-A couple of weeks before our gig at House of Metal 2009 Johan Öman announced that he was planning on leaving the band after the recording of the album were done. We accepted his decision and were glad that he stayed and did his guitar lines in the recording process, and not left us “high and dry”. Luckily we found a replacement guitarist in the eminent Patrik Ylmefors just a couple of weeks after Johan’s departure.

P- You have toured in the past; how was it? Have you ever played outside Sweden? If no, can we expect that in the near future?

J-We did a two weeks tour last fall, which took us to Norway and Sweden. This was our first tour, and we really enjoyed it, at least most of it. Besides the normal problems of logistics and provisions we met all sorts of people, in which some later on has helped us with gigs and support, and for that we’re very grateful. In the future we’d love to come and visit other countries besides the northern regions of Europe, and also visit other continents!

P-Your sound has some unique and fresh characteristics, like the role of the bass guitar, the dual vocals... What inspires, what influences you to write a Moloken song?

J-For my own part, I’m always in search of new ways of expressing myself both musically and lyrically, and if I’ve accomplished that through my contribution in the band, then I’m as happy as ever. But I’m also trying to develop my understanding of other music styles and ideas alien to me, so playing in a band, which encases many music styles, has its advantages. But in terms of music, I think that the common feelings I personally want to create is mental darkness, madness, confusion and alienation of things that is considered to surround your world. I think it’s mainly because of my own musical preferences, but also because of my state of mind, affected by long years of exposure to horror literature. J And off course all of these artistic visions gets filtered and analysed by the band. We might be a group of individuals, but we work as a collective.

P-What have you been watching/reading/listening lately?

J-I’ve had the opportunity of reading Michael Focault’s Discipline and Punish, which describes the elder traditions of corporal punishments and later on the development of rehabilitation penalties that was formed by social paradigms in the 19^th century, but especially the ideas behind The All-Seeing Eye and its effect on the prison system and society in general. I’m also an elder-culture-geek, which is why I read a book about the creation of the city-state Assyria, Gudens Skygge by Mogens Trolle Larsen, and how the administration and organisation changed this society. When it comes to movies then I’ve seen Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex, a German movie about the creation of The Red Army Faction in West Germany and its development during the 70’s and the 80’s. Musically I’ve been enjoying Virus’ latest album The Black Flux. It has become one of my personal favourites, maybe of all times. Besides that I’ve also been listening to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s In Glorious Times. It’s not very rhythmic oriented, at least not as the percussions were on the album before, Of Natural History, and it’s not as polyphonic as on the before-mentioned album or on the debut, Grand Opening And Closing. But it’s still very dark and weird music and I like it.

P-The Post-Metal/Sludge/Doom scene is becoming a bigger scene, with bands like Isis and Neurosis getting more and more recognition and drawing attention to the genre as a whole. What do you think of this?

J-The majority of this attention might be good. For example the creation of bigger networks, bigger institutions, that hopefully will be flexible and appreciative of new ideas and ways of corporation between borders and scenes. The downside can be that commercial interests might want to interfere in the musical creative process, or that marketing deliberately mislabels a musical product, like a boost-effect created by hard marketing rather than based on the consumers’ preferences.

P-What is the origin of the name "Moloken"?

J-Kristoffer came up with the name of Moloken, which is an old Swedish word for gloomy, or downhearted.

P-When can we expect you to play in Portugal?

J-As soon as we can come in contact with someone interested in booking us for a gig there, hopefully next year.

Take care and thanks a lot for your time!

Cheers for the interview!

Moloken @myspace

Entrevista - Lights Out Asia

McDonalds.Pássaros.E a imensidão do Oceano Atlântico.

Depois do deathcore dos Shot at Dawn, o Art is Fucking Dead volta à musica mais atmosferica com os norte-americanos Lights Out Asia. Depois do (excelente) "Eyes Like Brontide" , o trio prepara as gravações do seu quarto LP.

A aguardar com expectativa, claro...

Pereira - Please introduce yourselves and describe the essence of Lights Out Asia.

Lights Out Asia - Well, this is Chris Schafer… and LOA is pretty simple. We are three friends that have enjoyed playing music together for over a decade in multiple forms. Having music as an outlet is fantastic, but being able to share it with people of all walks is even better.

P -I am aware that you guys are in the studio right now. How is it going?

Chris: It's going well. We have always been a very detailed band as far as how we record and production. This time we seem to be going just a bit more slowly on this album just because we are probably paying attention to a great amount of details. We are all perfectionists and this helps us a ton but sometimes it hinders speed in the process.

P - Can you tell us the main ideas about the album that you are recording?

Chris: I'm not sure we think that far ahead. We just write in the moment and then it all happens. I wish that there was some profound system that we used as our template, but it is just song to song, at least at the beginning.

Stats (Mike): We do start to develop an album "concept" once we have five or six songs that are close to finished and are pleasing to us. This is where we are at right now in September 2009. Then we start throwing around some song titles, artwork ideas, and general themes. And something inevitably begins to take shape, some thread begins to connect everything, but the process is so subtle that it's something that is almost out of our hands. The albums sort of come together on their own, once we've built the parts.

P - What are your influences, when writing a song?

Chris: For me it is mostly my personal life, but outside of that it's movies, trains going past my home or, for instance, the huge thunderstorms we had back in the summer. Recently I've been sitting in my back yard and this cardinal just sits on the power line singing in a very patronizing way. It is there every day. I have some ideas on writing about this bastard bird.

Stats: You're an insane person. Love it! I am influenced by the music I hear in my head, although it never comes out right. Chris and Mike usually make it turn out much better. I am also very influenced by Chris and Mike's ideas, and I hear something they write and it sounds great and I feel bad that I didn't come up with something so brilliant. So I bury it deep down and browse some more synth patches. Seriously, though, I am inspired by a lot of things, including other bands and little snips of soundtracks or even traffic noises. Sometimes you just sit down and start moving your appendages and something comes out from nowhere. It's great. A lot of time it's crap, though, which is why it's helpful to be in a group.

P - Do you have any dates planned, or tour planned, for the rest of the year?

Chris: Not yet.

P - You released your latest album, "Eyes Like Brontide" last year, on n5MD. How was the reception ?

Chris: Very good. People have had great things to say about and its always nice to hear good feedback. We hope it continues. It was a fun album to write and see come together from start to finish.

P - Can you tell us the main concept behind that album ?

Chris: Brontide was a darker side of LOA, in a sense. Dark would mean frustration, aggression, a general feeling of loss or how terrible I would feel if I ate McDonald's. Brontide didn’t have a real main concept, but consciously had a flow that fit well with each song.

Stats: I agree with this assessment. Brontide to me had to do with feelings of isolation, uneasiness, unanswered transmissions and such, or like how you feel when you look up at the sky and feel very small or hear thunder echoing from very far away. You're both connected to and disconnected from your world. I guess that's the "concept." Whether we executed that concept is up to the listener to determine, and for all we know they may have a completely different concept, or none at all, and still enjoy the album. Music is weird like that. We'd rather have our music be open to different experiences than be "this is what the songs mean, this is how you interpret them, now buy our records."

P- Your sound is quite spacey and distant, yet introspective. Can you describe to us what gear do you use to achieve your sound?

Stats: Nothing magical or unusual. We use guitars, laptops, samples, keyboards, microphones. The best gear is whatever inspires you with its sound, or whatever gets out of the way and makes it easy to work. I like "friendly" gear, gear that lets you get in and start cranking away at knobs and sliders and you can feel how the sound changes. I like gear that also gives you something unexpected from time to time. The unexpected is a big part of soundscaping for us. So we like friendly gear that gets out of the way but also sometimes insists on doing its own thing, as long as that thing is interesting. There's lots of gear like this today, I don't think you need to have stuff nobody else has in order to have your own sound. You just need your own ideas and a healthy sense of experimentation.

That being said, we used to do all our beats in Powerpoint, except for one song that sampled the couch.

P - What have you been listening, watching and reading?

Stats: I've been listening to "Endtroducing..." by DJ Shadow all summer long. I've always liked it, but for some reason it's really grabbing ahold of me again recently. I've also gotten into "Untrue" by Burial, which is this amazing atmospheric dubstep thing that resurrected a lot of the late 1990's UK gloom that is sorely missed. And both of these albums use samples and atmospheres to construct these dark environments that are rich and detailed and full of soul. So, yeah I'm either two years or like eleven years out of date... I'm also a big fan of Marconi Union right now, and Yagya is a big LOA after-practice favorite. Also Marsen Jules and Ametsub. As far as watching goes, it's football season. What I read is too geeky to print.

P - When can we expect you guys to play a show in Portugal ?

Stats: We'd love to, unfortunately we have a hard time fitting all of our gear into the kayaks.

P - Thanks a lot for your time!

Stats: You're welcome!

Entrevista - Icos

Icos. Estes senhores andam algures entre o doom metal, o sludge e o punk-rock. E são bons no que fazem. Troquei umas palavras com Oskar, um dos vocalistas/guitarristas deste quarteto sueco, para saber como vão as coisas lá no norte.

Pereira- Please introduce yourself and explain, to those who dont know, what Icos is all about.

Oskar - We are a band from Gothenburg, Sweden.We got together as a band in 2001 with the vague intention of doing something different compared to our previous bands. Slower, darker and more emotionaly challenging was the leading words at that time and that's still the leading star until this day.

At this point the band-mebers are:
Erik - Guitars & Vocals
Oskar - Guitars & Vocals
Martin - Bass
Erik - Drums (2001-2008)

P - What is the origin of the name, "Icos" ?

O- We first thought that we had found a word with no meaning and that was the intention. A simple word that stands for nothing. Later we realized that it means something like "small house" in ancient greek. So that's probably a good meaning to the band, a small house for big adventures.

P - How is 2009 going for you guys?

O - Slow! Very slow. Our drummer left the band late 08/early 09 so we haven't made much noise since. But we recently found a drummer to record a song for the upcoming Falling Down II-compilation. The rest of the year will be spent writing new songs and taking care of babies (there will be two new members of the Icos-family in a very near future)

P -About the line up change. What happened?

Erik (our former drummer) left the band because of artistic indifferences.
We had been in this band for 8 years and shared the same visions and dreams. At one point we just realized that our visions had drifted to far apart to continue this mission together.

P - What are your plans for the near future? Do you have any tour planned?

O- There are no plans to tour during 2009. We are writing new songs and looking into the possibilities to play live in 2010 again.

P - When can we expect a new release from you guys?

O- Hopefully within 1 year or so. There are no exact plans at the moment but we are very excited about the new stuff we have written so far.

P - You played in Portugal last year. How was it? When can we expect you back?

O - As soon as we go on tour again. We had a blast the last time and will definately come back as soon as possible.

P- Can you share with us your best and worst memories from the road?

O - There are too many to just pick one. Especially the bad ones...

P - What happened to your plans to release an album with the british crust/sludge band Fall of Efrafa ? It is still going to be released?

O - Those plans got cancelled for various reasons. But the main reason would be that we lost our drummer as they set the deadline for the band and there wasn't enough time to pull that project off. Which of course sucks big time since that would have been an amazing adventure.

P - What are the concepts and messages behind your albums?

O - There are meaning and message in each and every song but it's not gathered around any specific concept.In "Walk with me" we deal with various political topics while "Fragments of sirens" are more focused on the personal struggles we've been deling with.

P- What are your influences when writing a song?

O - Everything between Robert Johnsons early recordings and our daily mood.
Every great tune and every intense emotion.

P - Sweden is a country well known for its ecletic and important extreme music scene. What do you think of it ; is it easy for a band like Icos to survive in Sweden?

O - Not really. There is a great scene as far as the amount of bands coming from here. But there's not really any scene for our band. We hardly ever play any shows in sweden.

P- What have you been listening lately ?

A few specific albums:
Kylesa - new album
Mastodon - new album
Bob Marley - Survival

And the all-time favorites:
Melvins - everything
Earth - everything
Neurosis - last 6 albums

Entrevista : Agent Fresco

Voltamos à conversa com bandas da gélida Islândia, desta vez Agent Fresco. Já falei deles cá no blogue : são um quarteto muito jovem, formado em 2008, que se estreou com o EP "Lightbulb universe" no mesmo ano. A recepção foi brutal: a banda foi nomeada para vários premios ( Icelandic Music Awards ) lá na ilha, e, como eu acho que as coisas boas devem ser partilhadas por todos, achei que já era tempo de tirar a exclusividade à Islândia, no que toca à Agent Fresco. E sim, Vitor Bruno Pereira = Gerry Miroux, dai me tratarem por Gerry na entrevista.

Pereira - Please introduce yourself and describe what Agent Fresco is all about.

Agent Fresco - (Arnór) Good day to you Gerry! We are all together here at the rehearsal space and are happy to answer your questions! We are Arnor (Vocals) Borgþór (Bassist), Hrafnkell (Drums) and Þórarinn (Guitarist) and Agent Fresco is all about a passion for performing and expressing ourselves.

P- Agent Fresco is quite an original name for a band; its not easy to relate it to any musical genre. Where did you get the name?

(Arnór) I guess that you kind of answered the question by asking it. We just wanted a name that wouldn't really "stamp" us on any genre right away, cause we enjoy the freedom and luxury of surprising listeners and our own ears.
The name though will forever stay a secret, sorry! It's in my belief that the music shapes the name, so somehow, you really don't need to know more.

P- Your debut Ep, "Lightbulb Universe", had a great reception. Were you expecting to have your music recognized so quickly? (congrats on the "best new act" award, at the Icelandic Music Awards, by the way )

(Borgþór) We didn't really expect the process to be quite so fast but Iceland is a progressive market in music and I guess we did something right!

It is amazing how fast new acts can gain recognition in such a small market and we are probably a good example of such a group.

P- Can you tell us what are the concepts behind that album?

(Þórarinn) It's bridging the gap between the childish and the mature. I love playing with concepts that are naive and some of the ideas we use are stuff I wrote when I was very young.

(Arnór) yeah, and lyrically this EP came out like an opening and closing chapter for me personally. A lot of the focus lyrically and musically, as þorarinn put it, has been made for the instant ear and eye and the more, in lack of a better word, challenging ear and eye. The words in this EP cast a long shadow and there's definitely something for those who enjoy losing themselves reading the booklet.

P- Are already planning a follow up?

(Arnór) Yeah Buddy! (Þórarinn) Lightweight baby! (Hrafnkell) Yoyoyo! (Borgþór) Woooooo!

P- What can you tell us about it?

(Þórarinn) We would like it to be as soon as possible but we have no specific date. We are currently writing. Most of the songs have a specific concept musically, lyrically or a mixture between the two.

(Arnór) Not more than a month after the first release, we started thinking about themes and ideas for the album. It never leaves our minds. We're busy bees, that's the only thing we can say for now I guess.

P- What do you expect from the rest of 2009? Do you guys have any tours planned?

(Hrafnkell) We just got home from playing in Denmark and we're going to be working for Reykjav�k city all summer playing our jazz set, but we are planning something big in the fall! More to be announced later this summer on our myspace and facebook pages.

P- Icelandic music is well known for having some unique artists, with a singular sound and a unique approach. What do you think of it? Is it a good place for a band like yourselves to be ?

(Borgþór) The music scene is so small that no one can afford to be like everyone and still be successful. Our most visible artists (Bjork, Sigur ros) have very unique sounds and thus, their musical endeavors are all the more visible internationally.
Shows in Iceland are also incredibly diverse. We have bands such as ourselves playing alongside electro acts, hardcore, metal... Just about all the musical genres can be represented at a single show.
For us it is the perfect place to start but we hope that at the finishing line we'll have made our marks elsewhere as well.

(Keli) That was very well put, Boggi!

P- How about playing live, is it easy there? Are there a lot of venues?

(Hrafnkell) There is actually a shortage of venues in Reykjav�k, which is terrible, but because there is so many bands and such a vibrate culture, nearly every bar in Reykjav�k offers live music from all genres.

P- Talking about "Lightbulb Universe" . Your sound seems influenced by a lot of different genres of music; what inspires you, when writing a song?

(Þórarinn) We are all open to all kinds of music and our musical taste is completely without any prejudice. Most of my musical ideas actually come when I am not in front of an instrument. I then write them down in a notebook and convert them to the instruments later.

(Arnór) Regarding the melodies and lyrics, they pretty much show up right away, most of the time, don't know why, me and Þórarinn just click together. Call it, man love! And countless of nights are being used by writing a ton of ideas/thoughts, until something shines through, personal and universal enough to please me and the listener. But I'm extremely anal about sounds, words and thoughts, they all have to dance together in my mouth and slide through my throat, if not, the song won't get recorded.

P- I know that Arnór is from Denmark. How about the music scene there? Is any different from the Icelandic scene?

Well, I was born in Iceland, but moved when I was 5 years old and stayed in Denmark for almost 16 years, so I'm pretty much raised in DK and in love with the country.
The main difference, in my opinion, is the lack of import of live music in Iceland. It's so rare that foreign artists visit Iceland. That, of course, could be a positive aspect as well, for the Icelandic artists. They usually visit us for the excellent festival Iceland Airwaves and a few art and music festivals, but that happens very rarely.

P- What do you guys do, besides the band?

(Arnór) Well we all work for the Reykjav�k city right now, as Hrafnkell said earlier, and that lasts us out July. When this is done I'm back to the Naked Ape, printing and coloring stuff. (www.dontbenaked.com). The other guys are almost done with high school.

P- Is it easy for a band there, to live off music? Or is it only possible for big artists, like Sigur Rós and Björk?

(Borgþór) As I have said before, the market is really very small so it's not easy to make a living only by making and playing original music. Most of the money in Icelandic music is made by teaching and playing jazz or classical music.
Of course there are also some session gigs to be had but those are mostly reserved for older, more educated musicians.

P- What have you been reading, watching and listening lately?

(Borgþór) I've been reading some nerdy fantasy novel by Robin Hobb and also some manga. I watched a terrible sci-fi movie last night. It's called Star Crystal and was only remarkable for it's music, which was awesome. I've been listening to Bohren & der Club of Gore, Earth and Emiliana Torrini.

(Arnór) Oooookay, uhm, David Lynch owns my nights, I just bought THE DEFINITIVE GOLD BOX EDITION of Twin Peaks and I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Caps lock is always needed, when talking about the great Lynch. LYNCH!!!

(Þórarinn) SUDOKU!!!

(Hrafnkell) I read minds.

P- When can we expect you guys to play here in Portugal?

(Arnór) I know of the Caos Emergente festival, but that's extreme metal as far as I remember, other festivals slip my mind, I'm afraid. ah just give us some money and we'll be there asap!

P-Thanks a lot for your time!

AF- Thank you for the interest!

Entrevista : Tubelord

Meus senhores, é com um grande prazer e talz que tenho mais uma entrevista para postar. Depois dos suecos Immanu El, e dos islandeses We Made God, chegou a vez dos britânicos Tubelord. Em comum entre as 3 bandas? A qualidade. Os membros da banda parecem ser tão excêntricos quanto o seu som. Por favor, ouçam a " I am Azerrad", pesquisem no google por Michael Azerrad.

Para finalizar :estes Tubelord são uma das grandes promessas do underground , 'nuff said.

Pereira - Please introduce yourself and your band, and describe, to those who don't know, what is Tubelord all about.

Tubelord -Hi, I'm Joe , and I'm Dave. We play in Tubelord rock band. Tubelord are all about the larger picture within a percolated golden frame.

P - What is the origin of the name, Tubelord?

J&D - We all know the origin of the name, but are unwilling at this point to reveal it.

P- Your sound is quite complex, yet strangely accessible . It is conscious ?

J&D - Yes, how could it be unconscious? If there is an unconscious element to the music, that’s due to the audience, not us.

P- Your single " I Am Azerrad" is a fantastic song, catchy as hell...but I have to ask you guys : who is Azerrad?

J&D- He is an American journalist, I suggest you look him up - Michael is his first name.

P- How is the tour going? Can you describe to us both the best and worst moments so far?

J&D- The best part of the tour happens after the gig is played; people have a lot to talk to you about. Before the show, all conversation feels a little purposeless. In regards to a specific point on tour, our Manchester and Brighton shows have been the most pleasurable for us as a band.
The worst point for us are days off, it’s really hard to be motivated when you don't have a show that night.

P- What are your plans for the rest of 2009 ?

J & D - Do you remember that episode of Rugrats where Angelica couldn't reach the cookie jar on the shelf of the kitchen, but with the help of her fellow Rugrats, she is able to climb up to the shelf, grab the cookies and eat them all herself, only to regret it minutes later as she feels sick? We are currently one of the little Rugrats, our future plans are just out of reach.

P - When are you planning to release your next album?

J & D -As soon as we get a leg up. (October)

P - If you guys have it planned already, can you tell us the concept/ideas behind it?

J&D - It's a bit of a conceptual jumble sale pile, there are songs on there written three years ago, sitting next to songs written a week before recording the album. The main concept is in the art, there is a narrative in picture form.

P - What are your main influences, when writing a song ?

J&D - We have a framed photo of Dave's dad that inspires us to write rock music, while a Phil Collins poster in our van inspires us to play rock concerts.

P- Besides Tubelord, what do you do ?

J&D- Write songs for Tubelord, fix equipment for Tubelord, and ride my bike through the woods to a bank to pay in money for the Tubelord account. Tubelord - Making zines and organizing surf trips since the year that punk broke.

P - Any European tours planned?

J&D- We plan to return to Ireland once the album is released to free them from Capitalist rule and return them to the Normans. If we hadn't agreed to management and booking agents, we would've played Portugal by now, but its all for the greater good.
We'll be in Europe once we've put out our record.

P -When can we expect you here in Portugal ?

J&D - Soon, hopefully

P- What have you been reading/listening/watching lately?

JOE: here are the top 5 most RECENTLY LISTENED TO ON iTUNES:

Bowerbirds
Jon Brion
Jonquil
Pavement
Pinback

and BOOKS I've been reading:

Michel Foucault-Revised edition by Barry Smart
Notes From The Underground-Dostoyevsky
The Culture Industry:Selected Essays - Theodor Adorno
Elements of Semiology-Roland Barthes

Watching life is enough for me...

Dave:

Music I've been loving:

Sam Isaac
Mumford & Sons
Brand New
The Joy Formidable
Dark Mean

and books:
F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the night
Frank Miller - Batman - The Dark Knight strikes again
John Steinbeck - East Of Eden

I've been watching the roads go by, touring is quite time consuming. We need to get a driver, I've been buying so many books, but always driving means no reading time for me.

P - Is it easy for a band like yourselves to survive in England nowadays?

J&D- Yes, of course, but It just depends on what you want the band to be, and how you want it to be heard. It just comes down to good use of money, for instance buying a van has helped us massively.
It helps if as a band you get to know people like Kev from BSM who want to help get your music out there.

P - Thanks a lot for your time!

J& D- Thank you for the questions!