segunda-feira, 22 de julho de 2013

Players for Rain with Lenorable - An Interview



O lado sombrio e escuro do TBTCI sempre esteve visível, misturado as dissonâncias dos wall of sounds, as trippy sounds, mas a cold wave sempre esteve presente, e agora pra reforcar a tendência, Lenorable um duo de Washington DC, Ian e Lisa, pegam todas as vertentes que o TBTCI aborda e condensam em sua vertente mais densa, soturna e minimal.

O novíssimo Disconnect é um mix de shoegazer, minimal, cold wave e psicodelia totalmente voltado as sombras, um daquelas epzinhos que fica em looping na cabeca.

Simplesmente altamente recomendado, e pra ilustrar, como de praxe, o TBTCI convidou o Lenorable pra uma entrevista que saiu melhor do que a encomenda.

***** Interview with Lenorable *****


Q. When did Lenorable starts, tell us about the history...
Lisa and I started making music together in the summer of 2010. It took us a while to find the right sound -- there are some videos our friends and fans put on YouTube that show some of our first shows, chronicling the growing pains. We had no idea what we were doing. It was a lot of fun, trying new sounds and learning to use and play along with a drum machine. After maybe a year, we started to use synthesizers and the music got darker and more intense. That's what you hear on some of our demos online and on The Prince EP, which we recorded in 2011 and self-released (with help from our fans and Kickstarter) on vinyl in 2012. A sort of growing darkness.

Q: Who are your influences?
We're both big fans of the Cure, Joy Division, Clan of Xymox, Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Echo and the Bunnymen, a lot of those classic goth and post-punk bands. Screen Vinyl Image is a big influence locally and otherwise. I've been listening to a lot of coldwave, bands like Xeno and Oaklander, Eleven Pond, KaS Product, OTO. The French are really good at electronic music.

Q. Made a list of 5 albums of all time…
In no particular order:
- Beatles Revolver
- MBV's Loveless
- Joy Division's Closer
- The Cure's Disintegration
- Beach Boys' Pet Sounds

Q. How do you fell playing alive?
Playing live is one of my favorite things. I'm definitely a shoegazer, I sort of fall into my own little world for each song, staring at the floor and spacing out. If I'm not careful, I'll forget where I am and miss a chord change or step on the wrong pedal. There's kind of a hypnotic, psychedelic element to our live performance, at least for me.

Q. How do you describe Lenorable sounds?
Goth/gaze, darkgaze and deathgaze are all terms we've used. The guitar sounds are very goth-meets-shoegaze. Cold, sharp, but very big and noisy. We keep the electronics sparse -- heavy bass, synths ranging from ghostly ethereal sounds to icy stabbing sounds to walls of noise. But Lisa's vocals really define our sound. Her lyrics and singing give the songs some urgency. She adds the drama and tension.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording Disconnect?
Disconnect was definitely a process. It's the first EP we recorded on our own. Originally we had planned to only release a single, for Halloween 2012. Then we wrote a new song. Then we wanted to record another song. Then we wanted to have some friends do remixes. Then Halloween 2012 became spring 2013, which became summer 2013, and here we are.

Recording was pretty painless, but we did a lot of pre- and post-production. Had we been paying for a studio by the hour, we probably could have recorded most of the vocals, synths and guitars in a day, maybe two.

We spent a lot of time mixing, trying different effects, tweaking arrangements. I spent a lot of time experimenting with guitar sounds, both live and with modeling software, trying to match what I play on stage with what would work on a recording. I'm glad technology has evolved to where it is, because Ableton Live makes my life so easy once everything is tracked.

We were also touring and playing live a lot, so recording sessions were few and far between. I try not to rush things, but I also know that spending too much time on something can make you crazy. Disconnect took a lot of time (our first songs were recorded last fall), it was a very deliberate, relaxed process.


Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
There's a lot of good, dark music coming from Washington, DC right now. Pleasure Curses, Technophobia, Motion Lines, No Paris. Of course, Screen Vinyl Image, they're great. I just saw Ars Phoenix for the first time a few weeks ago, they were very good. Last Remaining Pinnacle was amazing live, too. I haven't seen Glitterlust live yet, but I want to. I've only seen pictures and their stage show looks wild.

Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
It's safe to say we have a pretty unique sound, and I love taking other bands' songs and making them our own. We've covered A Forest, by the Cure (there's avideo from a fan on YouTube that's pretty good). For Halloween 2011, we covered Bela Lugosi's Dead. A Forest and Bela Lugosi's dead are fun to play, but they aren't that far off soundwise from where we are. It's more fun for me to take a song from a completely different genre and make it ours. We recorded a cover version of Wham!s "Last Christmas," I think it turned out well. People have told me they can't listen to it in the house because their girlfriend says it's too scary for Christmas music.

On Disconnect, we recorded a version of In Heaven, Everything is Fine, from the movie Eraserhead. I'd like to cover "I'm Waiting Here," the new David Lynch/Lykke Li track. That one would be fun.

Q: What´s the plans for future....
We have some remixes for Pleasure Curses and Glitterlust that we've been working on, those should be done in a few weeks.
We have a few shows left this summer. We'll be at the Elephant Talk Indie Music Fest in Atlantic City, New Jersey, August 4. After that we're playing with Technophobia for their live debut, August 17 at Black Cat in DC. I think this fall we'll start working on a new single or EP. Book some shows and hit the road a bit. Hopefully a Halloween show, those are always fun.

Q: Any parting words?
I want to say thanks to my lovely wife and bandmate Lisa, for putting up with all of the stress she didn't know she'd be facing when I said "Hey let's be a band!" Thanks to all of the bands I've mentioned, our friends and fans, and our family for their support as we've evolved into the band we are today. You know who you are.
*
*
*
Thanks Ian!!

https://www.facebook.com/lenorable?fref=ts
http://music.lenorable.net/