segunda-feira, 9 de junho de 2014

Choirs of Blessed Youth with Principe Valiente - An Interview




Um das mais cultuadas bandas do submundo do pós punk atual, estou falando dos suecos do Principe Valiente que desde 2005 vem congelando os tímpanos com gélidas e desesperadoras canções de frustação, desamor, amor, emoções intensas e dolorosas, por conta de seu recém lançado novíssimo album Choirs of Blessed Youth e em entrevista absolutamente esperada há algum tempos nas páginas do TBTCI, o Principe Valiente faz um retrospecto de toda a carreira, aborda influências e explicita do já grandioso album, propenso candidato a uns dos grandes albuns desse 2014.

Srs, Principe Valiente no TBTCI.


***** Interview with Principe Valiente *****


Q. When did Principe Valiente starts, tell us about the history...
- I started the band back in 2005 already (with other members at that time) after I (Fernando) quited some other bands and projects.

Q: Who are your influences?
- If I have to choose just a few who's been the strongest influences through the years and which made me actually begin to play music, I would say Nirvana and Suede, Bowie and Morrissey.

Nowadays we can all, of course, get inspired by more things. The genre isn't that important just as long it feels real. We also love artists like Björk, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Siouxsie, The Doors, Tom Waits and David Sylvian.

Q. Made a list of 5 albums of all time…
Television - Marquee Moon
David Bowie - Low
Nirvana - Nevermind
Massive Attack - Protection
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Q. How do you feel playing alive?
- It's great of course. Sometimes also pretty tiring if we are on tour but with good focus it can even be better performances and more "real". So we can feel the frustration we felt when we wrote the songs in the first place. And it rubs off on the entire show and the audience, which is a great feeling. We just love playing live. But the most important is to make great records. There is a Swedish artist called Stina Nordenstam who rarely plays live but her music is really inspiring to me and I've been listening to her for many years. At the beginning of Principe I almost felt like just record stuff and not playing live, but I realize I was more shy back then too.

Q. How do you describe Principe Valiente sounds?
- A mixture between shoegaze and post-punk but with a strong pop vein. Emotional and very intense. And with a sexuall energy. Frustration and some anger but with lot of love and without loosing hope. A lot of reverb.


Q: Tell us about the process of recording the new album ?
- We recorded it in three different studios here in Stockholm during shorter sessions (some weeks at a time), then we sent some tracks to Ed Buller, who I've been in touch with since 2012, and he did the mix on a couple of tracks and the rest we mixed by ourselves. He wanted to produce & mix the whole album of course but with a small record label it just wasn't possible with no budget. But hopefully next time. We did an awesome job both with him and by ourselves, totally a great journey!

Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
- I actually discovered not to too long ago Savages from London, a great 5-piece band with some great vocals and post-punk feeling. Also Future Islands from Baltimore, US - awesome band with such an aggressively passionate singer (and a bit scary). And a band called Cold Cave who’s been touring with Nine Inch Nails recently here in Europe, quite interesting.

Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
- Don't know actually. I did a lot of cover versions with the band I played in during high school back in the days and we played songs by early Suede, Radiohead and a punk band from Sweden called Ebba Grön. Also Nirvana. We actually fool around now and then when we rehearse with Territorial Pissings of Nirvana and some Doors-stuff but we have no plans of doing a serious cover version of any of those songs. But who knows, maybe in the future.

Q: What´s the plans for future....
- To do only covers! Just kidding..

At this state we are preparing ourselves for the release party here in Sweden and planning a third single from the new album.

Q: Any parting words?
- We hope the audience loves the album as much as we do. And that we hopefully soon have the opportunity to come and play in Brazil.
*
*
*
Thanks Fernando and all Principe Valiente