segunda-feira, 9 de outubro de 2017

Domestic Bliss with Ravels - An Interview


É aquele negócio, ouço rotineiramente pessoas dizendo que nada de novo é feito de interessante, inteligente e instigante no mundo do rock, tanto faz se for mainstream, ou underground, existe uma imensa gama de pessoas tendenciosas a dizer que hoje em dia tudo é uma bosta.

Quem acompanha o TBTCI sabe que o enfoque dessas páginas é mostrar justamente o contrário, seja indie, shoegaze, post punk, psych, dark, ou qualquer coisa, o ponto é que diariamente nestas páginas novíssimas bandas mostram e comprovam exatamente o contrário.

Os russos do Ravels são um típico caso que se a mídia os escutasse eles certamente estariam tocando em festivais pelo mundo, inclusive no Brasil, estariam lançando seus discos por alguma major, e vendendo, porque o mix de pós punk revival, com indie rock clássico, é de te pegar pela mão e fazer ouvir seguidas vezes. 

Os caras não negam suas referências, tem Strokes, quando eram bons, tem Interpol, quando eram bons, tem Radiohead, quando não se achavam os reis e tem, Deerhunter, bastante por sinal, os meninos não escondem sua idolatria pela genialidade de Bradford Cox.

"Domestic Bliss" o EP de estréia do Ravels atesta os parágrafos acima, mas sugiro que você escute e tire suas conclusões.

***** Interview with Ravels *****


Q. When did Ravels start? Tell us about the history...
1. Nick:  The history of the band started in 2012, when me and Andrey (drums) decided to play together. In 2013, Nikita (bass) joined the group, however the band RAVELS appeared with the arrival of Arseniy - the vocal / guitar in 2014. Then more effective work was done, in 2015 the first demo recordings were recorded, and in 2016 we supported A place to bury strangers in Moscow.

Arseniy: There were a lot of difficult moments on our way. Living in different cities, it’s hard to communicate, to write song, to rehearse. That is why our work slowed down in a few moments, especially while we were recording EP.

Q: Who are your influences?
2. Nick: We are inspired by Sonic Youth, The Strokes, Interpol, Radiohead, Fugazi and sometimes Tame Impala

Arseniy: I agree with Nikita here, can only add that the band Deerhunter influenced us also. It is clear in our unrecorded songs we are currently working on.

Q. Make a list of 5 albuns of all time…
3. Nick:
Radiohead - in the Rainbows
The Impala Tame - Lonerism
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
Interpol - Turn on the bright lights
Strokes - Is this it

Arseniy:
I can only tell about my favorite ones, I think it’s
Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights
Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
Fugazi – Repeater
Swans – To be Kind
Iceage – You’re nothing

Q. How do you feel playing live?
4. Nick: Going out on stage, I feel that I'm leaving to work, and the stage is a workspace where we work on performance, sound, so that the listeners will love what they see and what they hear.

Arseniy: For me, stage is the place where I want to turn off and feel myself apart from everything that's happening. It’s cool when it is possible to make a crowd feel the same. I find it hard to communicate with listeners because we don’t have a lot of experience playing live, but when I feel this contact, I feel myself incredibly happy.


Q. How do you describe Ravels sounds?
5. Nick: The sound of RAVELS, I think, is a semi-neopsychedelic, semi-shoegaze sound. Although, the ideal of guitar sound, I think, is the sound of Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeah's, I also think that our sound is developing in the right direction.

Arseniy: On our EP I hear influences of post-punk revival bands of USA. There are the same paces, king of the same guitar sounds. But lately we are trying to be more complicated, we are experimenting with bass lines, drum parts to make sound in general more interesting. Honestly, I think that how we sound right now is a mix of bands which influenced us mostly. Here you can hear vocals reminding early The Strokes, here are some tricks from Tame Impala’ guitar sounds, etc.

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
6. Nick: We wrote songs at the studio with our good friend. We experimented with sound, with percussion, with amplifiers and all the guitars were recorded through 3 amps. All the work on recording took us about 4 months and, of course, something had to be rerecorded several times.

Arseniy: Almost all the vocal parts were recorded from the first take, it was a little bit strange for us, but result was good.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
7. Nick: Ought, Mile Me Deaf, BRONCHO, Mellow Lizard

Arseniy: Ought, Remo Drive.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
8. Nick: Sonic Youth, to be precise, a song ‘Stones’

Arseniy: Radiohead – Bodysnatchers. One of my favorite songs from In Rainbows and example of perfect guitar sound.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
9. Nick: Continue to work on the material, work on the sound, come up with new tracks and think through the concept for the next album.

Arseniy: We want to become better live artists, to play concerts more often. We already got songs for the LP, but I think we are not ready, there are a lot of ways to move on and on, becoming a better band.
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Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/ravelsband/
https://ravels.bandcamp.com/releases
https://soundcloud.com/ravelsband