quinta-feira, 30 de março de 2017

Brace Yourself with Souvenir Driver - An Interview


A melhor coisa nessa jornada do TBTCI ao submundo dos bons sons e sempre ser surpreendido, e isso acontece periodicamente, também pudera, a produção que acontece atualmente é veloz, furiosa e sedenta por mais.

Uma dessas descobertas geniais vem de Portland, o quarteto Souvenir Driver, tritura possíveis rotulações, no caldeirão sonoro dos caras, claro, tem pitadas de shoegaze, outras de dream pop, podem até chamá-los disso ou daquilo, mas o enfoque primal dos caras, é pegar XTC e fundir com Galaxie 500.

O resultado é um melódico e ao mesmo tempo complexo senso de desconstrução. Experimente o último EP "Brace Yourself" um verdadeiro tesouro. Mas não pense que os caras são novidade, pelo contrário, dois discos no currículo e alguns EP complementam a discografia, que merece ser degustada sem pressa e na íntegra.

E ainda dizem que nada é feito de grandioso atualmente..... coitados, não sabem de absolutamente nada, inocentes.

Conselho, decore este nome - Souvenir Drive, e boa viagem.



***** Interview with Souvenir Driver *****


Q. When did Souvenir Driver start? Tell us about the history...
Souvenir Driver started in 2011, initially as a solo project, then as a three piece band with Bob (drums) and Ethan (ex-bass & guitar). Shortly after, Travis joined the band on keys. Recently, Ethan left to pursue other projects, and Josh Kalberg of Daydream Machine and Whole Wide World joined on bass.

Q: Who are your influences?
We are influenced equally by life experiences than we are by music. There are certain moods to me that evoke melody and I try to keep that in mind when we get together to write. Sometimes I hear a melody when I look at a painting or watch a silent film.

Every member of the band has different musical influences, which I think helps bring a unique perspective to our songwriting. There are a few bands we all love and agree on of course. Dandy Warhols, Spiritualized, Jesus & Mary Chain, Joy Division, Rolling Stones, to name a few …

My biggest personal musical influence is probably Galaxie 500 / Luna / Dean & Britta. Other bands that have really inspired by playing and writing include (but are not limited to): Broadcast, The Cure, Velvet Underground, Angelo Badalamenti, J&MC, and Sparklehorse.

J&MC and Sparklehorse are the two bands that gave me courage to try to write music — I remember listening to them back to back on a road trip and thinking “I can hear what each member & sound are doing.” It was this realization that these acts used minimal elements to create something so mysterious and dreamy.

The biggest non musical influences on my writing are probably Clarice Lispector and Stan Brackhage.

Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
My personal list will probably be WILDLY different than that of my band members. And a couple of my choices are a little embarrassing for various reasons haha. However, here goes:

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
2. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
3. Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres (though I love all his ambient music)
4. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
5. Luna - Rendezvous

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Playing live is a feeling unlike anything else. It puts me in a total trance and is such a good experience for me. We love playing live shows! And we’re lucky to have a separate live crew (sound & lighting person) who help us out.

Q. How do you describe Souvenir Driver sounds?
Its always hard to describe it, but I use terms like “dreamy”, “atmospheric”, and “melodic.”

Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Each album has a slightly different recording process; but we’re very lucky to have worked with Gregg Williams during the last two full length records. (He’s worked with Dandy Warhols, Blitzen Trapper, Quarterflash, Sheryl Crow).

For our upcoming release, we rehearsed the songs every day for a couple weeks, then played them all front to back live, as a premiere. We went into the studio to track drums, then drove to a mountain cabin to do everything else. Once we finished with “everything else” we realized there was still a lot of work to do haha. We took it back to the studio with Gregg, and did a series of over-dubs, and re-recorded a few things. We then mixed it with him. We’re extremely happy with the results. Its an album to listen to both on record, in the car, and headphones.

For the political E.P. online right now, it was a very different process. We wrote those songs extremely quickly, in two separate jam sessions, then we took it into a room called Revolver Studios, where Nalin Silva (Federale) recorded everything live. The room has a cool vibe. Its filled with animal decorations and lots of wooden panelling. The only over dubs on that E.P. are the vocals and hand percussion. We wanted that one to capture the energy and emotions we were feeling, and to sound more raw than our previous material.


Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
I’ll stick with bands that are slightly underground ;)

For Portland I’d say Candace, Hollow Sidewalks, Tender Age, The Shivas, Daydream Machine, Miracle Falls, Hawkeye, Verner Pantons, and Bryson Cone are my favorites. But there’s so much good music here, I’m sure I’m forgetting someone.

In terms of bands outside Portland my favorites are Froth, Dead Leaf Echo, Heaven, Shana Falana, and Cosmonauts.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
Too hard to choose! We’re covering Spacemen 3 soon, but that’s sort of a ‘secret’ (which is now out haha) … Before now, the songs we’ve covered have mainly been of bands we don’t really sound like. We’ve covered Prince, Holly Golightly, Chris Isaac…

Q: What are your plans for the future?
Immediate plans are the release of our new album and a west coast tour behind it with our good friends Daydream Machine.

The album, “Self-titled” comes out April 7 on High School Records, a rad label in Portland run by Nora from Hollow Sidewalks. But before the record is out, fans will have the opportunity to buy it at shows while we tour. We’re playing a release show for it March 21st in Portland with Daydream Machine, and then touring with them from March 24 - April 1. Really excited!

In the meantime, we’ll also have a couple videos coming out shortly.

And we’re all incredibly excited to start writing new material. We have a few songs starting to blossom right now. Our favorite thing to do as a band is to write and record. We love making records.

Q: Any parting words?
Thanks so much for interviewing us and for writing about so many great underground bands! And thanks much to your readers for supporting so much music ! Its a crowded landscape right now, so it means a lot to us when people take the time to discover and explore what we’re doing.
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Thanks

http://www.souvenirdriver.com/
https://souvenirdriver.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/souvenirdriver