domingo, 5 de setembro de 2010

Dreams Burn Down with The Butterfly Explosion - An Interview


Os irlandeses do Butterfly Explosion desde os dois primeiros EP´s Vision e Turn The Sky já haviam conquistado o TBTCI, mas com o debut Lost Trails a adoração tornou-se devoção e a coisa ficou serissima, o album é essencial daqueles que deve fazer parte de sua coleção sem a menor restrição, se voce ainda não tem, faça o favor de correr atrás pois não há como ficar sem a deslumbrante Closer ou resistir a explosão de Sophia, Carpark, Chemistry, Automatic, Lost Trails certamente estara dentre os grandes albuns do ano nas listas dos shoegazers, post rockers de plantão sem contar na apresentação devastadora no SXSW deste ano, e para melhor conhecermos um pouco mais dos caras, o TBTCI tem o prazer de apresentar abaixo outra entrevista para delirio deste que vos escreve, cortesia de Gazz, guitarrista e vocal do Butterfly Explosion.

***** Interview with The Butterfly Explosion *****


Q. When did Butterfly Explosion form?
A. I had spent a couple of years recording demos at home and eventually got a band together to record a couple of EPs but with different band members. When we began recording on the album in 2008 it was myself, John (drums) and Conor(bass). It took me a couple of years up to that point to figure out what the band was going to be about and the musical direction that worked best for us.

Q. Tell us about the recording process for the debut album?
A. We recorded the album with Torsten from God Is An Astronaut at their studio in Ireland. We spent about a year working in the studio, but it was more a case of spreading the work and costs out over a year than actually spending 365 days in studio! It eventually went over the budget but we'd gone so far at that stage I didn't want to cut any corners. Apart from easing the financial burden, I think spreading the work out over the year really helped the tracks and album develop into what we wanted.


Q. What are the band's influences?
A. I guess you'd have to reference the bands you grew up listening to that first inspired you to play music and the obvious ones for me would be Smashing Pumpkins, dEUS and My Bloody Valentine. Going back further again, I was mad into bands like Duran Duran, U2, The Cure and Tears for Fears when I was a kid in the 80's. In more recent years, M83 and Trail Of Dead are amongst my favourites.

Q, Tell us about playing live.
A. I think the album overall is a mellow record but live we definitely try and bring out the beautiful noise!

How did this years gigs go?
A. The timing of the album release in the Spring worked out perfect with the gig opportunities that arose around the same time. We were offered a place at the SXSW Festival in the States and God Is An Astronaut asked us to support them on their UK tour and later on their European tour. So between Europe and America we played about 40 gigs after the album release. With SXSW being such a high profile festival and GIAA having such a big fanbase across Europe it all really helped us reach out to a broader fanbase.

Q. What do you think about the classic shoegaze era?
A. At the time I was relatively young and wouldn't have been aware of any of that music. As a kid in Dublin in 1991, it was all about Prodigy rave and Nirvana grunge.

It was only in the late 90s that I discovered My Bloody Valentine and later other artists from Creation Records. MBV and Slowdive were definitely the ones that stood out for me. That I fell in love with these bands straight away was probably because I was already a big fan of music they themselves had influenced in the mid 90s. I think the guitar wall of noise on (Smashing Pumpkins') Siamese Dream odes much to (My Bloody Valentine's) Loveless.

Q. Tell us about bands in the current shoegaze scene.
A. My favourites in recent years would actually be ones that are taking a very different approach to the guitar driven sound that defined the original shoegaze scene. They're not obvious shoegaze bands, or at least not in the early 90's sense.

For me, shoegaze is just one of several sub-genres you can
associate with bands today like M83, Sigur Ros, A Place To Bury Strangers, and Mogwai. You wouldn't say any of these bands are making similar music yet you can say they must have common influences. Like ourselves, we're not a shoegaze band but our music has definitely drawn some inspiration from the era.

Q. Which new bands you recommended?
A. Some of the better albums I've bought the last couple of years have been from SPC Eco (UK), Channel One(Ireland) and Hammock(USA).

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?
A. Foreigner - I Wanna Konw What Love Is Disclaimer! - I don't speak on behalf of the other band members on this one. We'd probably all come to a mutual agreement on something like The Cure's Lullaby.

Q. What are the plans for the future?
A. There's a lot of very promising material there for the second album but it's going to be quite different from the Lost Trails album, less of the gazerock, more of the dreampop! It's looking like guitars will be making way for more synths in many of the tracks.


Q. Any important news to tell us…
Q. We hope to start recording some of those tracks in the next few months with a view to releasing it in 2011.
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Thanks Gazz....it´s a pleasure!!!!.....Best ....Renato


www.myspace.com/butterflyexplosion
www.butterflyexplosion.com/