Ludvico Treatment, soa desconhecido para você?! Pode até soar, mas não deveria, ainda mais se estamos falando de shoegazer clássico, layers e mais layers de guitarras, muito Ride e Swervedriver condensados e expurgados diretamente para 2011, vinte anos após a era clássica a profecia continua, e vem em grandioso estilo o segundo album do Ludvico Treatment é literalmente uma obra de arte, a começar pela concepção uma luxuosa embalagem em limitadissima tiragem de 100 copias que é melhor colocar uma foto para ter a real noção do capricho e bom gosto, sem contar a sonoridade que pelo inicio do texto já dá para ilustrar bem a vertente dos canadenses, se o primeiro album Romanticism já deixava clarissimo que além dos shoegazer classicos citados a crueza de um Smashing Pumpinks fica elucidade definitivamente nessa epopeia chamada Politeia, um daqueles albuns que poucos irão ouvir, mas quem ouvir certamente vibrara exaustivamente tamanho a grandeza das canções, e aproveitando o ensejo o TBTCI rapidamente publica a todos mais uma das classicas entrevistas, desssa vez com o grande, mais muito grande Ludvico Treatment.
Alex: Adam & I met in 2000 through mutual friends. He had formed a makeshift band and when it turned out that the bassist wasn't going to work out, those mutual friends pointed out that I could play guitar. After a year or so of creating strange glam punk / metal fusions of obnoxious noise the band broke up. However, Adam & I had suddenly found a style and method of working that fit us rather well. All this happened in Calgary, Alberta, but after years of writing and recording material, our unsuccessful struggles to find musicians for a live band resulted in Adam leaving to find fresher pastures while I stayed behind to finish my English degree. We maintained a writing relationship and Adam formed various excellent line ups to play the songs in Vancouver. The live band really was excellent, and did things with our work that I wouldn't have believed possible. And now we're here. Adam is living in Montreal and I am just about to move to Toronto. The writing and recording continues.
Q: Who are your influences?
Adam: When we first started writing Ludvico material in 2003 we wanted to make loud rock music with a bit of electronics on the side. Turns out The Cooper Temple Clause beat us to it and definitely influenced us. Aside from the big names in shoegaze (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and the like), we’ve taken a lot of influence from The Smiths & Manic Street Preachers, and our mixing tendencies of loud drums & guitars comes from Nirvana.
Q. Made a list of 5 albuns of all time…
Adam: David Sandström – Om Det Inte Händer Nåt Innan Imorgon Så Kommer Jag (a big influence on how our album Politeia turned out), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Let Love In, The Magnetic Fields – The Charm of the Highway Strip, Spiritualized – Pure Phase, Slowdive – Souvlaki.
Alex: Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible, Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come, Mansun - Six, My Bloody Valentine - Loveless, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads.
Q. How do you fell playing alive?
Adam: Well, I’ve always been in charge of the live band (though Alex joined us for our final show in Vancouver) and nothing beats the feeling of a successful gig. I have to say that some of my best experiences with the live band were in the practice space though; there have been some great feedback-laden jams over the years, particularly when we had new guitar pedals to play with. Makes me wish we recorded our practices!
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the new album?
Adam: This new album (Politeia) is a bit odd as we started recording it back in 2004 and I added bits and pieces to it over a very long period of time, usually recording in basements & home studios with borrowed equipment. The songs were basically written and mostly complete by the time our first album was released but I felt that the production wasn’t perfect. It started to feel like what Brian Wilson must have felt with the Beach Boys’ album “Smile” and I started feeling like the album mixes would never match the sounds in my head. Then in 2010 we opened for Adam Franklin from Swervedriver- that gave me the inspiration to just finish Politeia and just put it out, perfect or not. His band had this amazing rawness to it. After that show I plugged in my old Echoplex tape delay, added some new guitar parts, remixed a few songs and released it.
Q. What´s represents the shoegazer classic era to the band?
Adam: 1991-1993 is the ‘classic’ period for us. The press backlash against shoegaze was at its peak in the UK which might explain how so many great albums came out in those years... perhaps the backlash spurred those bands on to greatness! Loveless, Just for a Day, Raise, Lazer Guided Melodies, Going Blank Again, Souvlaki, Mezcal Head, Ferment- not to mention all the 12” EPs that came out in that period. Wow.
Adam: The Hope Slide is the new electro-gaze project by the singer and lead guitarist from Hinterland who were a great Canadian shoegaze band. Cruyff in the Bedroom from Japan have been around a while but they still amaze me. The drumming on the first two albums is unbelievable.
Alex: I've been finding my head turned by quieter electronica-laden work at the moment. The band Guerre is going to become something quite lovely, I think. I've also been listening to the album by Spider and the Flies a lot. They're made up by two of the guys from the Horrors using sounds inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 60s. Really interesting.
Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
Adam: Our live sets often started with Angel by Massive Attack and we recorded Reptile Smile by Th’ Faith Healers for our Myspace page, both are great songs. Right now we’re recording our interpretation of a David Bowie LP (Earthling) just for fun. I love that album but the production feels a bit mismatched with the songs in some places. We’re hoping to finish it & post it online by the end of the summer… it should be interesting to say the least!
Q: What´s the plans for future....
Alex: We have a habit of working on our next project while finishing our current one. We did that with our first release, Romanticism, and Politeia, and we've done it again. Work is already well underway on our third album, as well as our re-envisioning of Earthling and a couple of other projects. I'm incredibly excited about the directions Adam and I have gone recently. Look out for something (relatively) soon.
Q: Any parting words?
Adam: I’ve had the good fortune of getting production advice from Graham Lewis of Wire on a few occasions and it has always proven invaluable for us. Despite the recent trend of D.I.Y.-everything in the music industry (which we do as much as anyone), an unbiased perspective is still crucial when making an album. The wisdom of an experienced producer can transform a decent album into something truly excellent.
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Thanks guys!!!
http://theludvicotreatment.bandcamp.com/
