Seguindo a risca a profecia que permeia o TBTCI, agora é hora e vez de mais uma recém descoberta do submundo do shoegazer, o novíssimo Soft Wounds, apenas com suas demos disponíveis em seu bandcamp, os caras são uma das apostas do TBTCI para o ano que começa.
Shoegazer com orientação 60´s, uma viagem de wall of sound com tonalidades multicoloridas.
See the Sun e Dive in se destacam pelas belas melodias, vocais tipicamente sessentistas e as guitarras altamente shoegazers.
Um belo começo para o Soft Wounds, e ficamos na torcida para que venha o novo material e o registro físico rapidamente.
Gaze mode ON.
Gaze mode ON.
***** Interview with Soft Wounds *****
Q. When did Soft Wounds started, tell us about the history...
We were all chasing a particular sound – and level of enthusiasm – but were in various projects. Three of us actually all tried out for another more pop orientated group. The magic of Craigslist (not one of us ended up secretly being a 50 year old neck-beard creeper, surprisingly) and email brought us together. We started jamming and swapping music at a space on Dufferin St. six months ago. It turned out that we all shared many common musical histories and tastes, so everything fit naturally (which is SUPER rare for a bunch of dudes who met off Craigslist). Slowly but surely we’ve built up a set and released a demo EP. We all come from a long history of previous bands, and all came to Toronto from various places (as far away as Australia).
Q: Who are your influences?
My Bloody Valentine; The Smiths; Slowdive; Chapterhouse; Cocteau Twins; Alison's halo, Talk talk, The Jesus and Mary Chain;– there is a big pop, early punk and post-punk influence too. We like music with atmosphere, melody and/or energy that's lush and uses a lot of chorus.
Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
Matt:
Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin
Elephant – White Stripes
Loveless – My Bloody Valentine
Abbey Road – The Beatles
In An Aeroplane Over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
(this was way too hard)
Charlie:
Red Medicine – Fugazi
Souvlaki – Slowdive
The Queen is Dead – the Smiths
Odessey and Oracle – the Zombies
Pet Sounds – Beach Boys
Andrew:
I can never choose 'top' albums, everything gives me different feelings.
Q. How do you feel playing live?
Matt - Natural – It’s a rush - Nothing really beats it. It goes hand in hand with the recording process. It’s where everything comes alive. Not every show is the best but as long as someone is watching and you like playing the songs it feels worthwhile and it satisfies that need to express oneself.
Charlie: I feel very alive when I am performing. Being able to share your artistic expressions with other people is one of the most exhilarating experiences, especially if they really enjoy what you do. Even if at the end of the day only a handful of people really appreciate what you do, it’s still amazing and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
Andrew: Playing live, I'm fine with it! Usually I'm pretty reserved and shy, so I think shoegaze is a great fit with me.
Q. How do you describe Soft Wounds´ sound?
Matt: A shoegaze doughnut glazed with pop and sprinkled with another helping of reverb.
Charlie: A softy-loud band dropped in an ocean of reverb…or perhaps…the echoing sounds heard while standing in the empty halls of your high school during the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ dance.
Andrew: A lot of different textures, there's some 80's to 90's dream pop and shoegaze going on. Matt has some pretty bluesy solos mixed in there too!
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
So far, we have only recorded one 5 song demo. We went very DIY with it. Recording was somewhat crude as in only an SM57 was used as that was all we had – guitar tracks were laid down first and everything else sort of followed after that. Matt took forever to mix it with Charlie. It was difficult to get a full sound with limited equipment and recording in a room with a lot of signal bleed. We think the songs came out pretty well – keeping a low-fi aesthetic and the style of music give the production more authenticity rather than taking it away. We settled on basically the first five songs we wrote – we have more in the bag but the 5 represent the beginning of Soft Wounds.
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Matt: Toronto’s Alvvays – their debit from this year is killer.
Charlie: Metz, (not exactly new) a crushing Toronto grunge band signed to Sub Pop. Also, Beliefs and Rituals, amazing shoegaze bands, also from Toronto. If we are talking new bands outside of Toronto, I like Whirr, Nothing and Cloakroom, to name a few.
Andrew - I really don't keep up to date with new bands. I'm a big 80's and 90's lover.
Q: Which bands would you love to make a cover version of?
Matt - The Pixies’ ‘Here Comes Your Man’ is basically the perfect pop song so maybe a slower version of that. Geordie is prone to ‘Master of Puppets’ however (He’s the only one who knows it).
Charlie – I have always wanted to do a shoegaze cover of Dell Shannon’s ‘Runaway’. I am a sucker for 50’s crooners.
Q: What´s the plan for the future....
Live shows – local and otherwise. We will be playing our debut show on January 2nd and we are really excited about it! We look forward to playing many more shows, writing many more songs, hopefully doing a studio album (or EP) and teaming up with some other people/bands for different collaborative projects/shows over the next year.
Q: Any parting words?
Matt - Separation, split, divide, half… the list goes on. Oh – don’t be a fool kids, protect those ears at band prac. Going deaf is the STD of song-writing. Rubber is cheap.
Charlie – Thank you so much for interviewing our humble little band on your site. Keep in touch. And call your family, they miss you.
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Thanks guys
https://softwounds.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/softwounds
