Impressionante é a palavra pra descrever a intensidade gélida calcada na cold wave e minimal sounds do duo Vólkova, Cesar e Paula em 2013 casualmente se encontraram num show em Buenos Aires e assim surgia o Vólkova
Três disquinhos no currículo sendo que Traumas and Dreams lançado em junho desde ano mostra a qualidade dos dois. Canções que penetram lentamente e te jogam diretamente para os gélidos anos do início dos 80´s sem soar datado, muito pelo contrário, tanto que a nova cena da cold wave e minimal sounds esta cada vez mais forte e intensa.
Não a toa o Vólkova tem uma série de shows na Europa com gente do calibre de Sixth June, Klinik entre outros.
Pra ficar de olhos abertos.
***** Interview with Vólkova *****
Q. how did Vólkova come together?, tell us aboutll the history...
César: We met on March 2013 at the Hanin Elias concert in Buenos Aires. I was working with my label (Tacuara Records) and looking for a new formula for my musical curiosities. With my previous band, Plan Quinquenal, I was in deep work with industrial and experimental music. On one side, I was submerged under a chaos of compositions, while on the other I was searching for a way to synthesize ideas in a more audible format. With Paula we came together rather quickly. She recorded her own vocal tracks at the same time I was making my compositions , a mix of a permanent struggle between cold, dark, melancholic melodies and some irreverent compositions of punk and industrial music.
Paula: I remember that before we met each other at that concert, Cesar and I talked by Internet and he asked me about a female singer because of his intentions with a new proyect and I answered him that I would recommend someone else because I wanted to sing but I was in treatment because of a throat disease. (I´m sure Cesar doesn´t remember this, ahah). When we met in person I heard what he was composing and I knew that would be a joint project and my voice and limitations would adapted to this.
Q: What are your influences?
C: Art is so broad and it regenerates constantly. Many things motivate and give us ideas, things like past literature or old time melodies. I learned to play guitar with partitures of Black Sabbath , and fell into electronic music, perhaps out of curiosity. I am not an expert with synthesizers, I am an autodidact. There are a lot of people with full knowledge about synthesizers, but I just follow my instincts and use them as a tool to make music.
P: I believe that influences are all that we absorb during all our life, even the things that we can´t remember but are still there in our unconscious.
Anyway, I always relate music with images and we are big fans of films, so I think that´s a big influence too.
Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
C: 1-Psychic Tv- Dreams less Sweet
2-Einstuerzende Neubauten - Kollaps
3-Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the infinite Sadness
4-Black Sabbath - Paranoid
5-Babasonicos - Dopadromo ( Argentina )
P: - Psychic Tv ( Dreams less Sweet)
The Cure (Pornography)
Einstuerzende Neubauten- Silence is sexy
Bjork ( Vespertine)
Blonde Redhead (Misery is a Butterfly)
Q. How do you feel when playing live?
C: Personally I feel a mix of nervousness, rage, catharsis and I try to maintain control on stage and play the best to my ability. In effect, I try to establish limits for myself, but I can´t always stay within them.
P: I feel catharsis, adrenaline and excitement. For me it's the only time that I have no control over myself.
Q. How do you describe Vólkova´s sounds?
C: I think it's something different from the current scene we find ourselves in. The sound is more aggressive, experimental, and we don't apply many of the old 80s sound. We have the capacity to regenerate and reinvent ourselves, which is noticeable when listening to our first three records.
P: I can´t answer how Vólkova sounds. I never liked the thing of putting music in genres. I believe that each album is the soundtrack of three moments of our lifes that “sound” very different.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
C: The process is always the same: I write the music and Paula adds the vocals, except when I mix mine. I try not to waste too much time making a song too elaborate with a thousand details and inaudible textures. I prefer things simple and direct for now. We usually do not do more than one vocal take, the spontaneity is a good way. I prefer to preserve that.
P: The process of recording is the composition process too, so the creation, the exchange of views and the recording is altogether. I think that is what keeps fresh the emotion that makes César to start composing and then add me.
Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
C: "Yus Yus", from Serbia, soon I will be working with them on their new record through my label and "Mismerizer" from France, she is an excellent composer that is a pleasure to listen to.
P: "Mujercitas Terror" from Argentina too.
Q: Which bands would you like to make a cover version?
C: Right now we have a version of Birds of Prey by Monte Cazazza. I don't know, there are many great songs out there, but we prefer to use our time composing our own songs.
Q: What´s the band´s plans for the future....
We have an extensive European tour coming up at the end of August and almost all of September sharing the stage with bands like Xotox, The Klinik, Sixth June, Tiers, Xiu and others. When we return to Buenos Aires, We will be looking for a larger label to edit our fourth album, and we have scheduled a show in Bs As, what is strange because we never play in our city.
Q: Any parting words?
P: Just thanks for the interview.
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Thanks Cesar & Paula