A primeira vez que ouvi o Vague, quinteto de Vienna, Austria, me veio a cabeça imediatamente algumas bandas esquecidas lá do longínquo 80´s, The Bats, The Chills, The Verlaines, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, tudo pela verve romântica e melodias delirantemente sedutoras.
Sem nenhum album lançado apenas um ep DIY intitulado Television, o futuro que parece ser indefinido ainda, talvez pelo pequeno tempo de existência, esses austríacos merecem toda atenção, porque preciosidades como Park, Television e Space Addict permeiam vibrações a flor de pele.
O TBTCI aconselha, não deixe de se envolver com o Vague.
***** Interview with Vague *****
Q. When did Vague start? tell us about the history...
A: Vague started with the recording of a Demo Tape called ‚The Kraftwerk Tapes’ in Summer 2013. Konstantin and I (Simon) met in the mountains back home, recorded five songs, showed them to our friends later in Vienna and so the idea of forming a band together was quickly born. Gabriel, who has always been busy making music, recording a lot of stuff etc., was in naturally and became the third guitar player and third vocalist/songwriter as well. Soon later, Konstantin met Gregor at University in Vienna and, as Gregor is a kind of experimental, extraordinary drummer, the choice felt pretty easy. Finally Juan, who is a damn good guitar player and even better barkeeper (haha), started to play the bass guitar. It all felt very natural and as we would have played together already for ages. The French word ‚Vague’ just seemed to fit the sound.
Q: Who are your influences?
A: I would say everything enlightening and ambiguous between Flaubert and the No Wave NY-Scene is an influence. But as we have all different approaches to art and music in general, I think it‘s impossible to sum anything up. And probably everyday life is influencing enough.
Q. Make a list of your favourite 5 albums of all time…
A: That changes everyday obviously because a specific choice is always a product of a specific moment with it‘s specific feel. But at the moment I’d say:
Can- Ege Bamyasi
Neil Young - On the Beach
Spacemen 3 - Sound of Confusion
Bob Dylan - Bringing it all back home
Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
Q. How do you feel playing live?
A: Right now there is no better feeling imaginable for us than the one we get playing live, in front of people, of a crowd. It is special every time - again and again. It feels like you are creating energy together with the audience. A musical performance - that‘s the real thing. So much is happening at concerts, when the drift is getting you. I could go on like this forever haha.
Q. How do you describe Vague sounds?
A: The Vague sound really seems to generate itself. We like keepin it simple and basic: chords, delays, feedbacks, melodies, floating drums, not too many effects, transformed noise. The songwriting is another thing. Vocals are important and we try to use them as an instrument. If you want to categorize, you could say that it feels like a crazy mixture of New Wave, Rhythm and Blues, Psychedelic-rock / Spacepop- Thing. But anyway: we just try to avoid these terminologies and tend to call it Alternative Music.
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs
A: The thing is that we recorded songs for two albums (which will be released together very soon) on our own, without a producer or an audio technician. We really went in for the DIY experience, from start to finish. Maybe that‘s a more difficult way to do it, but because of that, we maintain total artistic freedom, which is totally worth all the work. So ultimately the recordings turned out to be pretty exciting. You gotta learn how to use the microphones and computer programs in a way, that you get the sound you want but you can do almost anything with the right equipment these days anyhow. That was very interesting for us to see as well. And it’s always a real fun time, hanging out together working on songs, smoking cigarettes...
Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Homeshake, Connan Mockasin, Parquet Courts, Nisennenmondai, Younghusband, DIIV, Kurt Vile(not really new though, but always good)…there´s a lot of good, new stuff out there!
Q: Which bands would you like to make a cover version of?
A: We´ve never really done covers, and probably never will, but to answer your question: right now I‘d like to play 'North by North' by The Bats.
Q: What´s the plans for the future....
A: Get the release of the albums done and play as much as possible with it. And writing new material of course. I‘m also moving to Berlin in autumn and excited for the cool and varying music scene there.
Q: Any parting words?
A: Thanks for having us. we would love to come overseas soon to play in amazing cities, such as São Paulo. Have a nice summer ending everybody!
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Thanks guys
https://www.facebook.com/vague1000