segunda-feira, 17 de julho de 2017

Survive in Disguise with Hollow Mask - An Interview

Pic by James Hankins


Um verdadeiro eletrochoque, onde, o improvável encontro entre Sisters of Mercy e Raveonettes acontece.

Algo entre o adocicado e ensolarado e o soturno e sombrio, assim é "Survive in Disguise", EP de estréia dos britânicos do Hollow Mask.

As quatro canções que ficam entre o envolvente, o hipnótico e o caos são absolutamente viciantes.

Faça um favor a você mesmo, dê play e escute alto, bem alto, seja de dia ou a noite, tanto faz.


***** Interview with Hollow Mask *****

Picture by Stephanie Third


Q. When did Hollow Mask start? Tell us about the history…
Ollie: The band originally started when I got together with a friend of mine called Andy. He had a load of music software on his PC and I'd just bought a bass guitar. We did a couple of home demos of incredibly fast electro-punk songs – I think the first song we wrote was 200bpm. I knew Rachel was into a lot of the same sorts of bands as I am, and asked her if she wanted to sing on the demos. Not long after she'd done that, we arranged a practice with the three of us but Andy didn't turn up and basically left the band at that point. So we wrote our first song without him, with Rachel playing guitar, and it's gone from there really. How we sound now and what those first demos sounded like are two completely different things. Which is probably for the best.

Rachel: Yeah, we wanted to try our hand at being like Crystal Castles… but that all changed.

Q. Who are your influences?

Rachel: Patti Smith, Le Tigre, My Bloody Valentine, Thurston Moore Group, The Raveonettes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure…

Ollie: … Suicide, Iggy and the Stooges, The KVB, Ikara Colt, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Big Black, Tiger Force, Kylie Minogue, Joy Division, A Place to Bury Strangers, The Fall, Lolita Storm…

Q. Make a list of your five favourite albums of all time…
Rachel: Super Furry Animals – Fuzzy Logic, PJ Harvey – Dry, Mogwai – Young Team, Electrelane – The Power Out, The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico.

Ollie: This changes all the time but, at the moment, some of the albums I keep going back to are: Le Tigre's debut album, The Kills – Midnight Boom, David Bowie – Low, Pet Shop Boys – Actually, Sonic Youth – Dirty.

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Rachel: Electrified, in a good way.

Q. How do you describe Hollow Mask's sound?
Rachel: Noisy shoegaze, noisy dream pop, noisy new wave.


Q. Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
Ollie: I programme all the drums, so they're already done before we go in to record. Once we're in the studio, we'll play the basic guitar and bass parts live, and then sometimes Rachel will add some extra guitar parts on top, depending on the song, and we'll finish off by doing the vocals. It's important for the recordings to have a sense of urgency and energy, even if that sometimes means they're not technically perfect.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
Rachel: Chastity Belt, LA Witch, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Rome is Not a Town, and Nøught (not new but underrated).

Q. Which band would you love to do a cover version of?
Rachel: It would be loads of fun to cover my favourite bands' songs but I think we need to deliver something new to the song to make it our own somehow. Most likely by adding a drum machine and loads of feedback.

Q. What are your plans for the future?
Ollie: We've just released our debut EP, Survive in Disguise (which is on our Bandcamp page at https://hollowmask.bandcamp.com), and we've got a video of the lead track, Waiting for Karen, coming out soon. After that we've got a couple more festival appearances coming up and then it'd be good to get back in the studio to record some new songs. We might release a cassette or something later in the year.

Rachel: Writing and playing with bands we love, hopefully.

Q. Any parting words?
Rachel: Question everything.

Ollie: If in doubt, always make the drums faster.
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Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/wearehollowmask/
https://hollowmask.bandcamp.com/