domingo, 31 de janeiro de 2010

The Perfect Prescription by Laboratory Noise - An Interview


Paul McNulty, guitars, vocals, Paul Griffin, space guitars, Adam Watson, synths/samples, Ben Cleverley, guitar psychosis, Dominic Sheard, bass, Andy Ramsden, drums/vocals e Kerry Ramsay, vocals/percussion, forma uma das maiores preciosidades da atualidade chamda Laboratory Noise, nome perfeito, para algo perfeito, um EP intitulado Hope is a Waking Dream, por enquanto, mas o estardalhaço que fizeram com um noise psicodelico tracejado por um tempestade de shoegaze, tudo com alto teor de modernidade, o album When Sound Generates Light esta prestes a ser lançado, para quando fevereiro chegar, e certamente tende a ser um dos melhores albuns do ano, exagero meu? Absolutamente, escute Here She is Evergreen ou a emblemática You Create a Storm e tente não ser abduzido por completo, o EP você pode baixar aqui ao lado no parceiro Amor Louco, mas veja bem, ok pegar seu ep e ter via mp3, mas na boa, compre o EP, é mais do que obrigatório e é um exercicio acido para sua alma.

Dito tudo acima, comecei a conhecer um pouco mais da banda através do amigo Adam Watson, que viabilizou a entrevista abaixo, muita informação sobre esta que devera ser uma das bandas da decada, com vocês simplesmente, Laboratory Noise.


***** Interview with Laboratory Noise *****


Q. When did Laboratory Noise form, tell us about the beginning…
A. The band began over the course of about 3 years! We started with three people and eventually ended up at the magical number seven…

We found it difficult to find the right people, and it took a long time to get there…but eventually it all happened pretty organically, with a mixture of friends and luck leading us to the finished line-up. It worked out well in the end and there’s a really good chemistry within the band as a result.

The time it took to get to the full line-up was pretty useful anyway…for getting our ideas together and getting to grips with the sound we were aiming for.

Q. What are the band’s influences?
A. As a band, especially with seven of us, there are lots of different genres that we draw an influence from - which means we haven’t end up sounding like a particular band, and it allows us to more easily develop our own, if slightly eclectic, sound. Some of the genres that we draw from include the noise pop and shoegaze influences of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Galaxie 500, Cocteau Twins and also the post-rock of Explosions in the Sky, Mono, Sigur Ros and Mogwai. In some of our work you can also hear the drone and psychedelic flavours of The Velvet Underground, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Spacemen3. The electronic side is influenced by among others by Kraftwerk, Silver Apples, Brian Eno, Leftfield, Boards of Canada and Ulrich Schnauss.


Q. Tell us about the recording process for the debut EP?
A. We recorded the debut EP at our own studio in Bradford, where we’re still recording now…Andy, our drummer, engineered it, along with Adam (synths). It was pretty haphazard really…we were just recording songs we were playing live at the time and then decided to put an ep out ourselves…we picked the 5 tracks that felt right together and went for it – luckily we had an amazing video made for ‘you created a storm’ by Jon Yeo around that time, so we had a good bit of promotion from that - it was played on mtv2 quite a bit, which was cool…

It was definitely a learning curve for us all, both technically and creatively…plenty of mistakes were made and there’s plenty we’d go back and change now, but I guess that’s always the way with anything.

Q. When is the album due?
A. We’re just putting the finishing touches to the mixes and the artwork for our debut album - and we hope to have it ready for the end of February 2010. It is a long album coming in at around 74 mins in length and for us will be a move away from some of our earlier more poppy work and explores the more post-rock and noise experimentation direction we have been aiming at for a while. It will be available from our website: www.laboratorynoise.co.uk



Q, Tell us about playing live.
A. We love playing live, but don’t get chance to all get together enough – so we haven’t done as many gigs as we’d like. Hopefully this year we’ll get out more now that the album’s finished…it’ll be great to promote it and get some new songs in the set too…we’re also working with a visual artist to try improve and expand on the projections and lighting we already use live…

Q. How did last years gigs go?
A. We didn’t do many gigs last year, as we’ve been trying to concentrate our efforts on getting the album finished. We’ve did a few here and there just to remind ourselves what it’s like to play in a band! It’s great to get out of the studio and play the songs live again…it rejuvenates everyone I think.

The highlight was playing at our favourite festival, Beat-Herder, on the main stage on a beautiful Saturday afternoon…great weekend!

Q. What do you think about the classic shoegaze era?
A. It just another fad created by the music press at the time and quickly became very unfashionable. But I think the "classic" shoegaze albums stand the test of time better than, for instance, most Madchester or Grunge records. Ride’s "Nowhere", MBV’s “Loveless” and "On Fire" by Galaxie 500 are astonishing records – they still sound fresh today…they’re just timeless records I guess, regardless of genre.

Q. Tell us about bands in the current shoegaze scene…
A. I like it when bands combine shoegaze elements with other influences to create something new & distinctive. Some bands adhere to the MBV or Slowdive blueprint a bit too closely. As a band I think we’re all big fans of many current bands who have some shoegaze influences including Ulrich Schnauss, Maps, Deerhunter, M83, Pia Fraus, Broken Social Scene etc.

Q. Which songs by other bands would you like to do cover versions of?
A. Don't Worry Baby by the Beach boys, although we couldn't do it justice! Generally, we’ve avoided doing covers as we have so much of our own music we want to get out there - and often when bands cover their musical heroes they don’t really do the music justice. I prefer it when bands cover songs from totally different genres and do it in a totally different style - more like a remix. We’ve been toying with doing a cover of Mum’s ‘Green Grass of Tunnel’ recently, which would be cool…I think.

Q. Which new bands you recommended?
A. I’m not sure how new some of these bands are, but some of the bands we’ve been enjoying recently are…a place to bury strangers, insect guide, desolation wilderness, 93 million miles from the sun, the lightshines, the pains at being pure at heart & worriedaboutsatan.

There’s some really great music out there at moment…


Q. What are the plans for the future?
A. After we launch the album in March we’ll do some gigs to promote it throughout 2010…and we’ll look at starting another EP or maybe another album - we’ve got a lot of new songs to get down. Next time round we hope to turn it round a lot quicker than the two years it took for this one!

Q. Any important news to tell us…
A. I can only give you everything…

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Thanks Laboratory Noise
http://www.myspace.com/laboratorynoise
http://www.laboratorynoise.co.uk/