terça-feira, 18 de outubro de 2016

Psalms with Arbes - An Interview


Simplesmente delicioso!! Sim delicioso é o adjetivo que melhor pode definir os australianos do Arbes e seu inspirado segundo EP, "Psalms", lançado há pouco mais de dez dias.

"Psalms" é ensolarado, cristalino, elegante e repleto de melodias instigantes. Um clima cândido percorre as sete músicas do disco, com destaque imediato para a abertura celestial de "Sintra".

Arbes é um verdadeiro colírio para os ouvidos.

***** Interview with Arbes *****


Q. When did Arbes start? Tell us about the history?
(Answered by Sam): Arbes started early in 2013. We’d all been friends for years and had played music together between us, Jess and Anita since they were very young. The start of the band I think coincided with each of us realising what it means to actually attempt to sound like yourself and not just emulate whatever is around.

Q. Who are your influences?
(Answered by Sam): Collectively we all listen to/are inspired by Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent, Tame Impala, Foals, Anderson .Paak.

Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time
(Answered by Sam): This is 5 of my favourite albums as of right now.
Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
Kaytranada, 99.9%
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, Piñata
Vince Staples, Prima Donna
Beach House, Depression Cherry

Q. How do you feel playing live?
(Answered by Jess) I think playing live for us is ultimately a huge release, and feels pretty surreal. Especially if it's a show where we can feel the audience be quite responsive and engaging, those are the best gigs. I think all performers would agree that it's the crowd's energy that informs how you feel. I think sometimes we have a weird moment playing live where we remember that it's just the three of us, and no one else knows what it's like when we write and practice together. It's pretty indescribable to remember a song when it was just developing, and to watch it become something full realised in a live setting. I think we also feel deeply grateful that we can perform, and even more so that people actually want to come watch us.

Q. How do you describe Arbes sounds?
(Answered by Jess) That's always a hard question. Especially as we feel that it's changed so much over time. At the moment, using Psalms as a reference, I would say our sound still has this kind of nostalgia/dream wave quality about it, but it's a lot more expansive. Purely because we spent so much more time thinking about how we wanted to fill out the sound. Swimmer had a very low-fi, minimal, beachy quality to it, and I think we've changed a lot since then. Psalms still retains a kind of lamenting, summery mood that Swimmer had, but it's way more cosmic and spacey.


Q. Tell us about the process of recording the songs?
(Answered by Jess) Both Swimmer & Psalms were recorded at Sam's house. They were both done in the same way, where we record each instrument separately. For Psalms, we used different recording software that allowed us to experiment with texture and tone a lot more. We always start by recording drums first, then guitar, then bass and vocals last. For Psalms, Anita wrote and recorded keys for most of the tracks. Drums and guitar take us a long time to get right, I think drums are objectively just the hardest sound to get perfect, especially as we self-record, it takes a lot of experimenting to get it right. And because of how intricate Sam's guitar parts are, he spend a lot of time layering and playing around with the sound. For Swimmer, everything was DIY, from recording straight through to the final mixes. For Psalms, we had two separate friends mix and master it, it was good for us to branch out and have people we trust take what we had done ourselves, and just enhance it and bring all elements together.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
(Answered by Anita). There’s some beauties being released by Sports Day Records recently. I recommend Harley Alexander - his newest release ‘Harland’ is so nostalgic, sweet and homely. Static Animal has just released their second EP, ‘Morning Sounds’, which perfectly encapsulates dreamy, lo-fi sounds that you’d listen to while walking your dog around your suburb on a nice morning.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
(Answered by Anita): LCD Soundsystem.

Q: What are your plans for the future ?
(Answered by Anita): We want to keep writing, performing and recording together and continue to expand our sounds. An album is probably next, so in the near future we’ll be doing a lot of writing.

Q: Any parting words?
(Answered by Anita): Nothing fills us with more joy than people around the world listening and enjoying our music, so thank you.
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Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/arbesmusic
https://arbes.bandcamp.com/releases