Album de la Semaine : The Black Angels - Clear Lake Forest

The Black Angels

Clear Lake Forest

Interview des Black Angels, par The Seventh Hex

Kyle Hunt, Alex Maas, Stephanie Bailey & Christian Bland

Having years of well-crafted consistent music The Black Angels continuously impress with an identifiable and alluring sound of exceptional psychedelic rock. We talk to frontman Alex Maas about the band’s brilliant ‘Indigo Meadow’ album, vocal melodies, breeding creativity and more…

TSH: The consistent development and progression of the band is clearly evident with the recent tremendous album ‘Indigo Meadow’. What was the dynamic like heading into the studio for album number four?

Alex: Well we are always happy to be in the studio creating. The mindset was crisp and dreamy. Like most we are always trying new things, so we turned our minds off and floated upstream.

TSH: The album’s outcome truly is infectious – seemingly a more resolute, polished and refined sound. How do you feel the band’s latest album ties in with the evolution of the Black Angels sound?

Alex: To us it’s just another chapter in the fairy tale that we all live. It was a snap shot of us in that moment. Moments later things changed and became blurry for us.

TSH: It’s been mentioned that ‘Indigo Meadow’ was the most collaborative effort to date. Do you feel this adds a more comprehensive level of depth and accessibility?

Alex: I’m not sure? It’s really hard to say, but that would make sense because we had more minds on the creation. So, it seems like it would appeal to more people.

TSH: In terms of the album’s expression and narrative, themes such as politics, love, human connection, and acceptance are mentioned… As a whole what kind of message(s) do you feel underlines the album’s significance?

Alex: I really feel like this album is how we looked at the world during that time. Cautious, scared, in love, tired, happy, paranoid, disappointed, but hopeful. I mean these are feelings that everyone has so it’s not like we are pioneering anything. I guess the underlying message ends with hope and that’s kind of a good feeling to go out on.

TSH: In relation to instrumentation did you take on any particular different directions to allow for a more versatile result?

Alex: Well we kinda go with the rule of whoever can play the part the best for the song. Some melodies were reinstated with different instruments until we found the one that fit. One second Stephanie is playing drums and the next second she is playing viola, next minute she is playing dominoes with Jesco W!

TSH: Was the writing process constructed after jam sessions or written simultaneously with the music?

Alex: Both of those methods are used, not one more than the other.

TSH: What was it like having John Congleton board to nurture the sound?

Alex: Great guy, awesome communicator. He has such a vast knowledge of music and is great at translating ideas into realities.

TSH: I understand you guys had to go through many fuzz pedals to get the unique sound required…

Alex: Yeah! It was like a battle between Bland and Hunt to see who could get the most rare/best sounding fuzz pedals without going broke!

TSH: What’s refreshing and great about the album is throughout many of the songs the vocal melodies take centre stage, which makes for an alluring result. Was there anything different about how you wanted the vocals to be conveyed for the album?

Alex: Well we backed off the verb a bit here and there dove into different alchemy approaches. Stick the vocalist in a well; put the singer in a cage full of rabid chinchillas so on and so forth.

TSH: Was ‘Indigo Meadow’ the natural choice as the album opener? Also, how did the inclusion of a flute from street a market in Morocco come to find its way into the song?

Alex: It was actually John’s idea to open with it. He felt it was a new sound for us and wanted it first. The flute was just sitting there staring at us in the demo process and so we picked it up and blew air into it. The song just begged for flute so we gave the song what it wanted. It was the songs idea.

TSH: Another top standout track from the album is ‘Holland’ with a great soothing tempo, alongside wonderful composition. What kind of motivations do you draw upon to craft such a distinct song?

Alex: First off, thank you! It’s kinda difficult to describe what you are thinking while crafting a song. You are just pushing yourself and the song along until you feel it’s right. It is definitely different than anything we have written in the past so I suppose expanding the boundary was one motivation. I could say that about most of the songs on Indigo Meadow.

TSH: I also wanted to get your views on the impetus behind the splendid ‘Love Me Forever’. Can you tell us how you go about layering and structuring such a progressive song?

Alex: That one was one of those that just came together instantly. Bland started playing the riff, Steph started thumping on the drums and Kyle and I followed suit. It was one of the ones that, if I remember correctly, which I often do not was pretty true to its original form and feel from the first time we ever played it. I feel like Congo wanted us to change keys on the chorus at the end which implied a “Doorsy” feel and we went with it.

TSH: What does the song ‘I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)’ mean to you personally?

Alex: It’s about changing the way we interpret, digest, and communicate and relate to music. That song is blue, this one is black that other one over there is red, should we play a primary colour set? Should we play all red and black songs today?

TSH: You’re currently readying the ‘Clear Lake Forest’ EP. What can fans expect from this offering?

Alex: There are a few songs that we reworked from the previous recordings of Indigo and several new songs. Most of which have been rattling around in our minds for a while so we decided to set them free. It is an initial public offering.

TSH: One of the songs made available from the EP entitled ‘Diamond Eyes’ takes on a laidback chilled and pleasant feel. In terms of tone and arrangements, what were you hoping for with the aim of this song?

Alex: Damn I don’t really know…. I mean it is what it is, I know that’s not the answer you probably want, but it is a chilled out song. I like when bands jump from chill to frantic from song to song. That schizo thing is in everyone I believe.

TSH: As a band it’s been mentioned The Black Angels have stated to ‘rethink your preconceived notions’. Do you find it important to encourage people to discover and find a satisfactory meaning in life for themselves?

Alex: Yes, very important to the mental health in all peoples!

TSH: Does living in Austin breed creativity and create drive in general?

Alex: Yes and no. Yes because there is so much support and competition at the same time and no because there is just so much competition and support at the same time. Austin definitely feels to me like there is a growing fire of creativity that is expanding far beyond what I know. We may look back in 10 years and be surprised about what collectively came out of this city on all fronts not just art.

TSH: Is the power of music the perfect form of escapism and release for The Black Angels?

Alex: Yes! The best and most cheap form of escapism, with motive…

TSH: You guys have toured the US and Europe on quite a few occasions. What’s it like for the band to experience different cultures, traditions and ways of life from all over the world?

Alex: As you may assume its very eye opening to see all the differences, but most importantly how similar we all are. We see archetypes of people we know all over the place. Walking down the streets of Munich, “oh there is the door guy from Mohawk’s twin”.

TSH: The Black Angels are often commended for their prolific live performances which generate an amazing intense energy full of captivating skill sets from a band very much in form. Does playing live make you feel liberated?

Alex: Yes, it is liberating, but also uncomfortable. When you can overcome that, which you have to do every time you become liberated. Conquering the fear and sharing music as a ritual is healing.

TSH: Heading forward what kind of exploration do The Black Angels crave?

Alex: “Space: The final frontier

These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise

Its 5000 year mission

To explore strange new worlds

To seek out new life and new civilizations

To boldly go where no man or woman has gone before!”

TSH: When The Black Angels are not crafting or creating music how do they like to unwind?

Alex: Like many Americans we like to unwind by studying various types of insects and compare morphology to our own bodies, the bodies of our musical instruments and tally the similarities. With those we generate hypotheses to find the meaning of life, it’s relaxing and soothing. It’s hot!

Line Up :

Stephanie Bailey
Christian Bland
Alex Maas
Kyle Hunt
Jake Garcia

Label :

Record Store Day

Tracklist :

01 – Sunday Evening
02 – Tired Eyes
03 – Diamond Eyes
04 – The Flop
05 – The Occurance At 4507 South Third Street
06 – The Executioner
07 – Linda’s Gone

Album de la Semaine : Young Widows - Easy Pain

Young Widows

Easy Pain

Interview de Young Widows, par Question the Pop

The life and death of Young Widows

What happens when the lights go out for the dark rockers?

Evan Patterson reinvents Young Widows each time. “It’s intentional. The idea of a band releasing the same record over and over again, I’ve always tried to stray from.”

Easy Pain, which comes out May 13, is the third Young Widows studio album guitarist/vocalist Patterson, bassist/vocalist Nick Thieneman and drummer Jeremy McMonigle have made for label Temporary Residence Ltd. since 2008 (a first album with a different drummer and label home was released two years prior).

“Some people always go, ‘I don’t really like the new record’ — it’s because it’s not the same thing as the last one,” Patterson says. “They might not like the mood of the new record, or the general approach to how the entire record flows — but we’ve always tried to make very cohesive albums, rather than just a bunch of songs on a record that don’t make sense together.”

Easy Pain is not a concept album, but there is an overarching theme. “It turned into this whole idea about accepting death. The more you accept death, the more exciting life becomes, and the more you live to your full potential,” he says.

“The last song on the album is called ‘The Last Young Widow.’ In my mind, it’s about a mother birthing a fatherless child, and the mother actually is on her deathbed at the same time as she’s birthing the child. And whether or not she’s going to go to heaven or go to hell, or just die. It’s more about accepting life, being prepared to die, and not worrying about what happens after you die.”

If it sounds like it’s heavy spiritually as well as musically, then you might be on Patterson’s wavelength.

“Yeah, it is, actually,” he says. “It speaks to me more … I feel like my lyrics in Young Widows had been more self-absorbed and more personal, and this record’s not very personal at all. It’s more storytelling. They’re songs I can sing at any point, and they’d still have the same energy and meaning they did when I wrote them.”

He had “a very specific idea” about how Easy Pain should sound, from the instruments to the vocals. One inspiration was the recording of John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?,” produced by Phil Spector. Another was Iggy Pop’s album The Idiot; Pop’s vocal approach changed the way he sang this time, as did Patterson’s experience playing in two different bands lately, Old Baby and Jaye Jayle. “I used my voice in ways I haven’t been able to attempt.”

He approached the creative process differently this time around, part of his continued evolution. In the past, Patterson says, he would write down lyrics for the music the band had written together, often working up lyrics from demos.

This time, as the band played their new music live, Patterson sang “jibberish,” sometimes finding words as he vocalized. “I didn’t have any clue what I was saying … Other times, it was just, like, howls and moans that were creating melodies. The whole idea is that I was hoping I would find something I wouldn’t find just sitting down (and) listening to it, writing down lyrics and thinking of melodies that way. Instead, it was more of an organic approach to the live energy of playing the songs.”

Some older songs bring him back to specific moments that have since passed. He doesn’t feel the same anymore, or care as much as he once did. “With these songs, I can feel this way for the rest of my life,” Patterson says. “I feel like I’ve summed up my attitude, the way I feel about life and religion and science and the whole thing.”

In addition to his three bands, his brother Ryan has, for a decade, led the band Coliseum, now also part of the Temporary Residence gang. Evan Patterson agrees music is his religion. “No doubt. I depend on music as an outlet and as a form of expression and family and communication.”

Church, he says, can be going to the practice space, or going to a friend’s house to listen to records. ”A lot of times, where the magic happens, the more spiritual side of playing music, is when you’re sharing it with other people.”

Line Up :

Evan Patterson
Nick Thieneman
Jeremy McMonigle

Label :

Temporary Residence

Tracklist :

1. "Godman"
2. "Cool Night"
3. "Kerosene Girl"
4. "Doomed Moon"
5. "Gift of Failure"
6. "Bird Feeder"
7. "King Sol"
8. "The Last Young Widow"

Album de la Semaine : Thee Oh Sees - Drop

Thee Oh Sees

Drop

Interview de John Dwyer, par Pitchfork TV

Line Up :

John Dwyer
Brigid Dawson
Petey Dammit
Mike Shoun
Lars Finberg

Label :

Castle Face Records

Tracklist :

01 – Penetrating Eye
02 – Encrypted Bounce (A Queer Song)
03 – Savage Victory
04 – Put Some Reverb on My Brother
05 – Drop
06 – Camera
07 – The Kings Nose
08 – Transparent World
09 – The Lens

Album de la Semaine : Swans - To Be Kind

SwansTo Be Kind

Interview des Swans, par Kory Grow de Rolling Stone Music

By KORY GROW

FEBRUARY 14, 2014 10:40 AM ET

Long-running avant-rock bludgeoneers Swans have completed their 13^th studio album, To Be Kind, which will appear on May 13th in a variety of formats — triple LP, double CD, a deluxe CD with a live DVD and a USB stick with "ultimate, high quality" versions of the songs. Frontman Michael Gira says that Swans worked 12- to 14-hour days in a studio just outside El Paso, Texas, to get everything just right. Gira crossed the Mexican border once and visited an El Paso bar on another occasion, but mostly Swans just worked.

"I'm always exhausted," Gira says from his home, just north of Swans' native New York City. "The music," he says, "it just has to be right, so I don't give up. It's fear of failure. It's like strangling an unruly cat."

To Be Kind will contain 10 new Swans songs that — like their Homeric last album, 2012'sThe Seer — will punish and reward listeners for more than two hours. "Some songs are quite melodic," Gira says, "and the emotions are not so severe." The shortest song lasts eight minutes, the longest, "Bring the Sun," is 35.

Since 1982, Swans frontman Michael Gira has crafted music that discomfits his listeners. The slow, mill-like churn of the group's sludge-rock salad days; the pugilistic antipathy that defined its late-Eighties goth period; the stark confrontational lyrics that pierced his own folky non-Swans music; and, most recently, the discordant noise-rock experiments that encompass the band's current incarnation.

"Much to the shock and horror of the engineer, we ended up doing a couple songs totally live in the studio and I suppose the sound quality of those recordings might not be as pristine as it could have been," Gira says. "I think the emotional content is there to a much greater extent than it would have been if we tried to record it in sections." The frontman says, however, that by and large the group recorded To Be Kind at much more tolerable levels than in their early days.

As he looks over the album's track list, Gira says To Be Kind is "more vocal-oriented" thanThe Seer, featuring notable guests like Annie Clark, the soft-voiced chanteuse behind the indie-pop group St. Vincent.

"A couple of years ago, I guess, she became familiar with Swans and became a fan, and I guess she went to festivals and concerts," Gira says. "So since she likes the music and she has a great voice, John [Congleton, To Be Kind engineer] called her up and she came right out. . . She did a great job. She's a really talented singer and a very nice person, I might add."

Gira says he used Clark's voice for a "choral" part. "I use them as a kind of organ part, as an atmosphere that adds overtones to the guitars," he says. "One other song, it's blatantly choral, like gospel."

Another singer Gira is excited to have worked with is Al Spx, a singer-songwriter from Canada who now calls London home and records under the name Cold Specks. "She has a tremendous voice," he says. There's also an appearance from New York's Little Annie, an artist is known for her cabaret singing, on a track titled "Some Things We Do." "I wrote this song that's just strings and a narrated spoken and sung part that we sang together," he says. "I think it works pretty good."

Pressed for examples of what "Some Things We Do" could mean, Gira says, "It's just a list of things that human beings do. I wrote it in kind of a nostalgic, sad, mood, thinking about death. Not in any kind of morose way, just thinking about the past, something autobiographical. I just made a list of things that human beings do." When asked if that was just a mood he was in, he replies, "I have wild and unpredictable mood shifts."

But surely Gira must have had some fun recording To Be Kind. After all, his publicist sentRolling Stone photos of him playing Ping-Pong. "I didn't see that picture," Gira says. "Can I see that one? I want to see how drunk I look."

He inspects the photo and matter-of-factly approves it. At this point in his career, these photos aren't going to run his non-Ping-Pong-playing image. "I don't care," he says in a dry, acidic way, not too different from his voice on three decades of recordings. "I don't have an image."

Line Up :

Michael Gira
Christoph Hahn
Thor Harris
Chris Pravdica
Phil Puleo
Norman Westberg

Label :

Young God, Mute

Tracklist :

01 – Screen Shot
02 – Just a Little Boy (for Chester Burnett)
03 – A Little God In My Hands
04 – Bring the Sun Toussaint L’Ouverture
05 – Some Things We Do
06 – She Loves Us!
07 – Kirsten Supine
08 – Oxygen

09 – Nathalie Neal
10 – To Be Kind

Album de la Semaine : HTRK - Psychic 9-5 Club

HTRK

Psychic 9-5 Club

Interview de HTRK, par Steph Kretowicz de The Quietus

Steph Kretowicz talks to the London-based band about new album Work (work, work) and the difficulty of losing friend and band member Sean Stewart during its writing process

As a band with a thematic focus on frustrated desire, crawling build-ups (with none of the pay-off) and an endless struggle with delayed album releases, HTRK's eight-year existence has been anything but an easy one. Their first LP, Marry Me Tonight, recorded with iconic Birthday Party member Rowland S. Howard in 2006, didn't surface until 2009. That came after a protracted rights dispute, three years of illegal downloads and an anticlimax of an official release. They had a crack at Berlin after relocating from Melbourne four years ago but citing depression, near-starvation and an insurmountable language barrier as major factors, band members Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang found themselves on tour in London and refusing to go back. They moved to London in 2007, and brought late bassist and core member Sean Stewart unwillingly with them.

Several years later, and we're in Standish's East London apartment on the August bank holiday. Dub music drifts in the background, while Yang struggles both to locate a lighter and to get blood flow to his legs while seated on the floor. Sadly, Stewart is no longer with us after tragically taking his own life a year and a half ago, while Howard, too, is gone, after immortalising Standish on the track '(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny' for swansong album Pop Crimes. He lost his long battle with cancer in 2009.

HTRK speak of Howard with great affection, while occasionally slipping into present tense when talking about their bandmate Stewart. His presence is still very much felt with the release of their second album Work (work, work), which was two-thirds completed while he was still alive. While retaining the glacial pace of its predecessor, it's a frostier listen, Standish's half-sung, half-whispered vocals drifting between gaseous clouds of guitar and the metallic thunk of a drum machine. With no immediate plans to bring another member into the special fold that is the Hate Rock Trio, one becomes acutely aware that it's not every day you get to meet your soulmate, let alone a handful. Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang seem grateful for it.

So was Work (work, work) recorded before Sean passed away?

Nigel Yang: Well, we'd written a set of songs. 'Skinny' was finished, 'Synthetik', 'Poison', 'Love Triangle'. They were actual demos we'd done. We'd planned to go to an actual studio - we were visiting studios, talking to producers and stuff, but then Sean died in March [2010]. So we just remixed the demos, recorded new stuff over the top of them. The other songs were in 'Sean-only' demo form. The first song ['Ice Eyes Eis'] is a strange one because I pieced that together as a sound collage, in a way, of a recording that I'd found on Sean's computer hard disk afterwards.

Jonnine Standish: We'd been asked to do a field recording for someone, and Sean had done one in his bedroom.

NY: The field was his bedroom.

JS: It's incredible. It's Berlin sex TV. The ads in Berlin are just ads for sex channels between programs, and that's constant.

NY: He titled this recording 'Late Night Sounds' and he'd never told us that he'd done it. I think he recorded it in 2009 alone in Berlin, probably 5am, feeling pretty isolated and alone. I just took some of that field recording and mixed it with some new sounds.

JS: I can remember I said 'let's slow this down' because some of the ads on the TV that you can hear are really corporate, slick, well-produced jingles. So Nigel slowed it down by two thirds. It's quite something.

How are you re-imagining yourselves now? Do you think you'll go forward as the duo?

JS: I think so, yeah. We're going to give it a shot. I've got a couple of concepts in mind for the lyrical content that's taking Work (work, work), and pushing it even further. I don't like straying too far from the themes that I write about. Since the beginning of time it's always been 'desire'. There's been no love in any of the songs. I want to keep that up.

I really enjoy working with Nigel. I can imagine what's going to happen, will be self-checking whether Sean would like it. If anything, Sean gets his own way now, 100 per cent.

I never had the opportunity to see you play live as a three-piece.

NY: Yeah, so different.

JS: Sean brought the danger. Maybe danger's not the right word, because I think we've got some of that as well but he certainly brought… Just the bass sound that he had. Also just the way that he stood. It was quite a masculine dynamic to the band. I think we're going to struggle to keep that up.

NY: We're not going to try to emulate it or anything, or recreate it. I'm not going to try to write basslines in a 'Sean-style' or anything. The direction is going to change quite a bit.

I noticed in this album the bass isn't so prevalent and at your show you knew whether it was old material just based on the lack of bass. Was that a conscious move?

NY: This was happening before Sean passed away anyway. He was moving into using a lot of synths. I think he thought he'd done the bass guitars.

JS: I think after 'HA' he thought that that was the perfect bassline. [laughs] I'm being serious.

NY: He was really excited by other sonic possibilities. He'd been hanging out with this Finnish producer in Berlin. His name was Mika Vainio, he'd played in Pansonic and things like that. He was really excited about tone generation and subby bass tones and lines that hit you on a more subconscious level. The lack of bass on Work (work, work) isn't through Sean not being there to record, it's very much his vision as well.

You know how everyone talks about Marry Me Tonight being the 'pop' album. Would you agree?

NY: Yeah, it was a concerted effort to make something listen-able.

JS: I think it's really pop. I know some people might find that kind of funny but it's totally radio friendly, great driving music, really immediate. I know that's an overused word, but you don't have to really think about the concept at all. It is really quite a literal album.

NY: That was our intention but a lot of feedback has been from people saying, 'We don't get this album.'

JS It's too slow. [laughs]

NY: Then about a year later it will have seeped into people's heads and they'd be like…

JS: 'Why didn't you give this to me?' And we'd say, 'We sent it to you five times, we really sucked up to you and you just ignored us.'

NY: Music writers.

There's obviously a sense of humour in the lyrics and your attitude to making music. Do you think that people miss that sometimes?

JS: I think they're starting to pick up on that a little and I think Rowland got it straight away. But we're not that humorous, we're pretty serious at the same time. Humour's like breathing, everyone does it. It's really just taking a step back and looking at something from a different angle and I think that's important with everything.

It's also a coping mechanism.

JS: Very much so. Some of these subjects are painful so humour is a good way to balance that pain and make people feel like we're in it together. Rowland was the first person who laughed out loud when we played 'Disco'. We had to do this X Factor routine in front of him behind the glass as we went through every song we'd ever written. He was just watching patiently, deciding what would go on Marry Me Tonight. You couldn't hear him when he was behind the glass but when we played 'Disco' he just couldn't stop laughing, and I was so happy because it's hilarious. The fact that I sing in the most deadpan way, 'Everybody, let's go'. No one had found that funny before. They had just found that scary. I think more and more people will get that there's always a little bit of a twist, or surrealism, to our work.

The studio that you use in London Fields, do you record there or is it just a rehearsal room?

JS: We recorded there too.

NY: It's hardly a studio. It's just our rehearsal room. We used a computer and hired a nice mic for a couple of weeks.

JS: Yeah, a really nice mic but then we went back to the shitty one because it sounded too good. [both laugh]

NY: We were thinking of going really pro with the production for a while because a lot of the songs could work - they're really crisp, clean, spacious.

JS: That changed after Sean died. [Nigel's] attitude was, 'Make this as lo-fi as possible.' Looking back I think grieving had a lot to do with that. All those sounds make no sense when you're grieving. Instead it's lo-fi, gritty and just a bit 'fuck you' when you're in a lot of pain.

NY: The production's really personal. We had no regard for any commercial intent.

JS: [addressing Yang] You wanted to release 2000 CDs. No download, no vinyl, in a photocopied piece of paper and then we never talk about the album again. That was the initial plan with the release. We never spoke about not continuing, or continuing. Nigel said to me, 'Let's just finish the album,' and we haven't spoken about the future at all other than that. We know we'll make another album. I think that's the best way to do it. Talk doesn't achieve that much sometimes.

Line Up :

Jonnine Standish
Nigel Yang

Label :

Ghostly International

Tracklist :

01 – Give it Up
02 – Blue Sunshine
03 – Feels like Love
04 – Soul Sleep
05 – Wet Dream
06 – Love is Distraction
07 – Chinatown Style
08 – The Body You Deserve

Album de la Semaine : The Beauty of Gemina - Ghost Prayers

The Beauty of Gemina
Ghost Prayers

Interview de The Beauty of Gemina, par Didier Becu de Peek a Boo Magazine

For those who don’t know, please introduce us to The Beauty Of Gemina

Michael Sele: The Beauty of Gemina is a gothic, wave and electro music influenced rock band from Switzerland. Since 2006 we released three Album and a few video clips. We played in the meantime a lot of very special concerts in different European countries.

My name is Michael Sele; I’m singer, guitar player and producer. I write all the songs, the lyrics and I record the music in my own studio. As a producer, I keep all threats in my hands. Nevertheless, I see myself as part of a team.

The members of the Beauty of Gemina-family - how we call ourselves - are those who make everything possible and do a great job every day.

The tBoG line-up comprises long-time members drummer Mac Vinzens, bass player David Vetsch and as additional guitar player on tour Dennis Mungo.

Where does the band’s name come from?

Actually the name is pure imagination, although Gemina was a real character. She was a pupil and muse of the philosopher Plotin. The name of the band was already in my mind from the start.

I was looking for a name that should be open for interpretation but not suitable to fit easily into a specific music genre. And it had to be mysterious also and however not too abstract. Gemina was a real person and how beautiful she really was will probably stay a secret forever.

How long has the band’s been going on so far and how do you see the things that have been achieved by now?

It is very much happened in the past 5 years; we have taken some important hurdles and achieved many goals. All in all I can strike a consistently positive balance. But we’re working hard every day and we know how difficult it is. For example, in the live business the air has become very thin. I think the whole music industry is changing and things become more and more uncertain. That makes it for me as an artist and for us as a band not easier of course. We’re still just at the beginning of our way and I hope that we can touch enough people. So we’ll have to keep going for concerts, further recordings and releases in the future. 

Since we last spoke, some things have happened. You’re on the bill for the Shadowplay Festival in Belgium. I guess such things are only the result of hard work and self belief.

First of all, I want to say that we’re really looking forward to be part of this festival. As you said, it’s the result of hard and serious work. But as a band you will also need time, patience and last but not least the power and support from true fans and friends who helped spreading the music of tBoG all over Europe.

 I also learnt that things are going pretty well in Germany too?

Yes, this is true and I want to say that it’s not easy for a band from Switzerland to make successful steps in Germany.

They’ve got so many bands in the dark music scene by their own so they actually don’t wait for a band from their small neighbour. Anyway we’ll be part of the legendary WGT Festival in Leipzig in June for the 2nd time and we’re playing at the Mera Luna Festival in Hildesheim this year. In February we returned from the tour with the German #1 act Unheilig. The tour led through the biggest and most impressing concert arenas of Germany. It was an enormous experience for us all and we’ll never forget this great adventure.

Can we take it to the extreme that you live for The Beauty Of Gemina?

The Beauty of Gemina is a very important part of my daily life.

If you compose a song, how do you work? Do you start from a sort of mood or is it a melody lingering in your head?

 I’m always writing the music and the vocal lines of the songs first. One day I start with some guitar recordings, the other day with a Keyboard idea or a drum programming. There are so many different ways. To write a song is linked with your instinct, I wouldn't be able to name you a recipe or a formula. The sound of my voice, the way I sing and phrase are an important key though.

There is the cliché of the writer who has his notebook with him 24 hours a day and notes what comes up in his mind. Do you work like that as well?

Not for 24 hours but time after time I write down some short notes or small ideas. As I said before, I start with the music and during improvising with my voice over chords and patterns I try to place some words or sentences. After this I’m working on the details of the lyrics. This process takes about 4 or 5 weeks. It’s always a very intensive time and I like it very much.

This is a cliché too…you’re from Switzerland. Apart from The Young Gods and Yello I can’t think of that many bands. Is it a cliché to think as such?

So we’ve got DJ Bobo too - just kidding.

I think we’ve got a few bands that are very popular in the international music market. Not in the Gothic scene but more in the pop, hard rock or metal genre.

Soon you’ll be performing at the Shadowplay-festival. Tell us what the audience can expect?

To be honest, there is always some calculated unknown when we’re going on stage. So let me tell you what’s safe: We’re going to play songs from all our 3 albums. The audience will hear a very motivated, powerful and intensive performing band with a lot of energy guided by a dynamic interpretation of the songs so that my voice can tell all the little Gemina tales and stories.

What’s your favourite record of all time and please state why?

This is really a very difficult question and I’ve been thinking about it a lot and maybe it’s surprising but I’ve chosen Glenn Gould‘s first recording of the Goldberg Variations from Johann Sebastian Bach.

His 1955 recording marks a watershed in the interpretive history of all keyboard music, not just that of Bach. All the fascinating, unique, and unrepeatable about that recording remains up to this day and it continues to cast its spell on all who hear it. It has always been Gould’s trademark, defining the birth of a legend.

With whom wouldn’t you mind to be alone with in an elevator for 8 hours and what would you do then?

Hannibal Lector – get the willies!

Any special message to our readers?

I have to give profound thanks to a group of fantastic fans in Belgium for all their positive reactions and their support! I deeply appreciate all the incredible feedback and the enthusiasm. It means so much to me that you had open ears for my music and my songs and I’m really looking forward to come to Belgium this summer for the first time in my life.

FAVOURITE MAN: the second from the right in the first row

FAVOURITE WOMAN: the third from the left in the first row

FAVOURITE MOVIE: 2001- A space odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)

FAVOURITE BOOK: Zauberberg (Thomas Mann)

FAVOURITE COLOUR: today blue

FAVOURITE PLACE TO GO: Cornwall

FAVOURITE CARTOONCHARACTER: Sponge Bob

Line Up :

Vocals, keyboards: Michael Sele
Drums: Mac Vinzens
Bass: David Vetsch
Live Guitar: Dennis Mungo

Label :

No Cut

Tracklist :

01 – One Million Stars
02 – All Those Days
03 – Hundred Lies
04 – Dancer On a Frozen Lake
05 – Run Run Run
06 – Down By the Horses
07 – When We Know
08 – Dragon
09 – I Wish You Could Die
10 – Time for Heartache
11 – Mariannah
12 – Darkness