| | |
|
Electric Litany:The album was made in a church in 4 days
by gbal - More articles
Has been read
We talked with Electric Litany an afternoon in Exarhia. Four guys from England, U.S.A. and Greece. Alex Miaris (vocals, guitars, synths), Richard Simic (drums), Duane Petrovitch
(bass) and Ben Prince (synths, piano) are one of the bands, we love in Greece.How not to love songs like "Home", "Minute", "February" etc?
We talked for many things, but the most important factors we distinguished from this talk is the modesty and the responsibility they seem to have, with which they can gradually work on fulfilling their dreams in music. Electric Litany play at Gagarin tomorrow 25/09 and on Sunday at Manifest, in Patras.MG: As a band
you exist from 2008, am I right?Alex: Christmas of
2007.MG: How did you meet each other? Did you
study together?Richard: Alex was in London and he had
already some demos, some songs and therefore, we were rehearsing some more
in East London. We then looked for a bass player and this year Ben
joined the band.MG: For many people who love music
here in Greece, your album is one of the best of 2010. Tell us some
things about how you created it. Alex: Most of the songs
were ready a year before the recordings. We were just waiting to find
the right place to make them (the recordings), because we didn’t want to do it necessarily
in a studio, as usual. So we delayed the whole process of recordings,
until we found everything we needed. We knew we were going to use George
Botis as a producer. So that was in June 2009 when we found the church,
where I moved in, lived in the church and prepared it for a month and
got all the equipment there. In July we had seven days to record.
George came over from Greece. We lost the first 3 days,
because the machinery weren’t working. So we had actually 4 days to
record.MG: This reminds us of 60s and 70s, where bands had few days to do the recordings of an album.Duane: The way that we did it has a sense of
70s' sound. We have previously done so much work in studio, but it didn't go well for us. It seemed like we had lost something. Having a
church with a big space, made us work well and mostly live.MG: Did you try to improve anything in the studio afterward?Alex: We kept everything from the
live and we added some overdubs, additional guitars, some cellos
and the vocals we did in Athens. We mixed the album in a studio in
Patisia, which already went bankrupt.MG: Alex how
was your stay inside the church? You know, it is very weird for
us. Alex: If you compare it to the standards of
Greek Orthodox Church, there’s no way it can be done. I usually use
these places for a while, town halls, churches,
and a factory, where I moved in for a clip.Duane: Have
you seen The Minute Video?MG: Yes of course. It was very
good.Duane: He lived there as well.
Alex: The worst place ever
(laughs).MG: Which are your influences?
Listening to your album, there are times where I believe that you sound
like Radiohead, but I think that you have something unique in “How to
be a child and win the war“.Duane: There are some bands like
Joy Division. We enjoy their music, but I don’t think that when we
were putting together the songs for the album, we tried to sound like that.Alex: The main common factor we have in music is not necessarily a musical style-type (alternative etc). It’s
the music that is aesthetically good in our horizon. And through all of this, we
have a sound that of course resembles to other sounds.
MG: Alex, you dedicated the album to the
events, which took place last December. Aren't you afraid that there will
be some people who will say that you're trying to exploit this
event?Alex: I can only talk for
myself. It doesn’t represent exactly what we do. I really don’t care
for this people, just because any event similar to this can be a part
of a war. The healthiest being that lives in society will disagree,
take a protest and won't just be influenced by what is on in television.
It‘s something that wakes up the society for at least a couple of days
or forever. For me, these were some of the most interesting things that
happened in Greece. Many years of big
disappointment… MG: You had some concerts in other
countries. How did you see the audience there?Richard: We
had these gigs in different places and the crowds are different from
the Greeks. They go to the bars to mainly drink beer and not listen to
the music. And also in London when we started the sound was like Kaiser
Chiefs, NME Bands etc. In Greece people get more into us. They are more
receptive.Alex: In London there are a million of
choices. So the more you have, the less you appreciate. We haven’t done
a gig for a year in England because of the album. MG: Do you
plan to do something in England?Alex: We started touring in Europe
with this fantastic manager, we have. When we go back, we will do
something.MG: Alex you are let’s say the third singer
of an English band, after Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand) and Filippakis
(Foals). Why did you decide to go to Inner Ear to release your album
and not a record label like Domino etc?Alex: We
separate the things. Inner Ear is only responsible for Greece. We
haven’t started the procedure of approaching labels and this is what
we‘re going to do, when we go back to England. So Inner Ear is just
what comes first.Duane: I think it was quite good to test the
water here in Greece to see the reception. It seemed quite positive.
 MG: Giannis Petridis is a great radio
producer here in Greece. He has a radio show for almost 40 years. His
show can be stopped due to economical crisis. What’s your opinion about
that?Alex: I’m going to generalize it. In an
economical crisis like this, one of the things that it shouldn’t affect
is this kind of people. It shouldn’t affect Giannis Petridis or any
other Petridis.MG: Many bands decide to release more
singles, than albums. Some say that the albums will be gone in the
future. Duane: It’s a shame in a certain sense,
because there’s something aesthetically pleasing about these albums
concept, rather than releasing only songs. That’s the way technology
moves. That’s the way it happens in the download. People choose to take
the song. Richard: Now bands can do more things,
promote themselves a lot more. There’s MySpace and YouTube. At the same
time the bad thing is the album thing. I personally like the idea of
the album. Alex: More or less, it’s like a film. A film
makes sense because everything makes sense to each other. I’m not sure
why bands would not be able to do an album in these days. I mean we
spent a fraction of the money that bands spend to record an album and
it’s nothing for even poor people. You can do it in a home studio. It’s
a matter of will and a bit of knowledge.MG: Some
albums that you like and listen to at home.Richard: I’m a
big fan of Joy Division. I listen to classical music.Duane: I
listen a lot of blues. Old American blues. Ben: I like
Nick Cave. A lot of American bands.Alex: Nick
Cave is my favorite. Recently, I listen to “Ta Rizitika” of Psarantonis
and “Music for Airports”of του Brian Eno.
MG: Thank you very much for your time guys. Good luck to whatever you do.
Alex: It was our pleasure. Thanks.The photo of the cover belongs to Alex Decode.
|
|
| | | |
|
|
|
|
|
