7 minute read
Shiro Schwarz
Shiro Schwarz
PHOTOS BY MAURICIO CASTILLO
S T Y L I N G B Y M O N S E C A S T E R A A N D
M A R I A N A G U E L L
WORDS BY GABBY LOVAZZANO
“JUST LET THE MUSIC TAKE THE WHEEL” SHIRO SCHWARZ IS DOING EXACTLY THAT. THE INTERGALACTIC DUO, PAMMELA ROJAS AND RAFAEL MARFIL, HAVE BROUGHT THEIR OWN BRAND OF UNIQUELY FUNKY MUSIC TO OUR PLANET. THE STYLE AND ARTISTRY THEY BRING TO THE STAGE LEND TO AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE. SHIRO SCHWARZ HAVE MANAGED TO MERGE A RETRO 80’S NEW WAVE SYNTH SOUND WITH THEIR OWN BRAND OF MOODY GROOVY VIBRATIONS THAT CREATES SOMETHING COMPLETELY MODERN AND SINGULAR. GUARANTEED TO GET YOUR WHOLE BODY MOVING, THEY ENCAPSULATE THE VERY CONCEPT OF FUN. THEY HAVE A SOLID CATALOGUE OF SONGS AND VIDEOS THAT RANGE FROM ALL OUT DANCE FLOOR WEAPONS TO THE SMOOTHEST OF HEART FELT BALLADS. CURRENTLY RESIDING IN MEXICO, OPEN COLOR HAD THE PLEASURE OF SITTING DOWN WITH THEM IN-BETWEEN STUDIO SESSIONS FOR AN INTERVIEW.
Where are you two from? I have a feeling it’s not earth. P: My home is in Planet Lop, it´s inhabited mostly by super-intelligent telepathic rabbits, everyone does graffiti, even my grandma.
good food and games. It even has its own districts, it´s VERY big, but can shrink to subatomic dimensions if required. Every bedroom has it´s own jacuzzi. It´s all for free and anyone can join. Nothing but positive vives.
R: I come from another dimension, it´s cybernetic and not too different from yours. Animals and inanimate objects talk where I come from.
As you say, “Welcome to the space yacht!” Some may not totally get that, but I so do. Can you enlighten our readers and describe what the Space Yacht is to you both? a giant cruise ship city that travels through space and there´s always fun stuff going on. The party never stops, there are galleries and art things going on all the time, super
Where did the name Shiro Schwarz originate and what does it mean? Might it have anything to do with how you dress? R: Haha yeah, it has a lot to do with how we dress.
P: Rafael wears only black and I wear only white, I love Japan and Germany´s been very influential for Rafa. R: Shiro means white in Japanese. P: Schwarz means black in German, so it´s like our version of “black and white.”
Who is responsible for your album art and aesthetic? Was it thought out way back in 2011 when you released your first EP “Eye of the Storm”? P: It´s been more organic and always based on what our influences are at the moment and an answer to the music that we make. It has evolved with time and I´m responsible for it.
“Eye of the Storm,” “Exoplanet Love,” “Jupiter Dreams,” “Toxic Waste.” Where do you come up with these names? Does the title come before track? We always come up with those names after writing the lyrics to the instrumentals.
Where do you create your music? In a studio, your home, on the road? Explain your creative process. R: We usually create everything in our home studio. The only exception was for our EP titled “Separation Anxiety” which was mostly created in a room in Berlin with only software and on some multimedia speakers we got from our friend Hans. The process usually starts with the creation of an instrumental piece with some synths and other gear, I usually mix everything and design the sounds as an integral part of the music making process. Then we sit down and come up with a theme for the song, write our own lyrics and record. The final process before mastering is editing and mixing the vocals together to get feedback from each other.
In your own experience what’s different about buying music on vinyl or tape ? What is the reasoning behind releasing your music on physical media? R: For us the main difference with physical media is that you get a cool object with its own quirks that add to its charm. There´s also much more room to play with design elements, as opposed to an exclusively digital release. At first we wanted to make a tape because we were very much into the whole 80s retro thing, we saw a project called Chrome Brulée released a tape and we decided to make our own. We were particularly excited about hearing our music with the warmth and lo-fi charm of cassettes. Vinyl was always something we desired way before our tape, but we couldn’t afford producing it on our own. So big thanks to Star Creature and MoFunk for making it a reality!
Ok so back to the black and white. For two people living in such a psychedelic world is it some what grounding to dress in these noncolors? Do you ever feel like switching? P&R: We feel very confortable with black and white, we´re also super committed to it.
P: For me it´s challenging to find cool white clothes, but it has the advantage that it limits how much I spend on fashion.
R: There´s plenty of cool black clothes, but not so many for “men,” so I have to look in the “girls” section. That´s my main challenge, at the beginning I was very strict about wearing clothes that were completely black. Now I spice it up with black clothes that have some color elements, but not all the time.
Where did you get your taste for funk and boogie? Was the music around you growing up, were your friends or family of any influence to your music style? How about your surroundings? P: When I was a kid I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson and my parents listened to disco and pop music from that era. I remember enjoying riding in the car with them and listening to that kind of music, I love it ever since. When I was a teenager, also thanks to my parents, I became a Sade fan, who is one of my greatest influences.
R: Growing up I don´t remember being exposed to funk or boogie, I was born in 1985 so the 80s/90s aesthetics were around me pretty much at all times, so I guess I unconsciously absorbed some of that. My real first direct contact with funkyness was through Jamiroquai, which really impressed me. I found out about boogie/80s funk way later in my mid 20s and instantly feel in love with it.
Your music tells many stories. One that repeats a lot is the relationship between two party animals. Could you say this is a depiction of the moments you have shared together and the love you both have for each other and your personal relationship? We think it is partially influenced by our own relationship, but it is mostly fiction based on our fantasies, especially the party animal part, cause we don´t go out very much, haha!
Listening to your music I feel as if I am traveling through time, not necessarily back or forward. If you had a time machine what year would you visit and why? P: I would travel to a time before humans existed, to enjoy earth before cities existed to see all the nature and creatures that lived back then.
R: I would really like to travel way into the future to check out all the cool new things (robots!), especially music and daily mundane human life. I also sometimes fantasize about meeting Bach and showing him contemporary music like Autechre, jazz, dance and synth music in general to see his reaction.
What is next for you both? Where can you see yourselves in 2020? We´re working on new music and trying to evolve our style in every aspect. By 2020 we should have released a new album and toured the globe as much as possible! Also enjoy the hoover boards, hollograms and all that stuff.
Please share with our readers where we can get your music and stay up to date with you guys. Thanks so much for making such rad tunes. You can check out or new records on Star Creature´s BandCamp and listen to the rest on Spotify. Thanks to you for the raddest interview!
