The13th AÑO: 4 | NÚMERO 44
UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
BLURRED CITY LIGHTS SPONTANEOUS BUT INSPIRING
[ Interview with Jarek Leskiewicz from Blurred City Lights by Darío Martínez Photographs: Patrycja Wanot and Adriana]
SPONTANEOUS BUT INSPIRING
Blurred City Lights is a side project of SPC ECO, Dean Garcia and Jarek Leskiewicz, but also has the participation of Rose Berlin. This project has just launched a new and tremendous job, Volker, all under the wing of the productions of eLab, the label of Garcia. A passionate album with a dark electronic rhythm. We have had an opportunity to interview the other head of the project, Jarek, who agreed to answer our questions. Naked On My Own, Opollo, Sunset Wrecks different projects to which we can add Blurred City Lights and SPC ECO. What can you tell us about the other projects? Naked On My Own is my more straightforward, rock-oriented DIY project. Influenced mainly by my post-grunge roots and my love for mid-west rock. There are some slight industrial-rock, post-rock, shoegaze sides to it too. It was great to get some of my heroes and friends for the last record called Elevated. Opollo was born out of my passion for movies (and their soundtracks), Science-Fiction and minimal, experimental music. It's full of ambient textures and buzzing drones. At first, I did it as a late night relaxing zone type of thing. Now I put more focus to it ...for better or worse. One of my best musical friends is Martin Anderson (of Dopedrone). In Sunset Wrecks we paint the sounds and arrangements together. Heavy fundamentals and beautiful haunting melodies.
quel (which really means we all loved that record and wanted to do some epic but intimate music with a darker, seedy, existential vibes to it). The name came from a song I wrote and Dean liked that as the name of the project. Dean, Jarek and Rose are very committed to the realization of both SPC ECO and Blurred City Lights. What do you consider to select the songs for one or the other band? It usually works like this: I will write a song or a startup idea. Maybe even a drone, texture kind of foundation. If Dean likes it he will take it a step further adding things or removing the "uncool" weight. Then it comes back to me for tweakings, rearrangements or vocals. Dean does the final mixes with me whispering some profanities to his email ear. Selection of the ideas really comes down to what project we are currently pursuing. If we are set on writing the BCL record then most of the songs from that timeframe will wind up on the BCL release. Another factor is involvement of Rose. In BCL her role is more of a helping magical entity. I think we like to make her presence less defined than in the SE environment. Spontaneous but inspiring.
How was Volker born? We haven't done any BCL music since the release of Anamorphic. 4 years went really fast. I helped with some SPC ECO songs in the meantime. Near the end of the 2017 Dean proposed that we write some stuff to push the dark clouds away and see if we can come up How did Blurred City Lights come about? with a BCL ep worth of music. It was a bit hard and how does the name come up? to start the creative machine again and find While I did some guitar textures for SPC the right inspiring ground. ECO's Dark Notes record back in 2012, the For me, things clicked 3 songs in with the BCL's Neon Glow ep was the first time I colla- creation of the Obstacles instrumental track. borated with Dean Garcia in the writing realm. During that time I also submitted a batch of We did that ep in a week. I guess it was my images to Dean with a record cover art in DG polygon. The concept started with Dean, mind. We agreed on the final one and that me and Perry Pelonero getting together and inspired us to expand a good writing streak wanting to do the Dark Side Of The Moon se- to a full LP.
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Can you tell us something about each track? Obstacles It was the track where I first felt at home with the new batch of BCL music. It actually started as an Opollo idea but as soon as I made the rhythm beat and saw the verse/chorus potential, it moved to a BCL territory. Dean came up with some great, organic, vintage-like sounds for it. We both tried doing vocals but rejected the takes. Later on, Dean dug up my take and decided that in fact, it works quite well. Sometimes you need a perspective of time for such decisions. I like the fact that it's not perfect. Not firm & steady. It adds to the lyrical side of the song. Secrets I wrote this rockier idea and worked some vocal textures by Rose into the arrangement. Dean did his thing and fixed what needed to be sorted out. It sounded tailor-made for her lead vocals ...so Rose came in and did an improvisational take. It's what you can hear in the final mix. Night Crawlers Dean and I are creatures of the night and shade. We love to immerse in the creative zone laaaate at night and explore the darkness. Sometimes we greeted the mornings together while working on this record. The track is also slightly inspired by the Jake Gyllenhaal movie imagery. This one and Starry Eyes are my fav mixes on the record. For A Day It's a song that I had most troubles with. The vocals were made for a different version of the song. More electronic & poppy with different chords/structure. Borrowing some of the Bowie's "Heroes" sentiment lyrically, it's dedicated to my better half Adriana. Dean stripped down the original and came up with his trademark trip-hop groove and darker vibe. We worked in the "chorus" part and additional textures. I still can't listen to the final BCL version of the song without comparing it with the 1st variation...but it's up to the fresh ears of the listeners really. Sometimes as a creator you need to let go...
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Don't Let Go ...or not :) I came up with a chorus instrumental melody intended for Rose. Dean wrote the exotic, playful verses and the chorus backing vocals. I really like what Dean brought to the track. It made me think of his 80's roots in an inspiring way. It's what I like about this project. You can hear Dean out of his comfort zone, not restricted by the frames of the concept. Eclectic but cool. I always try to push him in that direction if I can. Is This It Dean on vocals in that one. A bit disillusioned but still romantic. I imagine it's about the sense of time and noisy guitars. Clusters In our Eno/Byrne zone. It's a perfect track to accompany the cover art. A slow walk between the mighty skyscrapers and the mist. Starry Eyes A lot of friends chipping in on that track. The most positive (sound-wise) song on this record. I made the guitar textures that Dean picked upon and wrote a cool drum & bass arrangement that in-return inspired my vocals and additional sounds. From the lyrical perspective, I sing this song to myself as a sort of a auto-lullaby. Volker We decided to go with more cinematic tracks on this release and Volker is the epitome of that. It sounds like the end credits to a great movie. Dean usually doesn't want to go too prog-rock but I'm glad he did come for a trip on this one. I came up with a title and Dean wanted it for the name of the record. Good choice indeed. Argue Till We Die A bit of an afterthought and semi-bonus track. It's the first track we wrote for this record. The sound is fucked up and messy but that's how it should be in the context of the subject matter. Sometimes the temperature of the creative conversation (or a relationship in general) is quite heated. It's great to box it up in a track like that and laugh about it later on.
And you have new projects, in addition to BCL and SPC ECO? I'm working on the (mentioned earlier) new record by Sunset Wrecks. We are doing the final mixes and tweaks.I'm also looking forward to some ambient/drone collabs in the future. Not sure yet how that will pan out.Dean is working with Preston from Bloody Knives on the new STFU record right now. What is the next step of Blurred City Lights? It's up to the inspiration and right frame of mind. It could be another 4 years or an ep sometime this year. Volker could have also been our last endeavor! Time will tell. And since we are asking about plans, what about SPC ECO? SPC ECO will start to work on a new album right after STFU project. It will be ultra cool, as always. To finish and thanking you for this interview. Thank you very much for having me and BCL over for a tasty chat Dario. Cheers! What would you add to this interview that I have not asked? Nothing. Great set of questions.
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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA